A Cause of Curses

In a previous post, Curses Create Dysfunction, we discussed how we are affected by curses and we provided scriptural source documentation for this, but we just brushed over the question of where they come from or how we receive curses. That’s what we will tackle in this blog post.

Curses are in search of a landing place, and can only land with cause.

Proverbs 26:2 “Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight.”

Most people probably don’t literally or knowingly invite a curse, but there are definite causes that bring them.  We’ll look at seven primary causes of curses.

1. Idolatry, False gods and the occult

“You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me… Exodus 20:3-5

A curse initiated by one generation is passed down all the way to the third and fourth generations. In most cases, as the curse is passed down, so is the behavior that initiated the curse, consequently, this same curse can be perpetuated for many generations.

Modern scientific research supports this:

Geneticists were especially surprised to find that epigenetic change could be passed down from parent to child, one generation after the next. A study from Randy Jirtle of Duke University showed that when female mice are fed a diet rich in methyl groups, the fur pigment of subsequent offspring is permanently altered. Without any change to DNA at all, methyl groups could be added or subtracted, and the changes were inherited much like a mutation in a gene.

According to the new insights of behavioral epigenetics, traumatic experiences in our past, or in our recent ancestors’ past, leave molecular scars adhering to our DNA. Jews whose great-grandparents were chased from their Russian shtetls; Chinese whose grandparents lived through the ravages of the Cultural Revolution; young immigrants from Africa whose parents survived massacres; adults of every ethnicity who grew up with alcoholic or abusive parents — all carry with them more than just memories.  (Discover Magazine, May 2013, http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/13-grandmas-experiences-leave-epigenetic-mark-on-your-genes#.UoLkVifBTRg ).

So, not only are physical traits passed down, but DNA can be marked by traumatic events. Curses land and mark DNA affecting subsequent generations. The Bible sets the pattern for this in Romans:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— Romans 5:12

Looking at something David penned in Psalms will help clarify this concept.

Who is the man who fears the Lord?
He will instruct him in the way he should choose.
His soul will abide in prosperity,
And his descendants will inherit the land. Psalm 25:12-13

God created humanity in His image and according to His likeness. In that, humans have the physical ability to reproduce their own kind, there is also placed within His creation not only the command, but the ability to inherit. In God’s definition, an inheritance doesn’t stop at receiving, but it becomes a true inheritance when it is passed down generationally.

As God spoke to man and woman in the garden, He blessed them and gave them the assignment, the mission to subdue or dominate the earth. With His blessing, He marked their DNA not with a curse, but a blessing that was to be a perpetuated inheritance until that which He commanded was completed. God’s vision was an earth subdued by His crowning creation. With that folks, you have the history of humanity with its struggles to fulfill the vision of God—a subdued earth, His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven through the Biblical concept of inheritance and the authority to take it.

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing Genesis 1:27-28

Humanity has the unique God-given ability to choose and with that comes the struggle of the ages between good and evil.

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. Deuteronomy 30:15-16

This isn’t God struggling with the devil. God can snuff out His creation with a whisper, but it’s the struggle of humanity and Satan for an earthly kingdom and control of the planet. Humanity was assigned the mission to take it back through the authority of dominion and the perpetuation of inheritance.

As we study the great revivals not only in our current Christian age, but even those of the Old Testament, we lament the fact that they endured for a season. We’ve become so accustomed to seasonal revivals that we believe that’s how it works. Actually it’s a farce to call anything a three day revival.  A true revival changes a culture and the intent is dominion and perpetuation of His kingdom on earth. So, historically, revivals have endured for a season because that revival-generation failed to teach the next generation to steward it to their generation and beyond. Satan appears to extinguish the revival and humanity accepts it as a seasonal event.

Humanity’s failure should not characterize the intent or plan of God. The problem is that this is exactly what we have done and we have even built doctrine around our failure in order to explain that failure.

The key to the blessing is obedience and disobedience results in a curse. Deuteronomy 28:1, 2, 15.

David says in Psalm 25 that the man who fears God will be a student of what He teaches, he will respond in obedience, the result of which is a healthy, prosperous soul. God wants His people to have healthy souls, free from curses, full of blessing moving in obedience, perpetuating the kingdom through inheritance.

So, in order to get to a healthy and prosperous soul, it may be that curses have to be broken.

Idolatry, worship of false gods, and the occult create a nesting place for curses. Historically, when Spain pushed for the spread of Catholicism, the church began to accept pagan practices in order to be more accepting and tolerant of different beliefs. Their goal was that all be converted to Christianity. This blending of Christianity and paganism, called syncretism, resulted in a major curse through their invitation of pagan practices and false gods.

Sadly, seeker-friendly churches are falling into this same pattern. In order to be more inclusive and accepting, they are ‘hiding’ away cardinal doctrine in order not to offend potential converts. Rather than converting behavior, the church is accepting even very unchristian behavior. Syncretism is in the church once again and in a powerful way. Syncretism is disobedience creating a nest for the curse, and through inheritance, this is passed generationally resulting in a powerless church that’s full of doctrine-excusing failure.

In future blog posts we’ll discuss the other causes for curses.

If you have worshipped idols, submitted to false gods, or engaged in occult practices you may need freedom. If any of your ancestors have engaged in any of these, there may be some generational issues affecting you. Freedom is a prayer and declaration away.

Later, we’ll look closely at Biblical models for breaking curses. These models are composed of repentance, asking forgiveness, forgiving, and some form of declaration of freedom. In some instances, there is restitution or acts of restoration.

dmcb

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