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Can Christians be cursed? 1 of 2, What the Lord said

1/25/2025

Hi all,

A word that is often talked about in Christian circles is 'curse'. As in, 'I am under a curse.' Or, 'I am under the curse of the generations.' It can be a phrase used for any pattern of sin or stress a person is trying to break and gain the victory over. And for some, literal curses from family members involved in the occult is very real.

Among the thousands of emails I get, a good number of them have to do with people saying they are under demonic attack. I have no doubt that is often very true. How and why does that happen to Christians?

A matter of authority
I had been thinking on Matthew 28:18, where Jesus said:"All authority (not power as KJV and others translate it) is given to me in heaven and in earth. Therefore you go into all the world and teach all nations, making disciples (lit; learners), teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you..."

I had been thinking how Jesus said all authority has been given to him....and I stopped. I thought:"If He has all authority, why is the world in such a mess?" Is the 'all authority' related only to sharing the gospel? How does it work?

So I asked Him one day as it was heavy upon me to know. He said:"I do have all authority in heaven and earth. Satan has none. The devil gets people to give him their authority, then he uses their authority against them. What you see in the world is the cumulative effect of generations and sometimes whole nations who have given their authority to him, which he has used to oppress millions upon millions, generation after generation, sometimes for centuries."

The greater detail was Him teaching me each person has been given authority for their life. Each person therefore can give their authority to Christ, which opens them up to all spiritual blessings, or they can give their authority to the devil which he will use against them.

What He said agreed with something the Father had told me when I was a teenager and asking Him about heaven and hell. At that time the Father said:"Your body gives you authority while it is alive on the earth. But when the body dies, a person's spirit and soul automatically become subject to the kingdom they're a citizen of." (I know, improper grammar, but I was a kid and He spoke to me as I spoke - He seems to do that with most people, lol).

What it means is that each person has the authority given by virtue of being created a free-willed spirit being. Jesus has all authority spiritually, so our choice is to give our authority to Him as an act of our will, or giving that authority to Satan in the form of accepting wrong thinking, wrong beliefs and such.

Once we have given our authority to Christ, we become one with His authority - which is why He said those who believe in His name will use His name to cast out demons, lay hands on the sick and see them recover, if they ingest poison it won't hurt them - all in His name by virtue of the fact He has given us His authority to use as He did in His life.

What that means...
It means no Christian is subject to anyone's witchcraft curse. But if you believe you are subject to demons or a curse, you are legally giving them your authority, which they use to torment you. It means the sins your dead or alive relatives can't affect you if you will rise up in your authority to reject their sins. It means no Christian should ever be afraid of the devil. But if a Christian has been taught in error that we are to pray against the devil, they will be at the mercy of demons and curses. If they are properly taught to obey Jesus by using His name against them, then they will live demon-free, no matter the devil's plans.

It means temptations in life are the devil's efforts to get you to give him your authority in that area, so he can use your authority against you.

Temptations
Think of your life as a large pizza cut into 12 slices. In 11 of those slices you are living fully for the Lord. But there is that 1 slice of sin that happens. Not just a character flaw the Lord is working on to bring you to maturity. But an outright temptation that happens regularly - because the demons that have observed you know your weaknesses. Temptation as we see in the temptations of Jesus involved two things:The flesh, and the enticement.

Jesus was hungry, that was the flesh. Satan enticed Him to turn stones to bread. Jesus came to show us who He is, that is the flesh. Throw yourself down and prove who you are, the enticement. Jesus came to save mankind and restore the world's governments to God, that is the flesh. Worship Satan and he will give the kingdoms of the world to him, to not follow the Plan, was the enticement.

Each of those was Satan tempting Jesus to either misuse His authority or give His authority to the devil. We must have an honest conversation with ourselves about how our flesh likes sin. Once you know yourself honestly, then you can fight temptation. You can't fight a temptation or a demon if you and the demon know you really want that sin....you will lay down your authority every time until you learn to value your fellowship with God more than you value that sin for a moment.

Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth.
Putting it in quantum mechanics let's think of it this way. Light is real, it can be measured, it has particles. Darkness is nothing literally, darkness doesn't exist as a 'thing'. Darkness is merely the absence of light.

