Curses and Blessings
This session will delineate the nature of curses that we can encounter in our Christian walk, and how to get rid of them. The source book I have used for this material is from Derek Prince called Blessings or Curse: You can choose. I have included it on the suggested reading list.
Today, when someone says curse, thoughts of Voo-doo witch doctors come to mind. It has the connotation of something ancient, superstitious, and ridiculous to the western mind. The nature of blessings and curses are far more subtle than these notions. Jesus said we justified or condemned by our words. We can curse ourselves with our own words. Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the Law, but we can still inadvertently curse ourselves by speaking negatively. The good news is that we can reverse the curses we’ve invoked by our own ignorance. Paul admonishes us to bless and not to curse others. If cursing and blessing are archaic terms then these citations in the NT have no meaning.
A curse is a negative sentiment expressed verbally, in written form, or simply thought, which invokes sickness, death, poverty, hopelessness, joblessness, slavery, rape, murder, or any of the many other aspects of the law of sin and death that scripture speaks about. The curses of the law are listed in Deut 28:15-68. A single word sums up the result of a curse in our lives: this is the word “frustration.” No matter what we do when a curse is at word, our efforts at overcoming the issue end up in frustration and ineffectiveness. If there are areas in your life that manifest in continual frustration, you may be operating under a curse of some kind.
Blessings are just the opposite. They work by the same mechanism of words but invoke a positive response: healing, deliverance, prosperity, joy, peace, fecundity, vision, hope and all the other aspects of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Blessings and curses can come from our own selves, from others, from our ancestors, from our culture, from our parents, from satan, or from God, in the case of blessing. There are degrees of each. We can be conscious of their workings or not. We can invoke them on ourselves consciously or unconsciously. They work within just our own selves, or in wider circles such as within a family, a community, an ethnicity, a culture, a nation, or even a civilization.
There are two realms which shape history: the visible and the invisible. Paul was quite familiar with these realms. In 2 Cor 4:17,18, he said, AFor our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.@ Knowledge is power. Paul, having gone through much physical and emotional hardship, said, essentially, if I look at what I see, I=m doomed; if I keep focused on the invisible realm, I can only win. In our case in this lesson, I want to make the point that there is an invisible realm which we must contend with. By knowledge of it, we can have it work for us instead of against us. Indeed, these verses say, the invisible realm is really where it=s at because it is eternal, whereas the realm of the visible is constantly changing, by nature.
There are two aspects of blessings and cursing which are shared by both. One, as I=ve already mentioned, is that they can effect a larger circle than just you alone. They can affect communities and nations. The second aspect is that they persist over time, even over several generations. Ex 20:5,6 makes this point for us: AYou shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.@ Notice, blessings have a longer life span than iniquity. I believe this is because of the self destructive nature of sin itself: it doesn=t last long before people involved in it die. There may be forces in your life, either blessing or cursing, which originated from previous generations. For example, you might have a history of heart disease in your family: your grandfather had it, your father had it, and now you have it. On the blessing side of things, your grandmother may have been a pastor, your father a pastor, and now you feel the call to pastor. Blessing and cursing can explain things in your life that, simply looking at your own life and its circumstances, cannot be otherwise explained adequately.
Words are the main vehicle of both blessing and cursing. Pr 11:9 says, AA hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered;@ Pr 12:18 AThere is he that speaks like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health;@ Pr 15:4 AA wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness in it is a breach in the spirit;@ Pr 18:21 ADeath and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit of it.@ James says our words can control our whole body for the better or for the worse. Words are power. They can carry life or death in themselves.
Words are not the only vehicle through which blessing and cursing are transferred. Physical objects can serve also. In various instances in Scripture, the anointing of God was transferred via oil. The molecular makeup of the oil is no different than oil that is not anointed by God, rather, God supernaturally transmits power through it, either by faith in it to confer the blessing - thus, the faith of the person allowed God to give the anointing to the person and the oil was simply a point of contact for the person to believe; or, God supernaturally allowed the oil to Acarry@ the blessing of the anointing on the person. Without faith and obedience, no blessing results.
