We often lump sins and iniquities together as one. But they’re different. You’re responsible for your own sins, but not for your fathers’ sins, yet the iniquities of your fathers are passed on to the third and fourth generation.
The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. (Numbers 14:18)
I wondered, “how do I get rid of iniquities?” Â — If I didn’t cause them, then why do they fall on me?
Avraham Gileadi refers to “sins” as “individual wrongdoing” and “iniquities” as the “evil after-effects of wrongdoing” (Isaiah Decoded, ps. 174).
I would say that sins are personal, and iniquities are generational.
Iniquities have repercussions that effect the next generation — divorce, war, abuse, violence, drugs, etc. — “residual effects, that progeny may inherit from parents” (ibid). Â Everything has an effect, consequently wrongdoing, even if you repent, causes damage. It’s hard to turn it around, and these “covenant curses continue down the generations until finally reversed through righteous living” (ibid).
And the iniquity and transgression of my holy laws and commandments I will visit upon the heads of those who hindered my work, unto the third and fourth generation, so long as they repent not, and hate me, saith the Lord God. Â (Doctrine and Covenants 124:50)
At one point, Abraham had to leave his home and his father’s house, because his father worshiped idols. Abraham chose to live righteously, follow the voice of the Lord and thus he paid the debt of iniquity that he had inherited. The generational curses were changed to generational blessings at that point and Abraham’s progeny could now enjoy blessings of the covenant.
 In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence (Abraham 1: 1)
Abraham broke the cycle. It’s like the curse that follows the generational hatred passed on in families — the Hatfields and the McCoys. Iniquities cause effects that ripple down several generations. With each generation it becomes difficult to turn it around because of your upbringing, because of what you see and learn in your dysfunctional family.
According to Gileadi’s model of the ascent to heaven, to reach God’s son/servant level, you must overcome iniquity and sins, that your whole soul may be be cleansed and healed.
Covenant curses are the cumulative, generational effects of sin, the result of transgressing God’s law and word, on both the offender and his offspring. Through a process similar to “repenting” of wrongdoing and “returning” to God, individuals come to terms with their iniquities — with inherited dysfunctional patterns — and clean up their lives. Then, having progressed that far in overcoming evil, they inspire others to do the same. By such means they ascend to the son/servant level (Isaiah Decoded, pg. 176).
When you reach this level, you have learned to forgive yourself and others – you experience an “emotional clearing” and “spiritual purification.” We need to recognize the iniquities that our progenitors have passed on to us, and like Abraham choose to do right and thus change the curses to blessings.
Perhaps this is what energy healers reveal in your spiritual DNA — these iniquities that have been placed upon your shoulders. We need to release these iniquities. The new surge of energy healing may help us recognize these generational iniquities and let them go — forgive, repent, and become filled with light.
My husband’s great-grandfather had a terrible temper and abandoned his wife and two young children. There is even a story that this man threw a plate at his two-year old child, breaking his leg. My husband’s father left his wife with five children (my husband thinks this was probably good, because if his dad’s temper.) My husband and I have kept it together. We have cleansed that iniquity from his lineage.
I believe that strong and valiant souls choose to come to earth in dysfunctional family lines, in order to remove the covenant curse and turn it around. From that point on, the family tree has a chance to receive greater blessings through the covenant. We often think that it is a blessing when a person is born into one of the great families (especially within the church, if you are born to a general authority.)
What we don’t realize is that this life is only a small segment of our eternal progression. I believe that mighty souls choose to be born into family lines that need help. I think these people are proxy saviors for their family lineage. They volunteered for the tough calling. We should be careful not to judge people in tough situations, because we only “see” it from our perspective, and not God’s.
Avraham explains iniquities further in his commentary on Isaiah, specifically, Isaiah 64:7
But iniquities are those patterns and effects of sin that we have inherited from our fathers or parents or grandparents, down through the generations, dysfunctional patterns, ignorances, false traditions, genetic defects—whatever it may be that we’re having to deal with because of what happened in the past—either things we ourselves did, or things that were done by our mothers or fathers ever since the fall of Adam.
This week I watched one of those Indie movies, called Locke. The entire movie takes place inside a BMW, with the driver taking phone calls via his “hands-free” speaker, during a two-hour drive to London. He talks to his wife, his son, his boss, his colleague, and a young woman with whom he had a regrettable one night stand and who is now in labor, about to deliver their child. He also has an imaginary conversation with his dead father who had abandoned him, as a ####### child, and Locke will not let the same thing happen with this child that is about to be born. I realized that the man, Ivan Locke, was trying to deal with generational iniquities and his own wrongdoing. He was trying to fix the problem, and in doing so, it was causing a lot of repercussions.
(Locke is a foreman on a big cement project, and his worker uses the F-word when he calls in — hence the R rating.)
