Am I cursed? Breaking Curses and be Blessed with your words - Derek Prince

in some areas where I've ministered when I have asked people at the end of the message if they want to avail themselves of what God offers through this truth I would say 95 percent of the people have responded and we have seen the most dramatic changes in people I remember speaking in Zambia in central Africa several years ago now I taught this theme and at the end a man came up to me and he was Africans are basically not wealthy but he was a well-dressed educated man and he threw himself on the ground at my feet and would have kissed my feet if I had loaded too and then he stood up and he was a probably about 40 years of age and he said all my life I've been in pain and I've been miserable I haven't known one happy day but he said since I prayed that prayer with you everything has changed in me I'm totally free from pain I'm a different person so this is a message that has power it's appropriate to turn to Galatians chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 as a basis for this message Galatians 3:13 and 14 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith those verses reveal an exchange that took place when Jesus hung on the cross states in the Old Testament in the Book of Leviticus that anyone who dies by hanging on a tree is a curse and so when Jesus hung on the tree that was the cross he became a curse what took place was a divinely ordained exchange which is clearly stated in these verses Jesus took upon himself the curse every curse due to us that we might be redeemed from the curse and enter into the blessing which God has prepared for his people so there is a very simple practical exchange Jesus became a curse that we might receive the blessing in order to make this real to you I'd invite you to join with me in saying that and I'd like you to use your hands your left hand for the bad thing your right hand for the good thing watch me once and then we'll do it together Jesus became a curse that we might receive the blessing okay now remember your left hand is opposite my right so don't get confused by me and don't hit your neighbour on the nose but just do it tactfully are you ready Jesus became a curse that we might receive the blessing now what I'm going to do now is explain to you the nature of curses and blessings these are two major themes of Scripture I think the word bless in various forms occurs about 600 times in the Bible and the word curse probably nearly half that number of times but I have learned by experience that most of God's people are not really familiar with the nature of curses and blessings I believe it's the purpose of god that through the redemption in Christ we should be released from curses and enjoy the blessings but wherever I travel I find many of God's people who are enduring curses when they should be enjoying blessings and one main reason is that they don't know how to recognize what's a curse and what's a blessing second reason is that even if they recognize it they may not know how to be released from the curse and entered into the blessing so let me begin by offering you a simple definition of blessings and curses both of them are vehicles of supernatural power it's very important to understand we're not dealing with something that's purely natural it goes beyond the natural they are vehicles of supernatural power for good if their blessings for evil if their curses and one characteristic feature of them is that very frequently they'll continue on from generation to generation often until somebody knows how to cut them off if their curses the result of that is that many people and some of you are here tonight are enduring in your life consequences of things that may have taken place many generations ago and you have to trace your problem to its source and take the appropriate action in order to be released now the vehicles of blessings and curses are usually words they may be words that are spoken words that are written or simply words that are pronounced inwardly however both curses and blessings can be transferred or transmitted by objects by physical objects so it is not always just a question of words to take a very simple example in the communion that we celebrate as Christians also the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the body of Christ so through that cut which is a physical object with the wine in it God transmits to us a blessing in the Old Testament there were various examples of curses transmitted by objects but particularly under the law of Moses if a woman was accused of being unfaithful to her husband there was a specific test the priest would take her to the tabernacle write out a curse and then wash off the words of the curse the ink into a cup of water and the woman would be compelled to drink the water and pronounce the curse upon herself now if she was innocent nothing would happen to her and her husband would never be free to accuse her again but if she was guilty there would be disastrous physical consequences in her body I merely give that as an example of a curse transmitted by something that is physical in that case a cup of water now I have come into this truth by personal experience I hardly ever preach on anything that is mere abstract theory nearly everything that I've ever taught has been related in some way to things that have happened in my life and this is particularly true of this message I want to give you three personal incidents that gradually alerted me I didn't come into this just in one moment it was a gradual process of unfolding truth and I think God supervised my education by permitting me to have certain experiences and deal with certain cases that opened my eyes to these things going back to the end of the 1960s when I was living in Fort Lauderdale Florida with my first wife Lydia I had inherited from my maternal grandfather various Chinese pieces of art and culture the way that came about just a matter of history is that my grandfather who was an officer in the British Army was the officer commanding an expeditionary force that the British government sent to China in 1904 to suppress what was known as the boxer rising or the Boxer Rebellion and he returned with various items that he required in China and in due course through my mother these some of these passed by inheritance to me among them were four gorgeous embroidered dragons each one on a separate piece of material and I mean there the colors were gorgeous and I learned from somebody who knew a little bit about Chinese culture they were imperial dragons because they had five claws ordinary dragons just have four cloths but imperial dragons have five claws and I really was very close to my grandfather so he's meant a lot to me so when we set our Palace in Fort Lauderdale I have these four dragons framed on our living room wall but after a while the Holy Spirit began to trouble me have you ever been troubled by the holy spirit you know what we do at first we shrug it off and we said no that's nonsense it couldn't be then Lenny how the Holy Spirit would say to me now in the Bible what does the dragon represent well I knew the Bible well enough to be able to know the answer to that the dragon represents the devil very clearly Revelation chapter 12 verse 9 and so on well then he would say to me is it appropriate for you as a servant of Christ to have on the wall of your living room something that advertises the devil well you know I struggled with this for a little while and I said alright God you win I'll get rid of the Dragons and I did now I didn't do that with any motive except obedience to God but the results were quite remarkable up to that time I