How to Pass From Curse to Blessing - Derek Prince

That i want to deal with tonight is how to pass from curse to blessing i'll say that once more how to pass from curse to blessing i believe that this message can be of tremendous help to many of you here tonight i believe i've proved this over the past years that this message can change change lives communities churches and even nations i believe there are many of you here tonight who are fighting something that you don't fully understand in your own life some kind of frustration something that every time you're about to succeed intervenes and

keeps you from success something that holds you back from being a complete person from being completely free from being able to serve the lord the way you would wish to from leading a life of real victory i believe in many cases the problem that you're fighting with that you've never diagnosed you've never come fully to grips with is that there is a curse Over your life i like to tell you first of all a little of how i myself was led into this truth some years ago in a presbyterian church in america i was conducting

a deliverance service i'd come to the end of my message and had not yet begun to minister i was standing behind the pulpit and on the front row on my left i noticed a family father mother and teenage daughter and as i glanced at them it seemed to me the holy spirit said to me there's a curse over that family i had no other reason except that it seemed to me the lord showed it to me so i stepped from behind the pulpit went up to the father and said to him sir i believe god

has shown me that there's a curse over your family would you like me to revoke that curse and release you from it in the name of jesus and immediately he said yes i had no idea at the time why he so immediately accepted that statement so i stepped back behind the pulpit and said a short simple prayer breaking the curse over that family and when i said that in the name of jesus although i was not in contact with any of them there was a visible physical reaction in each of them when i broke the

curse then i noticed that the girl The teenage daughter had her left leg in a cast from above the thigh to the bottom of the foot so i went back to the father and i said would you like me to pray for the healing of your daughter's leg and he said yes but he said you need to know that she's broken it three times in 18 months and the doctors say it will not heal now today if i heard that one statement that a person had broken the same leg three times in 18 months i

wouldn't have any other need to know that there was a curse over that family well because the leg was in a cast i said all i can do is just hold the cast in my hands and pray and i did and prayed a simple prayer now the story is more complicated but i'll tell you the just the main outlines shortly afterwards i got a letter from the father thanking me for what had happened and saying that when they went back the next time to the clinic to have the leg x-rayed the x-ray showed that it

had healed and she was soon out of the cast now as i meditated on that experience this thought came to me god showed me there was a curse over the family and led me to break the curse before he permitted me to pray for the healing of the daughter Why my conclusion was that she could not have been healed until the curse was revoked in other words the curse was an invisible barrier that kept her from the blessing that god wanted her to receive and then god began to deal with me about this whole matter

of blessing and curse and as i turn to the scripture i was amazed at how much the bible has to say about it and how little has been preached in most of the places and congregations that i'm familiar with then i'll tell you an up-to-date testimony which i heard when i was in south africa in november of last year i met a jewish lady who's a believer in jesus saved and baptized in the holy spirit and she told me and ruth this testimony personally she was a very highly qualified executive secretary and under the influence

of some teaching that she'd heard christian teaching she prayed to get the best paid job in her profession in cape town and she got it and she found herself working for a man who was a president of his own particular business and she soon discovered that this man and all the executives in the company were in some strange Kind of cult that was led by a woman prophetess and in a little while the her boss said to her our lady guru whatever you want to call her has pronounced blessings over all of us we'd like

you to type them out for us well when she started to type them she discovered that they were anything but blessings and as a committed christian she didn't feel free to type them so she went to her boss and explained the situation said i just don't feel free to type these and the boss was very gracious and he said i'm sorry but i didn't realize it would go against your conscience of course we wouldn't ask you to do that now i don't know exactly what happened next but my guess is that this lady guru heard

about this incident and prayed some kind of a prayer for this executive secretary which wasn't really too good a prayer anyhow almost immediately after that this lady began to develop acute arthritis in both hands and her fingers curled up and became absolutely rigid and stiff she couldn't bend them she couldn't do anything in her profession And the pain was agonizing she couldn't sleep at night she couldn't sleep in the same bed with her husband because every time he moved the movement of the bed caused such pain in her fingers that she couldn't sleep she went

to a a professional in this realm a doctor and he diagnosed it as rheumatoid arthritis well a friend of hers a another christian lady had heard my three messages that i mentioned here this evening curses cause and cure and brought the cassettes to her friend the executive secretary to listen to and they got through the three cassettes to the end of the third where i lead people in a prayer of release from any curse over their lives at that point the cassette jammed it wouldn't go forward it wouldn't go back and it wouldn't eject now

that's totally supernatural situation but the lady who brought the cassette said well as a matter of fact i typed out this prayer of release and i have the typed version with me i'll ask you to read that instead well this jewish lady was pretty uh sophisticated and she really didn't believe very much in curses she thought there was Something medieval she'd listen to the cassettes just to please her friend and at first she didn't want to read this prayer of release but eventually she agreed with her friend to read the prayer and as she read

it out loud and it doesn't last more than three or four minutes her fingers uncurled became completely free the pain ceased and by the time she had finished reading the prayer release she was perfectly healed she then went back to the same doctor and had him check her and he said medically you are totally healed that came only by one thing was no prayer for healing all there was was this prayer of release from a curse all right now let's look at the bible and see what it has to say about blessings and curses first

of all there's a lot in the bible about them you'd be surprised how much there is both blessings and curses are usually expressed in words either spoken words or written words but those words are not normal ordinary words they are words that are charged with supernatural power and the power may be the power of god or it may be the power of satan and one of the features About both cursings and blessings is when they come they usually continue from generation to generation to generation so that a person who is experiencing either blessing or cursing

may not easily discern where it comes from because it may be in the past even hundreds of years interestingly enough i was teaching on this in adelaide and we had a dramatic response there and a lady wrote me a letter afterwards her ancestors were from scotland they were from a clan called nixon and she knew she had the historical evidence which she gave me a photocopy of that because of clan wars between the scots and the english in the 16th century the bishop of the church of scotland had put a curse on that clan and

