Breaking Patterns: Reclaiming Your Destiny
Hi, I’m Pastor Benny Christopher. Today I want to speak to you about generational patterns. Many of you have heard from the pulpit about “curses”—generational curses, family curses, ancestral curses. If you look at the world today, life is a product of patterns.
How? Look at how you came into the world: you are a repetition of the cells of your mother. The universe itself—everything in it—is a sample of another thing. When we look at our brain and how tree branches are, you’ll see the likeness in the way trees are networked. When you look at your veins, and you look through the plants, you see that many of them have what biology calls “veins.” Water is a likeness with our own blood as humans.
Patterns are everywhere there is an image. Wherever there is visibility, there is bound to be repetition; there are bound to be patterns—things that look like something else. In our world today, everything can be copied from something.
The Influence of the Family Pattern
That is the way your life is, my friend. When you grow up with parents, you pick up attitudes from them, whether you are aware of it or not. If your dad talks in a way, or your mom walks or does things in a particular way, you are likely to have those same patterns.
Today, the family patterns I’m talking about have to do with the spiritual or emotional aspects. Just as you pick up physical patterns, you can pick up emotional patterns from your parents. If you came from a background where your parents had issues in their marriage, a fragment of that experience may be imprinted on you. If a pattern is there, you are likely to pick it up.
Whether you are aware of it or not, you are mirroring someone in your family. Look at the trend of your life today. Check your dad, your mom, your brother—you may notice that some of them have gone through the same things you are facing.
The Power to Break Free
The good news about patterns is that they don’t have to work in your life once you recognize them. Until you recognize a pattern, it can continue to repeat itself.
For example, if you are the type that gets angry, and you notice that someone in your family—your dad, your mom, even a great-grandfather—was a warrior or always angry, you need to recognize that pattern. Once you do, you can start exercising self-control and asking for God’s help to intervene.
When you deny it or say “it doesn’t happen in my family,” you are far from stopping that situation. There are patterns in marriage, financial struggles, and even health. If you see these patterns working in your life, you need to recognize them and decide to terminate them.
How to Stop Generational Patterns
God gives us the power to stop these patterns. The Bible tells us how:
“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
Conformity is one of the reasons these things happen—we conform to our parents’ attitudes and images without even knowing it. But the Bible says to be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
Here are three steps to stop negative repetitive patterns:
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Recognize the Pattern: Observe your life. Ask yourself: “Who has gone through this before?” Remember, there is nothing new under the sun. Everything that is today has been before.
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Take Conscious Action (The Anti-Pattern): Do things consciously to stop the pattern. If the pattern is lateness, use tools like alarms to be early. If the pattern is procrastination, refuse to be idle. Do the “anti-pattern”—the positive opposite of what was done before.
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Seek Spiritual Assistance: Meditate on the Word of God and declare what God says about your life. Seek spiritual support through prayer, fasting, and the guidance of your man of God.
The Power of Confession
The most proven way to destroy a pattern is through the power of confession. You have to continually repeat to yourself what you want your life to be—not what it currently is.
I tell people to do this at midnight and also in the daytime. Keep repeating who you are: “I am a success. I am a victor. Whatever stopped my father cannot stop me. I am blessed, and I have a great marriage.” As you say these things, you are programming a new pattern. Your words determine what your life will be. When people live life without speaking positive things over themselves, life can be filled with “tares” sown by the enemy while they sleep.
Reprogramming Your Destiny
You can reprogram negative patterns, generational curses, and family habits through:
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Fasting: Create time for fasting every month or at certain times of the year.
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Consistent Prayer: Prayer shouldn’t just be a reaction to a problem; it should be proactive.
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Prophecy: Prophesy over yourself before you sleep and after you wake up. This reprograms your DNA, your destiny, and everything about your being.
After a few months or a year, you won’t believe the kind of life you are living. I have seen this work for years in our ministry. People who recognize patterns and choose to do the opposite through prayer and prophecy see those patterns detach.
Closing Prayer
Patterns exist, and life is a place of mirrors. But anything you see in your life that you do not desire, you can stop.
I see great things happening to you, my friend. I see family patterns being destroyed in your life. As a prophet of the Most High God, I break every work of darkness in your life today in the name of Jesus. You are a success. You are making progress. You will never be stagnant in your life, and you will go bigger and stronger in all you do.
Amen. God bless you.