Self Imposed Curse

Jack said to his wife, "I'm sick of the way you serve our meals." By these words he unwittingly brought upon himself a curse of indigestion that continued to afflict him for the rest of his life.

With this example in mind, it is time now to examine more thoroughly this whole area of self-imposed curses. It is of vital importance for all who are concerned about their own personal welfare. It uniquely exposes the frightening power of the words we speak about ourselves. They are frequently like boomerangs, which come flying back to strike the one who spoke them.

In Matthew 12:36-37 Jesus gives a solemn warning about the danger of words carelessly spoken:

"But l say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Jesus here focuses on "idle words" - that is, words spoken carelessly, without premeditation. Often when a person says something foolish or negative about himself, he then excuses himself by saying, "But I didn't really mean it." Yet it is precisely against words of this kind, which people "don'* really mean", that Jesus warns us. The fact that the "doesn't really mean them" does not in any way minimise or cancel the effect of his words. Nor does it release him from his accountability.

In Proverbs 6:2 (NW) Solomon warns a person who has unwisely put up security for a neighbour:

"You have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth."

This is only one of countless ways in which people are "ensnared by the words of their mouths". We may easily be caught in a snare of this kind without realising it, but to get free demands the conscious application of biblical principles. We need to remember that God takes our words seriously, even when we ourselves do not. Mark 14:66-72 records how, in the court of the high priest, Peter three times denied that he was a disciple of Jesus. To enforce his third denial, he actually "began to curse and swear". In other words, he invoked a curse on himself.

Peter was quickly stricken with remorse, but it is doubtful even so that he understood the full implication of his own words. Three days later, at the empty tomb, the angels told the women, "Go and tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you into Galilee" (Mark 16:7). Peter was no longer reckoned as being one of the disciples. By his own words he had forfeited his standing as a disciple of Jesus.

Later, John 21:15-17 records how, by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus graciously opened the way for Peter to regain his standing as a disciple. He asked Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" Peter answered each time in the affirmative, but he was grieved that Jesus put the question three times. He did not realise that Jesus was leading him in this way to revoke his previous denials. For each time that he had made a wrong confession, he now made the right confession. On this basis, he was reinstated as a disciple.

The way Jesus dealt with Peter establishes a pattern for all who need to be released from the snare of a bad confession. There are three successive steps: Repent - Revoke - Replace. First, we must acknowledge that we have made a wrong confession and repent of it. Second, we must revoke it - that is, we must unsay, or cancel, whatever we said that was wrong. Third, we must replace our previous wrong confession with the right one. These three steps, taken in faith, can release us from the snare.

Genesis 27:12-13 provides another example of a self-imposed curse. Rebecca was persuading her son Jacob to deceive Isaac, his father, in order to obtain his blessing (which Isaac intended to pronounce on his other son, Esau). Jacob was eager for the blessing, but fearful of the consequences if Isaac should discover his deception.

"Perhaps my father will feel me," he said, "and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing." Rebecca responded immediately, "Let your curse be on me, my son."

Rebecca's plan to obtain the blessing for Jacob succeeded, but her own words exposed her to a curse which kept her from enjoying the fruits of her success. Her mood quickly became one of pessimism and cynicism. Soon afterwards we find her saying to Isaac:

"I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth ... what good will my life be to me?" (Genesis 27:46)

Almost immediately, too, Jacob had to leave home to escape the vengeance of his brother, Esau, and he was gone for about twenty years. The Bible tells us nothing about the rest of Rebecca's life or about the time and manner of her death. It would seem, however, that she never had the satisfaction of seeing Jacob enjoying the blessing that her deceptive scheme had obtained for him.

Over the years I have heard many people speak about themselves in the same way as Rebecca: "I'm tired of living..

Nothing ever goes right.... What's the use, I give up!

I might as well be dead I have learned by experience that expressions such as these almost always indicate a self-imposed curse at work in the life of the one who utters them.

A much more tragic and far-reaching example of a self-imposed curse is depicted in Matthew 27:20-26. Against his own judgement, the Roman governor, Pilate, consents to release to the crowd a murderer named Barabbas and to impose the death sentence on Jesus instead. In order to disassociate himself from this act, however, he washes his hands in front of the crowd and says, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person. To this the crowd responds, "His blood be on us and on our children."

