REMOVING THE EFFECTS OF WORDS SPOKEN AGAINST US
“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” When my brother and sister and I would fight as kids, we’d retort using that phrase. But in looking back, I think you’d have to be superhuman not to have spiteful words affect you. Many of us as adults are still being affected by the things spoken against us. We can reverse and eliminate that baggage.
In many Pagan religions, when they got together to put a curse on someone, they believed that spirits went out with the curse to make sure they got the results. Curses were powerful in the old days, but are still very much in effect today as well.
The story of King Balak and the Israelites in Numbers 22 gives us a prototype of what curses do and the antidote. The principles still apply today, over 3000 years later.
The Israelites were on their way to the blessing, the peace and the good life God promised them. They met up with two very renowned kings and asked to pass through their domain. The kings said no, and came against the Israelites. Everyone figured the Israelites would get wiped out because these kings were very well equipped and strong, but instead the two kings were defeated. The defeat of the mighty kings shook the world around them. When King Balak heard about the fallen kings, he was afraid for his land and his kingdom because the Israelites were coming there next.
“Balak saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: [He] said ‘Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field’” (Num. 22:2-4).
Balak and the people back then believed in the power of the words spoken by prophets and soothsayers. They believed in the spiritual powers backing the words these people spoke. There was a very famous soothsayer named Balaam. He was not an Israelite. He lived over 400 miles north of where the Israelites were now traveling, and where Balak’s kingdom was. Balaam could be compared to a current day psychic, who may have some truth, but bad stuff as well. In Balaam’s case, God wouldn’t let him say anything against Israel.
King Balak sent his messengers up to get Balaam and bring him down to where he was. Balak was willing to send his men over 400 miles one way and then also pay Balaam a large amount of money for the curse because he knew it worked. This is the message he sent to Balaam: “Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot [know] that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed” (Num.22:6).
We can see from this verse many things about curses. First, we see that curses are directed not toward weak people, but against “mighty” ones. Next, we see that the purpose of the curse is to “smite” them. This word “smite” in the Hebrew is a powerful word and has many synonyms including: “to strike home, strike deep, to wound or kill. It means to “beat, to overpower, overcome, crush, stop, ruin, plunder, suppress, lay waste, attack and destroy.” This word “smite” also refers to being smitten like a plant is smitten when it begins to wither.
King Balak believed that just the words of Balaam in a curse (with the attached devil spirits to go with it) would “drive them [the Israelites] out of the land.” The word “drive” in Hebrew implies violence, power, anger, and hatred. It means to expel or cast out like mire is cast up by the sea. It carries with it the idea of shame and disgrace. It is a sentence of banishment.
Even today, when negative words and phrases have been spoken against us by people who believe in what they are saying, the same motivation and intent are behind it.
The Lord says we are His people. We are mighty in His sight. If you ever feel like you are on the right path with the Lord and you are being beaten at every turn or stopped or any of the other definitions of what it means to be smitten, then it just may be that a curse has been spoken against you.
Yes, there are groups of Satan worshipers that get together in our villages, cities, and suburbs for the exact purpose of speaking curses against God’s children. But often it’s much subtler.
Curses can come in answer to the simple question, “How’s so and so doing?” Answers like, “Oh she always has problems with her finances.” “He can’t seem to make a marriage work.” “She is sick all the time.”
But what’s sometimes more insidious than what other people say about us, are the curses we speak over ourselves. Things like: “My father died of a heart attack, it’ll probably get me too.” “I probably won’t ever get a better job.” When we say things like that, they can keep us in a state of being cursed, smitten, withered, or even violently spewed out of our own promised lands.
BUT THERE IS AN ANTIDOTE. On Balak’s second try to get Balaam to come and curse God’s people, Balaam did go. King Balak took Balaam up to the mountain top where he had a good view of the Israelites, but when it came to time to speak the curses, Balaam opened his mouth, and blessing words came out! After three tries from three different viewpoints, Balak was furious because Balaam could only speak what the Almighty God gave him, and that was words of blessing over the Israelites. Finally, on the last try, an amazing thing happened:
Balaam not only did not curse the Israelites, but he prophesied the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the one who would cut down and annihilate every possible curse ever! “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. A star shall come forth from [the descendants of] Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of [the descendants of] Israel and shall smite [remember the definition of “smite”] the princes of Moab and destroy all the sons of Sheth. And Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city” (Num. 22: 17-19).
Balaam says this is a parable. It is indeed a prophetic speaking, talking about how Jesus, the King of Kings, will come to rise out of Israel and “smite” the princes (devil spirits that instigate the curses) of Moab and Jesus shall have dominion and destroy any curses that remain to this very day. And that “day” includes the present day, 2019!
Galatians 3:13 tells us the truth about curses: “Christ purchased our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of the Law and its condemnation by becoming a curse for us.” All the things spoken against us, including the things we have recently said about ourselves, are wiped away when we believe what Jesus has done for us, not only in the spirit but in our hearts, our minds, our emotions, our decisions, and our bodies.
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 lists curses of the Law of Moses. In the King James Version it says God brings them, but truthfully, God only allows them if people aren’t able to accept redemption from them, or maybe don’t know that they can be free or know how to get there.
That’s why we have to get more of Jesus, and less of us, less of our intellect and reasoning, and more simple believing and receiving. I am right there with you on this.
Among the curses and their effects in Deuteronomy 28, are:
Vs. 20 – despair, confusion, and rebuke in every enterprise you try to do
Vs. 22 – consumption (emaciation, anorexia perhaps?), fever, inflammation
Vs. 27 – tumors
Vs. 28 – insanity, blindness
Vs. 29 – oppression, not prospering, being robbed
Vs. 30 – adultery, failure in business
Vs. 32 – sons and daughters turning away
Vs. 35 – problems with knees and legs
Vs. 61 – every sickness and every disease
If we take a look at some of these verses and see those things in ourselves, we’ve probably been cursed by words from our own mouths, words from others in our lives, or even curses that have come down into our lives through our ancestors, down into our blood and even physical makeup.
We rebuke those curses in the name of Jesus Christ. We call on the King of Kings to crush the powerful spirits who backed King Balak, and we accept new freedom and release as we both meekly and boldly follow the leading of Jesus Christ, the curse breaker, to our victory in Him.
Love, Carolyn
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