Causes of Curses

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sound God Himself
sound Disobedience
sound Treachery
sound Injustice to the Weak or Helpless
sound Illicit or Unnatural Sex
sound  Anti-Semitism
sound  Trust in Man
sound  Perjury
sound  Stinginess Toward God
sound  Preaching False Gospel 
sound  God's "Mouthpieces"
sound  Relational Authority 
sound  Self-imposed
sound  Unscriptural Covenants
sound  Servants of Satan
sound  Abominations in the Home

 

soundGod Himself

There are also in the Bible a number of different sources and specific causes for curses. We’ve dealt with the general one, now we’ll deal with some specifics. The first source of curses—and this may surprise some of you—is God Himself. There are many curses in the Bible which God Himself pronounces. Probably one of the most common forms of God’s judgment on disobedient people or nations is to pronounce a curse on them. And then as the curse is worked out, that’s the outworking of God’s judgment. Do you understand that? God both blesses and curses.

So we’re going to deal, first of all, now with curses that proceed from God Himself. And there is one supreme cause which is stated in Exodus 20:3–5. This is the first part of the Ten Commandments. Let me say before we read the greatest and most common cause of curses in peoples’ lives is breaking the first two commandments. In fact, I’m inclined to believe you cannot break those commandments without coming under a curse. Now let me read those words.

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

But the Hebrew means just as much beside me. It’s not a question of having the Lord as the main god and other gods as well. He says, “I am the Lord and beside Me there is no other god.” So, you must not acknowledge any other god except the true God.
And the second is what we would call idolatry.

“You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.”

Notice that’s the specific feature of a curse, it goes on for at least three and probably four generations. Think of the billions of people on earth all of whose ancestors worshiped idols for countless centuries. Think of the pile-up of curses that there is. Travel in Southeast Asia. In my opinion it’s scarcely worth ministering in Southeast Asia if you can’t deal with the subject of the curse because basically ninety-five percent of all the people there are under a curse. That’s not to say that they’re bad people. I think they’re wonderful people. But there’s something from the past, you see.

It’s very important to see that having another god besides the one true God includes every form of occult practice. I cannot take time this evening to go into all the possible forms of the occult, because they are almost countless. But whenever you go to a source other than the true God for things which you are free only to seek from the true God, whatever source you go to you are actually making your god. So, if you go to a fortune teller for information about the future which God has said you shall not receive through that channel, through that fortune teller you’re making the power behind that fortune teller your god. You play with a Ouija board. If you get involved in all sorts of occult experiences or cults that deny the truth of the Bible. In all those things you are making a god who is not the true God. So, it’s very important to say this, the curses pronounced for the breaking of the first two commandments cover every form of occult.

 

Now, the Lord says up to the fourth generation. If you do a little arithmetic, go back four generations. Every one of us has thirty ancestors. How many of us can say for sure that none of our thirty ancestors were ever involved in the occult? Maybe a few of us can, I don’t know. I certainly couldn’t.

To give you a very simple example of this. A good many years ago I was in a typical home prayer meeting which was the kind of thing that was going on in those days. I just found myself next to a young man of about twenty or so. I said to him, I suppose the Holy Spirit prompted me, “Have you received the Holy Spirit?” He said, “Yes, but . . .” And whenever a person answers that question yes but, you know what the but is. “But I don’t speak in tongues.” And it seemed to me he really wanted to speak in tongues. I wasn’t trying to force him. I didn’t argue with him but the Lord prompted me, I said, “Did you ever go to a fortune teller?” He thought and he said, “Yes, once when I was about fifteen. But I only did it for a  joke, I didn’t mean anything by it.” I said, “You did go.” He said yes. I said, “You know, God forbids that kind of thing.” He was a little reluctant to acknowledge that but he did. I said, “May I lead you in a prayer in which you confess that as a sin and release yourself from its consequences?” He said all right. I think he only said it because he just wanted, you know, to get me off his back. So I led him in a very simple prayer, “Lord, I confess as a sin that I went to that fortune teller, et cetera.” I didn’t say another word to him, put my hand on his shoulder and prayed for him. He immediately began to speak fluently in an unknown tongue. In a few moments he was just lost. You see, there was an invisible barrier that kept him from the freedom of tongues. What was it? The occult. It’s just a simple example.

 

soundDisobedience

Now in Deuteronomy 27:15–26 we have twelve curses pronounced and when Israel went into the Promised Land they had to pronounce all these curses upon themselves. If they disobeyed the Law they automatically came under these curses. They couldn’t get into the Promised Land without. I think it’s very much the same in a way when we come into a relationship with God, if we’re obedient we come under the blessings but if we’re disobedient we’re in real danger of coming under the curses.

