How to Pass From Curse to Blessing

That I want to deal with tonight, is how to pass from curse to blessing. I'll say that once more, how to pass from curse to blessing. I believe that this message can be of tremendous help to many of you here tonight.

I believe I've proved this over the past years, that this message can change lives, communities, churches and even nations. I believe there are many of you here tonight, who are fighting something that you don't fully understand in your own life.

Some kind of frustration, something that every time you're about to succeed, intervenes and keeps you from success. Something that holds you back from being a complete person, from being completely free, from being able to serve the Lord the way you would wish to, from leading a life of real victory.

I believe in many cases, the problem that you're fighting with, that you've never diagnosed, you've never come fully to grips with, is that there is a curse over your life. I'd like to tell you first of all, a little of how I myself was led into this truth.

Some years ago, in a Presbyterian Church in America, I was conducting a deliverance service. I'd come to the end of my message, and had not yet begun to minister. I was standing behind the pulpit, and on the front row, on my left, I noticed a family, father, mother and teenage daughter.

And as I glanced at them, it seemed to me, the Holy Spirit said to me, there's a curse over that family. I had no other reason, except that it seemed to me, the Lord showed it to me. So, I stepped from behind the pulpit, went up to the father, and said to him, Sir, I believe God has shown me, that there's a curse over your family.

Would you like me to revoke that curse, and release you from it, in the name of Jesus. And immediately he said yes. I had no idea at the time, why he so immediately accepted that statement. So I stepped back behind the pulpit, and said a short simple prayer, breaking the curse over that family.

And when I said that, in the name of Jesus, although I was not in contact with any of them, there was a visible physical reaction in each of them, when I broke the curse. Then I noticed that the girl, the teenage daughter, had her left leg in a cast, from above the thigh to the bottom of the foot.

So I went back to the father, and I said, would you like me to pray for the healing of your daughter's leg. And he said yes, but he said you need to know, that she's broken it three times in 18 months, and the doctors say it will not heal.

Now today, if I heard that one statement, that a person had broken the same leg three times in 18 months, I wouldn't have any other need to know, that there was a curse over that family. Well because the leg was in a cast, I said all I can do is just hold the cast in my hands, and pray.

And I did, and prayed a simple prayer. Now the story is more complicated, but I'll tell you that just the main outlines. Shortly afterwards, I got a letter from the father, thanking me for what had happened, and saying that when they went back the next time to the clinic, to have the leg x-rayed.

The x-ray showed that it had healed, and she was soon out of the cast. Now as I meditated on that experience, this thought came to me. God showed me there was a curse over the family, and led me to break the curse, before he permitted me to pray for the healing of the daughter.

Why? My conclusion was that she could not have been healed, until the curse was revoked. In other words, the curse was an invisible barrier that kept her from the blessing that God wanted her to receive.

And then God began to deal with me about this whole matter of blessing and curse. And as I turned to the Scripture, I was amazed at how much the Bible has to say about it, and how little has been preached in most of the places and congregations that I'm familiar with.

Then I'll tell you an up-to-date testimony, which I heard when I was in South Africa, in November of last year. I met a Jewish lady, who's a believer in Jesus, saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit.

And she told me, and Ruth, this testimony personally. She was a very highly qualified executive secretary. And under the influence of some teaching that she'd heard, Christian teaching, she prayed to get the best paid job in her profession, in Cape Town.

And she got it. And she found herself working for a man who was a president of his own particular business. And she soon discovered that this man, and all the executives in the company, were in some strange kind of cult, that was led by a woman prophetess.

And in a little while, her boss said to her, our lady guru, whatever you want to call her, has pronounced blessings over all of us. We'd like you to type them out for us. Well when she started to type them, she discovered that they were anything but blessings, and as a committed Christian, she didn't feel free to type them.

So she went to her boss and explained the situation and said, I just don't feel free to type these. And the boss was very gracious and he said, I'm sorry but I didn't realize it would go against your conscience.

Of course we wouldn't ask you to do that. Now I don't know exactly what happened next, but my guess is that this lady guru heard about this incident and prayed some kind of a prayer for this executive secretary.

Which wasn't really too good a prayer. Anyhow, almost immediately after that, this lady began to develop acute arthritis in both hands. And her fingers curled up and became absolutely rigid and stiff.

