The Process of Release

It’s good to be with you again, as we continue with our theme for this week, “From Curse to Blessing,” a theme that has the power to change the whole destiny of your life.

In my talk yesterday I explained that if there is some curse over your life (of which you have now become aware), you need to take the following four steps: Recognize, Repent, Renounce, Resist.

First of all, recognize the true nature of your problem and if possible the source or the cause of the curse—how it originally came in.

Second, repent of anything done by you or those connected with you which originally exposed you or them to the curse.

Third, renounce—take your stand against it and say, “From now on, it’s no longer mine. Jesus was made a curse that I might receive the blessing. It doesn’t belong to me, I don’t own it, I will not lay claim to it.”

And fourth, resist—take your stand against Satan and his power in the name of the Lord and just refuse to let him have any place in your life any longer.

Let me say those four words again because they are important: recognize, repent, renounce, resist.

Now, once you have done this, you are ready to come to God and to claim your release by a very specific prayer. Today I am going to explain to you the form of prayer that you need to use. I am going to state a number of different requirements which your prayer needs to fulfill in order to be thoroughly in line with God and with what He expects of you. I will state these requirements in order.

First of all, your faith must be based on God’s Word; therefore, establish a clear, scriptural basis in the Word of God for the prayer you are going to pray. Now I’ll give you some very powerful Scriptures which provide you with this basis in God’s Word.

First of all, the one we have been quoting all along, but I will quote it again. Galatians 3:13–14:

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus...” (NKJ)

Christ was made a curse on the cross and by that He has redeemed us, He has brought us back from the curse that we might receive the blessing. Then Ephesians 1:7:

“In Him [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (NKJ)

We see there that this redemption comes through the blood of Jesus and it goes with having our sins forgiven. Through the blood of Jesus we can have our sins forgiven and be brought back out of the hand of the devil, redeemed from the curse. Then Colossians 1:13–14:

“For [God] delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (NAS)

Through our faith in Jesus and His sacrificial death, God has delivered us from the domain of darkness. Notice that word “domain.” In the original Greek it is “authority”—that’s Satan’s kingdom. Satan has authority over the disobedient, the unbelieving, the unsaved. But through Jesus God has delivered us from that domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption. Note that key word, “redemption.” We have been bought back. We are no longer under the power of the curse because of the redeeming death and the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

And then in 1 John 3:8:

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (NKJ)

That’s a wonderful Scripture. Why did Jesus come? To destroy the works of the devil and that includes the curse.

And then again, Luke 10:19:

“Behold [Jesus says to His disciples], I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (NKJ)

Satan has power, but Jesus has given us power over the power of Satan and because of that nothing shall by any means hurt us.

All right. That’s a wonderful series of Scriptures on which to base your faith. Once you have based your faith on those Scriptures and their truth and grasped them as realities for yourself, the next thing you need to do is confess your faith in Christ, because Hebrews 3:1 says Jesus is the “High Priest of our confession.” It is our confessing our faith in Jesus that releases Him to operate in the supernatural realm on our behalf as our High Priest. If we do not make a confession, we do not release Him to operate on our behalf. No confession, no High Priest. But when you make the right confession, then He serves as your High Priest.

The third thing you need to do is commit yourself to obedience. Do you remember what I said? The blessings come to those who hear and obey the voice of God. So, once you are released from the curse, in order to remain free from the curse, you have to commit yourself to hear and obey the voice of God. Now, you don’t rely on your own efforts, your own righteousness, but when you make the commitment in faith that releases the grace of God in your life, enabling you to do what you have committed yourself to do in faith. So, commit yourself to obedience.

Fourthly, you need to confess any known sins by yourself or your ancestors. Now, why do I say your ancestors? Because it may be that it was the sin of your ancestors that exposed you, as one of their descendants, to the curse. Now, you do not bear the guilt of their sin, but you do suffer the consequences of their sins. I think I need to say that again. You do not bear the guilt, but you do suffer the consequences, which in this case is the curse. So, in order to escape from the curse, you need to deal with the sin that exposed you or your ancestors to the curse. You do that by confessing and asking God to forgive and to blot that sin out. Proverbs 28:13 says:

“He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” (NKJ)

Now, if you cover up sin, you won’t prosper, you won’t be blessed. But, if you confess and forsake sin—and that’s important, not just to confess but to forsake, to turn from your sin—then you will have God’s mercy, redemption from the curse.

The fifth thing you need to do is forgive all other persons. Jesus said in Mark 11:25:

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions.” (NAS)

That’s very important. Jesus makes it clear that if we hold unforgiveness and bitterness and resentment in our hearts when we pray, that will be a barrier to the answer to our prayer. It will keep us under the curse. So, by a decision of our will, when we pray we have to lay down any kind of resentment or bitterness or unforgiveness against any person and, in the measure in which we forgive others, God forgives us. If we want total forgiveness from God, we have to offer total forgiveness to others. It’s not really being super-spiritual, I call it “enlightened self-interest” to forgive other people.

The sixth thing you have to do is renounce all contact with the occult of secret societies, by yourself or your ancestors, for the same reason as I have already stated, and get rid of all contact objects—anything that in any way is associated with the occult. You have to get it out of your presence, out of your house. You have to be totally separated from it. You need to destroy it. Listen to what Moses said to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:25–26 about idols and things like that:

“You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it; but you shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.” (NKJ)

If you bring an accursed thing into your house, that brings the curse on you. You cannot expect deliverance from the curse if you keep any kind of a cursed thing in your house—any idol, any image, any charm, anything that is superstition, any horseshoe upside down—all those things. You have to get rid of them if you want to be released from the curse.

The seventh thing you have to do is release yourself in the name of Jesus. Let me give you two Scriptures: Joel 2:32:

“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered...” (KJV)

If you call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be delivered. Make sure of that. And then in Matthew 18:18, Jesus said:

“Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (NKJ)

So that gives you authority when you meet the conditions to loose yourself on earth. And when you do it on earth, you are loosed in heaven.

Let me very, very quickly cover those points again.

First of all, your whole operation must be based on faith in God’s Word.

Second, you must confess your faith in Christ.

Third, you must commit yourself to obedience.

Fourth, you must confess any known sins by yourself or your ancestors.

Fifth, you must forgive all other persons.

Sixth, you must renounce all contact with the occult or secret societies and get rid of all contact objects.

Seventh, you may then release yourself in the name of Jesus from the curse.

Now, if your prayer covers all these points, then you can have the assurance that you have fulfilled God’s requirements. You can trust in God’s mercy, faithfulness and power.

Our time is up for today but I will back with you again tomorrow at this same time. Listen carefully now: tomorrow I’ll be bringing this vitally important teaching to a climax. I’ll lead you, step by step, through the actual prayer of release, so be sure to tune in.