Spiritual Oppression

I and my fathers have sinned.

Such simple words, yet so utterly profound. How many times do we go to God in repentance saying "I have sinned" and then get up knowing that we will fall again, just like our father before us, and his father before him. If there is any failure or weakness in your own life that you know you are planning your life around because your father did not have victory, maybe you need to say that simple phrase.

We have to be willing to own up to our fathers' mistakes and acknowledge their failures if they are affecting our own life. Confess means "to own up to" and if we are willing to give up in defeat because we do not believe that we can do better, or even just explain defeat as being because of the hand we've been dealt, then that can be part of our confession.

In those days they shall no longer say: “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.’ But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. -- Jeremiah 31:29-30 ESV

I read this more to say that we do not get the repercussions of our dad's failures under the new covenant. I think this refers back to what God said about visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the children to the third and forth generation. What I'm talking about is more along the lines of sanctification.

Every mechanism that is used to describe why that would happen is answered in the new covenant. If it's because of habits, welcome to sanctification. If it's because of addiction, welcome to healing. If it's because of "snapback" (retribution or consequences), welcome to the one who took the sins of the entire world on himself. If it's because of how you were raised, that's just a combination of the above.

However, we don't believe sanctification is instant and I have found that being willing to recognize the sins of my fathers in specific areas goes a long way toward accomplishing that.

This may be part of deliverance from oppression, as it seems to be the sins which evil spirits attach themselves to, and since one of the strongest teachings on deliverance is repentance, evil spirits can certainly attack and attempt to conquer each successive generation.

In simple terms, my father is the person who showed me how to live life. We all bank some part of our human existence on that no matter who we are. If he sinned or struggled in some area of life AND we constantly find ourselves failing in that same area AND we can't break free the same way we did for other sins that we repented of, MAYBE we need to consider this possibility.

Like the prodigal son, many rebels who repent say to themselves "I will return to my father", and this is very right, but they are returning to their roots as well as coming into a fuller revelation of God, and if those roots have consistent failure in them, it is reasonable to conclude that they will still need to overcome those roots in their own life.

In my experience it is human nature to glory in our ancestry in some areas of life exactly the same way we glory in ourselves, and so it makes sense to humble ourselves and acknowledge the sins of our ancestry in those areas the same way we acknowledge our own sins.

Just like saying "I have sinned" is a humbling of ourselves before God by acknowledging the reality of our weaknesses, so too saying "I and my fathers have sinned" is a humbling of our roots in this world before God, in whatever aspect we may anchor ourselves in our ancestry.

But in my opinion it is only necessary in the face of consistent failure on our own part despite doing everything we know to do ourselves. Defeat is not expected for a Christian and if we do not live in victory, we should be asking why, because sanctification is a life long process of reshaping us, not instant perfection.

Our own confession of sin is necessary to acknowledge our own weakness, in the same way that confessing our sins as being also those of our parents that is only necessary under the same circumstances, which is when our parents have not shown us a better way.