had been just getting by financially I traveled and preached and received honorariums and they covered our needs but we had no real settlers also there were certain strange things happening even in my family I was finding it difficult to communicate with my wife and then I was entitled to an inheritance from my parents are very substantial sum of money and because of various irresponsible acts by other people the inheritance was interminably held up now I just got rid of the dragons but I began to realize that my whole level of prosperity had changed I didn't do anything different but the next year my income doubled without making any changes and then I received the inheritance it was released and my first wife and I were able to purchase a house which was a rather big step of faith for us but we felt very clearly directed by God to purchase that house now I'm not just preaching prosperity because I mean I think that has to be very carefully qualified but prosperity with a purpose we moved into that house we lived in it for nine years and we sold it for more than three times what we paid for it and with the money that we obtained my second wife Ruth and I were able to build a home in Jerusalem which is very expensive God provided the finance through the sale of that house now that was not something we had planned I didn't have any conscious intention but I realized that a dark evil force had invaded my home through those dragons and until that force was expelled and dealt with I could not go on in the fullness of God's plan for my life and ministry and one interesting thing was I didn't even know what God had for me that I was being kept from see I've seen this is true and many people's lives when people are dealing with a curse they don't know what they would be like to be free from the curse they can't picture it well then a little later I was ministering in a church a Presbyterian Church somewhere in what they call the Midwest of the United States I had finished my message I was standing behind the pulpit and I didn't quite know what I was going to do next and I saw a family on the front seat on my left father mother and teenage daughter and as I looked at them I felt the Holy Spirit said there is a curse over that family well I hadn't preached on that I wasn't thinking about that and I didn't quite know what to do about it so I just waited and it came very clearly again there is a curse over that family so I stepped up to the Father and I said sir I believe God has shown me there's a curse over your family would you like me to release you from it in the name of Jesus I really had no experience I was just moving out in faith immediately he said yes and I learned later from him that there'd been so many disastrous things happening in his life and then the life of his family that he he accepted the fact that was a curse well then I prayed a short simple prayer out loud releasing the family from the curse and when I said in the name of Jesus there was a visible physical reaction in each member of the family although I was not touching any of them so I stepped back and then I noticed that their teenage daughter had one leg in a cast from the top of the thigh to the bottom of the foot so I went back and I said would you like me to pray for the healing of your daughter's leg and he immediately said yes but he said you ought to know she's broken the same leg three times in 18 months and the doctors say it will not heal well if I heard that today that somebody brought in the same leg three times in 18 months I wouldn't really doubt that there was a curse in Opera but it was new to me well I said all I can do is just pick the leg up in my hands and and say a simple prayer which is what I did a few weeks later I got a letter from the man thanking me and saying specifically that when they went back with the daughter to the clinic to have the leg x-rayed the x-ray showed that it was healed and very shortly afterwards the cut the cast was taken off but as I meditated on that I realized this that the curse which God had showed me over the family was a barrier to the healing of the daughter's leg until that barrier was removed prayer for the healing of her leg would not be effective and this is a principle that I've seen no hundreds of times that a curse over a family or over an individual can be an invisible barrier that keeps away the blessing God intends those people to have in my case through the dragons it was the blessing of financial prosperity and release to God's will in the case of this girl the blessing was the healing of her broken leg but the curse was the barrier when after Lana I began to teach on this and I made some tapes including a series of three messages called curses cause and cure and these began to circulate and I began to get remarkable a testimonies of what was happening not just to individuals but to hold congregations one of these sets of three tapes found its way to South Africa and a little later Ruth and I were there ministering in South Africa we were in Cape Town and we encountered a Jewish lady who had met the Lord Jesus and acknowledged him as her Messiah and her Savior and she told us firsthand this story and we got it straight from her she was a what they call an executive secretary very highly qualified and she had a very well-paid job a man who was the president of his own firm and after a little while she discovered that the president and all the executives in the firm were in a strange cult under a lady guru and then the president asked her if he if she would type out some blessings that this guru lady had pronounced on the executives or when this lady began to type them she realized that there were anything but blessings as far as Christians were concerned and so she went to her boss and said I'm sorry but I don't feel free to type these blessings the boss was gracious he said I'm sorry if I'd known it was against your conscience I wouldn't have asked you to do it that was the end of them now we have to supply something by inference but I am sure that the lady guru heard about this secretary that wouldn't our blessings and who knows what she did she may have prayed or she may have pronounced a curse but from that source it really wouldn't make much difference which it wants within a few weeks this lady secretary I'll call her Miriam it wasn't her name Miriam's fingers began to go stiff and curl up and set and in a short while they were extremely painful and she couldn't bend and she said you wouldn't believe the pain she had to sleep in a separate bed from her husband because any time my husband turned over and the bed shook the pain was unendurable in her fingers she went to a specialist who x-rayed them and said it rheumatoid arthritis and she was in a sense a crippled person well another lady a charismatic lady had received these three cassettes of mine and felt that this lady Miriam ought to hear them I don't think Miriam was really very excited about them she was a rather sophisticated lady and I think thought of curses was something remote medieval in her anyhow this other lady prevailed so they sat and listened to the three cassettes and at the end of the third cassette I lead people in a prayer by which they release themselves from any curse over their lives at the point where the prayer began the cassette jammed it wouldn't go forward it wouldn't go back and it wouldn't he ject that is not purely natural so Miriam said well and I can't say the prayer but this indefatigable lady said oh no I have the prayer typed out then I'll bring that so she persuaded Miriam I think rather against her own judgment to read this prayer now you could read the prayer I would say in three