She couldn't bend them, she couldn't do anything in her profession. And the pain was agonizing. She couldn't sleep at night, she couldn't sleep in the same bed with her husband, because every time he moved, the movement of the bed caused such pain in her fingers, that she couldn't sleep.

She went to a professional in this realm, a doctor, and he diagnosed it as rheumatoid arthritis. Well a friend of hers, another Christian lady, had heard my three messages that I mentioned here this evening.

Curses, cause and cure. And brought the cassettes to her friend, the executive secretary, to listen to. And they got through the three cassettes, to the end of the third, where I leave people in a prayer of release from any curse over their lives.

At that point, the cassette jammed. It wouldn't go forward, it wouldn't go back, and it wouldn't eject. Now that's a totally supernatural situation. But the lady who brought the cassette said, well as a matter of fact I typed out this prayer of release, and I have the typed version with me, I'll ask you to read that instead.

Well this Jewish lady was pretty sophisticated and she really didn't believe very much in curses. She thought there was something medieval. She'd listened to the cassettes, just to please her friend, and at first she didn't want to read this prayer of release.

But eventually she agreed with her friend to read the prayer, and as she read it out loud, and it doesn't last more than three or four minutes, her fingers uncurled, became completely free, the pain ceased, and by the time she had finished reading the prayer of release, she was perfectly healed.

She then went back to the same doctor and had him check her, and he said medically you are totally healed. That came only by one thing. There was no prayer for healing. All there was, was this prayer of release from a curse.

All right, now let's look at the Bible and see what it has to say about blessings and curses. First of all, there's a lot in the Bible about them. You'd be surprised how much there is. Both blessings and curses are usually expressed in words, either spoken words or written words.

But those words are not normal, ordinary words. They are words that are charged with supernatural power. And the power may be the power of God, or it may be the power of Satan. And one of the features about both cursings and blessings, is when they come, they usually continue from generation to generation to generation.

So that a person who is experiencing either blessing or cursing, may not easily discern where it comes from. Because it may be in the past, even hundreds of years. Interestingly enough, I was teaching on this in Adelaide, and we had a dramatic response there.

And a lady wrote me a letter afterwards. Her ancestors were from Scotland, they were from a clan called Nixon. And she knew, she had the historical evidence, which she gave me a photocopy of, that because of clan wars between the Scots and the English in the 16th century, the Bishop of the Church of Scotland had put a curse on that clan.

And she realized that, how many centuries later, four centuries later, things were happening in her family, which were due to that curse, that went back more than four centuries. Now you can be, raise your eyebrows and look surprised, but I'm going to show you biblical examples of this.

So curses and blessings are words that are charged with supernatural power. Maybe the power of God, maybe the power of the devil. They are words which impinge on people's lives, and to a large extent determine their destiny.

And most often they will go on from generation to generation, even for thousands of years. Now if there is a curse on your life, I want to say right out tonight, God can give you a solution. He has provided a solution.

But let me first of all give you an overall picture of this situation. First of all let's take a couple of examples of blessings. The first is in Genesis 22, where Abraham had just been willing to offer up his son Isaac in response to the Lord's requirement.

And then at the last moment the Lord provided a ram to be offered instead of Isaac. And then the Lord spoke to Abraham from heaven and he said in Genesis 22 verse 16, by myself I have sworn says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, in blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your seed or your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.

Notice that the blessing was going to go on to Isaac's descendants. And then it says in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. It's very important to notice the reason for the blessing.

Because Abraham obeyed God's voice. That is the basic reason for the blessing of God. Then if you look on a little further in Genesis chapter 27 you find how Isaac blessed his son Jacob. But the strange thing is, if you remember the story, that Isaac thought he was blessing Esau, who was the firstborn.

But while Esau was off hunting the venison, which Isaac had asked for, Rebekah, Isaac's husband, substituted Jacob, who was her favorite son. And in order to get away with the deception, because Isaac was blind, she dressed Jacob up in Esau's clothes.

And cooked a kid of the goats instead of the venison, serving it up the way her husband liked it. And took the skin of the kids of the goats and wrapped them around Jacob's neck and arms, so that he would seem hairy like Esau.