she realized that how many centuries later four centuries later things were happening in her family which were due to that curse that went back more than four centuries now you can be raise your eyebrows and look surprised but i'm going to show you biblical examples of this so curses and blessings are words that are charged with supernatural power maybe the power of god maybe the power of the devil They are words which impinge on people's lives and to a large extent determine their destiny and most often they will go on from generation to generation even

for thousands of years now if there is a curse on your life i want to say right out tonight god can give you a solution he has provided a solution but let me first of all give you an overall picture of this situation first of all let's take a couple of examples of blessings the first is in genesis 22 where abraham had just been willing to offer up his son isaac in response to the lord's requirement and then at the last moment the lord provided a ram to be offered instead of isaac and then the

lord spoke to abraham from heaven and he said in genesis 22 verse 16 by myself i have sworn says the lord because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son your only son in blessing i will bless you and in multiplying i will multiply your seed or your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies notice that the blessing was going to go on to Isaac's descendants and then it says in your seed all the nations

of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice it's very important to notice the reason for the blessing because abraham obeyed god's voice that is the basic reason for the blessing of god then if you look on a little further in genesis chapter 27 you'll find how isaac blessed his son jacob but the strange thing is if you remember the story that isaac thought he was blessing esau who was the firstborn but while esau was off hunting the venison which isaac had asked for uh rebecca isaac's husband substituted jacob who was her

favorite son and in order to get away with the deception because isaac was blind she dressed jacob up in esau's clothes and cooked a kid of the goats instead of the venison serving it up the way her husband liked it and took the skin of the kids of the goats and wrapped them around uh jacob's neck and arms so that he would seem hairy like esau because jacob was a very smooth man and esau was a very hairy man so along comes jacob pretending to be esau and isaac checks and says are you my son

esau and jacob says yes I am he told the lie and then isaac blessed him and this is the blessing i'll read it uh beginning of verse 24 then he isaac said are you really my son esau he must have felt there was something strange and he said i am and isaac said bring it near to me and i will eat at my son's game so that my soul may bless you i think you have to see that isaac was a little bit carnal he wanted his stomach filled with his favorite food before he could

pronounce the blessing and i i i years ago i gave a teaching on how a wrong attitude to food corrupted the family life of isaac i wish i could do it today but i can't so he brought it near to him and he ate and he brought him wine and he drank then his father isaac said to him come near now and kiss me my son and he came near and kissed him and he smelled the smell of his clothing remember it was esau's clothing and blessed him and said surely the smell of my son

is like the smell of a field which the lord has blessed therefore may god give you of the dew of heaven of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine let people serve you And nations bow down to you be master over your brethren and let your mother sons bow down to you curse it be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you understand that blessing was tremendous in its scope and it went on from generation to generation now a little while later in comes esau with the venison tries

to offer it to his father and his father realizes he's been deceived and that he blessed jacob when he thought he was blessing esau but listen this is uh isaac's reaction in verse 33 when he discovers the deception then isaac trembled exceedingly and said who where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me i ate all of it before you came and i have blessed him and indeed he shall be blessed isn't that amazing because isaac thought he was blessing esau but he knew the words that he pronounced didn't come from himself

do you understand it was a prophetic blessing and because it was prophetic he couldn't unsay it so jacob got the blessing esau didn't but i want you to see the nature of blessing that it's supernatural it's not just a wishful thought it's not just kind sentiments it's Something that is him supernaturally empowered and determines people's destinies that's true alike of blessing and curse now we're going to turn to the opposite theme curses first of all i'd like to turn for for a moment to proverbs 26 verse 2. proverbs 26 2 like a flitting sparrow like

a flying swallow so a curse without cause shall not alight that's very important if there is a curse there's a cause for it and in many cases in order to be released from the curse it's important to discover the cause the curse never comes causeless now i'm going to look at some sources of curses different sources of curses first of all god himself god has many times pronounced a curse on nations on individuals it's one of god's severest forms of judgment i'd like to look first of all at the calling of abraham in genesis chapter

12. this is where god called abraham when he was still called abraham to go out from his city ur of the chaldeas and so on and there is actually seven stages to this call if you look in genesis chapter 12 verses one through three now the lord has said to abram Get out of your country from your kindred and from your father's house to a land that i will show you now note the sevenfold calling of abraham number one i will make you a great nation number two i will bless you number three i will

make your name great number four you shall be a blessing number five i will bless those who bless you the six i will curse him who curses you and number seven in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed that's the sevenfold call of abraham and god's sevenfold destiny for abraham but notice the sixth one is a curse on everyone who curses abraham i will bless those who bless you and i will curse him who curses you and you see that goes for abraham and his descendants isaac jacob israel and the jewish people

that's a very important point for all of us to see when god calls a man to a special task that man becomes the target of satan's enmity in a special way and so god built in a protective clause for abraham he said i will curse him who curses you what's that in modern language what is it that curses the descendants of abraham what's the word we use anti-semitism that's right So you see god curses anti-semitism in other words anti-semitism brings a curse from god that's god's protection of the jewish people and you surely have to

agree they've needed it so there's one factor maybe that affects the life of some of you maybe you or your parents or your ancestors have been enemies of the jewish people you've spoken against them you've criticized them you've cursed them understand that will bring a curse on you and your life now i'm going to explain to you how you can get free from that curse but that's just one example and then in deuteronomy 27 god ordained that when israel came into their promised land they were to pronounce upon themselves 12 curses if they disobeyed god

in certain respects it's found in deuteronomy 27 beginning in verse 11 moses commanded the people the same day saying these shall stand on mount gerizim to bless the people when you've crossed over jordan simeon levi judah issac joseph and benjamin and these shall stand on mount ebal to curse ruben gad asha zebul and dan and napoli they couldn't enter into the promised land without being exposed to both a blessing if they were Obedient and a curse if they were disobedient there was no way into the promised land but through that and then 12 curses are