1 Cor 11:29 is a NT example of a physical object conferring blessing or cursing. The bread and wine of communion, when taken properly, confers blessing; if taken improperly, they confer a curse: AHe who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself.@ This judgment comes in the form of sickness, weakness and premature death, it says. Again, there is no inherent power in the bread and wine - they are merely foods; the power comes from our faith and obedience, or disobedience, in them. God honors our faith with blessing, and ruefully gives us cursing if we choose to disobey Him.
Satan is the god of this world. He is a source of cursing to us. Curses have the
quality that they blind our eyes from seeing the blessing that=s right before us. 2 Cor 4:4
says, Athe god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.@ In Jer 17:56 it says, ACursed 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.@ Curses prevent us from seeing the blessing that is right in front of us.
Some folks have no problem believing in blessings but somehow in their minds relegate curses to the Dark Ages of witches and gargoyles. Let me offer this bit of logic. We cannot have blessing unless there is cursing - the one defines the other. We cannot pick and choose what we believe in the bible. Either it=s all true or none of it is true. The opposite of good is evil; both are real. You can choose to ignore something but that won=t make it go away.
Perhaps it=s helpful to first identify the characteristics of both blessing and cursing in order to verify their existence in our lives. By doing this we will be able to position ourselves to receive blessing and to identify and remove curses that may exist. It may not be realized that God, unfortunately, is the source of some curses in our lives. This comes in the form of judgment as a result of sin. Gal 6:78 says, ADo not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.@ God takes no pleasure in recompensing the seeds of disobedience in our lives with judgment. Paradoxically though, judgment can be a blessing in disguise. If, for example, you had a cocaine habit that was killing you, and you were arrested for possession, this judgment could actually be a way for you to kick the habit, repent, and get on with your life.
I have been citing several OT scriptures in this lesson to illustrate various points. It is a common idea amongst Christians that the OT is largely irrelevant to the NT believer because, Aafter all, God is a God of love mercy; the OT portrays God as angry and judgmental. Why, didn=t Jesus say we shouldn=t judge?@ A closer look at both testaments will reveal the fallacy of this idea. Rahab, a prostitute, became the wife of Salmon, one of the princes of Judah, who was in the genealogical line from which Israel's Messiah came. This is God's mercy. David received the grace of God, which is the cornerstone of the NT, by worshiping God as a priest when he had no right, by the Law of God, to do so. He established the tabernacle of David by faith in God=s grace to enter into the holy of holies without being killed. The book of Revelation talks about the White Throne of Judgment which all peoples, Christians or not, will hold forth their lives unto God. Thus the OT contains many instances of mercy and the NT instances of judgment. Paul, in Rom 11:22, puts it succinctly: ATherefore consider the goodness and severity of God.@God is both merciful and just. You can’t have mercy without justice. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He’s the same God now that he was during OT times.
Pr 26:2 shows us how to identify, and get rid of curses in our lives. It says,AAs the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.@ The birds, here, can represent demonic forces which God allows to come on us as the result of our sins which we, or our ancestors, have committed. They persist as long as they go unrepented of. The blood and forgiveness of Jesus must be invoked before a curse can be removed. This Proverbs verse also tells us that there has to be a cause for curses, and, a curse cannot operate without a cause on our part, or on the part of those we are associated with. Deut 28:1,2 tells us the cause of blessing: AIf you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments ... all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.@ Notice that listening, or hearing, is iterated twice. Blessing, then, comes from listening to God=s voice, and then doing it. This requirement for blessing is the same in both covenants. Conversely, the cause of curses is also laid out in v. 15 of the same chapter: ABut it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.@ Curses come from NOT hearing God=s voice and NOT doing what He says. This refusal attitude is summed up in one word: rebellion. This rebellion is not against man, but against God. Now, we all sin, but there are certain sins which have greater impact and consequence on our lives than others.
Blessings are characterized by: exaltation, prosperity, health, victory, reproductiveness, and God's favor.Curses are characterized by: humiliation, barrenness, unfruitfulness, mental and physical sickness, family breakdown, poverty, defeat, oppression, failure, and God's disfavor.
