Conquering Curses - Pastor Mervin Jayaseela

If you’ve ever struggled in a relationship, you might have wondered why strife seems to be so much a part of how we relate to one another. The answer to this goes back all the way to the first man and woman and their disobedience towards God. The resulting curses pronounced over Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 were the horrible consequences of their sin, which brought in distortion and discord in all our relationships.

Essentially, sin destroyed our human capacity to have meaningful and fulfilling relationship, not only with God but with each other. Marriage, family and sexuality all paid the price. Dominating each other became the focus of fallen men and women. There is now a battle between the sexes instead of the original God-intended harmony of mutually interdependent relationships between them. The man who was to lovingly care for and nurture his wife would now seek to rule and control her, while the woman in turn would try to control and manipulate her husband.

IDENTIFYING THE INHERITED CURSES

A deeper look at how these ancient curses on Eve have affected women through the generations will give you fresh perspective into the areas of brokenness you might be struggling with today. This is not meant to intensify your pain or hopelessness. On the contrary, I believe the insights will bring you hope that, through Christ, every idol or curse which may be wrapped around your identity as a daughter of God can be uprooted and broken over your life, allowing you to become the beautiful woman you were ordained to be.

The inherited curses over women from Genesis 3:16 paint an unmistakable picture of sorrow, pain and striving for identity in relationships or marriage.

To the woman He said:
“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 (NKJV)

“I will greatly multiply your sorrows and your conception"

This first curse is the greatly multiplied emotional pain that women carry in their hearts. Studies show that women are twice more likely than men to suffer from anxiety, depression and fear. In fact, depression is a mental health issue that has higher incidence in women. Also, females are more commonly the victims of abuse, whether physical, sexual, within families or by partners. No doubt, the facts and figures seem to point to the fulfilment of this curse.

“In pain you shall bring forth children”

The pain or sorrow here is found in the worry of finding a suitable husband, the fear of not being married or the anxiety that your biological clock is ticking and you will soon be unable to bear children. Many women struggling with this pain give in to the sexual demands of men, and find themselves pregnant outside of marriage. The pain is also evident in the struggle to conceive, the fear and anxiety in pregnancy and in the complications while birthing a child.

"Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you”

This final curse over women is significant. “Desire" is used here to describe the sinful tendency to want to subdue, control and exploit your husband to meet your selfish personal needs and manage your insecurity. With it comes the need to manipulate your husband and reduce him to an instrument you can control.

THE IDOL OF RELATIONSHIP

Essentially, the tendency to control completely distorts your true identity, which was created "in the image and likeness of God”. At the heart of it is turning away from your true worship, adoration and trust in God and making relationships, particularly romantic, sexual and marital relationships a substitute god or an idol. Striving to find your identity in relationships or marriage will make you vulnerable. It can easily degrade your dignity, beauty and self-respect, causing you to give yourself to dishonourable, cruel and broken men who will use your weakness to dominate and abuse you.

The “relationship idol" promises a life of fulfilment, romance, love and satisfaction. Like all idols, however, it does not and cannot deliver what it promises. Rather, it intensifies the levels of rejection and stirs up a deeper striving and desperation for that elusive relationship. This idol tempts you into unrealistic fantasy which soon becomes addictive, which is why you see many women seduced into romance/porn/fantasy addictions. It continues to deceive you that true happiness is in the “next” relationship.

When relationships are your idol, you can be blinded into believing that you cannot be happy or fulfilled because you are not in a relationship.

It places the need for a boyfriend, a lover or husband above the need for God. Worse, it may even devalue you into using your sexuality to entice someone into a relationship. Too many women blinded by this idol enter into and remain in degrading and abusive relationships. The idol in their heart screams the lie that they are of no value without a boyfriend or husband, so they falsely believe that an abusive man is better than no man. Toxic emotions of fear, rejection and shame dominate their hearts when they are not in a relationship.

In marriage, the idol of relationship manifests as unrealistic demands and expectations. You may find yourself controlling, manipulating and placing undue demands on your partner or husband. Demands that are beyond the capacity of your man to provide. And when he cannot meet your expectations, your deep disappointment causes you to be highly critical. You seek to restrict your partner’s involvement in other areas of his life, whether to serve God, to minister to God’s people, or to focus on his work or career. Taken to extremes, you might even be jealous of the time your husband spends with the children.