minutes it wouldn't take as much as their so Miriam just dutifully read the prayer and in between the time she began reading the prayer and the time she finished her fingers and her hands were totally released there was no trace of arthritis she went back to the doctor he confirmed medically the healing now what I want to emphasize is this she was not praying for healing it wasn't in her mind she was simply releasing herself from a curse but when the curse was broken there was no more reason for sickness you see another example of the invisible barrier all right now I want to deal out of Scripture with the forms that blessings and curses take there is one particular chapter in the Old Testament which deals exclusively with blessings and curses how many of you know which it is Deuteronomy chapter 28 all right it's got 14 verses of blessings and 54 verses of curses now we can't go into that because of time but I suggest if you're concerned that at your own convenience you study that chapter carefully I've studied it many times and I'm going to offer you my summation but please exercise your own judgment as to whether you think this is accurate or not here is my summation of the main blessings and the main curses as a matter of fact really they're exactly opposite to one another so here are seven blessings number one exaltation means being lifted up you're no longer living under thing number two a word I had to coin reproductive nurse I couldn't find one normal English word but a person who's the blessing of God is is fruitful in every area of his life or her life number three health number four prosperity or success number five victory number six Moses said you'll be the head and not the tail and number seven you'll be a bum and not beneath now when I was studying that some years ago I asked the Lord what's the difference between the head and the tail and I feel he gave me a simple answer the head makes the decisions the tail just gets dragged around so which way are you living are you making the decisions are you in charge of the situation or are you simply being dragged around like a tail by circumstances and forces that you don't understand and you can't control if you're a tail it's very possible you're under a curse now I'm not saying every one of those blessings is due to this cause but that's for you to discern there's only one expert in this field and his name is not Derek Prince it's the Holy Spirit he's the one who has to show you personally I can preach the general truth but you have to get the specific application from the Holy Spirit then let's look at the curses and they're just exactly the opposite humiliation failure to reproduce or barrenness and I would say basically Berenice is nearly always in some way associated with the curse number three sickness of every kind and if you read Deuteronomy 28 I mean there is no sickness that is left out but the time you've come to that list number four poverty of failure number five defeat and number six you're the tail are not the head and number seven you're beneath not about you've probably heard about the two Christians you met one of them said well how are you doing brother and he replied well under the circumstances are not doing badly and the first Christian said well what are you doing under the circumstance you should be above and not beneath now over the years independently this list I made a little list of indications that to me alleged me that I was probably dealing with a curse I only say probably and this is I made this independently of Deuteronomy 28 but it's amazing really how close it is and I happen to have a list of seven now 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 it you have several of them the more you have the greater the possibility that you're under a curse and here's my little list number one mental and/or emotional breakdown where people fall apart that's a phrase that's used today you say he or she just fell apart that's what I'm talking about emotionally or mentally or both number two repeated or chronic sicknesses especially if they're hereditary because you see curses passed from generation to generation also in situations where doctors cannot find any normal cause number three want to call female problems Baroness a tendency to miscarry and problems with menstruation and Ruth and I've 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 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 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 and 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 breaking I think you're very probably under a curse then the next one is what they call accident-prone in other words you're one of the people who always has an accident you know now this is 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 door the card or on your finger or whatever it may be or it's always your eye that a little bug flies into I mean that's it's not natural if it's always going on and then finally in our family a history of suicides or unnatural deaths if there is 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 problem 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 are lots of things that could be the result of the 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 and it 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 and you get so far you're tripped up again and that really becomes the story of your life and you'll be surprised how many people have told me stories like that and so many times they said will the same thing happen 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 and 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 now in proverbs chapter 26 and verse 2 the writer of Proverbs makes a very important statement he says like a flicking Sparrow like a flying swallow so a curse without cause shall not alight in other words if this occurs there's always a cause there's something that caused it and my experience is in helping people that very often it's helpful and sometimes necessary to discover the cause before you can deal with the curse so I'm going to make take now some time to deal with biblical causes of curses and it'll be a quite a lengthy subject it will go beyond the present session into the next session let's go to Deuteronomy 28 for what I would call the primary causes both are blessings and curses and fortunately they're very simple the first two verses of Deuteronomy 28 says this now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all these commandments which I command you today that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God now that's a translation which i think is followed by most modern translate but the old King James is to say if you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your gone and in Hebrew that phrase is formed by repeating the word listen if you will listen listening that's emphatic to the voice of the Lord your God and do what he says so very very simply the primary cause of all blessings is listening to God's voice and doing what he says now the primary cause of all curses is exactly the opposite in verse 15 of the same chapter but it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his Commandments and his statutes which I come on you today that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you so what's the cause of curses not listening to God's voice not doing what he says so there basically you have the to root problem or the to root causes the cause of blessing listening to God's voice doing what he sends the cause of curses not listening to God's voice not doing what he says now there are also in the Bible a number of different sources and specific causes for cursing 