Oct 20, '08 3:40 PM

"As the sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying, so the causeless curse shall not alight."  (Proverbs 26:2, Amplified Version)

"How can I curse those God has not cursed? Or how can I [violently] denounce those the LORD has not denounced?"  (Numbers 23:8, Amplified Version)

Last week we did a Coffee Break in which I noted that the Obama family in Mombassa, Kenya had orchestrated a daily ritual among the local witches, warlocks, shamans and practicers of the occult.  That ritual included their rising daily at 3:00 AM to pronounce curses against John McCain and Sarah Palin.  In that same Coffee Break, I invited those of you who will to join us in sending those curses back where they came from.  Today I'd like to take a few minutes and share with you some of my own personal experiences in this realm.

Anyway, Good Morning, all you Blessed People!  Sorta got started there a bit different than normal.  Pull up a chair, set a spell, and pour yourself a cup of this good Columbian brew.

By my best recollection, the year was 1980.  The Alaska Pipeline was in full operation and oil was flowing out of the Prudhoe Bay fields at near pipeline capacity.  The economic benefit to America was enormous because we now had a huge source of domestic oil flowing to replace oil we'd been buying abroad.

I was heading up CBN's operations in Alaska, growing the broadcast ministry of the 700 Club throughout Alaskan communities primarily through the profits from two businesses -- Arctic Slope Audio (a retail electronics business) and North Slope Communications (a UHF-VHF business radio communication supplier for government and corporate entities) -- and pastoring Inupiat Christian Center in Barrow at the same time.  Wheww!  I look back now and wonder how I kept up with it all.

The business operations and broadcast ministry were both in high gear, but it was the ministry at Inupiat Christian Center that was creating a furor amongst religious people.  We were dealing with some pretty heavy demonic activity in the arctic, and the ministry of deliverance -- by itself -- provokes controversy.

As the opposition to our ministry in the realm of deliverance increased, our family began receiving hate mail and death threats on a consistent basis.  I can't even begin to tell you how many times I answered the phone only to hear a muffled voice on the other end of the line saying something like, "The next time you step out the door, you're going to get a bullet through the face," or perhaps, "You're a dead man, you know."

My children began to be threatened and attacked.  Debbie -- our oldest daughter (and an adopted Eskimo -- was shot at six times.  Chris and Melodie were assaulted on numerous occasions on their way home from school.  There were a couple of times when they came home bruised and bloodied after being attacked in the dark (this was during the 66-day dark cycle when the sun never rises).  Young men in their twenties would lie in wait for them knowing the route they walked coming home from school, grab them, pick them up and throw them in mid-air against the side of a building repeatedly, and then run away.

Accusations of criminal activity were being leveled against me.  I'll never forget the day there was a knock at the door.  When I answered, there were two police officers with guns drawn and pointed at me, demanding to come in and search my home.  Whatever the accusation was, the most mystifying part was the fact that in the process of raiding our bedroom, they took sheets, bedding and clothing, bagged them up and walked out the door without a word.  We never got an explanation, and the items were never returned.  No charges were ever filed.

Driving down the street one day, headed toward our retail business (Arctic Slope Audio), a rifle shot rang out, and a bullet penetrated the van I was driving just inches behind me.  A few weeks later, I was in a construction shack on land we had acquired for building a new church going over the drawings of the planned building with one of the elders in our church.  We were standing in front of a window talking, and suddenly pulled back from each other.  It was an involuntary and spontaneous thing -- obviously orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.  As we drew back from each other, the window exploded between us and a bullet narrowly missed me.

I opened the door, looked out, and saw a man standing about 300 feet away with a rifle and scope aimed at me.  I hollered at him, "Hey!  What do you think you're doing?" and took off running towards him.  It obviously was not what he was expecting and shocked him.  He dropped the rifle as he turned to run in the opposite direction.  He reached down, snatched up the weapon, took off running around the corner to a waiting vehicle and took off.

If I were to say that things were getting pretty intense, you could easily appreciate it.  Pardon me for getting so graphic here, but I'm drawing a picture to help you understand the nature of this spiritual opposition.