I’ll just give you my little summation of the things on which the curses are pronounced in Deuteronomy 27:15 and following. Number one, once again, idolatry, false gods. That’s always at the top of the list. Number two, disrespect for parents. And this is repeated in the New Testament, Ephesians 6:

“Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

My personal conviction is any person who does not honor his parents never will have it well with him, never. I can think of scores of examples of people. That doesn’t mean you can’t get saved, speak in tongues and go to heaven when you die. But there will be something missing in the quality of your life until you adjust your relationship with your parents. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with your parents or do everything that they say, but you have to respect them.

I think of another young man I dealt with. He had a very bad relationship with his father. His father was dead, buried in a cemetery more than a thousand miles from where we were. When this truth really penetrated he took a journey of a thousand miles to the cemetery where his father was buried, went to the grave, knelt at it, confessed his wrong attitudes to his father, wept his heart out and got up a different person. And from then the course of his life changed. I know that there are lots of parents, especially today, you have a lot of reasons for having something against them. I understand that. I say there are no delinquent children, there are only delinquent parents. Nevertheless, if you want to have it well with you, you better do what God says. You can’t afford not to.

 

soundTreachery

 Then the next, and we must go quickly, in this list is treachery against a neighbor. The book of Proverbs says whoever rewards evil for good, evil will never depart from his house.

 

soundInjustice to the Weak or Helpless

And then injustice to the weak or helpless. Personally, I can’t think of anything more weak or helpless than a baby in its mother’s womb. Personally, my conviction is anybody who deliberately procures an abortion comes under a curse. I would never minister to such a person without dealing with the curse. I want you to understand I’m not saying you’re cursed forever, please understand. I’m telling you the problem because I’m going to show you the solution.



ListenIllicit Sex

Then illicit or unnatural sex, especially incest. And again, I don’t know what the particular figures are here, but in the United States it’s now estimated that one out of every four girls under ten has been sexually molested and one out of every five boys under ten. I cannot think myself that it will ever happen without a curse following it. 


soundAnti-Semitism 

 We’re going on from this list, Genesis 12 we have God’s call to Abraham. We need to look at that because it has something significant in it. God calls Abraham out, promises various things, and in verse 3 this is the end of the call. He says to Abraham:

“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.”

So there’s both a blessing and a curse. I believe that was necessary because whenever God singles out a man to be blessed, that man becomes the object of all sorts of evil satanic forces. So God incorporated a protection. He said to Abraham, “Anyone who curses you, I will curse.”
Now we won’t go on but in Genesis 27:29, that protection is extended by Isaac to Jacob in his father’s blessing. “Cursed be everyone who curses you, Jacob.”

So you’ll see that line is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which became what nation? Israel, that’s right.

And what is the generic name for cursing or speaking against or abusing the Jewish people? Anti-Semitism. In my personal opinion, Anti-Semitism almost invariably is followed by a curse for an individual, for a nation. And if you look at the history of the last nineteen centuries, you see nation after nation after nation that came under a curse because they cursed the Jewish people. Ruth and I have a very good friend who is a Palestinian Arab born in Haifa, an American citizen who had a dramatic encounter with Jesus some years ago. I led him into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was a millionaire at the time.

After he was saved, listen to this, he became bankrupt. He had the sense to say, “God, what are you telling me?” God said, “I’m dealing with your pride.” But God also showed him something, that he and all his ancestors had regularly cursed the Jewish people. And believe me, I’ve lived amongst the Arabs in Palestine. It’s normal, they all do it basically, with a few exceptions. God showed him that if he would change that attitude he would restore his blessing. He repented and asked God to give him love for the Jewish people. And he is a Palestinian Arab who is more pro Israel than most Jews. And he’s now a multi-millionaire. See? How important it is to discover the causes that are at work in your life.



soundTrust in Man

Then there’s another very important curse pronounced in the prophet Jeremiah which is just a few short words, and I think often we pass them over without really appreciating their significance. Jeremiah 17:5–6:

“Thus says the Lord; Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.”

Notice please that that’s a very good description of somebody under a curse. Blessings are all around but he lives in a salt land. Rain falls everywhere else but it doesn’t fall on him. What’s the cause of that curse? Trusting in man, making flesh your arm. But the scripture says whose heart departs from the Lord. In other words, here is a man who’s known the supernatural grace and blessing of God and then turns back to relying on his own efforts. Turned his back on God’s grace. And that brings a curse.

