Why Do Some Troubles Never Leave?

I've discovered by experience that a curse is a very real thing. The Bible has a great deal to say about curses. One thing it says is,

“the curse causeless shall not come.”

If a curse comes, it comes because of a cause.

I might as well illustrate this right now so that you get some idea of what I'm talking about. About just over a year ago, I was ministering in a Presbyterian church in St. Louis, and I taught on deliverance, and then we went down to the basement of the church for the deliverance service.

And I was teaching and ministering, and two rows from me in the second row, I saw what appeared to be a family: father, mother, and daughter. The daughter was apparently a teenager, and very conspicuously, she had her left leg in a cast from the thigh right down to the bottom of the foot. I didn't know them, but as I stood there, I had a very strong impression that the family was under a curse.

So I just spoke to the father, and I said, "I have the impression that your family is under a curse. Would you like me to pray and release you from that curse?" And he said, "Yes." So standing there and not touching any member of the family, I took authority in the name of Jesus and released that family from the curse.

And I have to say objectively, though I did not touch one member of the family at that time, there was a noticeable physical reaction in each member of the family as I broke the curse. Something happened that was physically visible.

Then I learned that the girl had broken her leg, I think three times in 18 months, the same leg. And that the doctor had said it no longer would set, infection had set in, it could not heal, and it would have to be amputated.

After having released them from the curse, I offered to pray for the girl's leg. Because it was in a cast, there was no possibility of any kind of visible evidence of healing, but I took the leg, raised it in my hands, prayed over it, and said, "I believe God has touched your leg." They went back to the hospital, had further X-ray, discovered that the wound had healed, and she was out of the cast within a few weeks. As far as I know, I heard from the father about a year later, her leg is totally healed.

Now, I do not believe that healing would ever have taken place if I had not previously broken the curse over the family. And I think we run into the one cause why sometimes we seem to minister and do all the right things, and yet there's no result.

Now, let me say there are certain things that I consider as evidence of a curse over a person or over a family. And one thing which is very characteristic of this case is the accident-prone person. The person who's always having unnatural accidents.

And I think of a member of my family who's now dead. Clever, able, gifted man. And yet the number of automobile accidents he had was unnatural. Apart from other things, he'd step on a pair of scissors, it would go up into his feet. If there was a deadly bug around, be sure it would get him.

And really, I have to say he's with the Lord now. He died of cancer. Very close member of my family. Looking back, I come to the conclusion that we failed to save him physically because we failed to deal with the root cause. Now, his mother was Jewish, and she was a spiritist. And furthermore, I'll have to say he hated his mother.

And looking back, I see that the evil influence from the spiritist mother was never fully canceled in that case. He was saved, baptized in the Spirit, served the Lord as a missionary for seven years. And yet, there was a dark shadow over that life that was never lifted.

Let me say this while I'm about it, and I'm not bringing you an ordered discourse today. I'm just speaking as things come to my mind. The first commandment with promise is this:

“Honour thy father and mother; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.”

Now, God means exactly what He says. And I'm totally convinced that if a person does not honor his father and mother, it never will be well with him, no matter how long he may live. He may be a saved believer, he may be a servant of God, but if he does not honor his father and mother, it never will be truly well with him all his days.