 All right, welcome back to Steps to Freedom. We're going to be talking about the Miracle List number three, dysfunctional parents. Steps to Freedom course number three. Last week we talked about negative feelings about yourself, thoughts about yourself, negative feelings. This week we're talking about dysfunctional parents. So number three on the Miracle List is this. If you were raised by dysfunctional parents and you rebelled against them in your youth and dishonored them, the demons put a curse on you. Genesis chapter nine speaks about this as well as Exodus 20, Deuteronomy five and Ephesians chapter six, Deuteronomy 27 and Matthew chapter 15. Even if your parents were at fault, you still have a responsibility. You have to renounce and repent of the sin of rebelling against your parents for being bad parents. You need to apologize to them for your part, especially if they're still alive and apologize to God. Release them from your soul and let them go. You have a heavenly father now and you don't need a mom and a dad. So we're going to go over each of these points. So if you were raised by dysfunctional parents, maybe there was addiction in the home. Maybe there's a disorder. Mom or dad had a disorder, a mental disorder of some sort, or there was an illness back and forth to the hospital that could have caused some dysfunction. Maybe there was abuse in the home or unreality. Your parents acted one way, but in reality it was something else. They acted as if everything was fine. Next thing you know, you have to move in a moment's notice. Maybe there was divorce. Sexual abuse, I just want to point out that's so prevalent, one in five daughters have been sexually abused. So if that's you, you really want to dig deep down into yourself and think about how you responded to that in your youth. You know, there were many different dysfunctional homes caused dysfunction. So how did you respond to that? Were you rebellious? Were you depressed? Did you argue with your parents? Did you act out by partying? Did you blame them for everything? Maybe you still blame them inside. Did you have a bad attitude cussing at them? This is all dishonoring to your parents and you brought a curse upon yourself. It's called rebellion. How do you know if you are cursed? A cursed life is a life that is not going very well. So if you could say, wow, my life has not gone very well, it could be as a result of a curse. I love that my computer doesn't respond as well as I like it to, but I won't rebel against it. Okay, bear with me, please. So if your life isn't going very well, maybe you never achieved the hopes and dreams that you had when you were young. Maybe you tried to go get an education, but you were unsuccessfully tried and tried and it never worked out. Maybe you have divorce after divorce. Maybe poverty has plagued your life. Those are all things that a person might say, wow, my life isn't going very well. Exodus 2012 says this, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. This is a promise of a long life. Deuteronomy 516 says, honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord has given to you. Again, long life and that it would go well with you. Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 through 3 say this, children, obey your parents in the Lord for it is right. Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. That it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. Now honoring your mother and your father, it's very, very difficult for a person to say I had dysfunctional parents, but I did everything right. I honored them every step of the way. When someone treats us poorly, it's a normal human reaction to retaliate in some way or to get revenge or to have a bad attitude. So if you think, if your parents were, if you did grow up in a dysfunctional home or your parents were dysfunctional in some way, you want to really comb back through your life and say, wow, what was my part in that? How did I respond? And then take responsibility. God desires us to have a long, prosperous life, not a long, terrible life. In Genesis chapter 9, 25, this was Noah, I believe, and his son committed a sin against him and he ended up cursing his bloodline and it says, curse be Canaan. The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. So it is possible that you have a curse on your life. And you've been the tail and not the head, so to speak. Deuteronomy 27.16 says, curses anyone who dishonors their father or mother. Matthew 15.4 says, for God said honor your father and your mother and anyone who curses their father and mother is to be put to death. So it's very serious. God wants us to honor our parents. Even if your parents were at fault, you need to renounce every rebellious act, talking back, yelling at them, calling them names, gossiping about them behind their back, cursing them. Make a list and renounce every act that you did. Again, even if your parents were at fault, you need to repent for every sin, everything you did. Don't worry about what they did. You have to worry about what you did. Apologize to your parents, Father's Day is coming up, Mother's Day is coming up. Maybe you need to send a little note. Maybe you need to send a little gift. Maybe write a letter. Maybe if they're passed away, you can't do that obviously. What you could do is you could write a letter and an apology and say all the things that you would want to say to them. And then as an act of sending it onto them, you could take it outside, light it on fire, let the smoke go up to heaven and just think, I'm releasing my mom, my dad, to God and I'm releasing them from the sin that they did to me and I'm praying that God will forgive me for the sin that I did against them and release me from the curse. You have to do this from your heart. Release them to God and let them go. Release them from their sin against you and the family. Let them go emotionally. I like to say cry it out. Brother Mike says this. He says, you have a heavenly father now. You don't need your dad. You don't need your mom anymore. You have a heavenly father. So you've been adopted into a new family. You can let the past go. Let them out of your soul and be released from the curse and go on to a much happier life and get your healing. All right, next week we're going to be talking about another topic, Miracle is number four. Thank you for watching.