Breaking Negative Family Patterns by Pastor Philip Olubakin: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

One Word Can Turn Every Pattern Around

God is set to do something new. The old is past; the new is here.

2 Kings 7:1

Israel had suffered famine for years — a land where it seemed like nothing could ever change. But Elisha stood up and declared, "Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel." Impossible. Unthinkable. But one word from God can alter a situation completely. No matter how long the old pattern has been operating — one word from God in one service can turn it around totally and completely.

1 Kings 18:41

Elijah said, "I hear a sound of abundant rain" — three and a half years of drought, and he heard it before he saw it. Sometimes what comes first is a sound. You have not yet seen it, but you are hearing it.

Joshua 1:2

For 40 years Israel turned around the same mountain. Two generations had been born beside the Jordan — all they knew was that mountain. Then God said to Joshua: "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan." What Israel could not do in 40 years, God was commissioning Joshua to do now. A generation is arising that will go beyond the point where their fathers stopped.

Jeremiah 33:10-11

Everybody said this place was desolate — no people, no animals, no joy. But God said: in this same place, in the streets that were silent, there shall again be heard the voice of joy and gladness, the voice of the bride and the bridegroom. Your shame was not private — and your glory will not be private either.

Ezekiel 36:34-36

The desolate land shall be tilled again. Those who used their mouths to say "nothing good can come out of this place" will now say it is like the garden of Eden. The same family. The same situation. But a word from God turns it all around.

Naming After a Pattern — and Refusing It

Luke 1:57-61

Elizabeth gave birth to a son and on the eighth day, when the neighbours and cousins came to circumcise the child, they called him Zacharias — after the father, after the pattern. They did not even ask. People who are so familiar with the past that they automatically name new things after old realities.

But Elizabeth was not quiet. She said, "Not so." Say it with boldness: Not so.

They argued with her: "There is none of your kindred who is called by this name." That is what the enemy always says — nobody in your family has ever done this. Nobody in your family has ever gotten married without a scandal. Nobody in your family has ever owned property. Nobody has ever broken through.

But Elizabeth was not waiting for God to speak for her. She opened her own mouth. God will not speak for you. You must speak for yourself and for the next generation. The destiny of your children is hanging on your voice right now.

Six Things You Must Do to Break the Pattern

1. Confront It

   Don't run from it. Don't dance around it. Don't wait it out — you cannot use patience to silence Goliath. If nobody stood up to him, he would still be going today. Transgenerational patterns do not go by themselves. There is no medical cure for the spirit of infirmity. You have to confront it to conquer it.

   Look at the woman in Luke who was bowed for 18 years — Jesus said she was bound by a spirit of infirmity. Satan had a legal hold. There is no scanning machine that can see a spirit of infirmity. The confrontation is spiritual, and it must be violent.

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   • A lady with 10 siblings in Florida — nobody among them was married. Decades had passed. They slept while the enemy worked. One phone call, 30 minutes of intense prayer with an anointed servant of God — within the year, two of the siblings were getting married.
   • A woman in Australia with four siblings, none married. She heard the testimony and called immediately: "This cannot continue." She gathered all her siblings on a call and confronted it. Today they are married.

2. Intentionally Forget the Past

   Isaiah 43:18-19

   Do not consider the former things. Consciously stop rehearsing the past. You cannot grab the new things God wants to give you if your hands and thoughts are full of what was. After confronting the pattern, deliberately refuse to let it control your actions. Every time the enemy tries to remind you, refuse to dwell on it. The new is here.

3. Be Courageous — Take Steps Toward the New

   New things require active faith. You are doing something nobody in your family has done before — and it will require courage.

   Joshua 1:3-7

   "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread, I have given it to you." I have given — past tense — what you shall get, future tense. God has already given it. You are just walking into it. But the boundary is set by how far your feet will go. There is no limit on your life. The only thing standing between you and the fulfillment of that word is courage.

   Joshua gave no family meeting, formed no committee. He commanded the people: "Prepare your supplies. Within three days you shall cross this Jordan." What Israel's fathers could not do in 40 years, he was going to do in three days. You cannot ask for opinions when a nation is waiting on your decision.

4. Let Go of the Need to Explain Yourself

   New things confuse those who are stuck in the past. They will not understand. They did not understand David when he stepped up to Goliath. Elizabeth did not stand back explaining why she was naming the child John. She just declared it.

   When you are using the last element of faith you have, you do not have time to explain yourself to people who are going to give you 10 reasons why it cannot work. Abraham did not explain. He heard "Get thee out" and he went.

5. Speak for Your Seed

   Your children are counting on you. Your seed after you is counting on you. Isaiah said, "I and the children that the Lord gives me are for signs and wonders." You can cut yourself and your children off from what held previous generations. You may not be able to speak for your grandfather, but for me and my children — we break off every old negative pattern.

6. Declare That There Is a New Thing

   Isaiah 43:19

   God says, "Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth." There is fire in the declaration of new things. Everything that God did not plant — uproot it. You seed of cancer, you seed of infirmity, you pattern of poverty — out. The yoke is destroyed because of the anointing.