Breaking the Old Roots is about addressing the hidden patterns that continue to hold believers back. Many Christians remain in ignorance due to a misunderstanding of the scripture, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”
While this spiritual truth is absolute, the devil frequently exploits our lack of awareness to continue his oppression.
Consequently, we see people who have been born again for 10, 15, or even 20 years, yet their lives are still plagued by strange, persistent family patterns.
A well-known pastor in Nigeria shared that he had never truly examined his own family dynamics until one day he decided to look closer.
He realized that his oldest brother was married with no children, his older sister was married with no children, and his immediate older brother was also married with no children.
He was the fourth child and had just gotten married himself.One day, a prophet approached his wife and said, “I see childlessness around you; you are not going to have children.” When she went home and told her husband, it finally clicked.
He realized that no one in his family had children, and recognized it as a negative pattern that desperately needed to be broken.
The truth is, the devil takes advantage of what we do not know or what we are unconscious of to oppress believers. You can love Jesus and be genuinely saved, yet still find that things are not going smoothly, or that certain prayers seem to yield no solutions.
In those moments, we must step back and ask: Where am I coming from? What are these old roots? What are the things that have taken hold in my life that still linger even after becoming a Christian?
The first step to deliverance is knowledge. If you do not know a pattern exists, you cannot break it. If you do not admit it is there, you cannot tackle it.
If you do not realize you need help, you will never cry out for it. No matter how much power you carry as a believer, if you do not know you have it, the devil will continue to play with your life.
To illustrate this further, let me give you another popular example. Can I get two volunteers from the congregation to come up quickly? Let’s act out a short drama. Anyone from the choir? Two volunteers, please
Let’s set the scene: a few months ago, this brother was very broke and looking for money. He doesn’t look broke now—you can see he is wearing a fine suit! Back then, he went to this sister and borrowed 1,000 Naira, promising to pay her back in two days. However, six months have passed, and he still hasn’t paid her.
Now, every time he walks down the street and spots her, what do you think he does? He dodges her!Let’s act it out.
You walk down that way, you see her, you remember the 1,000 Naira debt, and you do what you have to do. Alright, action!Look at him running away! “Boss, boss, come back this way!” Why did he do that? He just doesn’t want to pay the 1,000 Naira.But how many of you saw the real transaction that just happened behind his back?
Do you know that he is no longer owing her? In fact, she is now the one owing him! While he wasn’t looking, I paid off his 1,000 Naira debt, and I gave her an extra 1,000 Naira to give to him the next time she sees him.This is exactly what the devil takes advantage of.
All of our sins, sicknesses, and infirmities have been fully paid for by Jesus on the cross. But when we are not completely conscious of everything He has done for us, we keep dodging.
In reality, the enemy owes us, but because we lack awareness, we keep running away.The first step to deliverance is knowledge. The minute this brother realizes the truth, his entire posture changes.
He stops running and says, “Wait a minute, you mean my debt is paid? And you actually have extra money for me?” Instead of dodging, he will actively look for her and say, “Sister, where are you? My money is in your hand!”That is exactly what spiritual knowledge does for us: it liberates us. Without it, we continue to live in darkness and bondage simply because we do not know our rights.
Someone once described knowledge as “the knowing that gives you an edge.” When you know, it gives you an edge.So my question to us this morning is this: Is it possible that as believers, there are still things tying us down and holding us back simply because we do not know any better?
I remember an argument we had during a class at the School of the Supernatural. The question was simple: Can a believer be possessed by demons?
We have to be very careful with how we answer this. Can a believer be possessed by demons? No. Can a believer be oppressed by demons? Yes! There is a major difference.
You cannot be possessed because the Spirit of God already lives inside you, and the devil dare not move into a house where God resides. However, demons can still afflict and oppress you, even as a born-again Christian.What are the things that open the door to this oppression?
Let’s quickly look at a few, starting with number one: Inherited Curses. May God help us here. If you are a police officer, or the descendant of a police officer, you need to pray very seriously. Let me ask a sincere question, and please be honest—God has already forgiven our sins!
How many of us have, at one point or another, insulted a police officer or muttered a negative prayer against them? Look at all the hands raised in church!While we laugh about it, we forget the reality. Let me ask: who here is the child or descendant of a police officer?
Look at the hands going up. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. So every time you get angry and shout, “It shall not be well with your generation!” to a stranger on the street, slow down and think. You might literally be cursing the family of your fellow church member.
Whether we like it or not, inherited curses are a stark reality that many of us battle without even knowing it. The example of the police force is just one obvious instance everyone recognizes. There are countless other hidden roots affecting our lives. May the Lord help us all in Jesus’ name.
Many of us have no idea what our great-grandparents did five or six generations ago. We do not know who they oppressed or what they did to people that caused bitter curses to be laid against their bloodline.
Those ancient curses can still cry out against you today. Yes, you have given your life to Christ, but until a curse is actively broken, it remains in effect. If you are blind to the existence of a curse, how can you know you need to break it?
You are a new creature, yet you find yourself fighting battles you cannot explain because you have not broken those old roots.Another open door to oppression is traditional customs and taboos.
Astonishingly, there are people sitting in church today who still send money back home to sponsor demonic festivals like the egungun festival. We must also confront previous sinful habits that threaten our new life in Christ.
When we get born again, the spiritual slate is wiped clean, but the physical consequences of our past actions do not automatically disappear.
If you were a “Yahoo Yahoo” fraudster who defrauded people to build houses and buy luxury cars, you cannot give your life to Christ and comfortably remain in those houses or drive those cars built on the tears and sweat of dying people.
Similarly, many of us made unholy covenants, visited dark places, or received demonic bodily incisions during our youth. Now that you are born again, have you actually gone through the process of renouncing those things?
Some believers were actively dedicated to demons, while others unwittingly visited strange, pseudo-Christian churches. I remember going on a childhood holiday to an uncle’s house. On Sunday, we went to his church. The service felt very strange.
At one point, the leader told everyone to be quiet and mutter rapidly. The entire congregation began making strange, low humming noises. We were young and confused. When we got home and our parents asked how the holiday went, we told them about the strange church.
My parents immediately decided we would never stay at that uncle’s house again. Twenty years later, the spiritual danger of that moment became fully clear to me.We must be aware that these things exist and can actively work against us. In the scriptures, we read about a single ruler who did evil in the sight of God.
Because of his personal sin, his entire country was constantly conquered from the left, right, front, and back, ultimately sending his descendants into slavery.
How do you break the yoke of inherited curses? Confession of sins: Acknowledge the ancestral and personal wrongs.Restitution: Make peace and right past wrongs where possible.Superior spiritual authority: Seek spiritual oversight to help break the curse.Insist on your freedom: Stand firm in your deliverance.
If I had time for part two of our earlier drama, I would show you what happens next. If the brother goes back to the sister and says, “You are actually the one owing me now,” the sister might resist and say, “No, you still owe me!”
At that point, the brother must insist on his freedom. He must say, “No! The Pastor paid my debt, and you owe me now. Should I go and call the Pastor to confirm it?” Only then will she back down.
The devil will always test you to see if you truly know you are free. When a strange sickness or affliction attacks you, the sickness is a physical fact, but the truth is that all your infirmities were fully paid for on the cross. Which one will you believe? If you insist on the truth, the truth will overshadow the fact.
But if you focus only on the fact, that layout of sickness will remain your current reality.We must reach a point where we don’t just know who we are, but we have a deep spiritual understanding of our authority so we can aggressively enforce the salvation Jesus won for us.
If you are truly a new creature, break completely free from traditional taboos. Stop sending your money—which is a medium of exchange and spiritual token—to sponsor demonic activities. Cut the roots today.