Because Jacob was a very smooth man and Esau was a very hairy man. So along comes Jacob pretending to be Esau, and Isaac checks and says, are you my son Esau? And Jacob says yes I am, he told the lie.

And then Isaac blessed him. And this is the blessing, I'll read it. Beginning of verse 24, then he, Isaac said, are you really my son Esau? He must have felt there was something strange. And he said I am.

And Isaac said, bring it near to me and I will eat of my son's gain, so that my soul may bless you. I think you have to see that Isaac was a little bit carnal. He wanted his stomach filled with his favorite food before he could pronounce the blessing.

And years ago I gave a teaching on how a wrong attitude to food corrupted the family life of Isaac. I wish I could do it today but I can't. So he brought it near to him and he ate and he brought him wine and he drank.

Then his father Isaac said to him, come near now and kiss me my son. And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his clothing. Remember it was Esau's clothing. And blessed him and said, surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.

Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren and let your mother's sons bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you. Understand that blessing was tremendous in its scope and it went on from generation to generation. Now a little while later, in comes Esau with the venison, tries to offer it to his father and his father realizes he's been deceived and that he blessed Jacob when he thought he was blessing Esau.

But listen, this is Isaac's reaction in verse 33, when he discovers the deception. Then Isaac trembled exceedingly and said, who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came and I have blessed him and indeed he shall be blessed.

Isn't that amazing? Because Isaac thought he was blessing Esau, but he knew the words that he'd pronounced didn't come from himself. You understand, it was a prophetic blessing and because it was prophetic, he couldn't unsay it.

So Jacob got the blessing, Esau didn't. But I want you to see the nature of blessing, that it's supernatural. It's not just a wishful thought, it's not just kind sentiments, it's something that is in supernaturally empowered and determines people's destinies.

That's true alike of blessing and curse. Now we're going to turn to the opposite theme, curses. First of all I'd like to turn for a moment to Proverbs 26 verse 2. Proverbs 26 2. Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight.

That's very important. If there is a curse, there's a cause for it. And in many cases, in order to be released from the curse, it's important to discover the cause. The curse never comes causeless. Now I'm going to look at some sources of curses, different sources of curses.

First of all God himself. God has many times pronounced a curse, on nations, on individuals. It's one of God's severest forms of judgment. I'd like to look first of all at the calling of Abraham, in Genesis chapter 12.

This is where God called Abraham, when he was still called Abraham, to go out from his city, Ur of the Chaldees, and so on. And there is actually seven stages to this call. If you look in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3.

Now the Lord has said to Abraham, get out of your country, from your kindred, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. Now note the sevenfold calling of Abraham. Number one, I will make you a great nation.

Number two, I will bless you. Number three, I will make your name great. Number four, you shall be a blessing. Number five, I will bless those who bless you. Number six, I will curse him who curses you.

And number seven, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That's the sevenfold call of Abraham, and God's sevenfold destiny for Abraham. But notice the sixth one, is a curse on everyone who curses Abraham.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And you see that goes for Abraham and his descendants, Isaac, Jacob, Israel and the Jewish people. That's a very important point for all of us to see.

When God calls a man to a special task, that man becomes the target of Satan's enmity, in a special way. And so God built in a protective clause for Abraham. He said I will curse him who curses you. What's that in modern language?

What is it that curses the descendants of Abraham? What's the word we use? Anti-semitism, that's right. So you see, God curses anti-semitism. In other words, anti-semitism brings a curse from God. That's God's protection of the Jewish people.

And you surely have to agree, they've needed it. So there's one factor, maybe that affects the life of some of you. Maybe you, or your parents, or your ancestors, have been enemies of the Jewish people.

You've spoken against them, you've criticized them, you've cursed them. Understand that will bring a curse on you and your life. Now I'm going to explain to you, how you can get free from that curse. But that's just one example.

And then in Deuteronomy 27, God ordained that when Israel came into their promised land, they were to pronounce upon themselves, 12 curses. If they disobeyed God in certain respects. It's found in Deuteronomy 27, beginning in verse 11, Moses commanded the people the same day, saying these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you've crossed over Jordan.

Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. And these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. They couldn't enter into the promised land, without being exposed to both a blessing, if they were obedient.

