Protecting Yourself from Spiritual Harm

Now, in Deuteronomy chapter 27, verses 15 through 26, we have twelve curses pronounced. And when Israel went into the Promised Land, they had to pronounce all these curses upon themselves. If they disobeyed the law, they automatically came under these curses. They couldn’t get into the Promised Land without.

And I think it’s very much the same, in a way, when we come into a relationship with God. If we’re obedient, we come under the blessings, but if we’re disobedient, we are in real danger of coming under the curses. Now, I’ll just give you my little summation of the things on which the curses are pronounced in Deuteronomy 27:15 and following.

Number one, once again, idolatry, false gods. That’s always the top of the list. Number two, disrespect for parents. And this is repeated in the New Testament, Ephesians 6,

“Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise—that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

My personal conviction is any person who does not honor his parents never will have it well with them. Never.

And I can think of scores of examples of people. That doesn’t mean you can’t get saved and speak in tongues and go to heaven when you die, but there’ll be something missing in the quality of your life until you adjust your relationship with your parents. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with your parents or do everything that they say, but you have to respect them.

I think of another young man I dealt with. He had a very bad relationship with his father. His father was dead, buried in a cemetery more than a thousand miles from where we were. But when this truth really penetrated, he took a journey of a thousand miles to the cemetery where his father was buried, went to the grave, knelt at it, confessed his wrong attitudes to his father, wept his heart out, and got up a different person. And from then, the course of his life changed.

Now, I know that there are lots of parents, especially today, you have a lot of reasons for having something against them. I understand that. I say there are no delinquent children, there are only delinquent parents. But nevertheless, if you want to have it well with you, you better do what God says. You can’t afford not to.

Then the next, and we must go quickly, in this list is treachery against a neighbor. And the book of Proverbs says,

“Whoever rewards evil for good, evil will never depart from his house.”

And then, injustice to the weak or the helpless. Personally, I can’t think of anything more weak or helpless than a baby in its mother’s womb. And personally, my conviction is anybody who deliberately procures an abortion comes under a curse. I would never minister to such a person without dealing with the curse.

I want you to understand, I’m not saying you’re cursed forever. Please understand. I’m telling you the problem because I’m going to show you the solution. And then, illicit or unnatural sex, especially incest. And again, I don’t know what the particular figures are here, but in the United States, it’s now estimated that one out of every four girls under ten has been sexually molested, and one out of every five boys under ten. And I cannot think myself that it will ever happen without a curse following.