The more you release your money to fund these traditional rites and codes, the more you are enforcing negative, demonic alters over your head. We must be highly careful and completely break away from these things.We must also break away from previous, prevailing sinful habits.
If we truly live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Repent of these habits and ask for God’s divine help to overcome them. Cry out for mercy over judgment! When you obtain the mercy of God, you can escape the harsh consequences of those past sinful habits. It is my prayer that someone here will obtain that life-changing mercy today in Jesus’ name.
Let me quickly touch on one final thing as I round up: idolatrous names. Many of us bear names that constantly work against our destiny. Every time you pronounce that name, or every time people see you and call you by it, they are inadvertently reinforcing a negative pattern.
I want to crave your indulgence—if you have never gone through a deliverance or “sorting out” session regarding your background, I beg you to please go and get sorted.Let me give you an example from my own family. When my sister was born, someone had to call my dad and point something out.
He said, “Your first daughter’s name is Tijesu Nimi (I belong to Jesus), but her surname is Ifagbamila (Ifa/the oracle saved me).
He said, “Pastor, make it make sense! How can a child be Tijesunimi and Ifagbamila at the same time? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Every time people saw her, they might have been calling her Tijesu, but spiritually, the name Ifagbamila was being enforced.
My father had to realize that something had to break. A name change became completely inevitable. He didn’t just do the name change casually either. He went to the court, did the legal paperwork, went back to the hometown, made the necessary spiritual and legal declarations, and legally changed Ifagbamila to Jesugbamila (Jesus saved me).
So the next time my sister stepped out, her identity was clear: Tijesunimi, Jesugbamila.
There are certain things and identities in your life that you might need to change. Do not carry idolatrous names up and down, because they will actively work against your progress.
Declarations And Prayers:
Shall we rise to our feet this morning? I want everyone to just bow their heads right now and begin to make powerful declarations over their lives.
1. Open your mouth and say: “My Father, my Father, standing upon the authority of Your Word, I break every negative root that is standing against my destiny that is standing against me.
2. I break every negative curse that is walking against my destiny. I break away from the effects of my past sinful life. I break away from every effect of negative covenants.
3. I enforce my godly heritage in Christ. I enforce my rights as a child of God. From this moment onward, the mark of Jesus upon my body takes dominion over every evil mark, over every incision, and over every evil decree that has been placed against my life.
4. Enough is enough! An end has come to the enforcement of every evil covenant over my life, over my family, and over my children. From now on, I begin to walk in a newness of grace and a newness of strength.
5. I enforce my birthright as a son of God. I enforce my birthright as a child of the Most High God, and nothing shall by any means hurt me. I have escaped from the negative patterns of my father’s house. I have escaped from every limitation in my lineage!”
The price has already been fully paid for these things. Deliverance has come to you, deliverance has come to your lineage, deliverance has come to your family, and deliverance has come to your finances!
Every negative pattern in my life is broken in the name of Jesus! Every negative pattern in my life—an end has come to it in the name of Jesus!
I enforce my birthright over you. From this day forward, you have no power or effect over me, in the mighty name of Jesus. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray.
Father, we stand as one, standing upon the grace of this commission of the Living Faith Foundation, and that of our father in the Lord, Reverend P.G. Olaya. We come against every root of evil in our lives, and we decree that an end has come to them in the name of Jesus!
Every negative pattern that has been reinforced over generations comes to a permanent end in our lives today, in the name of Jesus.
From this moment on, we are free—because whom the Son sets free is free indeed! The eternal life that we have received entitles us to divine health and wholeness.
Every bondage of infirmity in our lives is broken right now in Jesus’ name!Somebody say, “Thank you, Jesus!” Thank you, Jesus! We receive our complete deliverance. In Jesus’ mighty name we have prayed. Amen.
Can you turn this into a personal prayer for the next 30 seconds? Turn it into a prayer and pray like you mean it!
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