And a curse, if they were disobedient. There was no way into the promised land, but through that. And then 12 curses are listed. Now we will not go into them in detail, but I'll just read the first. The Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel, cursed is the one who makes any carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman and sets it up in secret.

And all the people shall answer and say Amen. All Israel had to invoke upon themselves a curse, if they became involved in idolatry, in worshipping false gods, or in what we call in modern English, the occult.

That's the first and primary cause of curses in people's lives, is involvement in idolatry, the worship of false gods, and the whole realm of the occult. And in Exodus chapter 20 verse 3, the first commandment, the Lord said, I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods beside me, you shall make no graven image to worship.

And he said, if you do, I will require it of the three following generations. It will not only be visited on you, but on the three subsequent generations. So you understand that you may be struggling with something in your life, here tonight, which is due to your grandfather, or even your great-grandfather, or your great-grandmother, or some other ancestor.

You see how important it is to diagnose and identify the problem. I'll just summarize the other main causes of curses, listed here in Deuteronomy chapter 27. First of all, as I've said, idolatry and false gods.

Second, dishonoring parents. And that's very, very important. I don't doubt that there are some of you here tonight, who have problems in your life, because your attitude to your parents is not right.

Remember the first commandment with a blessing, is the opposite. Honor thy father and mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. I want to tell you, in all my experience in Christian ministry, I have never met a person who dishonored father and mother, and had it well with them.

Never. I don't believe such a person exists. It automatically exposes you to a curse. Now I don't mean you have to agree with your parents, or even do everything they tell you to do. That depends on the way your parents are living.

But you have to honor them, as your parents. It's the first commandment with a promise of blessing. You understand? I don't know how many people I've met, whose lives have been straightened out, when they straightened out their attitude to their parents.

And I think of others who never did it, and who never were blessed. I think of one member of my family, who's dead. He died of cancer at the age of 40. He was saved, baptized in the Spirit and served the Lord.

But he never enjoyed the blessing of God, because he never put right his relationship with his mother, who was a spiritist. So he had all the problems you can imagine. But he could have escaped from them, if he dealt with his relationship with his mother.

See I'm not talking about theories. I'm talking about things that I know from experience. The next reason for curse is illicit or unnatural sex. Any form of unnatural sex brings a curse. Any form of homosexuality or bestiality will bring a curse.

Also, sexual relationships with members of your family, that are outside the permitted range. And today we have to acknowledge the fact, that there are millions of children, who are victimized by their fathers in the area of sex.

Then the fourth main reason, is injustice to the weak and helpless. In my whole series of tapes, I deal with the fact, that American Indians in the United States, placed a curse on the White House. Because the American government regularly broke its treaties with the American Indian.

And believe me, they know how to curse. They surely do. That's why from 1860 until 1980, every president elected in the 20th year, died in office. You can trace that back to two things. The American government's unfaithfulness to the American Indians, and the fact that Abraham Lincoln, who was the president elected in 1960, permitted an Aspiritist seance to be conducted in the White House, by his wife.

Who later ended in a mental institution. So you see how this thing, just doesn't affect individuals, it affects whole nations. Now I believe that the same would have happened for President Reagan. As you know, he was attempted, an attempt was made on assassinating him early in his presidency.

But just before he took the oath as president, a group of us, in a large meeting, combined in prayer and faith, and released him from the curse. Not just him, but broke the curse over the president. You see how near the curse came to being fulfilled, the bullet lodged within one inch of his heart.

But I believe that it was God's, in a sense, vindication of the prayer, that released the curse. You see. I hope you can see that this is no abstract theory. This is something that affects lives of people and nations everywhere.

Then another completely different kind, Jeremiah 17 verses 5 6. Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm or his strength, whose heart departs from the law. And this is the curse, listen.

For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. See that's typical of a person under a curse.

Everybody else is getting the rain, the blessing, the prosperity. But he, in the midst of it all, lives in a parched land and never sees it. Why? Because it's a curse. What's the cause of that curse? Cursed is the man who trusts in man, makes flesh his arm, relies on human ability and material resources, and whose heart departs from the law.

Now I believe that curse rests over many Christian churches, which have tasted of the grace of God, known what it is to be blessed by his grace. But then have turned away and begun trusting in their own efforts, their own intelligence, their own religion.

