Whom God Has Blessed, No One Can Curse

by G A N James

Occultism

There is an unprecedented growing interest in occultism and superstition in society today. This interest in occultism and superstition seems to have impacted on every institution in society. Political, judicial, economic, commercial, educational, family, and religious institutions – every social institution -- seem to be in some form or the other showing interest, if not involved, in occultism and superstition. Obviously, such interest has seeped into the Christian religion giving rise to questionable practices and beliefs which are deceiving many.

Believers must be warned to be extremely careful.  This popular surge of interest in occultism, in its various forms such as pseudo-scientism, Rosicrucianism, mythology, psychic practices, witchcraft, voodoo or obeah, and such likes, has been perverting the Christian religion mainly through the influence of the pseudo-religious movement called the New Age movement.

New Age Movement

The New Age movement is a subtle undefined movement which seems to be a concoction of a corrupt combination of humanism, science, psychic practices, and all sorts of vain religious and diabolic beliefs and practices. As a result, superstitious ideas and practices that have absolutely no foundation in the Holy Scriptures are being popularly adopted into Christian teachings and practices.

Christian believers, more than ever before, need to be careful of the teachings which they accept, and must search the Holy Scriptures with the unction of the Holy Spirit for a proper understanding of the word of God. Some of these distorted teachings are becoming very popular, but Christian believers should realize that the popularity of a religious teaching or practice in no way means that it is necessarily based on divine truth.

Blessing and Cursing

It is within this prevailing trend of superstition in the Christian religion that the concept of blessing and cursing has become perverted and distorted by occultism among many Christians today.  For instance, the increasingly popular but misleading doctrine of the so-called ancestral or generational curse — a curse believed to be hereditary — is an occultist concept which is being naively accepted by some Christians in their quest for explanation for their problems and misfortunes in this life.

Many Christians today are severely tormented by nothing else but the fear of being under some sort of curse. Some are fighting their battles in church by invoking curses on others. At the same time, preachers and pastors are busy playing seers and sorcerers in churches. With their so-called revelations or visions of different types of curses on people, and who invoked these curses, they conjure up superstitious ideas, which plunge unwary Christians into tormenting fear, suspicion, and hatred. These beliefs and practices are clearly not of the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God inspires faith in the believer and does not bring tormenting fear.

The primary concept of a curse, in the context of the Holy Scriptures, refers to the detestable condition or situation of being in sin and rebellion against God. The curse is a direct consequence of the Fall of man. Therefore, there is actually nothing mystical or superstitious about it, since, in a true sense, all mankind is originally born under the curse, which, when rightly understood, means being in a morally and spiritually depraved condition. According to the Holy Scriptures, we were all “dead in trespasses and sins, in which [we] once walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Eph.3:1-3).  Therefore, in its true Scriptural sense, the curse is a universal phenomenon, in that all of mankind has inherited the curse of sin – princes and paupers, royalties and slaves, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, of all nations and tribes. Hence, contrary to the superstitious concept, the curse is not some sort of evil omen of misfortune invoked on or resting certain selective individuals, generations, or races.

There are ideas and practices, even from ancient times, that are associated with the superstitious concept of a curse as being some evil omen or spell which is mystically cast upon someone to bring misfortune or calamity. Ancient religions and mythologies are filled with these ideas. Whereas this superstitious concept of a curse involves various sorts of bizarre rituals and practices, and those involved in them are often deeply convinced that they are achieving their aims, in reality these exercises are vain. God has given no human being the power and authority to do harm to another in this way. But it is evident that from ancient to modern time people every where continue to engage in the vain and superstitious rituals and practices of cursing, and are usually convinced that these superstitions are effective.  Of course, there are many who engage in those practices and are not themselves convinced in their effectiveness, but practice them mainly to deceive others.

But is there any evidence in the Bible that the so-called black or white art of cursing when invoked by men against one another does work? Absolutely none! In fact, although the Scriptures make mentions of attempts of this sort of superstitious practices of cursing, it gives no instance of any one being a victim of such a curse.  There are at least two instances reported in the Bible when cursing was invoked, but these attempts were to no avail. For instance, King Balak seemed to have been convinced that cursing would have worked against the Israelites, and he hired a prophet called Balaam to curse the people of Israel for him, but it could not work (Num 22-24). Balaam was forced to acknowledge to the king Balak that no one could curse whom God did not — whom God has blessed, no man can curse.

