How to identify and break curses
How do I know if I have a curse? The fact that you are considering this question indicates that you think there could be a curse operating in your life, or in the life of a loved one. A curse is often marked by something unusual such as repeated sickness, reoccurring financial poverty, or unnatural deaths in a family. But the good news is for those who believe in Jesus Christ, He has given us authority over all the power of the enemy.
Breaking curses
There are a number of indicators which can point out that there is a curse operating in our life. These indicators include:
Indication of curses:
1. Mental and emotional breakdown.
2. Repeated sickness, especially hereditary sickness where doctors can’t find the cause.
3. Feminine problems including barrenness, miscarriage, menstruation problems.
4. Breakdown of marriage and situations of family alienation.
5. Financial insufficiency, poverty. Sometimes poverty for a short period is just a test but if we are always in poverty it could be a curse.
6. Accident-prone.
7. History of unnatural deaths in family.
It is said that a curse can be like an evil thing moving up from the past. It is like a deep shadow.
“Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight.” (Proverbs 26:2.)
Reasons for curses:
1. Having false gods. (Exodus 20:3-4, Deuteronomy 27:15.)
2. Disrespect for parents. When we fail to our honour our parents the curses from the previous generations of our families come upon us. This can include any form of sickness or disease. There are 116 of these curses listed in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
3. Treachery against a neighbour. (Deuteronomy 27:17.)
4. Injustice to the weak. (Deuteronomy 27:18-19.)
5. Illicit sex. (Deuteronomy 27:20-23.) A curse can be the effect of wrong sexual relationships with those outside of marriage or with members of one’s family.
6. Perjury e.g. lying while giving evidence under oath. (Deuteronomy 27:25.)
7. Stealing. (Zechariah 5:1-4.)
8. Stinginess towards God. (Malachi 3:9.)
9. Perverting the gospel. (Galatians 1:8-9.)
10. Depending on the flesh. (Jeremiah 17:5.)
11. Anti-Semitism i.e. hatred of the Jews. (Genesis 12:3, Genesis 28:3 and 14.)
12. Involvement in the occult.
13. The words that people with relational authority (e.g. husband over wife, parents over children) speak over us have supernatural powers. E.g. a husband is cursing his wife by saying, “You cannot cook.” Parents are cursing a child by saying to a child, “You are no good.” Other things that can be said which are curses include, “You are useless,” “You are a failure,” “You’ll never be any good,” “You are hopeless,” “You will never achieve anything,” “You are a bad person,” “You are always a liar,” “It’s in the family and you are sure to get it.”
Self-imposed the curses:
You can also bring a curse over yourself by saying a self-imposed curse including: “Never be any good,” “I’ll never forgive myself.” “God doesn’t love me.” “I will never speak to… again.” “No one loves me.” “I want to die, I’m better off dead.”
Curses brought on by unscriptural covenants:
We are not to make any covenant with those who are not committed Christians. Exodus 23:32 says, “You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.”
Scripture says, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17.)
This scripture also reminds us that we should not enter into marriage with unbelievers because we shouldn’t be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Curses put on by the servants of Satan e.g. witch doctors, medicine men, tohungas etc.
Other reasons for curses include:
Objects in homes: We are to have no abominable thing in our home. (Deuteronomy 7:26.) E.g. objects of occult worship or worship of other gods e.g. Hindu gods. Many people buy objects from overseas that have been prayed over by demonised servants of Satan.
Soul ties:
These are unseen spiritual ties which can exist between us and another person as a result of adultery, fornication (especially past sexual relationships).
Ungodly soul ties can bring spiritual sickness.
The Bible says, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18.)
Examples of wrongful sex are as follows; Premarital sex; perverted sex; pornography; homosexuality; trial marriages; lesbianism; sexual abuse; oral sex; transvestism.
How to be released from the curse:
1. We must recognise that there is a curse.
2. We must repent from all sin and renounce it in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. We must resist the devil as it says in James 4:7, “Therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
4. Use the Word of God. The Word of God is powerful so you can declare out loud such Scriptures as Psalm 118:17 which says, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”
Remember Jesus said, “Behold I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing by any means shall hurt you.” (Luke 10:19.)
Prayer for deliverance from curses –
“I come to You Heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Your Son Jesus Christ. I search my heart and confess my sins especially unforgiveness, doubt, fear, unbelief, failure to honour my parents, any sexual sin and anything else that would separate me from You. I renounce all sin and I believe that I have received Your forgiveness.
I now renounce absolutely any curses spoken over me and any self-imposed curses. I forgive any person who has ever cursed me with wrong words or actions. I renounce all soulish ties with any other person. I also renounce any inner vows I have ever made against myself.
I believe that through the blood of Jesus Christ I am sanctified, made holy and set apart for God.
I specifically honour my parents and I forgive them. I renounce my own sins and the sins of my ancestors in the name of Jesus Christ.
I renounce all idolatry, witchcraft and anything of the occult and all hidden things of darkness. I believe that at the Cross of Jesus Christ I was delivered from every curse of the law. I call upon You, Lord Jesus, to set me free from every demonic power that has affected me.
I now renounce Satan and all his works. I hate his demons. I count them my enemies in the name of Jesus. I loose myself from every dark spirit, from every evil influence, from every satanic bondage, from every spirit in me that is not the Spirit of God. I command all such spirits to leave me now in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you Heavenly Father for setting me free! Amen!”