Chapter 6
Understanding the Curse of the Bastard
In the last chapter, we showed that a Christian can be cursed. We showed that deliverance from curses requires faith. As with all the promises of God, each one must be received by faith. Just as Israel, though given the Promised Land, had to take each city by faith and obedience to divine revelation, so must Christians today take each of their promised blessings by such faith and obedience.
Let’s take a moment to examine how God led His people out of Egypt. Egypt was the land of bondage. He delivered them through Moses. They wandered in the wilderness of disobedience and unbelief. Deuteronomy 8:2 and 3 tell us what God was trying to get them to do.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
If they learned these lessons, they would have quickly graduated from the wilderness into their Promised Land. Instead, they continued to resist hearing the voice of the Lord, and naturally continued in their rebellious disobedience. Joshua 5:6 tells us that for this reason, and this reason alone, all the men of war died in the wilderness.17 How can you fight spiritual battles without learning to hear and obey the voice of the Lord like Joshua did?
Today, our deliverer is not Moses. Our deliverer is Jesus Christ. He will lead His people to a place of learning to hear and obey God. If they resist and remain stubbornly disobedient to hearing and obeying His voice, they will never cross over into the Promised Land of New Testament blessings. Instead, they will remain in the place of wilderness wandering. For example, Jesus came to bring a more than abundant life (John 10:10). And in I John 3:2, we learn that above all things, God wants us to prosper and be in health. But what does it take to receive this health and prosperity? The rest of the verse says that our souls must prosper.
How do our souls prosper? By believing and obeying the Word of God, which leads us to developing a personal relationship with The Word of God, Jesus Christ. He is the Living Word, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
In the book of Acts, the Christian church was in a whole different spiritual state. Signs, miracles, and wonders were happening daily. People were getting born again by the thousands. They were sharing their abundance with one another. Instead of spending a fortune on insurance and medical bills, and chasing after blessings, they were busy praising God and loving one another. They truly did esteem others better than themselves. They even burned their religious items and politically correct ideas. They were beginning to live in God’s New Testament Promised Land of blessings.
What caused the church to change from the Book of Acts when God has not changed, His Spirit has not changed, His gifts are without repentance, His love never fails, and His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting? If God doesn’t change, obviously the church has changed. And the church is the people. So read this as an individual to see what it can do to change your life, and not as a critical note against the church.
What has caused the church to do this? We have built walls and started splinters that became denominations, believing that we are the only ones that have the truth, over emphasizing small points, and trading knowledge for personal relationship with God, Jesus Christ, and one another. The only Christians that we fellowshipped with were the ones that believed our own religious doctrines, which we fought hard to hold onto, while the Spirit and the Word were saying, “No!” The church has thought that in order to have unity, there needed to be unity of doctrine. Suddenly, doctrines replaced relationship.
Some denominations that believed in healing now have their names all over hospitals, relying on doctors and medicine, more than our Lord Jesus Christ and our heavenly Father. Some that used to be Spirit-filled churches now reject the gifts of the Holy Spirit because they are not politically correct.
All these things did not happen overnight. When Eastern Europe and Russia were dominated by communism, the Christians risked their lives to protect and take care of one another. They never asked what their fellow believers’ doctrine was on the Holy Spirit, or when one should be baptized, or what day of the week one should worship.
We could go on an on with examples of such doctrinal divisions that have splintered us. When the iron curtain of communism came down in those countries, denominational doctrines were spoken and taught. Yet with the new freedom to speak openly, there were very few speaking of Jesus Christ and having personal relationship with Him, nor was the love of God lifted up above pet doctrines. Instead they sought after truth by their own intellectual understanding. But the only source of truth that we have today is the same source of truth that Adam and Eve had in the garden – hearing where God stood on things, and relating to Him instead of making up their own man-made rules and understandings.
Now that communism has fallen in Eastern Europe, religious prejudice has come in. Those who had risked their lives for one another in the days when Christianity was i
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Post new comment