They'd made flesh their arm, the blessing of God has lifted, and in its place a curse has come over those congregations. I've preached in many congregations, but I was assured we're under a curse. And you struggle, and you fight, and you preach, but there are very few results, until the curse is dealt with.

Without turning there in Zechariah 5, Zechariah had a vision of a scroll that contained curses on both sides. One side was on the one who stole, and the other was on the one who perjured and swore falsely in the name of the Lord.

And it, this curse entered into the houses of people and destroyed their houses. See, a lot of houses are destroyed because a curse has come in. Families have broken up because of a curse. I wonder how many New Zealanders would be under a curse, if you included all those who stole and perjured themselves.

How many are not honest in their tax returns? You realize that that could bring a curse on you? I tell you in the United States it would include a lot of people, and many of them would be church goers.

Now the next area of sources is men representing God. We just take a few. The first is Joshua. In Joshua chapter 6 and verse 26. After the children of Israel had miraculously captured the city of Jericho, Joshua pronounced a curse on anybody who would rebuild it.

Joshua 6 26. Then Joshua charged them at that time saying, curse it be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho. He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn and with his youngest he shall set up its gates.

I think you found the New International Version says he shall lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn and at the cost of his youngest he shall set up its gates. Now that was pronounced round about 1300 or so before Christ.

Round about 800 before Christ, a man did that thing. We can read about that in first Kings chapter 16 verse 34. First Kings chapter 16 verse 34. In his days, the days of King Ahab, which is approximately four or five hundred years later.

In his days, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn and at the cost of his youngest son Sigub he set up its gates. According to the word of the Lord which he had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.

So 500 years later, the curse pronounced by Joshua was worked out in that man who rebuilt the city. It cost him two of his children. Can you imagine the doctors of that day, trying to find out the cause of their death.

No obvious medical reason, they just pined away. Can't find any virus, no known medical diagnosis and yet they died. The doctors didn't know that the cause went back 500 years. To a curse that had been pronounced by a man of God, as a judgment on a city which God determined should never be rebuilt.

Can you see, that you may be dealing with things in your life, of which the cause can go back hundreds of years. Another example is David's words in his song, after the death of Saul and Jonathan. In 2nd Samuel chapter 1 verse 21.

And I have to say, if you can take it in the right way, David was a tremendous cursor. I don't mean in the sense we'd use it today. But he pronounced some hair raising curses on some people. I mean, you read some of the Psalms, it makes your blood run cold, just to think of it.

See, that's part of the ministry of a man of God. Men of God not merely bless, they also curse. All right, this is what he said in this beautiful song about Saul and Jonathan. 2nd Samuel chapter 1 verse 21.

Oh mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, nor let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings. For the shield of the mighty is cast away there, the shield of Saul not anointed with oil. Is it, does it make sense to talk to mountains?

Or do you think that's just something strange? Well I want to tell you, those words were spoken about 1 ,000 years before Christ and we're now nearly 2 ,000 years after Christ. You can go to the mountains of Gilboa and there is no green vegetation on them, still today.

Trees and vegetation will grow on every other mountain all around. And the government of Israel, which is very keen on reforesting the country, has tried to plant trees on that mountain and they wouldn't grow.

What's the reason? Words spoken by David 3 ,000 years ago and the visible evidence is still there in the land of Israel today. That's real. If you don't, we don't need to turn there, but you remember the prophet Elisha had a servant named Gehazi.

Gehazi disobeyed Elisha, ran after Naaman after he'd been miraculously healed and asked for money and clothing and hid it from Elisha. And when he came back, Elisha said, didn't my spirit go with you?

And then he said this, the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian cleaved to thee and thy seed forever. And Naaman and Gehazi went out a leper as white as snow. What was that the result of? A curse, pronounced by a man of God.

Turn to the New Testament and Jesus. In Mark chapter 11, beginning at verse 12. Now the next day, when they, that's Jesus and the disciples, had come from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it.

And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. Now I believe, I'm not going to say for absolute sure, that in that type of fig tree, before the figs come, there's a small kind of round thing that comes first, which the Arabs call Nafal, which means that which falls.