I was driving across the very flat part of western Kansas, a state in the US known for flat fields and few trees. It was nearing sunset and the expanse of view was horizon to horizon in such a way I could see the darkness advancing across the land. I exclaimed:"Oh Father, look how the darkness advances!" He immediately responded:"It's not that the darkness is advancing, it is that the light is retreating." What a life-long lesson that was. That's how demons and curses get into our lives. We let the light in us retreat, which allows the darkness to advance.

Don't let the darkness advance by you retreating - it will fill that vacuum. Stand up in your authority, resist, command away, and Satan will flee.

Now realize this:Evil doesn't exist as a 'thing' that can be measured. Evil is the absence of Good. It is the absence of God in any given situation. In any given life. It is the rejection of all that is God. Only good can be measured. Evil is a comparison against the degree of good. Stand up and exert your 'good' - Christ in you - if/when you feel a demonic attack. Greater is He that is in you than he in the world - use the tools Christ gave us - His name, that fact we are one with Him. Don't give in to fear and intimidation by demons. Exert your will over demons - you are greater than they are by Christ in you!

We will pick it up there next week with generational curses and more...until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]

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How faith, common sense, and logic work together, Hot/cold game?, 3 of 3

1/18/2025

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Hi all,

I live by what I've been describing - I'm not perfect, but I do want to share the degree to which I seek a revelation of the Father's will and timing before I do anything. But first, an example from Paul's life:

Paul across Turkey...
In Acts chapters 13-16 Paul is making his way from east to west across modern day Turkey. In the middle of Turkey is Galatia, and some of the cities he visited included Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe. Paul's letter to the Galatians is to the (home) churches in these cities.

Acts 16:4 tells us Paul went throughout their cities preaching Jesus and making disciples, always heading west. In 16:6 it says they wanted to turn left, going down to Ephesus on the coast, but were 'forbidden by the Holy Spirit' from doing so. We aren't told how this was communicated, but they all knew they were not to go to Ephesus. Later, in Acts 19 Paul did go there. Why not then? Perhaps the 12 or so men he met in 19:1-6 weren't in place yet. Perhaps the Lord just wanted Paul to go to Greece before allowing him to return to Turkey again.

This is where common sense and the leading of the Lord come into play when the Lord says 'No'. With no further explanation or direction, but having a firm 'no' in their spirits, the natural thing to do was to keep walking west. We can follow their example when we know we are on the Lord's path, but we keep getting a 'no' every time we think we know the next step.

The very next verse, v7, says when they went west into Mysia, which is northwestern Turkey, and they wanted to turn back north and east into Bithynia along the north coast of the Black Sea. But again the Holy Spirit 'did not allow them' to do so. Modern Istanbul is on the far western border of ancient Bithynia.

It seems they were trying to first go left, then tried going right, unsure where the Lord was leading. But they got firm 'no's' each time. So they continued to do what seemed logical and right by continuing their journey west. Often He only gives us a 'no' with no explanation.

Having no choice but to keep moving west, they were quickly running out of country.
They had traversed Turkey and verse 8 tells us they went on to Troas (Troad) which was an important city on the Aegean coast at the time. (Aegean Sea, part of the Mediterranean Sea) They had literally walked across the country from east to west, and now the ocean lay before them.

What was Paul to do? By telling them 'no' each time they ended up on the ocean not knowing what to do next.
Verses 9-12 reveals it was only when they had no where else to go, that God gave instructions. Paul at night saw a vision - it says 2x it was a vision, at night. So we don't know if this was a 'spiritual dream', or a literal vision while he was wide awake one of those nights.

Finally!
It was a vision of a Greek man from Macedonia, saying; 'Come over here and help us!' Why didn't the Lord give the vision when they got their first 'no' when they tried to go to Ephesus and that coast? Why didn't the Lord give the vision when they tried to turn back north and east along the north border of Turkey? Why did He wait until they literally had no more land before them to give them a vision about going into Greece? (We don't know)

Look at the way the Lord led them, through a series of firm 'no's'. All that time, when the door was shut, they did what was right in the natural. They did common sense. They knew in Acts 13:1-3 they were sent out by the Holy Spirit. So they just kept going even though 'no' after 'no' was the only direction they received from the Lord.

When we were kids we played a game where one person would hide something, and then let the others hunt for it. The only direction given them was 'warm', or 'cold' or 'warmer' or 'colder' - and it was a process of elimination the person hunting for the object had to go through - common sense and logic - to narrow down the area until they eventually zeroed in and found the hidden object. That reminds me of the way the Lord treated Paul and his fellow travelers. Sometimes we feel like that game of 'warm/cold'. He leads us to make decisions by a process of elimination.