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 and then as the curse is worked out that's the outworking of God's judgment you understand that God both braces 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 chapter 20 verses 3 through 5 Exodus 20 verses 3 to 5 this is the first part of the Ten Commandments and let me say before we read the greatest and most common cause of curses in people's lives is breaking the first two commandment and thank I'm inclined to believe you cannot break those come on them 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 because 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 father's on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me notice that's a specific feature of the curse it goes on for at least three and probably four generations now 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 uncle 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 from the true go on whatever sauce 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 you're gone if you play with the Ouija board if you get involved in all sorts of occult experiences all 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 curse is pronounced for the breaking of the first two Commandments cover every form of account now the Lord says up to the fourth generation you do a little arithmetic go back four generations every one of us has 30 ancestors how many of us can say for sure that none of our 30 ancestors were ever involved in the occult see maybe a few of us can I don't know I certainly couldn't 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 and I just found myself next to a young man of about 20 or so and I said to him I suppose the Holy Spirit prompting have you received the Holy Spirit and he said yes but and whenever a person answered their question yes but you know what the bat 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 something so I didn't argue with him but the Lord prompted me I said did you ever go to a fortune-teller and he said he thought yes he said once when I was about 15 I did but I only did it for a joke I didn't mean anything bad but 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 it 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 so he said all right I think he only said because he just wanted to you know get me off his back so I laid him in a very simple prayer lord I confess as a sin that I went to that fortune-teller etc didn't say another word to him but my hand on his shoulder prayed for him he immediately began to speak fluently in an unknown tongue and in a few moments he was just lost in the law you see there was an invisible barrier that kept him from the freedom of tongues what was it the account it's just simple example for now in Deuteronomy chapter 27 verses 15 through 26 we have 12 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 and 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 now I'll just give you my little summation of the things on which the curses are pronounced in Deuteronomy 27 verses 15 and following number one once again idolatry false gods that's always 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 never and I can think of scores of examples of people that doesn't mean you can't get saved and 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 you say but you have to respect I think of another young man I don't 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 but 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 meant that 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 now I know that there are lots of parents especially today you have a lot of reasons for having something against them I understand them I say that I know delinquent children they're only delinquent parents but nevertheless if you want to have it well with you you better do what God says you can't afford not to then the next and we must go quickly in this list his treachery against a neighbor and the book of Proverbs says whoever rewards evil for good evil will never depart from his house and then injustice to the week or the helpless personally I can't think of anything more weak or helpless than a baby in its mother's womb and 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 and 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 and I cannot think myself that it will ever happen without a curse following then in Genesis we're now going on from this list Genesis chapter 12 we have God's call to Abraham and we need to look at that because it has something significant in it God's calls Abraham out promises various things and in verse three 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 him anyone who curses you I will curse now we won't go on but in Genesis 27 verse 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 the 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 now in my personal opinion anti-semitism almost invariably is followed by curse for an individual for a nation and if you look at the history of the last 19 centuries you can see nation of the nation of the nation that came under a curse because they cursed the Jewish people 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 verses 5 & 6 thus says the Lord curse it is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength whose heart departs from the law for he should be like a shrub in the desert she'll not see when good comes but shall inhabit the parts places in the wilderness in the 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 man rain falls everywhere else but it doesn't fall on him what's the poles of that curse trusting in man making flesh on 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 turn back to relying on his own effort turned his back on God's grace and that brings a curse then in I must go quickly now in Zechariah 5 verses 1 through 4 Zechariah had a vision of a flying scroll and there was a curse on each side of the scroll one I was on a curse on anyone who steals and the other was on anyone who commits perjury and in their 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 when next time you 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 etc etc you know that at least in the United States nearly 10% 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 person that it affects a whole nation and then in Malachi 3 I think we have to look at this manner kind 3 verses 8 through 10 will a man Rob dawn did 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 food in my house and prove me now in this is 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 that all Christians ought to pay time because as I understand the New Testament it's not law it's grace but I would suggest you that grace should make us more generous than law it 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 skin genus 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 50 P 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 doesn't need your tips there's such a reverence in the church in this manner of giving we should realize that giving is part of worship and do it as worship and then in Galatians chapter 1 Galatians 1 here's 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 verses 8 and 9 but if 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'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 one eight and nine together and apply them to the contemporary church I think it's marvelous there's any blessing left and you add Malachi 3 curses is the one who's stingy with God brothers and sisters 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 dawn seriously taking the Bible seriously now we've come to the end of this particular period let me briefly if I can briefly sum