It was about the same time as this latter event that Scott Hessek called me from CBN in Virginia Beach.  Scott was the guy who initially hooked me up with CBN in the fall of 1976, and he and I had become pretty close friends.  He called me to let me know that Pat Robertson had just had a guest on the 700 Club who'd returned from a trip to Russia.  During the pre-show discussion (and again after the program had ended), this man had shared how he had learned of a group of men and women -- practicing witches, psychics, warlocks, etc. -- had decided to experiment with their so-called "psychic" power.

They had a hatred of America and decided to focus a series of curses against America's economy by specifically targeting the Alaska pipeline.  They were commanding the pipeline to blow up and cursing it on a daily basis.  They were also cursing Christian leaders in Alaska.

Scott said to me, "Brother, I know you're going through it right now, but hang in there.  God has positioned you for the defense of believers, and to protect the pipeline.  Now you know where the opposition is coming from, and you know how to deal with it."

It wasn't much later when I received another phone call -- this one from a Pastor Thornton in Kennewick, Washington.  We'd never met, I didn't know him (in fact, never heard of him), and he didn't know me.  The Holy Spirit awakened him that morning, gave him my name and phone number and gave him a vision of what I was going through and standing against.  His word to me was something like this, "Brother, we don't know each other, but the Lord obviously knows you.  You are standing in the gap for God's people.  The Lord spoke to Ezekiel one day and told him that He was searching for someone who would stand in the gap for His people.  In that instance, He told Ezekiel he had not found anyone.  In this instance, He found you and you agreed.  You are engaged in warfare against the enemy, and God wants you to know you are winning!  Stand fast, my brother.  Stand fast!  The victory has been given you."

I immediately called our church fellowship together for a week of fasting and prayer.  The following Sunday, we went as a group to the beach and stretched our hands out towards the general direction of Russia.  We spoke with one voice and in full accord, "We cancel out this curse in the name of Jesus and send it back where it came from.  Whatever the Enemy has intended for harm here, we command it to return upon him."

We then asked the Lord to show up in the midst of those practicers of the occult and display His power and glory in such a manner as to halt their evil activities.

Within a matter of weeks the following events appeared in the local and national news.  The first event was a report that the FBI had learned of a plot to blow up the pipeline.  They caught the conspirators no more than hours or days before they would have created an explosion that would have taken the pipeline out of commission for many months.  The FBI investigators found plastic explosives already in place with radio-controlled triggers set to detonate at various key points.  The plot was interrupted before the devices could be set off.

The next event reported in the news was that there had been a massive explosion on the Siberian oil pipeline.  The destruction was such that it put the pipeline more than a year behind schedule.

The third report came months later.  We heard via some ministers in Russia that the group of witches, warlocks and psychics had broken up.  Apparently the Lord showed up in their midst (we never heard the exact details) in such a way that it scared the living daylights out of them.  Whatever God did, He ended their demonic conspiracy against the USA, against the Alaska Pipeline, and against Christian leaders.

The whole experience ended for me any question of the authority we have in Christ Jesus over the power of Satan -- no matter where or how he seeks to employ it.

When Flo Ellers sent out the email (and Jim Bramlett forwarded it on to me) concerning the meeting and the report that came from Bree Keyton concerning the curses being pronounced upon John McCain and Sarah Palin by those witches, warlocks, shamans and practicers of the occult in Mombassa, Kenya, it brought back a flood of memories of my own experiences in Barrow, Alaska, and the effectiveness we had as a small group of believers in reversing the curses.  Flo was kind enough to send me a CD recorded during Bree's meeting (I contacted her following the email) and I listened to her report as she detailed her experiences in Kenya.  I realized that it was time to mobilize Christians everywhere to exercise their authority in Christ Jesus.

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, the very first thing they were commanded to pray was, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."  By instructing prayer in this manner, Jesus made it clear that God restricts his involvement in the affairs of men to the way His people pray.  He certainly has the power to come banging out of Heaven and force His will on earth, but that would defeat His objective for a people who love Him and choose His will of their own volition.  Hence, he awaits the praise and worship, the prayers and the intercession of His people acting in concert and agreement with Him so that His will can be enacted on earth (and in earth -- us!) as it is already enacted in Heaven.  His Kingdom already rules in Heaven, but He expects us to act in agreement and in accord with His will in order to implement that will on the earth.