I ask you to exercise your own judgment. But I would say that’s the condition of the greater part of the professing Christian church today. Almost all the major movements in the church that we know of today, and I will not name any, began out of a sovereign supernatural visitation and work of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise they’d have never made it in history. But most of them today, I would say, have turned away from the supernatural grace and power of God and have started to rely on their own efforts and what their own strength and ability can do. And on that count they are under a curse. I think that’s one tremendous problem with the Christian church, that whereas we should be in the blessing, because of disobeying Jeremiah 17:5, we’ve come under a curse.



soundPerjury

I’ll go quickly now, in Zechariah 5:1–4, Zechariah had a vision of a flying scroll and there was a curse on each side of the scroll. One was a curse on anyone who steals and the other was on anyone who commits perjury. And in the vision this scroll would go into a person’s house, take up lodging there, and the whole house would disintegrate. See, that’s the nature of a curse. It doesn’t just affect the particular area but it has a kind of corrosive effect all around it. So we need to consider that. Next time when—I’m sure you do fill in an Income Tax Return—just bear in mind that if you are dishonest you’re exposing yourself to a curse. Because I’m sure you have to say this is a true return, et cetera, et cetera.

You know that at least in the United States nearly ten percent of the cost of retail goods is due to insurance against theft. Just think of how different the situation would be if people didn’t steal. Basically, that would be the answer to inflation. Can you see how real that curse is? That it affects a whole nation.



soundStinginess Toward God

And then in Malachi 3, I think we have to look at this. Malachi 3:8–10:

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, In what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse; for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be fruit in my house, and prove me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour you out such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

Now I’m not teaching all Christians ought to pay tithes. Because as I understand the New Testament it’s not law, it’s grace. But I would suggest to you that grace should make us more generous than law. We’re told we have a better covenant established on better promises. Do you think on that basis we could offer less than the Israelites? But I’ll say this one thing. Stinginess toward God brings a curse. It is very poor economy to be stingy with God. And I tell Christians everywhere when the offering comes around, God does not need your tips. Really, if you stop and think for a moment, just to tip God half a dollar or a dollar or fifty Pence or whatever it may be, don’t do it. You don’t have to give but you are giving to God. Actually, as I said, He does not need your tips. There’s such irreverence in the church in this matter of giving. We should realize that giving is part of worship and do it as worship. I’d have to say I’m British right to the core. About my own nation Britain—I think Britain came under a curse because the British Christians basically were stingy. Now, I thank God that’s changing. I think there’s a new day coming in Britain. I’ve lived through that. I was a pastor for about nine years in England. The motto of the church board in England is “You keep him humble, we’ll keep him poor.” And they certainly keep their side of the bargain!



soundPreaching False Gospel

And then in Galatians 1, here is another tremendously significant statement that affects the church. Paul is speaking about the gospel that was revealed to him supernaturally by Jesus. And he says in Galatians 1:8–9:

“Even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let it be accursed.”

The Greek word there is anathema which has been taken over into the English language. The word anathema means something so totally abhorrent to God that He will never have any dealings with it. It’s totally shut off from Him. What is the cause of that curse? Preaching anything under the name of the gospel which is not the truth of the gospel. When you put Jeremiah 17:5 and Galatians 1:8–9 together and apply them to the contemporary church, I think it’s marvelous there’s any blessing left. And you add Malachi 3, cursed is the one who is stingy with God.

Brothers and sisters, do you know what we need to do? We need to repent. We need to change our ways, we need to take God very seriously. There are a lot of different definitions of faith but I’ll offer you just a very simple one. Faith is taking God seriously. Taking the Bible seriously.

I was five and a half years in the British Army during World War II. And I heard many, many (quote) “chaplains” preach. I didn’t know the Lord and I didn’t know the gospel when I went into the army. I met the Lord in the army. I cannot remember hearing one chaplain preach the gospel. So this is a tremendous issue that confronts us.

 

Now, we have to close this session but we'll be continuing in the next one.  I'll be carrying on where I left off.  I'll be dealing with other cause of curses.  Then we'll come to the really important part which is how to be released from the curse.  So may I ask that you remain in a prayerful attitude.  That doesn't mean you have to not talk to your neighbour, but don't let the anointing which is on you right now be dissipated because God has got a lot for you.  He's got a lot for many people here tonight.  Don't cheat yourself out of it.  Maintain an attitude that qualifies you to be released from the curse and receive the blessing.



soundGod's "Mouthpieces"

 Another specific source of curses is men who speak on behalf of God as God’s mouthpiece. There are many examples of this in the Bible. We’ll only look at just a few. The first is found in Joshua 6:26 after Israel had captured and destroyed Jericho. Joshua, the leader of God’s people, and God’s mouthpiece, pronounced a curse on anybody who would subsequently rebuild a city on that site. In Joshua 6:26:

"Then Joshua charged them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho. He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates."