These words combined two forms of curse: a self-imposed curse on themselves; a relational curse on their descendants. The objective record of history confirms the outworking of both. Within one generation the Roman armies had destroyed Jerusalem, and either killed or sold into slavery the entire population.

Since that time, for nineteen centuries, a dark strand of bloodshed and tragedy has been interwoven in the destiny of the Jewish people. Time after time, in pogrom after pogrom, Gentile rulers have turned loose against defenceless Jews violent, depraved men of the calibre of Barabbas - the one whom they had chosen.

But thank God, that is not the end! God has provided a way of reconciliation and restoration. Through His unsearchable wisdom and His marvellous mercy, the death of the One who was executed as a criminal has provided a way of escape from the consequences of the curse. Chapter 17 will explain this in detail.

Earlier, in Chapter 8, we saw that when God originally called Abraham and blessed him, He also pronounced a curse on all who would curse him. Later, this curse was reaffirmed when Isaac blessed Jacob, and once more when Balaam pronounced a prophetic blessing on Israel as a nation. In this way God provided protection for Jacob and his descendants - the Jewish people - from all who would seek to put a curse on them. Subsequent history revealed, however, that there was one kind of curse from which even God could not protect His people: the curse they pronounced on themselves.

The same applies to Gentile Christians who have become heirs to Abraham's blessing through the new covenant initiated by Jesus. Included in the provisions of the covenant is the right to invoke God's protection against curses that proceed from any external source. But there is one kind of curse against which even God cannot provide protection: the curses that Christians pronounce upon themselves.

This is one way in which Christians frequently bring upon themselves various kinds of trouble of which they do not understand the source. By speaking negative words about themselves, they shut themselves off from blessings and expose themselves to curses.

In this, too, the history of Israel provides a vivid example. Chapters 13 and 14 of Numbers record how Moses sent twelve tribal leaders to spy out the land of Canaan which God had promised to Israel as an inheritance. Two of them - Joshua and Caleb - returned with a positive report: "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." The other ten gave a negative report that focused on giants and walled cities. Their conclusion was: "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we."

In due course, the Lord pronounced His judgement. To all those Israelites who gave credence to the negative report He said: "Just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have murmured against Me shall fall in this wilderness." The carcasses of the unbelieving spies were the first to fall. To Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, the Lord promised that they would take possession of the land concerning which they had given a positive report.

All those spies - both the believing and the unbelieving -determined their own destiny by the words they spoke concerning themselves. Those who said, "We are able to enter the land," did enter it. Those who said, "We are not able," did not enter. God took them at their own word. He has not changed! To Christians, just as much as to Israelites, God still says, "Just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you."

Earlier, in Chapter 5, we listed seven characteristic conditions that may be marks of a curse. Often it is the way in which people speak about themselves that exposes them to these conditions. Without recognising it, such people are actually pronouncing curses upon themselves. To guard against this, they need to recognise the wrong forms of speech that they have been using and to cultivate new, positive speech patterns in their place.

The list below repeats the seven conditions that may indicate a curse, but adds under each heading typical forms of speech that commonly open people up to the condition described. These few examples should be sufficient to indicate the kinds of expressions that are dangerous and the areas in which it may be necessary to change. For our part, Ruth and I have learned to exercise continual vigilance and self-control in the way we speak about ourselves.

1. Mental and/or Emotional Breakdown

"It's driving me crazy!"

"I just can't take any more."

"It makes me mad to think. ..

2. Repeated or Chronic Sicknesses (especially if hereditary)

"Whenever there's a bug, I catch it."

"I'm sick and tired

"It runs in the family, so I guess I'm the next."

3. Barrenness, a Tendency to Miscarry or Related Female Problems

"I don't think I'll ever get pregnant!"

"I've got the 'curse' again."

"I just know I'm going to lose this one - I always do!"

4. Breakdown of Marriage and Family Alienation

"The palm reader said my husband would leave me." "Somehow I always knew my husband would find another woman."

"In our family we have always fought like cats and dogs."

5. Continuing Financial Insufficiency

"I never can make ends meet - my father was the same." "I can't afford to tithe."

"I hate those 'fat cats' who get all they ever want - it never happens to me!"