We don't have to be timid at all about reversing curses sent against God's people, against this nation and against those whom God has chosen for leadership.  The final authority to cancel out those curses is ours.  Let's go back to the verses with which we began this Coffee Break.  Curses are "causeless" (Hebrew: chinnam: devoid of cost, where innocence exists, for no reason) when we are covered by the blood of Jesus, when we meet God's conditions, and when we exercise the authority of the Throne of God in accordance with His will.

Take a look at the effort of Balak (Numbers 23), the King of the Moabites, to bring a curse upon Israel.  He was deathly afraid of Israel -- particularly after seeing how Israel was destroying nations far more powerful than they.  Balak knew that Israel's ability to defeat these nations was supernatural, that it came from a God far more powerful than the ones he and the Moabites served.  He decided, therefore, in his ignorance of God and God's blessing upon His people, that he would find a prophet in Israel who could be bought.  Since that prophet would speak from some (imagined) magical power, whatever curse or incantation he spoke would come to pass.  He would therefore have that prophet pronounce a curse upon Israel.

Folks, this is the root of all curses.  Fear!  Paralyzing fear!  Only those who have an unholy terror of God and His righteousness, and want nothing to do with Him and His people, seek to curse those people who live under the blessing of God.  Why else do you think evil and wicked individuals are attempting to cast spells and curse John McCain and Sarah Palin?  They've both taken a stand for righteousness and righteous issues.  Whether they have failings in other areas or not, they've put themselves squarely on God's side.  That makes them the target of those who are afraid of God's power and authority sweeping this nation and sweeping out the filth that has corrupted our courts, our laws and our government.

When Balaam was seduced by the offers of money, power over men, and the esteem he thought he could get by honoring Balak's request to curse Israel (prophets were feared in Israel, but not highly regarded, and they lacked the kind of civil authority that appealed to Balaam), he ran into a brick wall.....literally!  Being a prophet, however, he had the anointing of a prophet.  What Balaam didn't realize was that God's anointing would not permit him to speak curses against a nation of people in whom -- despite their failings and their sins against God -- the blessing of Abraham resided.  (see Genesis 12:3)

Any effort to curse the people of God using God's power and authority would be without cost and without -- and this is the important aspect! -- reason of guilt because they were answerable to God, and to God alone, NOT to any other nation or people!  Thus, when Balaam stood up to prophesy under the anointing of God, what came out of his mouth was not curse, but blessing.

"Rise up, Balak, and hear; listen close to me, son of Zippor; God is not a man that He should tell or act a lie, neither the son of man that He should feel repentance or compunction [for what He has promised].  Has He said, and shall He not do it?  Or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?  You see, I have received His command to bless Israel.  He has blessed, and I cannot reverse or qualify it.............

"Surely there is no enchantment with or against Jacob, neither is there any divination with or against Israel.  [In due season and even] now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God wrought!"  (Numbers 23:18-20; 23, Amplified Version)

Numbers 24 then goes on to show how Balaam finally willingly yielded to the Spirit of God and commanded the blessing on Israel that Balak was trying to prevent, and sent the curse that Balak intended back upon the Moabites AND all those nations that were rising up against the people of God!  The following chapter relates the rout of the Moabites in battle and all those who were attempting to curse Israel.

Finally, God's command to Israel (see Deuteronomy 23:3-6) was very specific concerning Moab and Ammon: "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.  Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.  Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever."

Yeowch!!  Pretty strong, wouldn't you say?  THAT, my friends is how God sees those who attempt to curse His people.

America was founded as a nation under God.  It was founded for the propagation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The efforts of people to curse the prospective leaders of this nation just because they represent righteousness and Godly leadership and Godly principles puts them in the same category as the Moabites and Ammonites.

That gives us the authority as believers in Jesus Christ to send those curses back where they came from and to declare and decree instead the blessing of the Lord upon John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Fellow Christians, will you agree with me on this?  Will you stand with us here at River Worship Center against these intended and causeless curses, instead declaring the blessing and favor of the Lord upon our next President and Vice-President?

Thank you.

"I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!”  -- President John Adams

"The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be abused by human depravity; and that they may even, in some instances be made subservient to the vilest purposes. Should, hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by the Supineness or venality of their Constituents, overleap the known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable rights of humanity: it will only serve to shew, that no compact among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting an inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other."  -- George Washington (fragments of the Draft First Inaugural Address, April 1789)

The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow!  (Proverbs 10:22)  Be blessed!