up the main causes of curses which we've looked at first of all false gods idolatry and the occult and that is right at the top of the list before any other and then disrespect for parents treachery against a neighbor injustice to the weak or helpless illicit or unnatural sex or incest anti-semitism depending on flesh rather than than the grace of God stealing or perjury stingy nice toward gone and perverting the gospel preaching a message which claims to be the gospel but misrepresents it now we have to close this session but we'll be continuing in the next one and are they carrying on where I left off and I'll be dealing with other causes of curses and then we'll come to the really important part which is how to be released from the curse now I'm going to deal with a number of other sources of curses mainly about half a dozen which I'll try to move through without undue delay so that we can come to real climax which is how to be free from the curse but my experience is in many cases people don't see their need to be free until they've understood the way that the curse first came a another specific source of curses is men who speak on behalf of God as God's mouthpiece and there are many examples of this in the Bible we will only look at just a few the first is found in Joshua chapter 6 and verse 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 626 then got Joshua charged them at that time saying cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho he shall Lance foundation with his firstborn and with his youngest he shall six gates that's a very specific curse not a general curve the form that the curse would take would be that the person who rebuilt Jericho it would cost him the lives of two hit two of his sons now 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 first Kings chapter 16 in the reign of Ahab 1316 and the last verse of the chapter verse 34 in his days that's the days of a ham here at Bethel built Jericho he laid his foundation with a beer on his firstborn and with his youngest son C good he set up its gates according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken through Joshua the son of nun the marginal translations says at the cost of the life of his son and 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 and 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 for an ounce pass servant have gone 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 2nd samuel chapter one element that david pronounced after king saul and his son jonathan had been killed by the philistines on Mount Gilboa in 2nd samuel chapter 1 verse 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 worshipers over the people of the true God because the Philistines were idol worshipers and when they found the bodies of Saul and Jonathan they mutilated them cut off their heads place them on the wall of a city called best shin 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 the David so much as a 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 all mountains of Gilboa let there be no Jew nor let there be rain upon you nor fields of offerings for the shield of the mightiest cast away there the shield of soul not anointed with oil so David said let them Eno do no rain no fields of offerings those words were pronounced about 3,000 years ago and in this century after the Jews returned to their land they began to plant trees and recall debate 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 3,000 years earlier still affected the situation on Mount Gilboa at that time and then there's another example in 2nd Kings chapter 5 we don't need to turn there but the prophet Elijah had been used of God to bring healing to Naaman the Syrian he refused to accept any gift from lemon because he didn't want a name and to think that he could pay for his healing but name servant gehazi thought that was ashamed to turn down this office so he ran often Emin without elisha knowing it and asked for money and clothing came back and hid it away came and stood in the presence of elijah thinking that I should didn't know and I should said did not my spirit go with you when you ran after that man and then he pronounced this curse Moni said the leprosy of God Naaman who had been healed cleave to you and your descendants forever and it says kasi went out from his presence at leper as white as snow in 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 gone servants curse in that way today well Jesus closed a fig tree you remember in the New Testament and the next day the withered from the roots just one period of 24 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 can 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 1965 I was part of a ministry team in a church in the inner city in Chicago and right flush with the church wall-to-wall on the corner was what the Americans called a saloon I think the English call it a pub but it was a very wicked place it not nearly sold alcohol it peddled drugs and it 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 tub and I thought it really is a an affront to God that it should be right there next just where the people come into the church so I stood up and I said I pronounced the curse of God upon that tub or saloon and I didn't think any more about it about two months later about four o'clock in the morning there was a phone call the other prince the church is on fire do you want to come and see well this middle of winter in Chicago it was 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'll look bad so my first wife and I we got in the car we went that well sure enough about two blocks away you could see the flames and the smoke when we got there however we discovered it wasn't the church that was on fire it was the pump 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 and 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 watch 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 previously 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 wasn't is God helped 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 now I want to go on to other sources of curses and 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 places at parts of the world today but the fact remains it's still real the authority is not created by man it proceeds from God and there are many different relationships in which a person has Authority now you may look 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 2nd to the blessing of God the most important blessing that any person could ever have in his life was the blessing of this father or her father that's still true today I say to any of you whose fathers are alive do everything in your can in your power everything you can to obtain the bless thing 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 toward 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 honour that was appropriate I don't believe otherwise I could have ever enjoyed the blessing of God in my life and ministry but 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 chapter 31 you remember some of you that Jacob had been with his uncle Laban serving him he'd married two of the band's daughters he had become father to a pretty substantial family and then the Lord directed him to leave Laban and Mesopotamia and go back to the land of Canaan and he was afraid that if he told later on he was going Laban would take his daughters back so he stole away secretly while Laban was busy somewhere else but Laban and his relatives pursued after Jacob and caught up with him on Mount Gilead and then there was a confrontation and later I said why did you steal away and not let me say goodbye to my daughters well later Jacob said I was afraid you'd