In another instance in the Bible, Satan had envied the integrity and prosperity of a righteous man called Job, and had carefully considered ways of destroying him. But he disappointedly acknowledged to God he could not penetrate God’s protective hedge around Job. Satan is reported as telling God in Job 1:10: “Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.” In other words, Satan tried to curse Job, but recognized that there was no curse he could have brought upon Job because God had blessed Job.

Prosperity Gospel

A notable error that has lead to much misunderstanding of what are blessings and what are curses is the identification of the blessings of God with material wealth. Evidence shows that some people who live very profane and ungodly lives are very rich, famous, and even highly honored in society according to the standards and value-systems of this world. But can their worldly fame and fortune make them merit God’s blessing? Are they really blessed in the sight of God? Absolutely not!

Yet many people are being misguided into thinking that to attain these transitory things of this world is to attain true blessings, and to be deprived of them is to be under a curse. And so people who are poor of the material things of this world are frantically seeking mystics to rid them of these misperceived curses. Many Christians have derived their superstitious concept of blessings and curses from this vain philosophy of materialism: a vulgar philosophy which holds that material gain or profit is godliness or blessedness. It pitifully fails to see that even if a man gains the whole world and loses his own soul it profits him absolutely nothing, but that truly great gain is godliness with contentment. This vulgar materialistic philosophy is closely related to the so-called prosperity-gospel, which seeks to convince Christians that they are to have always the most and the best of this world’s goods and must never suffer adversities; hence, their trials and tribulations are due to the scourge of some sort of curse on their lives, invoked upon them by those who hate them, or inherited from their ancestors.

Nevertheless, the Bible declares in 1Ti 6:6-11: “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and it is clear that we can carry nothing out. But having food and clothing, we will be content. But they who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which plunge men into destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some having lusted after, they were seduced from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.”

I declare to you, dear saints of God, on the authority of the word of God, that trials and tribulations are not synonymous with curses. For, according to the Scriptures, they that shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim.3:16). And, for a fact, the highest form of blessedness in the sight of God is a godly life. A life truly blessed of God is a life of godliness in Christ.  And whom God has blessed, no one can curse.

Blessed in Christ

As pointed out earlier, the Bible refers to the curse of sin as a universal phenomenon affecting all of mankind because of the Fall of man. At the same time, it also presents the good news of God’s universal plan of deliverance from the curse of sin.  The Bible teaches that God by His wonderful grace in bringing salvation to mankind delivered us from the curse of sin. Therefore, deliverance from the curse of sin, it must be noted, requires no mystical or superstitious formula, but simple faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the Cross. We read in Gal 3:13 14: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (NKJ).

Thus all genuine believers in Christ are truly blessed. One songwriter declares: ‘He [Jesus] came to make His blessings flow as far as the curse is found.’ And whom God has blessed, no one can curse.Therefore, it is an affront to the grace and faithfulness of God for a Christian believer to ignore God’s promised blessings and research into past genealogical history looking for curses which were supposed to have been on his or her ancestors, and to identify himself or herself with such curses and then turn to a pastor or priest for deliverance from these assumed ancestral curses. If Christianity fundamentally rests upon belief in the atoning work of Christ on the Cross, let us believe in it and gratefully accept its full benefits if we are true Christian believers. The Bible declares triumphantly: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).

There are so many, whose lives have been bitterly tormented by this superstitious fear of being under a curse; they have had sleepless nights; they are almost nervous wrecks; they have brought further illnesses upon themselves, just because they have been deceived into thinking that they are cursed - that some evil person has brought a curse on them, or that they are bearing the curse of their ancestors. Believers in Christ, listen to me, as I appeal to you in the name of the Lord. Such a deception is nothing but the wiles and lies of the devil seeking to deprive you of the glorious awareness of your true blessedness as a believer in Christ. You are blessed in Christ and whom God has blessed, no one can curse.

And so, in closing, I declare to you, dear saints of God, on the authority of the word of God, that in Christ, you are blessed by God with all spiritual blessings whatever your condition or circumstances may be. You, who have accepted Christ, and are abiding in Him, are completely free from the curse of sin, and are blessed by God. No ancestral or generational curse can affect you. You do not need any preacher or priest to remove any curse from you because Christ, and Christ alone, has freed you from the curse of sin, if you have accepted and believed His redemptive work on your behalf. Not even Satan, the father of all evil doers, has the authority or power to inflict evil on God’s people without God’s permission; and, if God permits him, then the evil he means to inflict will work out for good for God’s people. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).

The Divine truth is every believer in Christ is blessed. And whom God has blessed, no one can curse.  Amen!

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