What is a Curse?

Chapter 3 - What Is A Curse?

A curse: to utter a wish of evil against someone, to utter or call for mischief, or for injury that can cause one to fall, to vex or arrest, all meant to bring people into great calamities.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary (which used the KJV to explain it’s definitions)

      Have you ever wondered why things go certain ways in your family? Have you ever wondered why certain things happened in your childhood? Or why cancer keeps showing up every generation in one family line but not others, or why alcohol or drug abuse keeps afflicting good people? Or how about why somebody is retarded? Why do we have such continuing violence in our family; and why do we seem to always want to get even? We claim things like, “I could never forgive you,” and hold onto our unforgiveness toward others for years. We could go on and on about problems. But we want to get to the solutions.

Have you ever wondered why weeds grow in your garden?

Genesis 3:17-19
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Obviously curses exist today. They are the fruit of disobedience and double-mindedness (Deuteronomy 28:15-29; James 1:6-8, 22). Curses were well known in the Old Testament. For example, Balaam was hired by King Balak to curse God’s people (Numbers 22:6). God cursed not only the serpent, the ground of Adam, and the capacity of Cain to grow anything at all, but he also cursed the woman in childbearing (Genesis 3 and 4).

Do curses exist still today? Well, do women still anguish in childbirth? Do men still have to sweat to make a living? In fact, why is it that women in many modern cultures even find it necessary to work to help with family finances? Are neglected, television baby-sat latch-key children the product of a family living under the blessings of God or under a curse in their alienation from God? Are fathers or mothers who abandon their families a blessing or a curse to them and their future generations?

The Power of Words

Notice in the examples of curses on Balaam and Adam, on Cain, and on other men and women, that the curses were delivered through words. Statements were made involving words. You see, words transmit spiritual power. God Himself used words to create the universe. When words are spoken by a being that has spiritual authority, the words they speak carry power. Of course, when God speaks, things happen! But realize also, that when we speak words from God, things happen also. This is how miracles are done in the name of Jesus Christ.

Just as the Holy Spirit brooded upon the waters, and then moved when God spoke the world into being, so does the Holy Spirit move as we speak words from God. Angels also help, as noted in Hebrews 1:14; ministering spirits are to help carry out the words of God spoken by believers. But oppositely, when a being with spiritual authority speaks evil, for example a curse, those words authorize devils (evil spirits), to exercise power against the object authorized by those cursed words. A drunken father, for example, who curses his children does more than just speak evil words. He literally authorizes devils to act upon those words that he has spoken because he has authority over those children. The Bible says that curses remain with mankind all the way through the Bible, even up to the last chapter in Revelation.

Revelation 22:3
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

The Bible also declares that Jesus Christ became a curse for every man, and that He hung on a tree for our curses.¹² How can it be that curses still exist among Christians and non-Christians alike, yet Jesus’ accomplished work on the cross set us free from curses?

We will explore this question more fully in chapter five. But the short answer is that Jesus Christ certainly did handle our curses. But like all of His works, each one must be received by faith. For example, I Peter 2:24 declares that by His stripes, we were healed. We already were healed of every sickness, disease, bruise, and infirmity. So why are so many Christians sick? For the very same reason they continue to labor under curses: they have not learned to receive by faith the deliverance that Jesus authorized us to freely take for ourselves.

Let’s take a look at how this often affects believe

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