Exodus 20: 5-6
5 you shall not bow down to them nor [b]serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting[c] the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Genesis 15: 9-21
So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall [d]go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:
“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Genesis 26: 1-5
There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Genesis 28: 13-15
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep[a] you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
Leviticus 26: 40-42
But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, 41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
Worship Song:
Isaiah song by Maveric City Music:
Happy Twenty Eighth Day of Thanks Everyone!
Today I give thanks for covenant prayers; they are those prayers that preserve a bloodline, that draw us closer to God, that restore blessings, mercy and favor upon our lives, and that break through strongholds, chains and bondages inflicted by the enemy.
I was listening to a pastor give a testimony about his life. He was an ex-satanist/occultist that mentioned that in his former life he was sent to destroy churches. He talked about how there was a particular church that he could not readily destroy because they engaged in a type of prayer—covenant pray—where the members made a pack to pray for 90 days for several hours per day engaging in repentance, worship and spiritual warfare. If any of the members missed a day or came late to one of their prayer meetings, the entire group would have to start all over again. The covenant prayers being prayed not only fortified the members of the church engaging in the prayer, the prayers caused an awakening in churches across the globe. Churches were being restored and revitalized. Believers who had backslidden (left God and the church community) were coming back to God and started to attend church services again. There were outbreaks of miracles, signs, and wonders in several churches that had not been seen in a long period of time.
Hearing this part of the testimony got me so excited! I’m an intercessor—someone who is called to prayer. My church, New Life Covenant Southeast is a praying church. I am also part of a prayer community, Jesus JUICE, which meets Monday through Friday at six am each morning to pray. Knowing that my prayers (and the prayers of my community) are shifting atmospheres, awakening churches in regions and territories that we have probably never heard of, and drawing people back to God fills my joy cup beyond what you could ever imagine. Anyone who has ever been discipled by me knows that you have to undergo repentance, learn to worship and engage in spiritual warfare. This type of prayer is right “up my alley” and is one in which I am always looking for someone to join me. As I heard about the effect of covenant prayer, I prayed and asked the Lord to allow me to introduce this type of prayer on our six am prayer line. As the Lord released me to introduce covenant prayer to our community, I begin to first teach about the importance of covenant and how God made covenant with His people.
In the Bible, there are many examples of God making covenants. He made covenants with the earth, commanding the fruit and seed-bearing trees to reproduce, and mankind, giving us dominion over everything in the earth and the seas. One particular covenant of interest to me was the one the Lord made with Abraham. After Abraham was proven worthy to be trusted by God—he had consecrated himself through circumcision and submitted to leaving his father’s house to go to a land that the Lord would show him—Abraham devoted his life to the Lord and the Lord made a covenant with him. Interestingly enough, when God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, Abraham was representing every member of his family (the living ones and those in the future.) The covenant was lasting and transcended Abraham’s life, which is why we see the Lord visit Abraham’s son, Isaac, with the same promise in Genesis 26, and Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, with the same promise in Genesis 28.
It is important that we understand that when any of our ancestors made covenant with God (or the devil), they represented not only themselves but every member of their present and future family members, which includes us. If they made a covenant with God, it produced blessings for them and every member of their lineages. If they made a covenant with the devil, through witches, warlocks, psychics, tarot card readers, and the likes, it produced curses and maladies for them and every member of their lineage. In the instance when curses have been inflicted on a bloodline as a result of evil covenants, we can repent for our sins and for our ancestors’ sin (iniquity), according to Leviticus 26 verses forty to forty-two, and restore our bloodline back to God.
As Delilah and I have been walking through our journey of healing and deliverance, I noticed that there were many afflictions (i.e. sickness, poverty, lack, depression) in our lives that resembled the many curses mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 28 from verses 15 to 49 that would come upon God’s people if they sinned and disobeyed Him. At the time, I was not actively in any sin that I was aware of and I try to repent for the sins of my flesh, thoughts, emotions every chance I get. I couldn’t understand why my life was not aligning with the blessings and promises that God spoke to me. In Exodus chapter 20 verse five, God lets us know that it we bow down or worship other gods, He would punish us and our descendants until the third and fourth generation. If there were curses of sickness, poverty, lack, and sorrow/grief present in my and Delilah’s lives, it could only mean one thing. There was unconfessed sins and unrepentance for sins and iniquities (for worship to other idols/gods) in our lives and/or in the lives of our ancestors, which was holding back and delaying the release of blessings and healing.
In prayer, I asked the Lord to expose the iniquity of my ancestors that was causing the afflictions and delaying the promise of healing in Delilah’s life. I dedicated several days to covenant prayer to repent of the iniquity (ies) as I asked the Lord for revelation. On the fifth day, God exposed the iniquity of my ancestors in a dream to my sister. With the revelation, I spent several more days in covenant prayer, repenting for the iniquities, worshipping and engaging in spiritual warfare to get Delilah’s soul back. I begin to witness some restoration in Delilah’s mind and significant changes in her behavior as well. My next task was praying that God would realign me to step into the original covenant that He made with my forefathers, Abraham and my mother, that I and my descendants would be saved, blessed, and as numerous as the stars in the sky. I knew that the power of covenant prayer could and would realign me to eventually see the promises of God and breakthrough in my and Delilah’s life.
At 4 am one Saturday morning, I was praying in the spirit, engaging in covenant prayer, and I suddenly felt my spirit rise up and my voice magnify as if a megaphone was amplifying my voice and carrying it in the spirit across the waters to different nations and continents and connecting me to the intercessors in those places. After an hour, I woke up my spiritual mentees and they began to pray with me so we could multiply the amplification of our voices. There was a glory, a heat, and a presence so strong and thick as we prayed. We covered our community, the churches and the nations as we petitioned for a revival and a presence of God to hit the nations of the world. For the first time ever, I was experiencing what the minister was mentioning about the power of covenant prayer and its ability to travel and awaken churches and people from afar. We now await the complete alignment to God’s covenant of blessing for me and my entire lineage. I remember my mother’s continual promise to God that mimicked Joshua’s, “Lord as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” God’s promise back to my mom was Isaiah 59:21, “As for me, this is my covenant with [you],” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.
Today as I give thanks for covenant prayer, I invite you to engage in covenant prayers of repentance, worship and warfare and witness the power of God move in your life and the lives of other. I also invite you to watch Pastor James Kawalya’s testimony interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvQvEtw2Izg&t=3439s. I believe that it will bless you and make you aware of the forces of darkness at work and the need for prayer.
Love Ya,
Have a great Day of Thanks!