listed now we will not go into them in detail but i'll just read the first the levite shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of israel cursed is the one who makes any carved or molded image an abomination to the lord the work of the hands of the craftsman and sets it up in secret and all the people shall answer and say amen all israel had to invoke upon themselves a curse if they became involved in idolatry in worshiping false gods or in what we call in modern english the occult

that's the first and primary cause of curses in people's lives is involvement in idolatry the worship of false gods and the whole realm of the occult and in exodus chapter 20 verse 3 the first commandment the lord said i am the lord your god you shall have no other gods beside me you shall make no graven image to worship and he said if you do i will require it of the three following generations it will not only be visited on you but on the three Subsequent generations so you understand that you may be struggling with

something in your life here tonight which is due to your grandfather or even your great grandfather or your great-grandmother or some other ancestor you see how important it is to diagnose and identify the problem i'll just summarize the other main causes of curses listed here in deuteronomy chapter 27 first of all as i've said idolatry and false gods second dishonoring parents and that's very very important i don't doubt that there are some of you here tonight who have problems in your life because your attitude to your parents is not right remember the first commandment with

a blessing is the opposite honor thy father and mother that it may be well with thee and that it thou mayest live long on the earth i want to tell you in all my experience in christian ministry i have never met a person who dishonored father and mother and had it well with them never i don't believe such a person exists it automatically exposes you to a curse now i don't mean you have to agree with your parents or even do everything they tell you to do that Depends on the way your parents are living

but you have to honor them as your parents it's the first commandment with the promise of blessing you understand i don't know how many people i've met whose lives have been straightened out when they straightened out their attitude to their parents and i i think of others who never did it and who never were blessed i think of one member of my family who's dead he died of cancer at the age of forty his he was saved baptized in the spirit and served the lord but he never enjoyed the blessing of god because he never

put right his relationship with his mother who was a spiritist so he had all the problems you can imagine but he could have escaped from them if he dealt with his relationship with his mother see i'm not talking about theories i'm talking about things that i know from experience the next reason for curse is illicit or unnatural sex any form of unnatural sex brings a curse any form of homosexuality or bestiality will bring a curse also sexual relationships with members of your family that are outside the permitted range And today we have to acknowledge the

fact that there are millions of children who are victimized by their fathers in the area of sex then the fourth main reason is injustice to the weak and helpless in my whole series of tapes i deal with the fact that american indians in the united states placed a curse on the white house because the american government regularly broke its treaties with the american indian and believe me they know how to curse they surely do that's why from ninth 1860 until 1980 every president elected in the 20th year died in office you can trace that back

to two things the american government's unfaithfulness to the american indians and the fact that abraham lincoln who was the president elected in 1960 permitted and a spiritist seance to be conducted in the white house by his wife who later ended in a mental institution so you see how this thing just doesn't affect individuals it affects whole nations now i believe That the same would have happened to president reagan as you know he was attempted an attempt was made on assassinating him early in his presidency but just before he took the oath as president a group

of us in a large meeting combined in prayer and faith and released him from the curse not just him but broke the curse over the presidency you see how near the curse came to be fulfilled the bullet lodged within one inch of his heart but i believe that was god's in a sense vindication of the prayer that released the curse you see i hope you can see that this is no abstract theory this is something that affects lives of people and nations everywhere then another completely different kind jeremiah 17 verses 5 and 6 thus says

the lord cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm or his strength whose heart departs from the lord and this is the curse listen 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 see that's typical of a person under a curse everybody else is getting the rain the blessing the prosperity but he in the midst of it all lives in a parched land and never sees it

why because it's a curse what's the cause of that curse cursed is the man who trusts in man makes flesh his arm relies on human ability and material resources and whose heart departs from the law now i believe that curse rests over many christian churches which have tasted of the grace of god known what it is to be blessed by his grace but then have turned away and began trusting in their own efforts their own intelligence their own religion they had made flesh their arm the blessing of god has lifted and in its place a

curse has come over those congregations i've preached in many congregations but i was assured were under a curse and you struggle and you fight and you preach but there are very few results until the curse is dealt with turning there in zechariah 5 zechariah had a vision of a scroll that contained curses on both sides one side was on the one who stole And the other was on the one who perjured and swore falsely in the name of the lord and it this curse entered into the houses of people and destroyed their houses see a

lot of houses are destroyed because a curse has come in families are broken up because of a curse i wonder how many new zealanders would be under a curse if you included all those who stole and perjured themselves how many are not honest in their tax returns do you realize that that could bring a curse on you i tell you in the united states it would include a lot of people and many of them would be church goers now the next area of sources is men representing god we just take a few the first is

joshua in joshua chapter 6 and verse 26 after the children of israel had miraculously captured the city of jericho joshua pronounced a curse on anybody who would rebuild it joshua 6 26 then joshua charged them at that time saying cursed be the man before the lord who rises up and builds this city jericho he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn and with his Youngest he shall set up its gates thank you found the new international version says he shall lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn and at the cost of his youngest

he shall set up its gates now that was pronounced around about 1300 or so before christ round about 800 before christ a man did that thing and we can read about that in first kings chapter 16 verse 34. first kings chapter 16 verse 34 in his days the days of king ahab which is approximately four or five hundred years later in his days hail of bethel built jericho he laid its foundation at the cost of abiram his firstborn and at the cost of his youngest son he set up its gates according to the word of

the lord which he had spoken through joshua the son of none so 500 years later the curse pronounced by joshua was worked out in that man who rebuilt the city it cost him two of his children can you imagine the doctors of that day trying to find out the cause of their death no obvious medical reason they just pined away Can't find any virus no known medical diagnosis and yet they die the doctors didn't know that the cause went back 500 years see to a curse that had been pronounced by a man of god as

a judgment on a city which god determined should never be rebuilt can you see that you may be dealing with things in your life of which the cause can go back hundreds of years another example is david's words in his song after the death of saul and jonathan in second samuel chapter 1 verse 21 and i have to say if you can take it in the right way david was a tremendous cursor i don't mean in the sense we'd use it today but he pronounced some hair-raising curses on some people i mean you read some

