Curses Create Dysfunction

Many Christians sometimes struggle with sinful behavior, desires, and destructive tendencies for which they have striven to be set free.  They just can’t seem to shake it. Turning away lasts for a short time and the associated guilt keeps them down and unproductive. Sometimes people in such struggles adapt to the behavior allowing it to become a functional part of their lives.

These struggles can be characterized as uncontrollable. We are talking about something stronger than casual mistakes—we are talking about a force behind the behavior that compels with a supernatural drive. This leads to helplessness and hopelessness.

For many, recognizing that curses on them, as a form of spiritual bondage, is the first step towards finding real liberty. These bondages sometimes have become so much a part of people’s everyday life—even going back generations.  People can’t even imagine what life would really be like without them, where they can function fully and in complete freedom.

But, we can be set fee! Many are being set free by learning what the Bible shows us about curses and how to remove them. There is a process through prayer and declaration that sets people totally free.

Wise Solomon uses birds to ascribe similar behavior to curses in how they find a landing place. 

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

Curses seem to “fly about” until they find a place to land through invitation.  Curses can’t just freely land without a cause.  Look at it this way; there is not a problem with a bird flying over your head, but when it builds a nest on your head then you know for sure there is a problem. In order for that bird to land, there has been an invitation for the curse to not only rest upon you, but to become an accepted part of your life.

Sadly, many people don’t know they are burdened with the power of a curse and subsequently have learned to function with it in a less than optimal lifestyle. Their dysfunction is normalized and they have learned to compensate in order to find some satisfactory level of function.

Curses bind, inhibit, confine, restrict and control. They bring poverty, disease, dysfunction, darkness, gloom, despair, and agony all to define a darkened standard of living.

The fruit of this is manifested in the body and in certain behavior.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21

A person can know they are under a curse if there are any negative manifestations or behaviors they can’t seem to control, especially any of those listed by Paul in the previous Bible passage in Galatians.  A curse boxes a person in for the purpose of restricting their God-given creativity to bring and exhibit life.

So moving on, there are four important statements that guide us.

1. There cannot be a curse without a cause
2. The enemy cannot just do things at his will; there has to be an open door.
3. Curses can be identified and broken.
4. The opposite of a curse is the blessing. The blessing counteracts the curse and keeps us free.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:24-26

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he devotes a few words that really typify the Christian burdened with a curse. The curse has been invited into a person’s life through an open door. We’ll look at several ways curses are invited into our lives, but first let’s read the Biblical foundation for both curses and blessings.

Deuteronomy 28:1-2 “Now it shall come to pass, If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord 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 all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

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 with I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.”

From these passages we learn the cause for a blessing and for a curse. The primary cause of a blessing is obedience, and conversely, the primary cause of a curse is disobedience, or rebellion. Rebellion manifests itself in various ways, which opens the door to people receiving curses. The classic Biblical example of this from the Book of Numbers is Israel’s refusal to enter Canaan which created a generational curse on them (Numbers 14:32-33). This curse was placed on the children until the parents all died after 40 years.

 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.  And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. Numbers 14:32-23

Disobedience brings the curse. Nothing makes that clearer than the disobedience of Adam and Eve where they were each recipients of a curse.

 To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”  Genesis 3:16-19

Can you think of acts of disobedience you have committed? Take each one and ask God’s forgiveness.

dmcb

Comment: