Persecution Does Not Equal Curses

There's been so many rumors going around about CK's death, and perhaps the most dangerous one, which the enemy is certainly taking advantage of among Christians, is the one about the curses that were supposedly put on Charlie just before it happened.

I did a little research on the case of Etsy curses, and it is true that Etsy is allowing witches to congregate on their platform and sell curses (even death curses). The witches include disclaimers saying that it is for entertainment purposes only, however, the hundreds of positive reviews prove otherwise. It is a sick and dark side of Etsy that I never knew about until now. I am removing my buyer/seller account, and I would encourage anyone who has an account to boycott Etsy as well.

The witch who cursed Charlie supposedly regrets the harm it caused, but maintains the power of curses and demonic interaction. The fact that she is taking credit for the curse as though she wields any power in this area is what I want to address. A false understanding of curses and those who curse is causing more and more fear in believers. It needs to stop - and it stops when we understand what a curse is.

Since I was raised Christian, I never experienced the fear and superstition unbelievers have over curses, and more recently I've dug into trying to understand what believers should know when it comes to curses. The following is my personal understanding. Test it to scripture.

For starters, believers are giving those who curse authority when they pray against their curses. I don't deny that curses exist, but to believe that you have to go about breaking all the curses that men may have assigned to you is to doubt the authority of God in your life. Do you believe His word, that He is the only one who can save a life or take it? Do you think any life that has been taken was something God wasn't expecting or didn't allow? Can the one who conquered death be also the one unable to defend His own from it?

Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, yes I, am He, and there is no god beside Me. I bring death and give life, I have wounded but I will heal, and none can rescue from My hand.

Matthew 10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

When Daniel's friends were threatened with death by the king, what did they say? They admitted that the king had power to kill them, but they also said that God was able to deliver them - YET if He chose not to, they still would not fear death and worship the idol. (Daniel 3) So the power ultimately belonged to God.

The devil will use CK's assassination to stir up fear among believers and make them imagine he has more authority over them than he does. Some deliverance ministries are responsible for programming this kind of fear in believers because of how they are training them (with no scriptural backing) to break spells and curses, speak special prayers, and seek deliverance from the common trials every believer is subject to. Repentance, faith, and baptism of the Holy Spirit brings about the kind of spiritual deliverance mankind is in need of. To teach that we need constant deliverance merely because we are oppressed like everyone else causes chronic fear and a lack in faith in the power and authority of God's finished work.

If you believe that you've been "hexed" by someone because of bad luck you seem to be experiencing, then I would suggest you are not walking in true faith, nor in the spirit of God, nor realizing how curses work.

Here are a few foundational truths:

1. We were not created to suffer.

2. The world is cursed which has made suffering inevitable for ALL mankind.

3. We will never enjoy suffering, and we will always be shocked over the injustice of life.

4. Suffering does not equal a special curse.

5. The wicked are punished/cursed when they suffer, but the righteous are disciplined/blessed when they suffer.

That is the hope we should be hanging onto as believers. Never ever label your suffering a curse if you truly believe in the Father's mercy, love, and promises. Unbelievers have no hope in this life or the next, so for them suffering will always be a curse. For us though, we are promised joy, victory, love, and blessings while we walk through tribulation and suffering. If you believe you are cursed, then you are counting yourself among the wicked. What does God say to the wicked?

Ezekiel 18:23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

To believe anyone has the authority to curse you is to give authority to man rather than God. God has told us that we will experience deep suffering if we wish to enter the kingdom of God, and through it He has promised to preserve our spiritual lives, for the body itself is nothing - it will die regardless. Injuries, disaster, sickness, and death are all part of persevering through the trials the Father allows the adversary to put us through. Without these trials, we are like a tree in a windless valley. It's roots grow in weakness, and at the slightest breeze, it will fall down. A tree that is constantly buffeted will have strong roots and a trunk that will bend with every billow. He is teaching us while sustaining us how to live in a cursed world. God will also be glorified to other believers through whatever deliverance from it He may choose to bring to those who are suffering. Suffering teaches humility, submission, and trust. One who only equates suffering to punishment or curses must search out where they are angry or mistrusting of God and ask for healing. We need to walk in the faith that we are eternally redeemed from all curses as soon as we come under Yeshua. We need to learn to submit fearlessly to His will and disregard all the lies the devil distracts us with to try and make us fear the curse of death.

James 4:6–7 But He gives greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1 Peter 5:6–7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

Philippians 2:8: [Yeshua] humbled Himself — becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

1 Peter 2:19–20 For it is commendable if, because of conscience toward God, someone endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

Romans 5:3–5 We also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

2 Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Messiah Yeshua will be persecuted.

John 15:18–20 If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you... If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

Acts 14:22: “…we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."