That’s a very specific curse, not a general curse. But the form that the curse would take would be that the person who rebuilt Jericho, it would cost him the lives of two of his sons. I’m sure most of the Israelites forgot that curse, it just receded into history. But about five hundred years later in the reign of Ahab, king of Israel, a man did just that thing on which Joshua had pronounced a curse. And this is recorded in 1 Kings 16 in the reign of Ahab. 1 Kings 16, the last verse of the chapter, verse 34:

“In his days [that’s the days of Ahab] Hiel of Bethel built Jericho: he laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.”

The marginal translation says “at the cost of the life of his son.” Most modern translations follow that.

So, the man who went against the curse pronounced by Joshua five hundred years earlier, it cost him the lives of two of his sons.

I often think to myself what did the doctors of that day say when they were asked to give the cause of death of these two young men? Would they have understood that it was caused by words pronounced by a servant of God five hundred years earlier? One of the things this brings out is that curses basically continue until something is done to cut them off. They’re self-perpetuating.

And then another remarkable example is found in 2 Samuel 1, a lament that David pronounced after King Saul and his son Jonathan had been killed by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. In 2 Samuel 1:21 — now you need to understand the cause of David’s intense grief. It was not merely that Jonathan was his dear friend or even that Saul had been killed. But it was the triumph of idol worshippers over the people of the true God. Because the Philistines were idol worshippers and when they found the bodies of Saul and Jonathan they mutilated them, cut off their heads, placed them on the wall of the city called Bethshan and proclaimed it in all their idol temples. You have to understand in those days when two nations fought, generally speaking, it wasn’t merely the nations that were fighting but their gods were fighting one another. And when one nation was victorious, it was a victory for the gods of that nation. And so what grieved David so much as the servant of the Lord was that, in a sense, the idol gods had triumphed over the true God. And so he pronounced this lament. And I’m sure he didn’t stop to think what he was going to say but it’s a remarkable lament about the mountains of Gilboa, because it was on Mount Gilboa that Saul and Jonathan were killed.

“Oh mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, nor let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings: for the shield of the mighty is cast away there, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.”

So David said let there be no dew, no rain, no fields of offerings. Those words were pronounced about three thousand years ago. And in this century, after the Jews returned to their land, they began to plant trees and recultivate every area. And they’ve been amazingly successful in growing trees on their mountains. But when they came to Mount Gilboa they had totally unexpected problems in making trees grow there. So the words of David pronounced three thousand years earlier still affected the situation on Mount Gilboa at that time.

And then there’s another example in 2 Kings 5, we don’t need to turn there. But the prophet Elisha had been used of God to bring healing to Naaman the Assyrian. He refused to accept any gift from Naaman because he didn’t want Naaman to think he could pay for his healing. But Naaman’s servant Gehazi thought that was a shame to turn down this offer, so he ran after Naaman without Elisha knowing it and asked for money and clothing. Came back and hid it away, came and stood in the presence of Elisha thinking that Elisha didn’t know, and Elisha said, “Did not my spirit go with you when you ran after that man?” And then he pronounced this curse upon him. He said, “The leprosy of Naaman [who had been healed] cleave to you and your descendants forever.” And it says Gehazi went out from his presence a leper as white as snow, an advanced stage of leprosy. And notice the curse was on his descendants forever.

See, what comes out of all these examples is the perpetuation of a curse until somebody knows what to do to revoke it. You say can God’s servants curse in that way today? Well, Jesus cursed a fig tree, you remember, in the New Testament. And the next day it had withered from the roots, just one period of twenty-four hours. And when the disciples were astonished he said to them, “You will be able to do what I did to this fig tree, and more.” He said, “You will remove mountains.” Let’s leave out removing mountains for the moment. He said, “You can do what I did to the fig tree.”

Now I relate this with some trepidation, but this is a personal experience. In about l965 I was part of a ministry team in a church in the inner city in Chicago. Right flush with the church, wall to wall on the corner was what the Americans call a saloon. I think the English call it a pub. But it was a very wicked place. It not merely sold alcohol, it peddled drugs and it was a center for prostitution. It was a very wicked place and it was right wall to wall with the church. Well, sometime about October we had a prayer meeting in the church and I was on the platform as one of the leadership team. And at a certain point without any premeditation I thought about this pub and I thought it really is an affront to God that it should be right there just where the people come into the church. So I stood up and I said, “I pronounce the curse of God upon that pub.” I didn’t think anymore about. About two months later about 4:00 o’clock in the morning there was a phone call, “Brother Prince, the church is on fire, do you want to come and see?” Well, it was the middle of winter in Chicago, I mean it was about 20 degrees below. I didn’t want to go and see but I thought, you know, if I hang around and just let the church burn without showing any interest it will look bad! My first wife and I, we got in the car and we went there. Sure enough, not two blocks away you could see the flames and smoke. When we got there, however, we discovered it wasn’t the church that was on fire, it was the pub. But, you know, Chicago is situated on Lake Michigan. The wind was blowing off the lake and blowing the flames right onto the church. And as we stood there and watched helplessly, the wind changed 180 degrees and blew the flames away from the church. The next morning the pub was destroyed and the church had suffered nothing but smoke damage which was covered by the insurance. And as I stood there and watched that I thought, “God, am I responsible?” I mean, I wasn’t jesting. And I thought that is the outcome of the words that I pronounced in that church about two months previous. You know my reaction was I realized I had tremendous power committed to me. Not because I’m different, because every Christian has that power. And my prayer was and is, “God, help me never to misuse that power.” But I give that as an illustration just to prove that the things we’re talking about are not out of date, they’re all relevant, they apply today.



