Blessings and Curses

Blessings and curses are old testament matters that have no real relevance in today's times - WRONG!  Blessings and curses have as much power over your life today as they did in the old testament times.

If I had to stand before a packed church on a Sunday morning and ask the congregation if they are blessed, I am sure that at least 99% or more would put up their hands and say that they are blessed.

If I again ask the same congregation if curses exist in todays times, I would estimate from past experience that the huge majority would deny that curses even exist anymore and the rest would say that they have no power in todays times.

However, many Christians do not even understand the word "Blessed" and when asked exactly what it means to be blessed, you are likely to be met with blank stares and very confused faces. If you use the simple standards, as set out in Deuteronomy 28, to determine if you are blessed or cursed, you will find that at least 90% or more of the congregation that said that they were blessed, suddenly finds that they may not be walking in as many blessings as they thought that they were, and that it is indeed possible that they may in fact have a curse or two hanging over their life that they were totally unaware of.

Blessings.

The word "Blessed" is best defined as "To be Envied."  If you are not envied by all around you, then the chances are that you are not walking in God's full blessings. Let me say right now that blessings have nothing to do with being rich. I know many rich people with whom I would never ever trade places with and whom I do not envy at all.

Riches have never brought happines into anyones life. Mostly, new riches starts to breed greed and the desire for even more riches. Money becomes an obsession in life instead of  it being a means to obtain what you need in life. Money in itself is not evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil. When your love for money overtakes your love of God, you are in the clutches of the devil.

 The first section of Deuteronomy 28 gives us clear instruction on how to walk in the blessings of God and what they are :-

" Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey 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 high above all nations of the earth.

And these blessings will come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God."  Verses 3 to 14 continue to list the blessings. Take these verses, modify them to todays terms ( ie cattle increases refers to increases in your investments etc), and see if you have the full blessings of God in your life.

Although these are Old Testament scriptures, they stand true to today and unless you are walking in the commandments of God and in full and total obedience to Him, you can not receive the full blessings of God.

Curses.

There are many curses that exist in the Old Testament. These are curses that are directly from God and do not even involve satan or witchcraft or black magic.

Briefly, Malachi describes that you are cursed if you do not tithe. Zaccariah describes the curse that rests upon the liar and the thief. However, all of these sub - curses can be summarised by the main curse found in Deuteronomy 28:15

"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:"  Verses 16 to 68 continue to describe the curses that can come upon you if you are disobedient to God's word.

When reading these verses it is important to understand that times have changed dramatically and so you do need to modernise the scriptures slightly to adjust for modern times. There were no bank accounts and investments in those days so where it talks about your increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks, in modern times it would refer to the performance of your investments, etc.

Jesus came and set us free from the curse.

I have had many argue with me that curses have no relevance in todays world because Jesus took all curses upon himself when He hung on the tree. Jesus also took all sickness upon himself as well and yet many christians are dying daily from sickness.

Curses still have the ability to affect you today as much as they affected the Old Testament people in the past. If you are disobedient to God and do not obey His commandments, then you nullify the works of Jesus and the curses are able to rest on your life and affect you. As much as Jesus loves you and wants you to walk in total freedom from curses, the curses will remain in your life until you identify the curse and the cause of the curse, repent and turn back to obedience to God.

Are there other curses that can affect us?

Sure - there are many powerful curses that can affect your life today. Possibly the most powerful is the word curse.  A word curse is a something that is spoken into your life usually by someone who is in position of authority over you. This can be a parent, a teacher etc, who says something like " You are stupid". You then accept these words as factual in your life and go through life being controlled by these words and believing that you are stupid.

Parents and teachers, as well as bosses, have to be extremely careful with their words that they speak over those whom they have authority over. Take care to confess only positive things over those whom you have authority over, knowing that your words can impact into their lives in a good way, or a negative way that can virtually make or ruin the rest of their life.

My brother was highly intelligent and very good with figures, but right the way through his life he was told that he was  stupid with his hands. As a result, even though he was fully capable and able to tackle odd jobs around the house, he always believed that his efforts were useless and that he was never able to do anything good with his hands.

"What you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth shall come to pass." 

Is it possible to break free from a curse?

Absolutely. In order to break free from a curse, you do need to first identify the cause of the curse in your life. If your problems are as a result of a word that has been spoken over your life, you must begin to reject that word and cast it out.

"Lord, I do not accept that word that was spoken into my life. I cast it out of my life in the name of Jesus and it shall have no power over me or my family."

If you have been disobedient to the word of God :-

" Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Forgive me for my transgressions. I turn away from them today and choose to follow your commandments carefully from this day forward. I break the curse that has resulted in my life in the name of Jesus."

Should you not know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then simply say "God help me please".