Most of our life is like what happened to them. We go about our business until and unless we get a yes/no.
When I make my schedule for the day, for the week, I am at the same time asking the Father if it is okay.

Every week when I pick up Chris from his group home I have 2 or 3 things Barb and I have set aside to get with Chris - he loves going in stores, greeting people, petting any dogs he sees and such. But other than those 2 or 3 items I ask the Father 'What do you have planned for Christ this week?'

Very often while we are out, I will be prompted in my spirit, just a subtle leading, almost a suggestion coming from my spirit, to go see what is happening at our little airport (Grove, Oklahoma, a small single runway airport) - and when that happens we will see airplanes taking off, or landing, or one will be by the little terminal and I will park and get Chris out. We will go into the terminal where we are known at this point, and very often we have been allowed on the tarmac to walk around a plane (engine off). We give thanks for the Father's provisions like that.

There are any number of things the Father reveals, giving me understanding through that grace, with faith being our response. 'Go to the dump/recycle station' and we see dump trucks emptying the large containers - Chris loves watching big trucks. Sometimes I feel led to go to the truck stop along the turnpike and we sit and watch the big semi-trucks (lorry's) come and go. At the local truck stop there can be 10 or more trucks parked, and more entering and leaving the parking space as the drivers go inside for a meal.

IF the Father has something planned for Chris to see like the above, He will put it in my spirit. But our Friday errand day is much like Paul trying to turn left or right but getting a 'no'. I'll think of an idea, and shift attention to see if there is any 'life' in that thought. I weigh it out. Is it up to me? Is there something else the Father has planned?

I've learned the Father doesn't always have a 'perfect will' for everything - sometimes He doesn't really care what we do, He will go with the flow and guide our steps as we go. Sometimes like in Paul's life above, we go about our routine and He only directs when we start to deviate from His will or what we plan would be unwise or dangerous.

For most things in our lives He leaves it up to us to decide. IF what we plan would put us in danger, THEN He may strongly urge us to go another way, or do something else, without telling us that a reckless car would have been in our path the other way. It is SO important we learn to shift our attention to our spirit for any leading from the Father. Sometimes it is a series of 'no' impressions. Sometimes we must continue doing what we know to do, not knowing exactly where He will direct us next. Sometimes it is like that game of hot or cold, but we always do what we know to do in the natural.

There is so much on this subject of faith and common sense, but I'll move on to a new subject next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

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How faith, common sense, logic, work together, 2 of 3

1/11/2025

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Hi all,

Last week I was pretty blunt with the stream in Christianity that thinks faith is detached from the Father's will. Faith does not call something which is, as though it was not. Through faith we understand.... We must understand, meaning we gain knowledge of the circumstance, and we understand that through faith. But again, faith is our response to a revelation. Faith is our response to God's grace and direction.

Noah had a revelation about the flood and directions to build a boat. That is grace. Faith was understanding what the grace meant to him, his family, his world. Through faith (our response to a revelation) we understand.

When Chris needed physical, occupational, and speech therapies
Our oldest son, Chris, was born by emergency C-section with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck in what the doctor described as a slip knot. With each contraction oxygen was cut off, leaving him with brain damage. The injury to the brain during labor or delivery is called 'cerebral palsy', or 'CP'. CP is an injury, not a disease, and not a demon. It's like an injury to any other part of the body, except with the brain such an injury affects everything.

In Chris' case and combined with a stroke at age 17, it left him without the use of his left hand, weakness in his abdomen, and in a wheelchair. He can support his weight briefly, but can't walk. He is also mentally around age 4 or 5, and the most outgoing, Jesus loving, tender hearted child in a man's body you'd ever hope to meet (he was born in 1979). His simple faith keep us humble and focused on the core of our walk with the Lord and Father.

When he was about 5 years old, in 1984
Doctors recommended physical, occupational, and speech therapies. We were conflicted, being confused Word of Faith (WOF) believers and first time parents. We didn't know if therapies were 'against our faith'. In the early 1980s when the WOF took hold, some people even questioned if it was against their faith to have car, health, life, and home insurance. Was insurance against faith was a big question back then. We needed a word from the Lord so we could have faith, which would allow us to understand what was happening to us. Through faith we understand. We needed a word from the Lord.