take them from me alright Laban said I can accept that but why did you steal my household God's the Hebrew word is Terra Fein 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 Terra theme but his favorite wife Rachel had stolen her father's images now that was a very bad thing to do because she shouldn't discover from Earth on a second she involved herself in the occult and that is always dangerous and now this is what happened in verse 30 of Genesis 30:1 Laban says to Jacob now you have surely gone because you great along for your father's house but why did you steal my God's therapy then Jacob answered and said to them and because I was afraid that's why I went what I said perhaps you would take your daughters from me before by cost and then he says with whom ever you find your gods do not let him live the King James says later 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 one 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 Charlotte why because of the curse pronounced Becca 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 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've kind of changed the littles of us 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 pretty he said man would drive he's pretty ruthless he marries a woman who doesn't know how to cook but so many young ladies today she's never learned from her mother and for a long while he enjoys his wife's cooking but and he just can't take anymore and he says I'm sick of your cooking you never learn to cook and he probably says it many times what is that because 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 in tradition he suffers from it and he does the marriage breaks up they divorced the wife is a talented woman she can succeed in every area except one the kitchen that's right and she goes into the kitchen her body starts to shake she gets all nervous and she never can get it together why her husband's curse both of them and you're that curse until they die see all right let's take a father this is perhaps the Communists of all a father has three sons the first is the firstborn because he's always welcome the third the youngest is brilliant but the middle one is now the firstborn or brilliant and he has a lot of the same characters 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 you're objecting to is what's in you that you don't like any home so how's the father sense to this second time you'll never succeed you'll always be a figure you'll never make it what's that it's because and I'm dealt with many men in their forties and fifties 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 15 she has me and the farmer has to drive at a school every day and every day she's they 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 tomorrow and she is still struggling with her acne why because of a curse oh let's take a mother and this is actually a real case that I'm in dealing with but I'll not give identity her daughter always pleased her she always did what she wanted she was one of these manipulative controlling mother but then the daughter fell in love with 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 never have enough I know the man he's a gifted man he's a capable man but for at least a dozen years that was true it's only changed when I confronted with 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 take 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 of the wrong way around you're silly you're stupid you just don't try hard you'll never succeed our no teachers shouldn't talk like that but sometimes they do what's the result our 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 sixties at least in her late fifties and we discovered that she all her life she's been struggling against that statement and the strange thing about it is if anybody doesn't deserve that statement it's that lady she is far from shallow you see there's a thority behind those statements and that makes them powerful usually speaking there's a demonic element just show you one thing in James chapter 3 which is very important James three verses 14 and 15 but if you are 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 we'll 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 hand this kettle on the stove and the world is getting hotter and hotter and the moment the steam comes out what else comes on the whistle that's right the whistle is like the curse you see when the steam comes the whistle comes now there's only one way to prevent the whistle what's then 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 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 chapter 27 we have the story of how Isaac was going to bless Esau and the mother Rebecca who's the first giddy sure mama you know where the Yiddish a member is switched them and she got Jacob acting like he saw on 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 he saw my brother as a hairy man and I am a smooth skin BAM 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 due to Jacob her self-imposed curse now if you go to the end of the chapter just the last verse you 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 health if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of health like those who are daughters of the land want 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's under a curse see never permit yourself to say that don't make negative statements about this 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 say I wish I were dead are they better off day do you know what you're doing you're inviting the spirit of death and he doesn't take many invitations ruther not dealt with countless people who needed to be delivered from the spirit of death because they'd invited it that imposed the curse upon themselves and we've learned one verse that will help that has helped hundreds of people and I shared with you psalm 118 verse 17 I shall not die but live and declare or proclaim the works of the Lord if you had made a negative remark about yourself if you have imposed something negative on yourself you need to revoke it by the positive you see as a remarkable example you know that Peter did nine three times he knew the Lord later on up 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 doesn't mean you'll never die but it means Satan's not going to kill you before your time I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord I think it'd be good for all of us to say that I first time you said after me I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord now let's all say together this time I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord are once more I shall not die but live and declare words of the law 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 Matthew chapter 27 Jesus is before Pilate and Pilate is we're willing to release him and we read in Matthew 27 verse 24 and 25 when Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all but rather that the tumult was rising he took Ward washed his hands before the multitude saying I am innocent of the blood of this just person you see and all the people answered and said his blood be on us and on our children what's then a self-imposed curse the great tragedy of Jewish Jewish history and by that those words a strand of tragedy was woven into Jewish history which has run for 19th centuries what a lesson not to say the wrong thing about ourselves I pointed out to you in the previous session that God had protected Abraham against curses said anyone that curses you I will curse there's just one area that God could not protect the Jewish people from from themselves see and that's true in our lives many times God can protect us