Game Changer Part 1

 I recall a day I came home and met my sister and cousin praying vehemently about a particular matter. My sister’s boyfriend had dreamt about something which opened their eyes to a part of the reason there was ‘marriage delay’ in the family and it seemed to be tied to something a particular relative had done. He didn’t know much about my family then but his dream seemed almost spot on (especially if you know the person in question) hence, the prayers.

I didn’t think too much about the issue as I was sure that our case would be different besides, I felt I had almost everything checked for marriage on my list and groom finding me would be easy and I had so many nice suitors (ta!! Reality was soon coming for me, calm down).

Years were passing, my age was increasing, and yet, despite my checked list, I seemed super indecisive about whom to marry. My case was worst/ even more complicated since I had amazing suitors but as much as I liked some, I was never truly in love with any to marry them. My phobia for marriage was crazy! (new blog loading) My parents had a good marriage and were friends so it didn’t even add up where the fear was coming from. I feared what would happen if I woke up one day and realized I was tired of being married to that one man years down the line or what if it happened the other way around that the guy got tired of being married to me? These thoughts haunted me constantly.

I guess the fact that I knew God hates divorce and the outcomes that follow made me put unnecessary pressure on myself to get it right because I didn’t want a broken home or marriage.

I always prayed about marriage and finding ‘’the one’’ that God had mapped out for me but the issue kept dragging.  I recall a day I met this man after bible study and he began to tell me things about myself that surprised me because of his extreme level of accuracy. The man had the gift of prophecy. He singled me out and told me “you have been praying about marriage (I wanted the ground to open and swallow me because there were so many people), God has heard your prayers but wants you to keep praying. You are going to marry an insider…. (and I did). What am I still praying about if God had heard me? I asked myself. I didn’t know about cycles then and the need to break them.

A few years down the line, I was at church and my pastor, Akila Yusuf, kept asking us to prepare for a very special service that God had laid upon his heart. He said if we could, we should endeavor to bring all our family members, seed, and oil. The Sunday service came and behold, he began to open our eyes to generational cycles and what they can do. He showed us how Isaac who had not even been conceived committed the same offense his father, Abraham had about 25 years before his birth, Abraham had lied to a king and Isaac did the same thing in the same way! He then went ahead to show us how demons are territorial and don’t like leaving a particular vicinity so once they are driven from one place, they move to the next (healing of the man at Genesareth). Hence the pigs begging Jesus to not be sent out of the area. To make his point, he shared with us how growing up, his dad was a pastor but used to hit his mom and how he had vowed at an early age never to strike his wife. In the most unlikely of events, he became a pastor himself, has 2 sons, and sometimes gets tempted to hit his wife but remembers that if he does, he reactivates a cycle he has tried hard to break and doesn’t because he knows it is what the devil is anticipating so it continues in their lineage.

He asked us to take a look at our families and see if we find any patterns that are continuous from one generation to the next. I didn’t have to think too far to see how my grandfather, the first son, in his family had 3 daughters who were not married in like manner to my dad who was also the first son and had 3 girls who at that time were yet to marry. I saw other patterns but for this blog, we will just focus on this one.

The moment I realized all Pastor Akila was teaching us, I began to pray about every generational cycle I could see and began to break them. I prayed for my sisters who were not there, I prayed for my aunts and our unborn daughters because we were drawing the bloodline at this junction. I went on to share my new knowledge with my mom, sisters, friends, and anyone who cared to listen.

A stronghold and deep roots take time to uproot and break but the good thing is, they are breakable. The sad thing is many times in life we bear the consequences for actions we may not even have been party to and others may also bear the same for our own actions for years to come. The good news is some cycles are positive and families get to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor and diligence (see how Mephibosheth enjoyed blessings from David due to his father’s kindness or how God refused to destroy David’s lineage despite the many atrocities they were committing and his one statement would be ‘because of my servant David and the promise God had made to him even though he was dead and rotten in the grave).

Anyway, we kept praying individually although thinking back now, perhaps we should have even set dates to pray collectively but God had answered our prayers because a few years down the line, my older sister got married and from then on, others followed suit including myself and now, the last of us, my younger sister! Little did I know that all these events were building up to something because God was going to use that training for something more.

To be continued…