Shocking Words

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14: 25-26


These are shocking words. They were meant to shock those who were simply following along behind Jesus. Following along is not enough for discipleship.

Following Jesus means to become one with Him on every level and that cannot happen until a divine “sword” has gone to work on our entire understanding of true and continuous family love.

In our formative years of life we live in agreement with our generational roots and relationships. We have no choice in this. We do not give birth to ourselves. We find ourselves in a family which we did not choose. A long history lies behind each of our families which we also did not choose.

We learn to know ourselves by discovering who it is that birthed us and has agreed to care for us. We define life and meaning by how they did or did not care for us. We judge family by the quality of the love we did or did not receive.

We identify these people and ourselves by the intimacy of their relationship to us and their willingness to sacrifice for us. We agree with them that we belong to them even if we do not want to belong to them. We cannot help but agree with them that we belong to them. They become the inescapable fact of our history.

They identify us and we identify with them. Family is that powerful and so are the family agreements and generational lies that govern some part of every family since Adam.

Unfortunately, this human identity as part of a particular family cannot produce what God demands of us which is continuous love. No human family since Adam has ever produced a son or daughter who could love continuously. No human family has ever loved perfectly a son or a daughter. Why can’t families produce continuous love?

Every family since Adam has to some extent made agreements with lies and with the father of lies. These family agreements or generational lies are passed from generation to generation and they eat away at the family’s ability to love and glorify God.

The father of lies keeps these agreements and lies alive over the generations by passing them along like family heirlooms or weakened DNA. These lies are satanic and ancient in origin and we are mostly unaware that we carry these family lies or agreements from generation to generation. The way we learn to stop loving and hurt others is generational.

Jesus sees what we carry and how we stop loving and that is why He made the shocking statement about family and us.

Jesus knew that the only way to forever rid ourselves of the family lies and agreements with evil that we carry from generation to generation is to be born again. This new birth from above carries no satanic lies or generational agreements with evil. This new birth allows us to begin again as a new family with the DNA of the Kingdom of God in us which is Jesus Christ in us. Continuous love runs in Jesus’ family DNA just as surely as broken love runs in the DNA of every earthly family.

A true disciple will have to face this dividing line or “sword” of “hating” one’s family lies and “hating” one’s own part in the generational agreements and family lies. If we do not break with the family realities that are in every human family by new birth and if we do not break with every family or personal agreement with evil, we will never be able to properly love God, ourselves or our family. We will never be the disciples we must be without the new DNA of Jesus.

By receiving Jesus, God breaks for us forever the agreements and the lies that have bound our family to inadequate love for generations and bound us for a lifetime. When God breaks this connection by our new birth, we can, by asking Jesus, begin to be freed in our mind, emotions and will from the influences of these family agreements and lies.

As people born from above, we must stop focusing on and worrying about the first family and its impact on us. We must focus instead on Jesus as the Truth about us and about our life. As we focus on Jesus, then He, by His Spirit in us, will patiently help us to see each family lie for what is and help us to forever break its influence on our mind, emotions and will. As He does break this influence, we can finally love our family and ourselves as we should and as we must. True Christian families are the hope of sustained love in the church and in the world.

The divine sword of Jesus is a sword of love. It’s final result is not continuing hatred of your family or yourself but a true love for God, for your family and for yourself. If you truly want to love God, your family and yourself, focus on Jesus and allow Jesus to free your soul from the lingering influence of generational agreements and family lies that have afflicted you and your family with weakened love for far too long.

If the first statement was shocking, now listen to this statement from Jesus.

Matthew 10:34-39 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn " 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.’

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

This statement is so shocking it takes one’s breath away. Even so, it is true. The sword of Jesus is a sword of love that permanently cuts our ties with every generational agreement with love stopping evil and every family lie birthed by the father of lies.

To continuously love your God, your earthly family and yourself, let Jesus free your soul completely from the generational agreements and the family lies. Accept his loving sword into your soul.

Only by the sword of His continuous love, can you return to your earthly family with the continuous love we all dream of experiencing as family.

Continuous love is back for families! His name is Jesus.