from everything except what we say about ourselves then we're going on the next common cause of curses is what I call unscriptural covenants Exodus 23 verse 32 in relationship to the people whom Israel was to dispossessed from the land of Canaan that is all of them idol worshippers people who lived in total rebellion against the Living God Moses saying Exodus 23 32 you shall make no covenant with them nor with their gods you understand if people have false dawns and you make a covenant with those people you are also making a covenant with their God now I'm going to say something that I trust will not offend anybody and I say it simply because my desires 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 1950s 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 30 years when you become a Mason you have to pronounce a curse on yourself if you disclose the secrets of the Masons and it puts 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 tight place where the tides rise and fall twice and every 24 hours those are self-imposed curses and that Freemasonry is an idle religion is clear in the 32nd degree the Royal Arch degree which acknowledges and offers worship to a person called Jah bull on J a bul om which is a combination of Jehovah Bale and Osiris and so the true God of the Bible is joined together with two idol deities whom God has totally condemned and when you make a covenant with that you're making a covenant with those gone now I'm saying this on the basis of much experience I cannot take time to relate all the experiences but I'll simply relate one in Australia about three or four years ago Ruth and I were were ministering in a church on Sunday morning and we were praying for people and a young woman came forward about 18 years old with a tiny little baby in her arms with 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 and 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 but Ruth caught the baby out of our arms and held it and as she lay on the floor God gave Ruth a word of knowledge to the people who were ministering to her said her father is a freemason deal with that force and the moment they came against it the woman began to rise 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 nearly was the mother released but the baby was released they came back that evening about 6 hours later and we asked the mother of the was doing and she said she's 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 and I mean I do not have time but I could give you half a dozen other specific examples it's 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 the focus of that shrine again I could but I don't have time to give examples 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 man in Swahili is called in cha WA in the language of the Lua people it's called jus oke and I'm not if I'm not mistaken amongst the mayuri's it's called - hamat is that right it's the same thing in many different labels and guises and I want to tell you very frankly such men have real supernatural power don't underestimate it don't go with you're going to be a missionary to some tribal people and say Satan isn't real demons are not because they know much better than you who that they are your messages say than Israel but Jesus has more power that they'll listen to especially if you can demonstrate it 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 said I'll give you authority over that power that's the realistic approach let's look at one example in the Bible Numbers chapter 22 verses 4 through 6 this is the story of Balaam numbers 22 4 through 6 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 look in verse time a people has come from Egypt that is 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 his bless and he whom you curse his curse now that was in a sense the regular practice in warfare and still is amongst tribal societies today not only is your tribe fighting another tribe but your tribes 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 77 nations on whom the kings of Egypt had pronounced persistency because if you can get your enemy cursed then you can defeat him that's the the principle yeah 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 Goliath was angry and insulted and this is what happened first Samuel 17:43 so David said the Philistine said to David AM our 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 one final way in which a curse can come stated in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 26 the previous verse says about the inhabitants of Canaan you shall burn their car the carved images of their gods you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on it and then it says 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 in utterly a poet for it is and a cursive thing so when you bring anything that's associated with idolatry or the account 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 and after such a services this if you believe you've needed deliverance from because you better go home and check what you've got in your home 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 does honors Jesus Christ because let me just 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 now 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 outcome any kind of superstitious thing if you have false horseshoes to ward off your luck that's superstition it doesn't ward or feel like it opens the door for Satan all right now we come to the really important plan X which is how to be released from any curse and I want to give you some simple instructions there's a basic pattern which I teach people that consists of four words each of which begins with our e recognize repent renounce resist recognize recognize what your problem is you see what I've spent this time dealing with these things to help you to recognize your problem alright number two repent repent of anything that you've done that exposed you to the curse number three renounce declare that you are no longer going to be subject to this thing God told Israel don't bow down before their God don't submit to them and we have a righteous Christian senators and I'm not submitting to anything that's from the other source I refuse it I renounce it from now on got no place in me and finally resist and that's something continuous keep on resisting keep on refusing to let bent thing again have any control over you let me say those words again recognize repent renounce resist James 4:7 says therefore submit to God not to the enemy not the demons but to God and then it says resist the devil and what will happen he will flee from you what will he do I didn't hear you that's right when you've met the conditions all right but resisting is sometimes an ongoing process it's like if there's a strong wind blowing you have to keep the door shut see you open the door the wind will come in then I say establish a clear scriptural basis for your release the best one is Galatians three 13 and 14 Christ has redeemed us from the curse having become a curse for us that we might receive the bless singing of Abraham give you a few other scriptures Ephesians 1:7 in him Jesus we have redemption through his blood Colossians 1 12 through 14 the father has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood so through the work of Jesus on the cross we can be delivered from the domain of darkness that Satan's domain and translated carried over into the kingdom of Jesus Christ it's like there are two territories and there's a chasm between them this territory is the territory of Satan this territory is the kingdom of God but there's only one bridge across that chasm and that's the cross of Jesus if you take that