Authors: Chester and Betsy Kylstra
The second edition of Restoring the Foundations (RTF) has been released December 2000.
Restoring the Foundations is for the Christian desiring to
achieve more freedom and healing in their life, and for the
Christian desiring to be better equipped to help others achieve
freedom and healing. It shows how to deal with the ministry areas of Sins of the Fathers
and Curses, Ungodly Beliefs, Soul/Spirit Hurts, and Demonic
Oppression, and the importance of an integrated ministry to all
of these areas during the same general time period. It is a real
"how to" manual, with many charts and tables, and
detailed steps describing how to minister to each area.
The book contains the following Chapters (and Appendices):
Part II Foundational Problem/Ministry Areas
Ungodly Beliefs originate primarily from two sources: the natural or unredeemed mind and experiences of hurt. In addition, there are some other "belief shapers" which we will discuss briefly.
A great source of our UGBs are childhood hurts, traumas, and negative experiences. These make a very strong impression on us. For example, the child whose father misses all of his ball games, all of his birthday parties, and is never there when he needs guidance, may form such beliefs as the following:
Even more serious UGBs are formed by the child, who trying to intervene as his parents are fighting, is told, "Shut up you pip-squeak, we did not even have all these problems before you came along." He concludes that:
Even as a potter molds and shapes the clay, so our hurtful experiences mold and shape our beliefs. If the foundation of the belief system laid during childhood is mis-shapened and distorted, the life that is built upon that foundation will also be mis-shaped and distorted.
In addition, negative experiences occurring during the adult years can cause further UGBs to be formed. The impact of problems in business, marriage, and church, or the experience of accidents, natural disasters, or tragedies, can cause us to believe lies about ourselves, others, and God.
Since demons are such bullies, one might ask, "Well, do demons just randomly pick on people, kind of like the random checking the IRS does on income tax returns?" While they do target people (particularly those who are serious about serving God and who are advancing the kingdom of God), there are some very specific ways, or "open doors" by which demons frequently gain entrance into a person's life. Genesis 4:7b recounts what the Lord said to Cain after he expressed anger because his brother's offering was preferred:
Gen 4:7
... And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it. (NAS)
In general, it is our opening of the door that allows sin (and accompanying demons) to come in. The exception to this statement is the demons that come with our "inheritance," which have already entered while we were helpless in the womb, unless our parents and/or other relatives knew to protect us with prayer and spiritual warfare.
Some of the doors through which demons come are shown in the above figure, as will as in the side margin. Lets look at these in some detail.
There are demons that apparently come down the family line. They often manifest soon after birth. We suspect that they are present even as the child is being formed. This seems particularly true of demons of fear, rejection, rebellion, anger, rage, shame, sexual perversion, control, and abandonment. They are able to enter at this early age because of the "legal ground" from Sins of the Fathers (and mothers). Because of the curses resulting from the generational sin, or also because of others cursing the family line, the demons are able to pass from generation to generation to carry out the curses. The cycle continues as the demons put pressure on the person to enter into the same sins as his ancestors. As he yields to that pressure, the sin becomes his own, and he gives legal rights for the Demonic Oppression.
Another form of "inheritance" is when one or more of our ancestors have dedicated or committed their descendants to their particular god or occult guild, i.e., witchcraft. Here the demons claim "ownership" right from the womb, and will do all within their power to prevent the person from hearing or understanding the Gospel. This can be particularly severe if bloody oaths and/or sacrifices have been made. The good news is that the Blood of Jesus overrides and neutralizes any other blood that has ever been shed, so that even for these people with major open doors of occult sin in their family line, there is the hope of freedom and healing.
In 2 Samuel we have the example of David cursing Joab and his entire family line, because Joab deceptively killed Abner after David had entered into an agreement with him. This was the starting point, or entry point, where demons were given legal right to enter a family and carry out the spoken curses. This curse, and its accompanying demons, will continue to move relentlessly down through the generations until it is finally broken and the demons are cast out.
2 Sam 3:27-29
Now when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the gateway, as though to speak with him privately. And there, to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel, Joab stabbed him in the stomach, and he died.
Later, when David heard about this, he said, "I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the LORD concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner.
May his blood fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father's house! May Joab's house never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food." (NIV)
The following comments are representative of ones given to us by people using the book:
Before we close, we wanted to share with you how helpful your ministry manual (Restoring the Foundations) has been to us. We have always integrated forgiveness and generational sins into our approach to deliverance, but have felt for some time that we were missing something, yet we could not quite put our finger on it. As we've incorporated dealing with Ungodly Beliefs and Soul/Spirit Hurts into our ministry approach, we've discovered that this is what was missing. We are now seeing tremendous results! We wanted to let you know what a blessing it has been to gain this greater revelation. D and DA, NM