These hard questions about what to do in the natural - therapies - forced us to consider the possibility Chris would be like this the rest of his life. It forced us to consider that maybe he would need special care the rest of his life. We had always thought faith would one day make him whole and quite honestly, ignored thoughts about him needing therapies, special education, appliances like walkers and wheelchairs and such. It wasn't that we were in denial, but more like we were focused on what we had been taught about claiming and speaking 'faith'. Being asked to consider practical, natural helps for him, hit us like a slap in the face.

We had never thought about Chris continuing his life with CP and all the handicaps it meant for him, and what it meant for our lives. The original doctor told Barb upon diagnosis:"Put him in a home and forget you ever had him. There is no indication your next children would be like him. Put him in a home, forget you had him, and go about your lives." Barb called me at work crying in anguish at the cruelty of the doctor's words, and at the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. These were hard decisions God was asking us to face.

No laying on of hands, no decreeing, no declaring, no fasting, no shouting the name of Jesus, changed anything - we had no revelation from heaven so we had no faith to know what to do - we were going through the motions of what we had been taught. But there was no Life in any of it. There was no presence of the Holy Spirit when we spoke, commanded, decreed.

Grace comes first, then faith, and that is not of ourselves. Our salvation is based on us having received the revelation that Jesus is Lord, then we confess with our mouth and our lives - that response to the revelation is faith. We were 22 years old, first time parents, and were told to put our firstborn in a home and forget about him. We refused of course. But by age 5 the realities of our child being handicapped and needing therapies demanded decisions. I sought the Lord with much prayer and would not let go until He showed me His grace for this situation. Then I could have faith to understand.

The Lord spoke to me when I asked about putting Chris in those various therapies:"Therapies work with me, not against me." (Why Lord?) Because they make the muscles move as they would normally, therefore working with the way the body was designed, and the healing processes already created within the body. The therapies work with healing, not against it." We put Chris in all 3 therapies and they did do some good for him. But we also kept close to our hearts questions about our future as a family. Keeping him at home meant Barb's 'job' would be that full time stay at home mom, putting all the pressure on me to keep a roof over our heads. Tough decisions for a couple of young marrieds.

Faith doesn't use godly principles laid out in the Word independent of the Father and His will to facilitate what we think should happen. No. We walk with Him to discover His will, which will always follow His ways outlined in scripture. Then with Him, we think through and determine how His revealed will revealed to us, will be applied in life. That is what Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Joshua and other great men and women of faith did and do.

When Jesus was faced with feeding 5,000 men, He understood the problem through faith. He stated in John 5:19 He only did what He saw the Father do. So He made the 5,000 sit in groups of 50s and 100s, organized, responding to the crowd problem by organizing them. THEN He did the miracle.

When Jesus was faced with a wedding He was at running out of wine, He understood the problem through faith. He asked what resources were available and when told, responded with instructions to fill the 6 stone pots with water. THEN He did the miracle.

It is through faith we understand. That means we have to get the grace first. Bad diagnosis? Be quiet, seek God, don't let go until you have peace about going in this direction or that. Whether that be a miracle you have revealed to you will happen, or using medicine to combat the diagnosis, get His Word on it first, THEN speak the Word.

More on this next week....until then, blessings!
John Fenn
http://www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

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How faith, common sense, logic work together, 1 of 3

1/4/2025

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Hi all,

A young evangelist got a life-threatening diagnosis. If dealt with medically he would live a long and healthy life, but if left untreated it would take his life. He was married with young children, and chose to 'stand on the Word' rather than seek medical treatment. He 'spoke the Word over' his body, and declared healing, but passed some months later.

His death left many confused because everyone 'believed'. Everyone who knew him decreed and declared and prayed. Doesn't faith mean though medical science was right there ready to cure the disease, a person can choose 'faith' instead?

Money
A woman of modest means had a wealthy friend, and when they got together they went shopping. Trying to keep up with her wealthy friend, the woman soon charged her cards to the maximum, and very quickly found she didn't have money to pay the credit card bills - which she knew at the time she was maxing them out with her weekly shopping trips with her friend.

She asked me to pray God would move the card companies to forgive her debt, but He didn't. He did work with her to become closer to her friend by acknowledging what she had been doing. And she learned to pay down her debt over years and live within her means.