Jesus was not so unreasonable as to expect figs when it was not the time, but he did come from the Nafal. But the teaching is, that if a tree doesn't bring forth the Nafal, the first preliminary thing, it will not bring forth figs either.

And so Jesus knew that that tree was fruitless. And what did he do? He spoke to the tree. Does that make sense? In response, Jesus said to it, let no one eat fruit from you ever again. And his disciples heard it.

I'm sure they thought our master is just a little bit, gone a little bit too far. Going on now to verse 20. Now in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 24 hours later the tree was totally dry.

And Peter remembering said to him, Rabbi look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. Notice he said to Jesus, you cursed it. That was the result. Jesus said have faith in God. And if you like to look just for one other passage, parallel passage, in Matthew 21, verse 21, the same story, says in verse 20, well when the disciples saw the tree, they marveled saying, how did the fig tree wither away so soon?

Jesus answered and said to them, assuredly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. What was done to the fig tree? It was cursed. But he said you can also speak to a mountain.

But notice he authorized them to curse things. He said you will not only do what is done to this fig tree. I tell you the power we have, if we could but realize it, is frightening. We're really rather like Moses, when God called him to go back to Egypt and deliver Israel.

He said I don't have anything, what can I go with? The Lord said to him, what's that in your hand? He said a shepherd's staff. The Lord said throw it on the ground. What happened? When it touched the ground, it became a snake.

And Moses ran from the very thing he'd been holding in his hand. And God said that's all you're going to need, is your staff. Go back to Egypt and do the job. You see a lot of us are like that, we're holding a staff in our hand.

We don't realize that if we throw it on the ground, it can turn to a snake. Let me tell you a story, it's a true story. About 1965, I was associate pastor in a church in Chicago. And right on the corner, flush with the church, wall to wall with the church, was a saloon, a pub, whatever you call them here.

Not only did they sell alcohol, but it was a place of prostitution and a place of drugs, illicit drugs. And we were having a prayer meeting in the church, sometime in October. And I was on the platform, one of those leading the prayer meeting.

And without premeditation, I stood up on the platform and I said in the name of Jesus, I curse that pub, that saloon. I didn't think much more about it. Just about Christmas time, I think just after Christmas, at 4 a .m. there was a phone call in our house.

Brother Prince, the church is burning, would you like to come and see it. Well I, it's very cold in Chicago and when at 4 a .m. it was probably 20 degrees below zero. I thought, no I really don't want to go and see it.

Then I thought, if I don't show any interest in the church burning, people will think I'm pretty indifferent. So Ruth, my first wife Lydia and I got into the car and drove down. And when we got near it, there were the flames up in the sky and the smoke rising in billows.

But when we got there, we discovered it wasn't the church. It was the liquor store, the pub. But the wind was blowing off the lake, Lake Michigan. And you call Wellington windy city. Let me tell you, Chicago is also called windy city.

It's very similar in that respect. And the wind was blowing the flames right onto the church. And as we got there, the wind changed 180 degrees and blew the flames in exactly the opposite direction, away from the church.

The result was, the pub was completely destroyed and the church suffered nothing but smoke damage. And the fire chief of the Chicago Fire Brigade said to one of the elders, he said, you people must have a special relationship with the man upstairs.

But that, you know what, that was the result of? A curse. When I saw what had happened, I thought, brother Prince, you better be pretty careful how you pray from now on. I didn't. I was like Moses. I was scared by what I had in my hand, you understand.

All right, now another source of curses, and this is very important, is people with relational authority. God has so ordered human society, that in certain situations, one person has authority over another person or persons.

The most obvious example is a father, who according to the Word of God, has authority over his family. Whether people like it or not, whether they fight it or not, is absolutely unimportant. The fact is, he has authority over his family.

If he doesn't use it, that's his problem. Another person who has authority, is a husband over his wife. They're very closely related. The Bible says, God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of the husband, the husband is the head of the woman.

Women's labors can say what they like about it, but the fact remains it's true. And they can't change it by objecting to it. And I'm not anti-women, I think that's obvious. Never has been my problem.

I better not get into that. Well, where are we? Yeah, let's take the the case of Jacob and his family. Jacob had served for a long time, more than 14 years, with his uncle Laban. He'd acquired two wives and two concubines, and 11 children.