Alright, now I want to look at curses in more detail. After this, I=ll look at blessings. Curses can come under 7 basic categories: 1. Mental and/or emotional breakdown; 2. Repeated or chronic sicknesses; 3. Barrenness, a tendency to miscarry or related female problems; 4. Breakdown of marriage and family alienation; 5. Continuing financial insufficiency; 6. Being "accident prone@; 7. A history of suicide and unnatural or untimely deaths. These are gleaned from the list of curses in the 28th chapter of Deut. I will look at each of these in detail. The reason I=m going over this is so that you can identify curses in your life. We all have them. By identifying them we are well on our way to deliverance from them. You can=t be delivered from something you don=t know you have. Jesus said He came to deliver the broken hearted, to heal those who are oppressed, to set the captives free.
The first group of curses is mental and emotional breakdown. The key characteristics to look for in your life regarding these are confusion and depression. Some of the verses in Deut 28 that elaborate on this condition are: vs. 28, 34 - madness; confusion of heart or confusion of mind (vs. 20, 28); a trembling heart or an anxious mind (v. 65); anguish of soul or a despairing heart. Often there is demonic activities attached to these. Our activities can invite or deny demons into our lives. If we continue with negative activities, no amount of prayer or anointing can prevent satan to continue to harass us. Once the activities are stopped, now you have a fighting chance at victory.Hos 4:6 says we perish for lack of knowledge. If any of these symptoms are in your life, ask God whether or not there is a curse involved with them.
The second group is chronic and repeating sicknesses. Hereditary diseases are included here. Just because your family has a history of schizophrenia, for example, doesn=t mean you have to receive it - Athe curse causeless shall not come@; Jesus took the curses of the Law on Himself so that we don=t have to. Some of the verses that elaborate this condition are: v. 21 - plague or plagued with diseases; consumption of wasting disease (v.22); sever burning fever; inflammation; incurable boils (vs27, 35); tumors (v. 27); scabs or festering sores (v.27); incurable itch; blindness (v.28); extraordinary, fearful prolonged plagues (v.59); serious and prolonged sicknesses or sever and lingering disease (v.59); every other kind of sickness and plague (v.61).
The third category of cursing is barrenness. This includes, a tendency to miscarry or related female problems. Almost all, if not all, menstrual disorders are a result of a curse. (So I’m not suggesting the biological function of menstruation is a curse, just disorders associated with it). Among women, menstruation is often called Athe curse.@ By calling it a curse, instead of the God-given ability to have children that it is, we can invoke a curse on ourselves by our words of cursing. Remember, life and death are in the power of the tongue. If you have ever called it this, repent, and receive forgiveness and healing.
The fourth category is the breakdown of marriage and family alienation. Verse 41 of Deut 28 says, Ayou shall beget sons and daughters, but you shall not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.@ Mal 4:5,6 warns against a curse that will come upon the whole earth when the father=s relationship with his children is broken. Fatherlessness is the basic cause of family disfunction.
The fifth curse involves finances. Some of the verses that elaborate on this theme are: v17 -cursed shall be your basket and your store; v.29 Ayou shall not prosper in your ways@ or you will be unsuccessful in everything you do; v.47,48 ABecause you served not the LORD your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, in the time of prosperity; therefore shall you serve your enemies which the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things.@ The combined effect of all these can be summed up in a single phrase: absolute poverty. Prosperity is consistently depicted as a blessing in Scripture, and poverty as always a curse. It is from the eastern religions that we get the idea that poverty is a blessing, or a form or worship to God. We’ve probably all heard of vow of poverty. In the west, we tend to think of prosperity only in terms of material wealth. This is only partly true. True prosperity is the ability to do all that God would have you do without hindrance of financial constraint. Jesus’ main objective while on earth was to do the will of His Father. This should be ours also. Poverty is having less than what is necessary to do His will. The greater the gap between what you need and what you have, the greater the degree of poverty. Abundance, which is God=s will, is having the materials to do all that God has for you to do with some left over to give to others to help them do the same. The standard of prosperity, therefore, will vary from individual to individual, depending on what God would have for them to do in life. Some, like Moses, will give up a higher standard of living in order to reach the people group they are after. Moses, esteemed Athe reproach of Christ of greater riches than the treasures in Egypt@, it says in Heb 11:26. Pr 13:7 AThere is (he) that makes himself rich, yet has nothing: there is (he) that makes himself poor, yet has great riches.@ If our needs only include our mortgage and utility bills, our vision is too small. God says we can enlarge the place of our tents (Isa 54:2): we can enlarge our sense of need to include those around us, in our church, our community, our state and our nation. This will greatly increase your budget as you expand your sense of need.