There is a certain mentality going around today in the American church that the devil is the cause of every negative thing that happens to us and that the devil has the power to independently (apart from God) make us sick, destroy finances and/or to cause just about any kind of trouble for us. There are teachings that say that the devil is source of the curses that come up on mankind and that we need to go through special deliverance to get rid of the devil and break the curses. But is that what the Scriptures say?
This question must be answered first: Is God sovereign or not? Does anything happen apart from His knowledge, His Word and His authority? Does Jesus have all authority in heaven and on the earth or does He just have some authority? If Jesus has all authority, then Satan has no authority except what the Lord gives him power to do in anyone’s life. If you find that Satan has ground in your life to cause trouble, loss, sickness and so on, then who do you need to go to for relief? Do you really need to speak to the devil about this? Who has all authority?
Who allowed or gave permission to the devil to be causing trouble for you? If the devil is causing trouble for you, then how did he get to do that unless Jesus told him to? Do you really think that the devil is independent of God, with his own authority and has separate power to freely do as he pleases against you? Sure, he can tempt you, tell you lies and try to influence you to sin, but can he really do damage to you unless he gets permission or instruction from God?
Authority
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth'” (Matt. 28:18)—so, if Jesus has all authority, then Satan has no authority except what Jesus gives him for the purposes of God.
It was God who removed the protection from Job and gave Satan power to kill Job’s children, destroy his wealth and to attack his body with sickness. It was God who sent an evil spirit on Saul before he tried to kill David. It was God who sent a lying and deceiving spirit to speak through the mouths of king Ahab’s false prophets so Ahab could be killed in battle. It was God who gave men over to degrading passions when they didn’t see fit to acknowledge Him any longer in Romans 1. It was God who turned anyone over to torturers (demons) who would not forgive from the heart in Matthew 18.
It was God who sent upon men a deluding influence (demons) causing them to believe a lie when they did not have a love of the truth so as to be saved in 2 Thessalonians 2. All authority belongs to God and His Son Jesus. He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings! He has total control of all the evil spirits and of Satan at all times and they do nothing except what He tells them to do or allows them to do. The Lord uses the demonic forces for His purposes to either test us or to execute His wrath on disobedience. We were never told to fear Satan or demons, but to only fear the Lord our God!
“Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad proceed?” (Lam. 3:37,38).
The Source of Curses
The Lord pronounced all the major curses in the Bible, not Satan. The Lord cursed men who rebelled. The Lord cursed men who set up idols in their hearts. The Lord cursed those who disobeyed Him. The Lord delivered the curse of the father’s sins on the third and fourth generation. The Lord cursed anyone who dishonors his parents, who distorts justice, who moves his neighbor’s boundary, who commits immorality, who gives false testimony and so on.
It is the Lord who said you would be cursed in the city and the country when you refused to obey Him and love Him with all your heart. He said you would be cursed when you come in and when you go out. It is the Lord who sends curses upon curses on all those who disobey Him (read Deut. 27). It is the Lord who has all authority to give life or to curse. I cannot find any curses in the Bible coming from Satan and certainly not upon a child of God from him.
“As the bird by flitting, as the swallow by flying, so the curse without cause will not alight” (Prov. 26:2).
So, if anyone finds themselves under the burden of a curse, it did not come unless there was a reason. If one is under the generational curses, then he should repent of the sins of his father and forefathers as God commanded. If he repents of his sins that he is now practicing and gives himself totally to God, then the curse is broken. If someone is in willful sin, then he is cursed by God, not by Satan.
If someone is trusting in another god, man-made religion, false hope and so on, then he is cursed by God, not by Satan. If someone is a pretender, a hypocrite playing church, then he is cursed by God, not by Satan. If someone does not have the love of the truth so as to be saved, then he is cursed by God and given over to a deluding influence by God and caused to believe a lie by God, not by Satan. If God sent the curse, how can it be broken unless we repent of the reason it came to start with and get right with God?
“Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
So, here is your deliverance from the devil and from a curse: Submit to God, repent of sin, and obey God and love Him with all your heart. Simple!
Listen to my latest podcast to learn more about why practicing Christians are still practicing sin. {eoa}
Don Britton is a businessman and has been studying and teaching the Bible for 37 years without any allegiance to any particular denomination. He had no perceived beliefs about God or the Bible when he gave his life totally to the Lord 40 years ago. His book, The Great Deception of American Christianity, goes into much detail about some of the myths believed by many people today. It is available on Amazon and his website.
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