Forms of curses

Then let’s look at the curses, and they’re just exactly the opposite.

Humiliation
Failure to reproduce or barrenness. I would say basically barrenness is nearly always in some way associated with a curse.
Number three, sickness of every kind. And if you read Deuteronomy 28, I mean, there is no sickness that is left out by the time you’ve come to that list.
Number four, poverty or failure.
Number five, defeat.
Number six, you’re the tail and not the head.
And number seven, you’re beneath, not above.

You’ve probably heard about the two Christians who met. One of them said, “Well, how are you doing, Brother?” And he replied, “Well, under the circumstances I’m not doing badly.” And the first Christian said, “Well, what are you doing under the circumstances?” You should be above and not beneath.

Over the years, independently of this list, I made a little list of indications that to me alerted me that I was probably dealing with a curse. I only say probably. And I made this independently of Deuteronomy 28 but it’s amazing really how close it is. I happen to have a list of seven. I want to be very clear I’m not saying if you have one of these it’s absolutely sure you’re under a curse. You need to examine the possibility and seek God. But if you have several of them, the more you have the greater the possibility that you’re under a curse.

Here’s my little list:

Number one, mental and/or emotional breakdown. Where people fall apart, that’s a phrase that’s used today. They say he or she just fell apart. That’s what I’m talking about, emotionally, mentally or both.
Number two, repeated or chronic sicknesses. Especially if they’re hereditary because, you see, curses pass from generation to generation. Also, in situations where doctors cannot find any normal cause.
Number three, what are called female problems. Barrenness, a tendency to miscarry, and problems with menstruation. Ruth and I have dealt with so many cases like this that wherever a person comes for prayer in that category, we just simply act on the basis that it’s a curse. In fact, we have come to the place where we really feel often we’re wasting our time to minister to the sick without first teaching them how to be delivered from the curse. We once called for a line-up of people with female problems and in the middle of the line was a man! So when he came up I said, “What’s your problem? How can you have a female problem?” He said, “My problem is depression, and that’s female!” However, I didn’t accept his statement.
The next one, a breakdown of marriage and family alienation, where families fall apart, where marriages break up, where children are alienated from their parents, brothers from sisters. Very, very probably a curse at work.
The next one, financial insufficiency. I want to be careful how I say this. I don’t think that poverty for a short period—it may be a test that God is putting us through. But if you’re always short, if you never have enough, if you’re always scraping, I think you very probably are under a curse.
Then the next one is what they call accident prone. In other words, you’re one of the people that always has an accident, you know? This is kind of objective because insurance companies will check on you and they’ll give you a higher premium if they classify you as accident prone. I mean, that’s not natural to be the person who always breaks your ankle when you step off the curb or your wife always slams the car door on your finger or whatever it may be. Or, it’s always your eye that a little bug flies into. I mean, it’s not natural if it’s always going on.
And then finally, in a family a history of suicides or unnatural deaths. If there’s a frequency of those things in a family.

Let me just very quickly go through that again: Mental and/or emotional breakdown, repeated or chronic sicknesses—especially when they’re hereditary, female problems, breakdown of marriage/family alienation, financial insufficiency, accident prone and in a family, history of suicides and unnatural deaths.

Now, that doesn’t cover everything. So I try to give also what I call a general picture because there are lots of things that could be the result of a curse that are not in that list. And this is what I’ve come up with as a result of dealing with many different people. You could say a curse is like a long evil arm from the past. And you don’t know how far back. It’s stretched out and every time you’re just about to succeed or get to where you want to be, this evil arm trips you up and you have to get up and start again. You get so far and you’re tripped up again. And that really becomes the story of your life.

You’d be surprised how many people have told me stories like that. And so many times they said, “Well, the same thing happened to my father or my grandfather. In other words, it seems to run in our family.” Or, another simple picture is a dark shadow from the past over your life, shutting out the sunlight of God’s blessing. You can see other people walking in the sunlight and you know it’s there and real, but somehow the sun very seldom seems to shine fully on you. So, if any of those apply, you need to be seeking God as we continue with this message for the Holy Spirit to show you what your particular need or situation or problem is.