6. Being "accident-prone"

"It always happens to me!"

"I knew there was trouble ahead...

"I'm just a clumsy kind of person."

7. A History of Suicides and Unnatural or Untimely Deaths

"What's the use of living?"

"Over my dead body!"

"I'd rather die than go on the way I am."

People who use this negative kind of language are unconsciously inviting evil spirits to take them over. The type of evil spirit that responds is determined by the language used. There are classes of spirits that correspond to each of the seven categories listed above.

One kind of spirit that is particularly common is the spirit of "death". This responds to the kind of language listed under the category of "Suicides and Unnatural or Untimely Deaths". It produces a sense that life is meaningless and hopeless, and a morbid tendency to focus on thoughts of death. It is often manifested also in a never-ending series of physical infirmities, for many of which there is no obvious medical cause.

Ultimately, this spirit of death will either drive a person to suicide or cause untimely death in some other way. In John 8:44 Jesus warned us that Satan is a murderer. One of the agents that he uses to murder people is the spirit of death, which causes people to die before their time. When I shared this with a physician friend, he confirmed that he often saw people die when there was not sufficient medical cause to explain it.

It may be that in one or another of the categories listed above you have recognised things that you yourself have said. If so, don't be discouraged! There is a way out! Earlier in this chapter the apostle Peter provided an example of the three steps that are necessary to escape from a self-imposed curse:

Repent - Revoke - Replace.

First, we must recognise that we have made a negative confession about ourselves and we must repent of it. Second, we must revoke it - that is, unsay or cancel it. Third, we must replace our previous wrong confession with the right one. All this will be explained more fully in Chapter 21.

Another way in which people can bring a curse upon themselves is by pledges or oaths that are required for admission to a closed fraternity or sorority, or to a secret society. I recall a situation in which my first wife, Lydia, and I were seeking to help a Christian young woman be set free from demonic bondage. In spite of many prayers and struggles, there was no deliverance. Suddenly Lydia was prompted to tell the young woman to take off a ring she was wearing. As soon as she did so, she was set free without further struggles.

Lydia acted solely on the prompting of the Holy Spirit. She knew nothing about the ring, which was actually a college sorority ring. To join the sorority the young woman had been required to make certain pledges that were inconsistent with her Christian faith. By discarding the ring, she effectively cancelled those pledges and regained her liberty as a child of God.

On another occasion, Lydia and I were part of a group ministering to a young woman who confessed that she had been a priestess of Satan. She was wearing a ring that symbolised her "marriage" to Satan. When we told her she would have to take the ring off, she did so - but then, under the compulsion of Satan, she swallowed it. A young man present received a special anointing of faith, and commanded the woman to regurgitate the ring, which she promptly did! We then threw the ring into a nearby lake. The final stage in the woman's deliverance followed when she publicly burned all the clothes which she had worn while worshipping Satan.

Incidents such as these have made very real for me the directions given in Jude 23 (NASB):

Save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

In both the above instances, satanic bondage was associated with a ring. The significance of a ring is that it often symbolises a covenant relationship. In our Western culture, for example, it is normal for a man and his wife each to wear a ring, symbolising the covenant relationship of marriage. By biblical standards, a covenant is the most solemn and powerful form of relationship into which a person can enter, whether the covenant is between God and man, or between man and his fellow men. Satan is well aware of this, and he therefore exploits covenant relationships of his own making in order to gain the strongest possible control over people.

For this reason, in Exodus 23:32, God instructed the Israelites concerning the idolatrous nations of Canaan:

"You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods."

God was warning His people that if they entered into a covenant with the Canaanites who worshipped false gods, that covenant would bind them not merely to the Canaanites, but also to their gods. They would thus be bringing themselves into bondage to those gods.

One section of contemporary society to which this warning particularly applies is Freemasonry. Masons claim that nature of their association is a secret, but this is not correct. All the major rites and formulas of Freemasonry have been publicised at various times, both by people who were formerly Masons (including some who had advanced to the highest degree), and by others who have carefully examined material that is available to any competent researcher. For present purposes, it is sufficient to point out two facts about Freemasonry. First, in order to be initiated, a person has to bind himself, by the most cruel and barbarous oaths, never to reveal any of Masonry's secrets. It would be impossible to find anywhere a more frightening example of self-imposed curses than these oaths.

