Self-Imposed
Then we come to another tremendously important area. Perhaps the most common of all, what I call self-imposed curses. People pronounce curses on themselves. In Genesis 27 we have the story of how Isaac was going to bless Esau and the mother Rebekah who is the first Yiddish yamama, if you know what Yiddish yamama is, switched them and she got Jacob acting like Esau and claiming the blessing. Jacob wasn’t reluctant but he was afraid and he said this in verse 11:
“Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing. But his mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son.”
She took on herself the curse that would have been to Jacob. It was a self-imposed curse. If you go to the end of the chapter, just the last verse, you’ll find Rebekah beginning to use very negative language about herself. Rebekah said to Isaac in verse 46:
“I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like those who are daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
“I’m tired of living. What’s the good of living?” That’s a typical statement by somebody who is under a curse. See? Never permit yourself to say that. Don’t make negative statements about yourself. Don’t say I’ll never be able to do this. I never succeed. I’m no use. I’m a failure. I just can’t take it anymore. And then you go on and you say I wish I were dead. I’d be better off dead. Do you know what you’re doing? You’re inviting the spirit of death. And he doesn’t take many invitations.
Ruth and I have dealt with countless people who needed to be delivered from the spirit of death because they’d invited it, they imposed a curse upon themselves. And we’ve learned one beautiful verse that has helped hundreds of people. I’ll share it with you, Psalm 118:17:
“I shall not die, but live, and declare [or proclaim] the works of the Lord.”
If you have made a negative remark about yourself, if you’ve imposed something negative on yourself, you need to revoke it by the positive. You see, as a remarkable example you know that Peter denied three times he knew the Lord. Later on after the resurrection beside the Sea of Galilee Jesus had a personal talk with Peter. And three times he said, “Do you love me?” He made Peter affirm three times that he loved him. Why did he do that? Because Peter had to revoke the negative statements he’d made before the crucifixion. See? So if we’ve said something negative and brought some dark shadow over us, we need to revoke the negative and replace it by the positive. And this verse is a perfect one. “I shall not die . . .” It doesn’t mean you’ll never die but it means that Satan is not going to kill you before your time.
“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” I think it would be good for all of us to say that. The first time you say it after me. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Now let’s all say it together this time. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Once more. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Now saying that may change the destiny of your life.
All right. Let’s go on to another example, the great tragedy of the Jewish history. In Matthew 27 Jesus is before Pilate and Pilate is willing to release him. We read in Matthew 27:24–25:
“When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather a tumult was rising, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: you see to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children.”
What’s that? A self-imposed curse. The great tragedy of Jewish history. And by those words a strand of tragedy was woven into Jewish history which was run for nineteen centuries. What a lesson not to say the wrong thing about ourselves.
I pointed out to you previously that God had protected Abraham against curses. He said, “Anyone that curses you, I will curse.” There’s just one area that God could not protect the Jewish people from, from themselves. And that’s true in our lives many times. God can protect us from everything except what we say about ourselves.
Replies
Yes we have to be even more careful of what we are speaking, and what we are thinking, What we are allowing people to speak over our lives.
I use to speak that way but now I speak in this way:
I Shall not die, but I SHALL LIVE, and declare the works of the Lord!!!
We have to speak positive things over our life and compel to do what is right by God.
Be mindful of the words you speak on self and others, our words carry power and they can do more harm than good if we not careful. Thank God for second chances and for protection. A lot of time we speak out of anger, hurt, disappointment, guilt, and ignorance. Paul states our tongue is a small organ that carries a lot of weight. Our tongue is like a ball of fire. So many times we speak before we think things through. Pray before speaking and in this way we won't say things that we will regret or we can't take back.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Does a imposed curse lead to generational curses? Yes, if we look at the verse we just read about Pilate washing his hands and the people said let his blood be on us and our children. Words are very powerful and sometime we wonder why we so many issues in life. The word says what a man think so is he and if we have negative thoughts we will act negative. I always to my children to speak to their self in the mirror and encourage yourself because that way when the strongholds come in you can fight them. The battlefield starts with the mind and if the enemy can control your thoughts then he got your heart. People commit self murder everyday by using words against themselves. I am over weight according to my doctor and my blood pressure was high at one time and she said to me when I was about 36 "If I can get you to live past 40 I am going good." Well guess what I did not take that negative comment and run with it, falling all over the ground, running and telling people my doctor said I was going to die. Now 6 years later I am kicking and still alive doing well ( not telling my age but you do the math. :)). If I would of started off talking about the negative things she said I could of been dead because I would of had my mind set that there was not need to continue on in life, let go ahead and make arrangements for somebody to take my children, all my dreams have been a lie but God proved her to be a lie. I was not going to start speaking that over my life. Just like when they did four or five mammograms because they thought it was cancer and I did not go back for about two years and when I did what they saw was gone. I speak life into me which is the Word of God.
Life and Death is in the power of the tongue we have what we say, I know I have been guilt in the past of doing this out of ignorance, but no more
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