bridge you can get out of this Kingdom and into that Kingdom which is where God wants you then first John 3 verse 8 the second part for this purpose the Son of God was revealed that he might what destroy the works of the devil to do what destroy the works of that that's why he came and then Luke 10:19 which I quoted earlier Jesus says behold I give to you authority over all the power of the enemy so those are very clear scriptural basis then when you've established that basis confess your faith in Christ because Jesus is the high priest of our confession it's on the basis of your confession what you say about him that he acts as your high priests thirdly commit yourself to obedience you remember how do we qualify for the blessings what do we have to do hear God's voice do what he says so when you've received your release make up your mind commit yourself from now I'm going to listen to what God says and do it the next step is confess any known since either by yourself or your ancestors because it's sins of your ancestors can in some ways affect you but there's a difference you are not guilty for your ancestors sins but you are affected by them you understand you are responsible for your own sins but in order to be fully clear if you are know that your ancestors were idol worshipers so Christian Scientists so Mormons or let's not go too long into this but something that's totally unscriptural be released from it then you need to forgive all other persons jesus said when you stand praying if you have anything against anyone what did he say to do forgive that's right anything against anyone that leaves out nothing and no one unforgiveness in your heart is a barrier to the answer to your prayers now forgive me forgiving is not an emotion it's a decision I tell people it's tearing up the IOU I don't know but I've got time to tell this but I think of a woman I was preaching on this explaining how many wines who've been mistreated by their husbands still suffer because they've never forgiven and I said it's like this you have in your hand a sheaf of IOUs from your husband I owe you love support care honor etc there's a perfectly valid they're legal but God has in his hand up in heaven a sheath of much larger io u--'s from you to him now God says we'll make a deal do you turn about your io u--'s and I'll tear up mine but if you hold on to yours I'll hold on to mine so if you want to be forgiven you have to forgive you don't have any options well at the end of one message I hadn't done anything just finished preaching a young woman of about thirty really sophisticated smart looking woman marched right up that aisle to the pulpit I wonder what she was going to do is you're going to assault near one she looked me right in the face and she said mr. Prince I just want to tell you that while you were preaching I got rid of about $30,000 worth of io u--'s turned round and woke up I mean I didn't have to say I think there she had got the message which everybody would get it that quickly so you have to forgive other persons then you must renounce all contact with the occult okay by yourself or by your ancestors again you're not responsible you're not guilty for what your ancestors done but it affects you then you must get rid of all contact objects the things I've been speaking about if you bring them into your house you bring a curse with them then when you've met those conditions you can release yourself in the name of Jesus jesus said whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you release on earth will be released in heaven now we're going to do that in a moment but I want to show you where to go from there when you've been released then you have to confess and expect the blessing of Abraham because we're released from the curse that we may receive the blessing of Abraham remember that it's the blessing of the Holy Spirit in other words it's the Holy Spirit who administers the blessing that's important you've got to be friends with the Holy Spirit see if you grieve the Holy Spirit if you don't honor the Holy Spirit he withholds the blessing he's got the key to God's storehouse do you want the treasures make friends with the keeper of the storms and then as I've said already bear in mind that it's in all things you won't get it all in one night but you've qualified it for it for it in one night to understand if I can put it like this some of you are going the wrong direction tonight you can make a u-turn and start going the right direction but that doesn't mean you've arrived you're on the way you have to keep that direction you have to keep hearing and doing what God says if you want to continue in the blessing of Abraham and you have to keep making the right confession I think I won't make it let you say it now I'll wait now if there are those of you here this evening who feel that in some way there's the shadow of a curse over your life and you want to be released I want to lead you in a prayer of release you remember the story of the Eternity of Miriam who do read the prayer and was completely healed now I'm not promising you healing that's in God's hands but if your sickness is directly due to a curse if you're released from the curse you qualify for healing from your sickness so those of you that would like me to leave you we just have a few moments left I'd like you to stand to your feet and then I'm going to lead you in a prayer all right now let me just very very rapidly give you the steps I'm going to take you through first of all we've established a clear scriptural base I'm going to I gave you descriptions no you need to confess your faith in Christ commit yourself to obedience confess any known sins of yourself or your ancestors and when we do that I'll give you a few moments to confess them silently then forgive all other persons and I'll give you a few moments to do a little forgiving and then renounce all contact with the occult by yourself on your ancestors commit yourself to get rid of all contact objects and then release yourself in the name Jesus all right now I'm just going to give you the words you're not praying to me you're praying to the Lord Jesus Christ and he's the one that answers not I I don't have the power he does all right say these words after me Lord Jesus Christ I believe that you are the son of God and the only way to God that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead that on the cross you were made a curse with every curse that is due to me that I might be redeemed from the curse and enter into the blessing lord I confess any sins committed by me or by my ancestors I ask your forgiveness I also forgive every other person who ever harmed me or wronged me I forgive them as I have God forgive me I also forgive myself I renounce all contact with the occult in any form and I commit myself to get rid of any contact objects and now Lord having received by faith your forgiveness with the authority I have as a child of God I now release myself and those under my authority from any curse over our lines right now in the name of Jesus I declare release I claim it and I receive it by faith in the name of Jesus now I'll begin to thank him that's the surest expression of thing thank you lord thank you lord thank you Jesus thank you Lord Jesus thank you thank you thank you

Channel: genoark

Views: 1,016,098

Rating: 4.7157497 out of 5

Keywords: Break, the, Curse, and, be, Blessed, derek, prince, bless, God, Jesus, Holy, Spirit, Father, Gospel, prosperity, Holiness, righteousness, cursing, swearing, words, angry, anger, swear, bad, word, mouth, sinful, verbal, sin, Derek

Id: oGLCY_yL_nQ

Length: 108min 42sec (6522 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2012