Blessings and curses are important for Christians to understand. Blessings bring peace, health, prosperity, and happiness. Curses bring misery, sickness, strife, and death.
Blessings and curses are spiritual words that release spiritual power. These words cause spiritual power to operate in a person’s life. They have actual effects in the earth.
Blessings and cursings often operate through spoken words. This is one reason the Bible says the power of life and death is in the tongue.
God’s word is powerful. Through his word he blesses people and curses people. He blessed those who obeyed his word and cursed those who disobeyed (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).
When God blesses someone that person has a supernatural divine power operating in his life that causes things to go well for him.
Abraham was a man who God blessed. Because of this blessing, Abraham prospered. He won battles, gained territory, had many descendants, and gained much influence. When Abraham was old, he transmitted this blessing to his son, Isaac. Then Isaac prospered because of this blessing. When Isaac was old, both his sons Jacob and Esau wanted this blessing for themselves. They saw what this blessing had done for their father and grandfather, and they both wanted it. Jacob ultimately prevailed and received this blessing. Then Jacob transmitted this powerful blessing to his 12 sons. From there the blessing of Abraham passed on to all the children of Israel. Now the blessing of Abraham comes on all those who believe in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:14). If you are a born again child of God, you are blessed with this powerful blessing of God.
In the Old Testament, the blessing of God caused people to gain territory, get money, have many children, and win wars.
The natural blessings of the Old Testament are symbols of the spiritual blessings of the New Testament. We inherit a spiritual land by the Holy Spirit, not actual land. We get spiritual riches, not material riches. We have the presence of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We win people to the Lord and have spiritual children. And we defeat demons and fallen angels rather than conquer people.
We can use our tongues for blessings or cursings. Our words are not meaningless, but they carry spiritual power. Jesus said that we will give an account for every idle word that we speak (Matthew 12:36). Even idle or careless words have spiritual effects.
Sometimes we curse ourselves.
“This is driving me crazy.” We don’t want to be driven crazy by something.
“This runs in my family so I will get it too.”
“I just know this is not going to work.” This is not a good way to start a project.
“I never have enough money.”
“I’m always getting into trouble.”
“I’m always sick.”
“I’d rather die than go through life like that.”
These curses can drag us down. Sometimes we curse other people.
“You always do that.”
“You never do that.”
“You’ll never amount to anything.”
“You’re stupid.”
We need to be careful to control our tongues so that we do not curse others.
Jesus commanded us not to curse people. He said that we should bless those who curse us (Luke 6:28). Paul said that we should bless those who persecute us. We should bless them and not curse them (Romans 12:14). James said we should only allow blessings to come out of our mouths, but not curses (James 3:10).
If we curse others, we disobey God.
Curses can affect Christians today. They can hinder us and drag us down.
We can be set free from curses by Jesus Christ. On the cross, Christ became a curse for us. Every curse was put on him so that we might be set free.
Jesus bought the right for us to be free from all curses. But freedom from curses is not automatic. We need to walk in freedom. Jesus took all sins on the cross to set us free from sin, but we need to go to Jesus to deliver us from the power of specific sins. In a similar way Jesus took all curses on the cross, but we need to come to him in order to be set free from the power of specific curses.
If we feel that we may be affected by a curse, God will help us identify where the curse came from. Maybe it came from a parent, from a friend, from an ancestor, or even from ourselves. When we identify the source of the curse, we should forgive that person who cursed us. Then we can pray for and bless that person. We should speak out against that curse and cancel it and all its effects over our lives.
Our tongues are powerful. Just like we receive forgiveness by speaking out a confession to God, so we can break curses by speaking out a renunciation of those curses.
The power of life and death is in the tongue. This spiritual power is often manifested in blessing and cursing. Let us speak a blessing over ourselves, over our families, and over our friends and fellowship. Let us not curse. As we bless, the spiritual light and life of God will be increasingly revealed.
Lincoln House Churches 