of the psalms it makes your blood run cold just to think of it see that's part of the ministry of a man of god men of god not merely blessed they also curse all right this is what he said in this beautiful song about saul and jonathan second samuel chapter 1 verse 21 mountains of gilboa let there be no dew Nor let there be rain upon you nor fields of offerings for the shield of the mighty is cast away there the shield of saul not anointed with oil is it does it make sense to talk

to mountains or do you think that's just something strange well i want to tell you those words were spoken about one thousand years before christ and we're now nearly two thousand years after christ you can go to the mountains of gilboa and there is no green vegetation on them still today trees and vegetation will grow on every other mountain all around and the government of israel which is very keen on reforesting the country has tried to plant trees on that mountain and they wouldn't grow what's the reason words spoken by david 3 000 years ago

and the visible evidence is still there in the land of israel today that's real if you don't we don't need to turn there but you remember the prophet elijah had a servant named the gehesai disobeyed elisha ran after naomin after he'd been miraculously healed and asked for money and clothing and hid it from elisha and when he came back elisha said didn't my spirit go with You and then he said this the leprosy of name and the syrian cleaved to thee and thy seed forever and them and gehazi went out a leper as white as

snow what was that the result of a curse pronounced by a man of god turn to the new testament and jesus in mark chapter 11. beginning at verse 12 now the next day when they that's jesus and the disciples that come from bethany he was hungry and seeing from a far fig tree having leaves he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs now i believe i'm not going to say for absolutely sure that

in that type of fig tree before the figs come there's a small kind of round thing that comes first which the arabs call nafa which means that which falls jesus was not so unreasonable as to expect figs when it was not the time but he did come from the novel but that the teaching is that if a tree doesn't bring forth the naphal the first preliminary thing it will not bring forth figs either so jesus knew that that tree was fruitless and what did he do he spoke to the tree does that make sense In

response jesus said to it let no one eat fruit from you ever again and his disciples said it i'm sure they thought our master is just a little bit uh gone a little bit too far going on our diverse 20. now in the morning as they passed by they saw the frig fig tree dried up from the roots 24 hours later that tree was totally dry and peter remembering said to him rabbi look the fig tree which you cursed has withered away notice he said to jesus you cursed it that was the result jesus said

have faith in god and if you like to look just for one other passage parallel passage in matthew 21 verse 21 the same story says in verse 20 well when the disciples saw the tree they marbled saying how did the fig tree wither away so soon jesus answered and said to them assuredly i say to you if you have faith and do not doubt you will not only do what's done to the fig tree what was done to the fig tree it was cursed but he said you can also speak to a mountain but notice

he authorized them to curse things he said you will not only do what is done to this victory i Tell you the power we have if we could but realize it it's frightening we're really rather like moses when god called him to go back to egypt and deliver israel he said i don't have anything what can i go with the lord said to him what's that in your hand said a shepherd stop the lord said throw it on the ground what happened when it touched the ground it became a snake and moses ran from the

very thing he'd been holding in his hand and sent and god said that's all you're going to need is your staff go back to egypt and do the job you see a lot of us are like that we're holding a staff in our hands we don't realize that if we throw it on the ground it can turn to a snake let me tell you a story it's a true story um about 1965 i was associate pastor in a church in chicago and right on the corner flush with the church wall to wall with the church

was a saloon a pub whatever you call them here not only did they sell alcohol but it was a place of prostitution and a place of drugs illicit drugs and we were having a prayer meeting in the church sometime in october and i was on the platform one of those leading the prayer meeting And without premeditation i stood up on the platform and i said in the name of jesus i curse that pub that salute i didn't think much more about it just about christmas time i think just after christmas at 4 a.m there was

a phone call in our house brother prince the church is burning would you like to come and see it well i it's very cold in chicago and when the 4 a.m it was probably 20 degrees below zero i thought no i really don't want to go and see it then i thought if i don't show any interest in the church burning people would think i'm pretty indifferent so ruth my first wife lydia and i got into the car and drove down and when we got near it there were the flames up in the sky and

the smoke rising in billows but when we got there we discovered it wasn't the church it was the liquor store the pun but the wind was blowing off the lake lake michigan and you call wellington windy city let me tell you chicago is also called windy city it's very similar in that respect and the wind was blowing the flames right onto the church and as we got there the wind changed 180 degrees and blew the flames in exactly The opposite direction away from the church the result was the the pub was completely destroyed and the

church suffered nothing but smoke damage and the fire chief of the chicago fire brigade said to one of the elders he said you people must have a special relationship with the man upstairs but that you know what that what was that was the result of a curse when i saw what had happened i thought brother prince you better be pretty careful how you pray from now on i didn't i was like moses i was scared by what i had in my hand you understand all right now another source of curses and this is very important

is people with relational authority god has so ordered human society that in certain situations one person has authority over another person or person the most obvious example is a father who according to the word of god has authority over his family whether people like it or not whether they fight it or not is absolutely unimportant the fact is he has authority over his family if he doesn't use it that's his problem another Person who has authority is a husband over his wife they're very closely related the bible says god is the head of christ christ

is the head of the husband the husband is the head of the woman women's labors can say what they like about it but the fact remains it's true and they can't change it by objecting to it and i'm not anti women i think that's obvious never has been my problem i'm i better not get into that well where are we yeah let's take the the case of jacob and his family jacob had served for a long time more than 14 years with his uncle laban he'd acquired two wives and two concubines and 11 children and

then he decided to flee back to the land that god that promised him and he fled secretly because he was afraid that his uncle laban would claim his wives back you understand or his daughter's back who were jacob's wives well laban pursued after him and eventually caught up with him um quite near the boundary of the land of canaan now when they flame rachel who was the daughter of laban and the second Wife of jacob stole her father's household god now first of all he shouldn't have had household gone and secondly she shouldn't have stolen

them but she did and laban was extremely angry because his household gods had been taking his little images you know that protected him etc etc you know the kind of thing that people keep which is totally against the will of god so laban catches up with jacob and he says why did you take my daughters without saying goodbye and he said i was afraid you'd take them back and layman said well secondly why did you steal my household gone now jacob did not know that rachel had taken them and rachel succeeded by very typically feminine

rules from allowing uh laban to discover where they were so jacob was very indignant because he'd been accused of stealing his father-in-law's gods and he hadn't done anything with them and so he said just this one verse about the household gods in genesis 31 verse 32 with whomever you find your gods do not let him live but the hebrew says let him not limb you understand now that's a curse Let him not live and it was pronounced by jacob the husband of rachel and he had authority over rachel it was not an empty word it

was a word that was charged with his authority you know what happened you know the story the next time rachel had a child she died in childbirth see jacob had pronounced the destiny of his wife now this comes very close home another person as i've already mentioned is a father second to the blessing of god the most desirable thing in life is a father's blessing and one of the things to be feared most is a father's curse now many fathers have put a curse on their children without knowing it and i know this because i've

dealt with so many and helped them out of it see a father can have say three children the first is clever the third is clever but the middle child is not really so bright so the father doesn't like the middle child you know what i've noticed about parents if there's one child they don't like it's usually the one that's most like themselves I think they don't like what they see of themselves in that child so the father says to this child you'll never make good you'll never succeed your brothers are clever but you'll be a

failure all your life you know what that is it's a curse and you'd be amazed how many people struggle all their way through life because of a parental curse pronounced upon them another kind of person that can pronounce a curse is a teacher because a teacher has authority over his or her pupils and again it may be that a teacher in the early years has one pupil whom she really just can't get on with you know there's some kind of personality clash and she says things like that you you'll never learn you just will never

learn to read you just haven't got it you'll never succeed what's that it's a curse and again i've dealt with people who've had to be delivered from a curse pronounced by a teacher there's many different another person who can do it as a pastor because a pastor has spiritual authority over his congregation suppose a pastor has a clash with a member of his congregation That person leaves maybe in a bad spirit the pastor says wherever you go you'll never succeed till you put things right with this church you'll never get on anywhere do you think

pastors ever talk like that believe me they do you know what that is it's a curse um religious groups are terrible about that if you break away from some groups they will automatically put a curse upon you and believe me that's not something that is of no consequence it's real we've got to go on the next category is a very common one self-imposed curses curses that people pronounce on themselves we'll go back to the story of isaac and rebecca you remember that rebecca had persuaded jacob to steal the blessing or to get the blessing i

wouldn't say exactly steal him but cheat his way into the blessing now jacob was smart and he said in genesis 27 12 perhaps my father will feel me and i shall seem to him to be a deceiver and i shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing and his mother said to him on me be thy curse my son it'll come on me not on you She pronounced a curse on herself later on in the chapter she said to her husband isaac she complained about the wives that esau had married who were the

daughters of hath and she didn't approve of them actually they have a saying in amongst the jewish people i don't know whether you've ever heard it about a yiddish mama a jewish mother who basically seeks to determine the whole course of her family her children everything there's a story about one that was in a theater and she said is there a doctor in the house and this man stood up and she said boy do i have a daughter for you if you've never met the type but they're not only found amongst jewish people they're found

amongst all races the mother who runs everybody plans everybody's life determines whom everybody should marry well rebecca really wasn't getting things the way she wanted them and she said this to isaac in verse 46 i am weary of my life because of the daughters of head if jacob takes a wife of the daughters of hath Like these who are the daughters of the land what good will my life do to me you see she pronounced the double cuts on herself she said i'm wearing my life what's the good of living i might as well die

and i cannot tell you how many people we've dealt with who've pronounced the curse on themselves by saying i wish i were dead what's the good of living i'm not going to make it you don't have to say that very often it's like an invitation to the spirit of death and you don't have to give many invitations he'll come in we've seen scores of people delivered from the spirit of death in one meeting in northern ireland in november last year i prayed collectively for the people that needed deliverance from the spirit of death in an

audience of about 2 000 people and about 50 people received simultaneous deliverance and most of them were young people how does it come in this attitude of hopelessness no good living what's got life got to offer to me i might as well be dead brothers and sisters it's a terribly dangerous thing to say you're really pronouncing a curse on yourself And you know how busy the devil is to trick you into saying that you sometimes say it for very inadequate reasons in a fit of peak or discouragement but you're settling your own destiny one other

tragic example from the new testament familiar i'm sure to most of us matthew 27 matthew 27 verses 24 and 25 the scene of the trial of jesus by pontius pilate verse 24 when pilate saw that he could not prevail at all but rather that a tumult was rising he took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying i am innocent of the blood of this just person you see to it and all the people answered and saying his blood be on us and on our children what's that it's a self-imposed curse and you really

cannot understand the history of the jewish people over the last 19 centuries until you see that one major factor in it is a self-imposed curse that goes on from Generation to generation to generation his blood be upon us and our children where the word children in that context means are succeeding generations it's tragic terrible the next source of curses is men representing satan witch doctors now don't laugh at me but i think i know what it is in maori tohonga is that right yeah well it's every language has that word believe me and they are

experts at cursing that's their profession and they're not they're very skillful they know how to do it in east africa when i was principal of a college for training african teachers one of my students from a certain remote mountain area told me this story he said in his village two families quarreled and one family went to the witch doctor paid him a kid a goat and said put a hex on the other family the witch doctor said all right at midnight on a certain night a jackal will cry in the village and the son of

that family will die and at midnight on that night a jackal cried and the son died if he didn't die of anything is he Out of sheer fright you understand uh ruth and i were in zambia last year and one of the ministries that we have is praying for barren women who can't have children and so out of this large crowd of about seven thousand people we called for women in that condition about four hundred women came forward for prayer and before we prayed for them we asked the interpreter to ask them how many of