Hebrews 12:10–11 God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. All discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those trained by it.

Proverbs 3:11–12 Do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent His rebuke, for the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.

1 Peter 1:6–7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold — may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Yeshua Messiah.

John 9:1-3 As Yeshua was passing by, He saw a man who had been blind since birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Yeshua answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God might be brought to light in him."

[The disciples see curses and punishment - Yeshua sees opportunity and redemption].

2 Corinthians 4:8–9 We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

Isaiah 48:10: God says, “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”

God does promise to protect us from suffering, but He also promises to deliver us, and that means that it is not all suffering He is going to protect us from. Sometimes we will be protected, sometimes we will not. Sometimes we will be delivered, sometimes we will not. It is all about submitting to whatever His will may be and not fearing what He may choose to bring us through.

Today we are not encouraged to rejoice in our affliction. Obviously I'm not saying that if you are in a bad situation, you shouldn't seek deliverance from it, but I'm noticing how we are taught that something must be wrong with us if we are experiencing troubles, that it means we have generational curses to break, that life is supposed to be full of comfort and ease and if it isn't, we aren't doing something right, or if you're poor then you're not following God correctly, etc. If we submit to the lie that we are cursed just because something is going wrong for us, we will be walking in the fear of that curse, and fear always causes a downward spiral in our lives.

The western culture seeks safety and ease instead of preparing for self-sacrifice. Instead of strapping on our armor, we waste so much time on worldly cares. Instead we should remind ourselves daily that those who suffer for righteousness sake will receive great reward in the next life. It should be our greatest desire to someday lay down our life for the sake of the kingdom of God. Not everyone was born to be a martyr, but it would be good if we committed ourselves willingly to that possibility so we were more resolved concerning trials and their rewards. If we understood this, we wouldn't see being killed as some sort of curse but rather a blessing.

James 1:12: Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Revelation 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer... Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Matthew 5:10–12 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness... Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great — for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Revelation 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and people sat upon them—those to whom authority to judge was given. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Yeshua and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image, nor had they received his mark on their forehead or on their hand. And they came to life and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years.

So, lets recap. A curse is simply bad things happening. "Curses" on unbelievers can be seen as God's judgement or the consequence of their sinful lives, but believers experiencing bad things should always understand bad things happening in their life is simply discipline and testing. No man has the authority to let a curse rest on whomever he wills because it is God who is in control.

Proverbs 26:2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, so an undeserved curse does not come to rest.

A curse settling or bad things happening is the removal of God's protection from evil. All authority resides with Him. He allowed Saul to be tormented by an evil spirit because Saul rebelled against God. He refused to allow Balaam to curse Israel. He allowed Job to experience great evil as a way of testing and proving his loyalty - and we are told of the great blessing that came through it. If we truly trust in God, we will fear no man's foolish presumption that he has any authority to let a curse rest on us. We can know God will permit testing, even death, at times, or He may choose to spare the way He preserved Daniel's friends from the fiery furnace. Whichever the case, He will not allow us to be completely destroyed, body and soul together, because we have that guarantee from Him.

John 19:10,11 So Pilate said to Him, “You aren’t speaking to me? Don’t You know that I have the authority to release You, and I have the authority to crucify You?” Yeshua answered, “You would have no authority over Me if it hadn’t been given to you from above. For this reason, the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.”

Those who should be in fear are those who wish evil on others:

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived — God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also shall reap.

Psalm 7:14–16 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil, and is pregnant with mischief, and brings forth lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole which he made. His mischief will return upon his own head, and his violent dealing will come down on his own crown.

Psalm 37:12–15 The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He knows their day is coming.

So if you think someone has wished evil on you, simply respond in your heart like Job, Solomon, and Yeshua (who experienced the greatest evil of all):

Job 1:21 The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 2:10: Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?

Job 14:5 A person's days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.

Proverbs 3:33 The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous.

Matthew 26:39 My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.

While people are going around perpetrating fears, discussing how Charlie was cursed, I would like to spread the truth that Charlie was blessed despite whatever evil was permitted that day. God "snatched him away", guaranteeing him a great reward when the resurrection happens and the kingdom of God comes. Rapture means "to carry off suddenly", so for any of you who believes in a rapture that spares God's faithful beloved from further suffering - this is the rapture we should hope for.

I don't know Charlie's heart, but I do know he spoke truth, and I will happily ignore the rumors, slander, and backstabbing of my brother who no longer can answer his accusers.

Mark 9:38-40 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.” But Yeshua responded, “Don’t stop him! No one who does a miracle in My name will be able soon afterward to speak evil about Me. He who is not against us is for us.

Luke 6:45: The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil. For from the overflow of the heart, his mouth speaks.

Luke 17:33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life will preserve it.