INVITATION TO THE COURTROOMS OF HEAVEN

The patterns and conflicts I’ve talked about in relationships and marriage can transfer from generation to generation. This inherited behaviour, transgression and iniquity gives the enemy a legal right to continue this curse to our children and grandchildren. Most of us already have enough personal issues to supply the devil with a lifetime of accusations against us. If there is any allegiance to other gods or idols, the devil can exploit this in the Courtrooms of Heaven to resist the calling and purpose that God has designed for us.

In this passage from Isaiah 43:25-28, we see God inviting you to deal with the legal grounds and the curses that the enemy is holding against you.

“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.
Put Me in remembrance;
Let us contend together;
State your case, that you may be acquitted.
Your first father sinned,
And your mediators have transgressed against Me.
Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary;
I will give Jacob to the curse,
And Israel to reproaches.
Isaiah 43: 25-28 (NKJV)

God says, “State your case that you may be acquitted” and reminds you that He alone “blots out your transgression”. When all accusations against you are silenced, God has the legal advantage to deliver you from every curse and restore your destiny. When there was no mediator to appeal for Jacob and his generations (Israel), then they are given over to the curse and reproaches. In other words, not dealing with the inherited curses could affect you at a personal level and also affect your bloodline and the generations coming from you.

In these verses, we see two thing we need to do:

1. First, we need to be suitable mediators to enter the courtrooms in Christ, knowing how to deal with our own transgression, as well as our personal idols and any tendencies we have embraced.

2. Next, we need to deal with the sins of our “first father” and the ancient curses we have inherited through the generations. This is not your own personal sin, but sin connected to your bloodline. If there is sin that has contaminated your bloodline, even from thousands of years ago, it grants the accuser legal grounds to resist any intercession you bring to God the Father. This is why Nehemiah, Daniel and others repented for the sins of their forefathers. They understood that until these sins were dealt with legally, the resulting curses would continue to plague their lives. The devil would have legal grounds to afflict and hold them until that legal reason was taken away.

BREAKING LEGAL GROUNDS AND CURSES

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
Revelation 12: 10-11 (NKJV)

Here we are given the legal strategy through Jesus Christ’s work on the cross for how to overcome the accuser “who accused them before our God day and night”. You and I can stand in Christ before our God, and appropriate the blood of Christ for our sins and the sins of the “first father” or our generations. We can bring our testimony of salvation through Christ as our legal appeal, and our surrender to the Lordship of Christ. This is the strong legal case that will release salvation, strength, the King’s rule and the working of the power of Christ in our lives to bring restoration, healing and blessing in every sphere!

Reflect, Apply and Pray:

Take some time now to reflect and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your inner emotional idols. It’s time to dethrone these idols and remove the resulting curses from your life, your relationships, your family and your ancestry. Look at the areas below to reflect, discern and apply from what you have read here:

Intense emotional struggles, pain, anxiety, depression and fear
Patterns of abuse – physical, sexual or verbal
Struggles with childbirth, childlessness, fear of pregnancy or childbearing
Controlling in relationships, or vulnerability towards cruel, broken and dominating men
Idol of relationship - romance, sex, marriage and family relationships take a higher priority than your relationship with God

If these and any other areas are a struggle, write them down. Then, humbly enter the Courtroom of Heaven to appeal before God, the Judge of all the world, to break both the patterns of sins and the resulting curses. The prayer below will help you in your journey:

Dear Father,

I come into the Courtrooms of Heaven to plead my case, and I come in the name of Jesus Christ my Advocate to intercede in the presence of God. I stand now to confess my sins and the sins of my bloodline on both my father's side and my mother's side. Please forgive me my sins [here confess and repent of the sins from the list given above or in another area the Holy Spirit is showing you].

I plead the Blood of Jesus to atone for my sins, and I acknowledge and nail my sins to the Cross of Jesus Christ. I ask that you remove the sin and the iniquity that has plagued my life all these years, especially in the areas of emotions, relationships, gender identity and sexuality.

Now, I stand and appropriate the Blood of Christ to atone for the sins of my bloodline – sins and transgressions committed in my ancestry since the beginning of time. Through the Blood of Christ, my testimony of salvation in Jesus Christ and my complete surrender to the Lordship of Christ, I break all accusations and remove all legal grounds that the enemy has held against me. In Christ, I uproot all iniquity, tendencies and effects of the resulting curses in my life.

I declare all legal accusations that the enemy has brought against me, null and void. I declare a verdict of blessing, favour and inheritance in the following areas [name the relevant areas, speaking blessings in Christ].

I declare, salvation, strength, the Kingdom of God and the power of Christ over my life, my family and my generations. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.