them had been to a witch doctor to get a potion to enable them to have children and there were only two that didn't raise their hands out of 400. see if you know parts of africa they are totally dominated by which doctors everything in their lives is controlled by the unseen spiritual power of witch doctor when we came with this message there about the release from the curse it was one of the most dramatic changes i've ever seen in people after they had listened to my teaching and said the prayer after me those people were

visibly transformed up to that time you hardly saw them smile from then on there were some of the happiest people i've ever seen the change was like From night to day and one well-dressed man obviously a well-to-do man when i walked down from the platform he came up and rubbed himself in the dust which is their way of expressing appreciation and honor and he said through the interpreter i've been a wretched man all my life i've been in continual pain for years he said no i'm free i have no more pain and i'm happy and

his face was radiant and the only thing that had happened was we'd released him from the curse the we've become so civilized in some places that we've lost touch with some things that are very real but they're still real even if we don't believe in them you can say you don't believe in viruses but if you get one you'll get sick the example we don't need to go into detail in the bible is balaam the witch doctor yeah the king of moab knew he couldn't defeat israel in war so he hired balaam and said come

and pronounce a curse on them because i know the one who is cursed and the one you bless is blessed that's typical most african tribes before they go into battle they'll get the witch Doctor to put a curse on their enemies then they believe they'll be able to defeat them and that does perhaps not so far away as africa all right two more and we are coming near the end of this part another source of similar problems is what i call soulish prayers or utterances and i just like to turn very quickly to james chapter

three i i'm trying to make this brief but i want to make it complete because some of you may not have another opportunity james chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. that if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts do not boast and lie against the truth this wisdom does not descend from above but is earthly sensual demonic james is talking about two kinds of wisdom and he talks about one that's not god's wisdom and he says it has three characteristics it's earthly then he says in greek it's soulish it's the expression of the

soul not of the spirit and when it's there the next thing it is is demonic and i'll tell you that there are some people who pray for you That you'd be better off without their prayers that sounds shocking but you see some people if you're a preacher for instance they've got their own ideas of what your ministry should be and where you should go and they'll try to pray you there and it may not be at all the will of god but you have this pressure against you every time you try to do certain things

which what are they praying against all people may just sit and talk about you christians criticize one another talk about one another run one another down that generates a negative power that's released against the people you talk about i'm not going to go into this in detail but i could spend an hour on it understand it's very important to know where your problems are coming from sometimes they're coming from people quite close to you there have been men who have been sick for years because their wife had a death wish for themselves a lot of

things in the human soul that we don't fully understand it's got a lot of power for good or evil if it's under the control of the holy spirit it will be for good but if it's under other forces it can be just as powerful for evil And finally in this section another source of these problems is what i call unscriptural covenants in exodus 23 verse 32 god warned israel about the nations whose land they were about to enter they were all wicked idolatrous nations and god said to israel you shall make no covenant with them

nor with their gods you see if you make a covenant which is a very solemn agreement with evil people who are under the power of evil forces you come under the power of those evil forces now there are particularly true of secret societies in america for instance the klu klux klan and worldwide the freemasons just have to tell you that that is a sure road to disaster for your descendants i can't estimate the number of crippled er [ __ ] unhappy children whose problems go back to a parent in the freemason you can do what

you like about it but i'm telling you the consequences Are ordered by god and you can't change them you are not free to make a covenant with people on the basis of anything but the covenant that's made in the blood of jesus that's a very powerful binding covenant but evil covenants are also powerful and binding now let's look briefly at the forms that blessings and curses take if you want to study this in detail there's one chapter that's devoted solely to it it's chapter 28 of the book of deuteronomy it's got 68 verses the first

14 verses deal with blessings and the remaining 54 verses deal with curses and when you've read that list of curses i think you should want something else and the source of both blessings and curses is clearly stated and i'll read them both deuteronomy 28 verses 1 and 2. now it shall come to pass if you will diligently hearken to the voice of the lord your god to observe carefully all his commandments which i command you today that the lord your god will set you on high above all nations of the earth and all these blessings

Shall come upon you and overtake you because you hearken to the voice of the lord your god what is the basic cause of blessings it's listening diligently to the voice of god and doing what he says that's why god blessed abraham he said because you have obeyed my voice and then it says all these blessings will come upon you really you don't need to chase the blessings what you need to do is meet the conditions god will take care of the blessing and then in verse 15 and onwards we come to the curses 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 command you today that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you what's the cause of the curses not listening to the voice of the lord and not doing what he says it's very very simple basically now if you want to you can read through that whole list of blessings and curses for yourself excuse me but i will give you my very brief summary and you check for yourselves

don't Just take it because i said here's my summary of the blessings exaltation being lifted up health reproductiveness reproducing in every area of your life your family your farm your animals everything prosperity victory and god's favor i'll read that once more exaltation health reproductiveness prosperity victory and god's favor one of the simple statements of blessing is you'll be above only and not the knee you'll be the head and not the tail and i sat down and worked that out once and i thought what does it mean to be the head and not the tail and

it's like this the head makes the decisions the tail gets dragged around so which end are you the head or the tail are you making the decisions are you taking the initiative are you determining the way things happen or are you at the mercy of circumstances under financial pressure health pressure family pressure being just dragged around if you're the tail it's a curse if you're the head it's a blessing now let's look at the summary of the curses and as i said this is 54 verses so the summary is brief First of all humiliation second

failure to reproduce in any area of your life barrenness is a curse without any qualifications mental and physical sickness family breakdown divorce alienation of children and so on poverty which is a curse not a blessing if you think poverty is a blessing why'd you work so hard to get rid of it and if you think sickness is a blessing why don't you go to the doctor to get rid of it why involve that poor doctor in fighting against god and removing the blessing from your life defeat oppression failure and god's disfavor i'll give it to

you once more humiliation failure to reproduce mental and physical sickness family breakdown poverty defeat oppression failure and god's disfavor now i'll give you my own little list which is just based on personal experience and observation over the years i made it independently of that chapter 28 of deuteronomy it's interesting how close they are i have seven things seven factors in people's lives which when i discover lead me to conclude that they're probably under a curse Number one mental and emotional breakdown and especially emotional breakdown now if it just happens once in one life there could