soundRelational Authority

Now I want to go on to other sources of curses. The next one is very important and very little understood by contemporary Christians. I call it persons with relational authority. That is, persons who have authority because of a relationship. Now, authority is a very unpopular concept in many places and parts of the world today but the fact remains it’s still real. Authority is not created by man, it precedes from God. And there are many different relationships in which a person has authority. You may or may not like it but a husband has authority over his wife in certain contexts. Parents have authority over their children. Teachers have authority over their pupils. Pastors have authority over their congregations, just to take a few examples.

Now, because of the authority relationship, words spoken by those persons to those under their authority have special supernatural power. Whether they’re blessings or whether they’re curses. And if you look at the Bible you’ll find that second to the blessing of God, the most important blessing that any person could ever have in his life is the blessing of his or her father. That’s still true today. I say to any of you whose fathers are alive, do everything in your power, everything you can to obtain the blessing of your father. And your mother, but primarily your father. It makes a lot of difference.

When I was saved I’m afraid I had a bad attitude towards my parents. I thought, “They’re not saved, I’m saved; they don’t understand, I do understand.” I praise God He rebuked me for it and He showed me that I could not expect His blessing if I didn’t honor my parents. And before they died I had shown them the honor that was appropriate. I don’t believe otherwise I could have ever enjoyed the blessing of God in  my life and ministry.



Husbands and Wifes


I want to take an example of a husband who cursed his wife without knowing it and the results. The story is found in Genesis 31. You’ll remember, some of you, that Jacob had been with his Uncle Laban serving him. He’d married two of Laban’s daughters, he had become father to a pretty substantial family and then the Lord directed him to leave Laban in Mesopotamia and go back to the land of Canaan. And he was afraid that if he told Laban he was going Laban would take his daughters back. So he stole away secretly while Laban was busy somewhere else. But Laban and his relative pursued after Jacob and caught up with him on Mount Gilead. And then there was a confrontation. Laban said, “Why did you steal away and not let me say good-bye to my daughters?” Jacob said, “I was afraid you’d take them from me.” “All right,” Laban said, “I can accept that. But why did you steal my household gods?” The Hebrew word is terraphim, they were little idol images that people kept in their homes to protect them against evil—which is a very common practice to this day.

Now, Jacob didn’t know anything about the terraphim but his favorite wife, Rachel, had stolen her father’s images. Now, that was a very bad thing to do because she shouldn’t have stolen from her father. Second, she involved herself in the occult and that is always dangerous. This is what happened. Verse 30 of Genesis 31:

“Laban says to Jacob, Now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house. But why did you steal my gods? [terraphim] Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid [that’s why I went]. For I said perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force. [And then he says] With whomever you find your gods, do not let him live.”

The King James says “let him not live.” What’s that? It’s a curse. Let him not live. Now, Jacob didn’t know that he was talking about Rachel who was his favorite wife. Rachel succeeded in keeping the gods concealed, Laban never discovered them. That ended that situation. But, within a few years the next time Rachel gave birth she died in childbirth. Why? Because of the curse pronounced by her husband. See? This is very real. You may not like it, I may not like it but that’s the way it is. God has built certain principles into human life and relationships.

Other Examples

 
Now let’s consider a few other possible examples. And most of these are constructed out of situations that I have actually dealt with but I kind of changed a little so I don’t expose the identity of people. Let’s consider another possible example of a husband. This man is a business executive, he’s busy, he’s financially successful, he’s a man with drive, he’s pretty ruthless. He marries a woman who doesn’t know how to cook. Like so many young ladies today, she’s never learned from her mother. And for a long while he endures his wife’s cooking but then he just can’t take any more. And he says, “I’m sick of your cooking. You’ll never learn to cook.” And he probably says it many times. What is that? It’s a curse. All right. What he doesn’t realize is he’s pronounced a curse on himself, too. “I’m sick of your cooking.” So what happens? He gets indigestion. Doctors cannot find any cure for that indigestion, he suffers from it till he dies. The marriage breaks up, they’re divorced. The wife is a talented woman, she can succeed in every area except one—the kitchen, that’s right. When she goes into the kitchen her body starts to shake, she gets all nervous and she never can get it together. Why? The husband’s curse. Both of them endure their curse until they die. See?