Second, Masonry is a false religion. Some Masons would deny that it is a religion, but here are some of the main features that clearly mark it as such: Masonry has its own revelation; its own temples; its own altars; its own religious symbols and emblems (which include a ring); its own confession of faith; its own priests; its own rituals. Finally, it has its own deity, a false god, whom it calls a "Creative Principle", or "the Great Architect of the Universe".

Masonry is a false religion, because it acknowledges a false god. Many of the objects and symbols associated with Christianity - including the Bible - are used in Masonry, but this is a deliberate deception. The god whom Masonry acknowledges is not the God of the Bible. Although the sacred, biblical name of four letters - JHVH (commonly spelled out as "Jehovah") -is used in Masonic literature, it is interpreted as referring to a divine entity that combines in itself both male and female principles. Again, the Royal Arch degree uses an abbreviated form of the name Jehovah in combination with abbreviated forms of two heathen deities, Baal and Osiris, and acknowledges this "combined" being as god. This is nothing short of a deliberate insult to the one true God revealed in the Bible as Jehovah'.

For my part, I had no interest at all in Freemasonry until I began to discover the harmful effects it had produced in the lives of people who came for prayer. Some of the most frightening examples that I have encountered of curses at work in people's lives were associated with Freemasonry. The effects were manifested in the second and third generations of those who had a Mason in their family background.

Anyone interested in a comprehensive study of this subject is referred to the book Freemasonry: An Interpretation by Martin L. Wagner (obtainable from HRT Ministries, Box 12, Newtonville, N.Y. 12128-0012).

One case made a special impression on me. At the close of a Sunday morning worship service in Australia, Ruth and I were praying for people who needed healing. One of those who came forward was a young woman whose dull eyes, unkempt hair and slurred voice suggested a background in the subculture. In her arms she carried a tiny baby.

"She just won't take anything to eat," the mother mumbled with her eyes averted. "Just an ounce or two at a time."

"How old is she?" we asked.

"Six weeks," the mother replied, but the baby looked more like six days than six weeks old.

When Ruth and I placed our hands on the mother to pray for her, she fell backward under the power of the Holy Spirit. As she fell, Ruth caught the baby from her and held it in her own arms. Two church workers began to pray for the mother on the floor.

Ruth then received a word of knowledge by the Holy Spirit. "Her father is a Freemason," she said to the two workers. "Tell her to renounce that spirit."

The mother on the floor struggled to get out the words, "I renounce.. . that spirit. . . of Freemasonry." As soon as she uttered those words, the evil spirit came out of her with a prolonged scream. At the same moment, the baby in Ruth's arms emitted a precisely similar scream, and then became limp. The workers helped the mother onto her feet, and Ruth' placed the baby back in her arms.

About six hours later we were back again in the same church for an evening service. At the close, the same young woman came up once more with her baby.

"How's she doing?" we asked.

"She's completely different," the mother replied. "She's taken three full bottles since the morning!" I could not help thinking that the mother, too, had undergone a dramatic change, which shone out of her eyes and sounded in the clarity of her voice.

I reflected later that in one brief encounter we had seen visible evidence of a curse due to Freemasonry that had carried over to at least two generations: from the father himself was a Mason, to his daughter and then to his granddaughter, a baby just six weeks old. I determined from then on that I would be diligent to warn people of the harm that Masons bring not only on themselves, but on the members of their families, even those who have no direct involvement in Freemasonry.

To all who have made a pledge or a vow binding them to an evil association, such as those mentioned above, Solomon offers an urgent word of counsel in Proverbs 6:4-5:

Give no sleep to your eyes,

Nor slumber to your eyelids.

Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,

And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

There are two minimum requirements for deliverance. First, you must make a verbal renunciation of your association. What you have said with your lips, only you can unsay. It is best to do this in the presence of sympathetic witnesses who will support you with their faith.

Second, you must get rid of, and destroy, all the emblems, books and other materials that were marks of your association. In all the three types of situations mentioned above a ring was of special significance. In the case of a Freemason, there would also be various other objects - particularly the apron. Remember the words of Jude 23: "...hating even the garment polluted by the flesh."