be other causes but if it is a thing that recurs frequently in a family you can be sure that family is under a curse number two repeated or chronic sicknesses especially without clear medical diagnosis when you go to the doctor and he says it's one thing you go back six months later he says it's another always you have a pain and nobody can find out why you have a pain but you have a pain and especially again if these things run in families i would say almost certainly that family is under a curse third repeated

miscarriages and related female problems and ruth and i've come to the place if women come for that kind of prayer which we pray for very frequently once we hear the diagnosis we simply treat it as a curse we don't even do any investigating and we have seen scores of people dramatically change number four the breakdown of marriage and family alienation and let me just say one Thing that i can't take time to trend witchcraft is home breaker number one wherever that power comes to work in a family it will ultimately break up the family number

five continuing financial insufficiency especially where the income appears sufficient you know there are lots of people who always have enough money but it's never enough you know that you might be one of them well you begin to check i got a letter from a lady in the united states a couple of years ago she said i think my husband's family is under a curse she'd heard my teaching so i wrote back and said tell me why you think your husband's family is under a curse and this was the answer i got she said well my

husband's estate runs into hundreds of millions of dollars and our annual income is a million dollars and we never have enough money i said i'm convinced that that's so characteristic see if if there's a curse over your life nothing ever really works and you can be highly educated and qualified to succeed but you Never quite break through to success prone and when i meet that i really don't look any further you see that is a statistically diagnosable condition if you are accident prone an insurance company will put up your insurance premium simply on that basis

and number seven a history of suicides or unnatural deaths and i hope i can say this without being offensive but if you want to look at a very conspicuous family that bears all the marks of a family curse it's the kennedy family in america now we come to the punch line the practical how to pass from curse to blessing first of all you have to understand full provision has already been made through the death of jesus on the cross that's the way that god has made provision for every human need including this one if you

look in galatians chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 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 in order that the blessing of abraham might come upon the gentiles in christ jesus that we Might receive the promise of the spirit through faith notice the exchange the death of jesus on the cross the atonement was an exchange in which all the evil do to us came upon christ that all the good due

to him might be made available to us whatever aspect you look at it he was wounded that we might be healed he died that we might have life he was made sin that we might be made righteousness he was rejected that we might be accepted and here he was made a curse that we might enter into the blessing that's the basis of god's provision for the problem that i've been speaking about tonight and you'll notice that in that verse 13 the word curse occurs three times christ has redeemed us from the curse having become a

curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree brothers and sisters if a curse is so real that christ had to be made a curse on the cross for us then don't entertain the thought that there's no reality in a curse god wouldn't have made provision at such cost for our deliverance from a curse if there was nothing to be delivered from you understand but it took the substitutionary sacrifice of jesus christ to Provide deliverance from the curse so that's the basis of deliverance all our deliverance has to be

based on faith in what christ has done for us on the cross just as we are made righteous because he was made sinful so we can receive the blessing because he was made the curse you see the law of moses said in deuteronomy 21 23 anyone who's hung on a tree becomes a curse so every jew who knew the law of moses when they saw jesus hanging on the cross they knew that he had been made a curse thank god the reason why he was made a curse was that we might be delivered from the

curse see that now you need to bear in mind that after you've been delivered you still have to go on meeting the conditions which are what listening to god's voice and doing what he says very simple and that's in the new testament jesus said in john 10 verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and they follow me so that's the prescription for blessing but in order to live in blessing if there's a curse over your life you must first be redeemed from the curse you must be delivered now through the death of jesus it's already

legally ours you understand He's already obtained it for us what we have to do is move from the legal to the experiential we have to get it working in our lives now i want to tell you how to do that all right the legal base is already there god doesn't have to do anything more we have to appropriate what god has done for us very often we need to ascertain the cause or the source of the curse not always but very often and that's why i spent quite a long while going over the various possibilities

because i was trusting the holy spirit to speak to many of you and open your eyes as we prayed at the beginning that you could see suddenly the reason why you've struggled all your life you understand maybe it'll come by supernatural revelation many times it does now i'm not saying you have to know but in many cases god wants us to know what we are being delivered from how it came upon us if god shows you then you act on what he shows you now the process of release the basic pattern is stated in four

words which begin with re this just happens to be so recognize repent rinse and resist recognize your problem and its cause repent of anything that ever opened you To it renounce the curse and resist every attempt of satan to keep you under the curse okay recognize repent renounce resist now more more in more detail specific steps first of all establish a clear scriptural basis i've given you one galatians 3 13 and 14. christ has redeemed us from the curse having been made a curse for us there are other scriptures which i'll just mention ephesians 1

7 in him we have redemption through his blood colossians 1 13 and 14 god has delivered us from the domain of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love 1 john 3 8 a beautiful short scripture the second half of the verse for this purpose the son of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil and luke 10 19 behold i give unto you power to trade upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you that's

good news all right now this is what you need to do very simply confess your faith in christ because he's the high priest of our confession Commit yourself to obedience because that's the condition for continuing in blessing confess any known sins of yourself or your ancestors like my aunt was a fortune teller or my grandmother was in christian science or my father was a freemason many many different possibilities and you have to identify yourself with the sin in your family that brought it upon your family you understand you confess it on behalf of your family

forgive all other persons and may be the very person that is the cause of the curse because if you don't forgive unforgiveness as a barrier to the answer to your prayer jesus said when you stand praying forgive if you have anything against anybody okay that leaves out nothing and nobody remember forgiveness is a decision it's not an emotion simply it's tearing up the ious number six renounce all contact with the account or with secret societies and get rid of contact objects you cannot keep in your house anything that in any way binds you to the