All right. Let’s take a father. This is perhaps the commonest of all. A father has three sons. The first is the firstborn. Of course, he’s always welcome. The third, the youngest, is brilliant. But the middle one is neither firstborn nor brilliant. He has a lot of the same characteristics that his father has. Have you ever noticed when people are bad and they’re bad in the way that we’re bad, we like to take it out on them rather than ourselves. Have you ever noticed that? Parents, if you pick on one of your children it’s probably the one that’s most like you if you knew it. What’s you’re objecting to is what’s in you that you don’t like.

Anyhow, so the father says to the second son, “You’ll never succeed. You’ll always be a failure. You’ll never make it.” What’s that? It’s a curse. And I’ve dealt with many men in their 40s and 50s who were still struggling against words spoken by a father before they were teenagers.

Or, let’s say the father has a daughter, 15. Like some young ladies of fifteen she has acne. And the father has to drive her to school every day and every day she’s up there in the bedroom putting things on her pimples. And so she’s late. And so the father gets exasperated and one day he says, “You’ll never get rid of those pimples, you’ll have pimples for the rest of your life.” Fifteen years later she’s a married woman with children of her own and she is still struggling with her acne. Why? Because of a curse.

Or let’s take a mother. And this is actually a real case that I’ve been dealing with that I will not give the identity. Her daughter always pleased her, she always did what she wanted. She was one of those manipulative, controlling mothers. But then the daughter fell in love and married a man that the mother didn’t approve of. And the mother said, “You’ll never make good. You’ll always be struggling. You’ll never have enough.” I know the man. He’s a gifted man and a capable man. But for at least a dozen years that was true. It’s only changed when I confronted them with the reality of the source of their problems: the mother’s curse. Now there’s a new life opening up before them.

Let’s talk about teachers. The teacher has a pupil who can’t spell. Maybe he’s got what they call dyslexia. You know, you put the letters the wrong way around. “You’re silly, you’re stupid. You just don’t try hard. You’ll never succeed.” I know teachers shouldn’t talk like that but sometimes they do. What’s the result? A child, a boy or a girl that never can make it in life.

Ruth and I have a friend, a teacher said to her when she was a teenager, “You’re shallow.” She’s now I think in her 60s or at least in her late 50s. We discovered that all her life she’s been struggling against that statement “You’re shallow.” And the strange thing about it is if anybody doesn’t deserve that statement, it’s that lady. She is far from shallow. But you see, there’s authority behind those statements and that makes them powerful.

Usually speaking, there’s a demonic element. I’ll just show you one thing in James 3 which is very important. James 3:14–15:

“But if you have bitter envying and self seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, soulish, demonic.”

In other words, if your attitudes are wrong and your reactions are wrong and you speak, what’s going to come out will have a demonic element in it. I’ve used this little picture. How many of you know what a whistling kettle is? I’m sure most of you do. All right. So you have this kettle on the stove and the water is getting hotter and hotter. And the moment the steam comes out, what else comes out? The whistle, that’s right. The whistle is like the curse, you see? When the steam comes the whistle comes. There’s only one way to prevent the whistle, what’s that? Take the kettle off before it boils. So when, let’s say, a parent or a teacher or a husband is getting more and more angry and frustrated and impatient, if you don’t take that kettle off the steam is going to come out and the whistle will come out with it. You’ll say something cruel, hard, unkind, unjustified and a curse will be released with it. Does that happen in our contemporary culture?



soundSelf-Imposed


Then we come to another tremendously important area. Perhaps the most common of all, what I call self-imposed curses. People pronounce curses on themselves. In Genesis 27 we have the story of how Isaac was going to bless Esau and the mother Rebekah who is the first Yiddish yamama, if you know what Yiddish yamama is, switched them and she got Jacob acting like Esau and claiming the blessing.  Jacob wasn’t reluctant but he was afraid and he said this in verse 11:

“Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing. But his mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son.”

She took on herself the curse that would have been to Jacob. It was a self-imposed curse. If you go to the end of the chapter, just the last verse, you’ll find Rebekah beginning to use very negative language about herself. Rebekah said to Isaac in verse 46:

“I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like those who are daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

“I’m tired of living. What’s the good of living?” That’s a typical statement by somebody who is under a curse. See? Never permit yourself to say that. Don’t make negative statements about yourself. Don’t say I’ll never be able to do this. I never succeed. I’m no use. I’m a failure. I just can’t take it anymore. And then you go on and you say I wish I were dead. I’d be better off dead. Do you know what you’re doing? You’re inviting the spirit of death. And he doesn’t take many invitations.