Dreams
A wife had dreams her husband and father of their children was unfaithful. She became angry with him though he denied everything. Her dreams were because of her own insecurities, fears, and poor self image. But her dreams told her he was seeing other women, confirmed by 'dream interpreters' online.

Rather than deal with the real issues of her self image and depression, she was explosively angry to her husband when he told that her dreams were not real or true. Based on her dreams of his unfaithfulness she divorced, and further moved into depression and despondency, losing a very good husband and alienating her children. He had never been unfaithful and was heartbroken to see his wife descend into mental and emotional illness rather than face the hard issues within herself God was actually wanting her to do.

So called 'prophecy'
An Associate Pastor and his wife became pregnant, and 'prophetic words' from friends all agreed it would be a girl. They were so excited at all the 'words' they declined the doctor's offer to tell them the gender of their baby. They decorated her room in pinks and pastels waiting for her birth. When their son was born they were devastated and felt foolish to have believed all the 'words' from trusted friends. They resigned their position and fell away from the Lord for a time, and never again returned to ministry.

Business
A woman who did large 'garage sales' or 'yard sales' once a month and did well, thought she would make it into a store. (In the US a 'garage sale' means selling household items from your garage or yard, usually held on a Friday and Saturday). Because her monthly yard sales had been so blessed, she was convinced it was God that she turn it into a full time store front business. She chose a very poor location on the back side of a little line of stores, invisible from the street, but reasoned that God was in it so He would bring people to her store. He didn't make up for her poor choice of location, and she closed down angry at God and wondering why He didn't make up for her poor choice of location.

These are just a few instances in which people laid common sense and logic aside in favor of 'faith'. Health, money, dreams/spiritual, 'words from God' cover several categories of what we see all around us.

You may know someone like the people above, who refuse to acknowledge difficult circumstances, choosing to decree and declare, 'cast out demons' from the situation, or are in complete denial. You may know someone who went into business thinking God was their silent wealthy partner who would make up the difference for their unwise decisions.

Or you may know someone who can't live within their budget though they earn enough money, but rather than discipline themselves they choose to believe God wants them richer than they are, so they spend away, getting further and deeper into debt with each passing month.

All these people couldn't bring themselves to believe that God would be asking them to deal with character issues deep within them. They were taught faith is all about wealth, health, making life easy and prospering in all things. No one had told them being a disciple of Jesus, a learner, was actually about learning His ways and applying them to our character, our thoughts, emotions, and lifestyle.

Hebrews 11:3:Through faith we understand...
Through faith we understand the ages (universe) was formed by the Word of God, so that things visible were created by things invisible."

Through faith we understand. The examples above are of people who thought they were in faith and understood. But they weren't in faith and neither did they understand properly. The reason is they thought faith could be used to cover up their mistakes or that faith meant they didn't have to make the hard decisions for their health or business, that God would make up all the differences - they thought faith was a tool detached from God, independent of Him and the revelation of His will, but it isn't. Faith is our response to a revelation of His grace.

More often than not, the God decision is the tough decision. Peter wrote in II Peter 1:3-4:
"Accordingly, His divine power has (already) given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, which comes through knowing Him to called us to glory and virtue. Through this are given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the decay that came into the world by lust."

Modern church culture tells people the promises are for our health, wealth, prosperity in all things. But here we are told the promises are given 'that we might become partakers of the divine nature.' The promises are first and foremost about forming Christ in us until we come into maturity. That's why I say more often than not, the God decision will be the difficult one - go through the medical treatment, control your spending and get out of debt, make the tough and wise business decision, and find your answers with your spouse and the Lord.

If we look at charismatic recent history, we see many 'streams' of faith whose core traditions (of men, not God) are based on telling God what to do, or changing their circumstances through their efforts. Things like 'name it claim it' or the modern version, 'decree and declare', binding the devil and commanding angels, and even 'pleading the blood' can be included in the category of people not wanting the situation before them. To avoid the tough decisions or avoid confrontation, they've been taught to 'use faith' to change it by commanding, declaring, binding or loosing. They blame the devil instead of their own poor decisions and would rather escape their situation than grow in Christ. They've lost their first love of wanting to be like Him, to give all for Him.

We will pick it up there next week, putting faith, common sense, and logic in proper perspective. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
http://www.cwowi.org
email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

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