occult images charms Buddhas ouija boards tarot cards a whole host of things moses warned israel he said if you take an accursed thing into your house you become accursed like the thing i think of a lady judge in the united states who was miraculously healed when i prayed for her she'd been in pain for 10 years night and day with an intestinal problem she had a huge adhesions and her insides had been sewn up with plastic clips and when god healer not merely did he take away the pain and heal the adhesions but he removed

the clips that's that's that's what you'd call a miracle um but the interesting thing is in a sweepstake she earned a free holiday in mexico so she and her lady friend went came back and the next day they phoned lydia and me and they were in desperation they said this lady tried to commit suicide she tried to drown herself in the bath last night come over quickly so lydia and i went over they said we don't know what's happened everything was wonderful i was saved i was healed uh i said you've been to mexico they

said yes i said did you bring back any souvenirs And they thought for a while they said yes i said was any of them in any way connected with religion and they said well yes one of them was a portrait of the sun god and i said you better get rid of it and now and that dear lady judge got up went down to the basement and broke it in small pieces in the next five minutes and when she did that there was no more problem you see she had exposed herself by bringing an accursed

thing into her home ruth and i were in norway this past summer and i was invited to talk on spiritual warfare and how many of you know what the word troll means well it's a norwegian word it's the norwegian word for a witch and i will tell you norway is permeated by trologum i mean they have trolls in every shop window in oslo and i had to tell those dear people if you have a troll in your house you are asking for trouble one lady came up to me in tears afterwards she said i just

want to thank you after all these years i understand the problems in my house she was a well-educated spiritual woman but she didn't realize that she had forbidden fruit in her house and finally step number seven release yourself In the name of jesus because the word of god says whatever we release on earth shall be released in heaven all right whatever we bind on earth shall be bound in heaven now i'm going to give you those steps again and then we're going to do it number one establish a clear scriptural basis number two confess your

faith in christ let me say if you've never done this before and you don't know jesus as your personal savior you can get to know him when you do this i'll word the prayer in such a way that if you were unsaved when you started to pray you'll be saved at the end okay that's not difficult it doesn't take god half a second to save somebody all right confess your faith in christ number three commit yourself to obedience number four confess any known sins of yourself or your ancestors now when we come to doing that

i'm going to lead you in a general statement and i'm going to give all of you opportunity quietly to yourself to make the appropriate confession you don't have to do it out loud okay we'll have a pause while you do that Number five forgive any other persons whoever harmed you or wronged you and again i'll lead you in the general statement then i'll give you time to name uncle harry or the pastor of my church or my school teacher or my wife or my husband all right it's usually the people closest to us that it's

most important to forgive all right you don't have much problem with the milkman but the man who shares your bed that's your problem all right number six renounce all contact with occult objects or secret society and again we'll give you a little pause understand when you've done all that you are legally entitled to full release from every curse over you or your family and when you said the prayer as the representative of jesus christ here tonight under the authority of the local leadership for whom i thank god i will say a simple prayer breaking every

curse okay i cannot break the curse if you haven't met the conditions you understand that so that's up to you now when we say this and this happens nothing dramatic may happen you may not Feel any immediate change at all or on the other hand sometimes the results are quite dramatic sometimes people fall down sometimes they are released of some evil spirit and a scream or something else comes out of them whatever happens don't focus on the manifestation focus on the reality of christ and your prayer but if there are manifestations don't let them upset

you if you're the one with the manifestation just thank god that you're getting results and if you're next to somebody it's her problem or his problem not yours don't get distracted from your problem okay now i think it would be good if we were to say this prayer together now nobody here has to say this prayer it's entirely voluntary but i'm always glad to say it i've said it dozens of times and i always like to make absolutely sure that everything is clear in heaven above me i find it's a real privilege to say the

prayer so what i'm going to do now is i'm going to ask you to stand and i'm going to lead you in this prayer okay i suggest that you say it out loud not very loud but loud enough to hear yourself so that you know you've said the prayer and remember You're not praying to me you're praying to the head of the church the lord jesus christ okay i want you to say these words now 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 i renounce all my sins and i turn to you lord jesus for mercy and for forgiveness and i believe you do forgive me [Music] and from now on i want to live for you i want to hear your voice and do what you tell me in order to receive your blessing lord and to be released from any curse over my life first of all i confess any known sin committed by me or by any of my ancestors Or others related to me now just

put in anything that you need to confess in that context just quietly between you and god just let the holy spirit show you what you need to specify okay we're going on now lord i thank you that i believe you have forgiven everything that i've confessed and lord now i want to say that i also forgive all other person whoever harmed me or wronged me i forgive them all now as i would have god forgive me in particular i forgive you and now you name the persons that you need to forgive to yourself but be

as thorough as you can now we're going to continue furthermore i renounce any contact By myself or any related to me with satan or with occult power in any form or any kind of secret society also lord i commit myself [Music] to remove from my house [Music] any kind of occult objects [Music] that honor satan and dishonor jesus christ with your help lord i will remove them all and now lord jesus i thank you further [Music] that on the cross you were made a curse that i might be redeemed from the curse and might receive

the blessing and because of what you did for me on the cross [Music] i now release myself from every curse and every evil influence and every dark shadow over me or my family from any source whatever i release myself now in the name of jesus amen now lord because of your people's prayer tonight i is your Representative break every curse that has been over any of these lines or any of these people i revoke those curses now and i release them from them in the name of jesus the son of god in his all-prevailing name

i declare these people released satan i declare to you that you have no more claims no more access to their lives to their families to their businesses they have been lifted out of the domain of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the son of god's love thank you lord jesus we praise you lord we give you the glory we give you the thanks amen thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord jesus praise your wonderful name praise your wonderful name lord jesus we give you thanks we give you praise amen amen [Music] [Applause]

thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord amen now i'd like you to do one more thing it's good to make your confession to god but it's also good to make a confession to another human being so wherever you are i suggest you turn around to somebody near to you Look them full in the eyes and say jesus christ is lord all right [Music] praise god if there's one thing that really upsets the devil it's praise of jesus okay if he's still hanging around anywhere just dispel him with a time of praying you