Ruth and I have dealt with countless people who needed to be delivered from the spirit of death because they’d invited it, they imposed a curse upon themselves. And we’ve learned one beautiful verse that has helped hundreds of people. I’ll share it with you, Psalm 118:17:

“I shall not die, but live, and declare [or proclaim] the works of the Lord.”

If you have made a negative remark about yourself, if you’ve imposed something negative on yourself, you need to revoke it by the positive. You see, as a remarkable example you know that Peter denied three times he knew the Lord. Later on after the resurrection beside the Sea of Galilee Jesus had a personal talk with Peter. And three times he said, “Do you love me?” He made Peter affirm three times that he loved him. Why did he do that? Because Peter had to revoke the negative statements he’d made before the crucifixion. See? So if we’ve said something negative and brought some dark shadow over us, we need to revoke the negative and replace it by the positive. And this verse is a perfect one. “I shall not die . . .” It doesn’t mean you’ll never die but it means that Satan is not going to kill you before your time.

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” I think it would be good for all of us to say that. The first time you say it after me. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Now let’s all say it together this time. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Once more. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Now saying that may change the destiny of your life.

All right. Let’s go on to another example, the great tragedy of the Jewish history. In Matthew 27 Jesus is before Pilate and Pilate is willing to release him. We read in Matthew 27:24–25:

“When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather a tumult was rising, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: you see to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children.”

What’s that? A self-imposed curse. The great tragedy of Jewish history. And by those words a strand of tragedy was woven into Jewish history which was run for nineteen centuries. What a lesson not to say the wrong thing about ourselves.

I pointed out to you previously that God had protected Abraham against curses. He said, “Anyone that curses you, I will curse.” There’s just one area that God could not protect the Jewish people from, from themselves. And that’s true in our lives many times. God can protect us from everything except what we say about ourselves.

 



soundUnscriptural Covenants

Then we’re going on in the next common cause of curses. It’s what I call unscriptural covenants. Exodus 23:32, in relationship to the people whom Israel was to dispossess from the land of Canaan; that is, all of them. Idol worshippers, people who lived in total rebellion against the living God. Moses said, Exodus 23:32:

“You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.”

You understand, if people have false gods and you make a covenant with those people, you are also making a covenant with their gods. Now, I’m going to say something that I trust will not offend anybody and I say it simply because my desire is to help people. One extremely common example of that in our contemporary culture in the western world is freemasonry. Because, a person who becomes a mason makes a covenant with those who are masons. Freemasons will tell you that it’s secret, but it’s not. In the l950s a book was published in Britain by an Anglican clergyman named Hannah called Darkness Visible which sets out all the main rites and ceremonies of freemasonry, and no mason has ever challenged that book in more than thirty years. When you become a mason you have to pronounce a curse on yourself if you disclose the secrets of the masons. And it includes things like having your tongue cut out, your right arm cut off and thrown over your left shoulder, and your body being exposed in a place where the tides rise and fall twice in every twenty-four hours. Those are self-imposed curses. Freemasonry is an idol religion. It’s clear in the 32nd degree, the royal arch degree, which acknowledged and offers worship to a person called Jabulon. Which is a combination of Jehovah, Baal and Osiris. And so the true God of the Bible is joined together with two idol deities whom God has totally condemned. When you make a covenant with that, you’re making a covenant with those gods.

I’m saying this on the basis of much experience. I cannot take time to relate all the experience but I’ll simply relate one. In Australia about three or four years ago Ruth and I were ministering in a church on Sunday morning and we were praying for people. A young woman came forward about eighteen years old with a tiny little baby in her arms, for prayer for the baby. And you would have said the baby was six days old but actually she told us it was six weeks old. We said what is the problem and she said she won’t take any nourishment. So, as we prayed the power of God came on this young woman and she went down on the floor. Ruth caught the baby out of her arms and held it. As she lay on the floor, God gave Ruth a word of knowledge to the people who were ministering to her. She said her father is a Freemason. Deal with that force. And the moment they came against it the woman began to writhe and scream under the power of a demon. And as they ministered, she was released with a prolonged scream. But the remarkable thing was the little baby in Ruth’s arms released a precisely similar scream at the same moment. So not merely was the mother released but the baby was released.

They came back that evening about six hours later and we asked the mother how the baby was doing. She said she’d taken three full bottles since the morning. But I want you to see the fact that the father’s participation in freemasonry had brought the curse upon the daughter and the granddaughter. I mean, I do not have time but I can give you half a dozen other specific examples.

It affects the family, it affects the descendants, it affects the spouse, it affects the relatives. There are other ways that this kind of curse can come in. Tribal societies, very commonly a baby or a young person is initiated into the tribe by certain rites. Very often there are cuts made on the skin or powder inserted under the skin. And that exposes that person to the curse that’s on the idolatry that’s the focus of that tribe. Again, I could but I don’t have time to give examples.



soundServants of Satan

And then there are curses pronounced by servants of Satan. And there are various different words for such servants in different languages. In English I think we call them witch doctors. In America they call them medicine men. In Swahili it’s called umchawa. In the language of the Luo people it’s called juowki. If I’m not mistaken, amongst the Mauris it’s called tomanga. It’s the same thing in many different labels and guises. I want to tell you very frankly such men have real supernatural power, don’t underestimate it. Don’t go, if you’re going to be a missionary, to some tribal people and say Satan isn’t real, demons aren’t real, because they know much better than you that they are. Your message is Satan is real but Jesus has more power. That they’ll listen to, especially if you can demonstrate it.

I think I must give one example. Again, it’s from Zambia. This is given us in writing by the man who was the witness of it. In an African Christian church two elders fell out with one another. And this may seem strange to you but it’s quite common in Africa. The one elder went to the witch doctor to get him to put a curse on the other elder. Okay? And when he did that the witch doctor was very happy to oblige because it was a Christian. And this is what he did. He went out somewhere into the bush, got some soil of a certain kind, brought it back, smeared it over a hand mirror and then he said to the elder, “Now wipe the soil away and tell me what you see?” And he looked in the mirror and saw the face of the man of whom he wanted to curse in the mirror. Now the witch doctor said, “Take a knife and cut it through the mirror.” He did and when he did that, blood appeared on the mirror. And when the elder returned he discovered the other elder was dead. What would you call that? You couldn’t call it murder. Can you understand why the Bible prohibits witchcraft? This story is given in perfect detail by a man who’s a missionary, he’s about seventy years old and been a missionary ever since his boyhood. What I’m saying is don’t underestimate. That doesn’t mean you have to be afraid. Jesus said, “Behold, I give to you authority over all the power of the enemy.” He didn’t say the enemy doesn’t have power. He says, “I’ll give you authority over that power.” That’s the realistic approach.

Let’s look at one example in the Bible, Numbers 22:4–6. This is the story of Balaam. The king of Moab sent for Balaam who was a witch doctor. And a very powerful one and a very famous one. And Moab said to Balaam in verse 5:

“A people has come from Egypt [that’s Israel]: see, they cover the face of the earth and are settling next to me: therefore please come at once, curse this people for me; for they are too mighty for me: perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land: for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

Now that was, in a sense, the regular practice in warfare—and still is among tribal societies today. Not only is your tribe fighting another tribe, but your tribe’s gods are fighting their gods. And if you can get the victory in advance, you win the battle. There’s a document somewhere in the Middle East in which it records seventy-seven nations on whom the kings of Egypt have pronounced curses. Because, if you can get your enemy cursed, then you can defeat him. That is the principle. Just one interesting example because this is something that’s unfamiliar to many westerners. In the conflict between David and Goliath, when David went out with his sling and no armor, Goliath was angry
and insulted and this is what happened. 1 Samuel 17:43:

“So the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.”

Do you understand? Before they joined in battle he invoked his idol gods and David replied, “I’m not coming to you in my own name but in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.” See, it was a fight between gods. And you know who was victorious. But I just want to point out to you that Satan’s servants have power to curse. Again, I could illustrate it from examples of people that we personally have helped.



soundAbominations in the Home

One final way in which a curse can come is stated in Deuteronomy 7:26. The previous verse says about the inhabitants of Canaan:

“You shall burn their camp, the carved images of their gods. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on it. [And then it says in verse 26:] Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it: but you shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.”

So when you bring anything that’s associated with idolatry or the occult into your house, you’re opening the way for a curse to come into your home. Again, this is something we deal with frequently. I tell people after such a service as this if you believe you’ve needed deliverance from a curse, you better go home and check what you’ve got in your house. Check if there’s anything there that advertises any other god but the Lord Jesus Christ. My personal principle is I don’t want anything in my home that dishonors Jesus Christ.

 

Let me give one quick example. We often have cases where parents tell us that the children don’t sleep well at night, they’re restless, they cry, they’re frightened. One common reason for that is that somewhere in that house is something which gives Satan right of access. You need to go through your house from top to bottom, clean out anything that’s associated with the occult. Any kind of superstitious thing. If you have horseshoes to ward off ill luck, that’s superstition. It doesn’t ward off ill luck, it opens the door for Satan.

 

Click here to see a listing of common Occults etc. extracted from Derek Prince's book, Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose!

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