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-- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis <ts@godspeak.net> http://www.godspeak.net
Editor: Kevin Nolan

Ministry Team Training

by Teresa Seputis

Lesson 8
Praying for Physical Healing by Exercising Authority
Blessings and Curses in Healing

Jesus gained authority over sickness and disease as well as over sin and death, and He has given us His authority to heal the sick and to cast out demons. Therefore He expects us to exercise the authority He has given us when we pray for the sick. This is why we are looking at some prayer styles that allow us to exercise this authority. Some authority prayer styles include:

We discussed the first style, commanding healing, in the previous lesson. Now let's look at the role of 'blessing' in healing.

BLESSING BODY PARTS TO FUNCTION PROPERLY

There is a real spiritual power that is released when a person speaks either blessings or curses. That is because when God created mankind and put them in the Garden of Eden, He gave them authority over creation. We have lost a large measure of that authority when we fell into sin, but we still retain some portion of it. The Bible tells us that man, after the fall, is a little lower than the angels and that God has given man dominion over the things God created (Ps 8:5-6). In other words, as fallen man, we have retained some portion of our original authority, and that is why there is some power in our spoken blessings and cursings.

We have power to bless and we also have power to curse. But there are times when our words get empowered by either God or the devil, so that our words carry greater authority and release greater spiritual power, i.e., God often empowers our spoken blessings, particularly when we bless in His name. And the devil can (and does) empower our spoken curses. This can effect a person's health, their sense of well being, or even their receptivity to the Gospel.

Let me give the example from one of the most common Western curses. When someone does something to offend or anger or annoy us, many Westerns respond with the "traditional" curse of "God damn you!" Most people don't think about what that means when they say it, they just respond in anger. But the meaning behind those words is, "May you be blinded to the gospel so that you don't receive Christ and be saved and go to heaven. Instead, I want you to spend all eternity separated from God and suffering terribly as a result of that." (That is a pretty terrible curse, isn't it?)

As it turns out, the enemy loves to empower that type of curse. We know that it is God's will that none should perish and that all should be saved. Likewise it is the devil's will that all should perish and none should be saved. So when a person releases the curse "God damn you" on someone, the devil is very happy to empower that because it lines up with his wishes. He releases spiritual energy to blind an unsaved recipient of that curse to the Gospel. The more the unsaved person is cursed in that manner, the more that empowers the devil to blind that person to the Gospel -- it makes it harder for that unsaved person to become saved. (Intercessors, if you are praying for an unsaved person, you may want to break any curses that have been spoken against them to hinder that person's salvation.)

When a Christian is cursed in that manner, it can give the devil room to interfere in the believer's personal relationship with God. They may begin to feel more carnal or to feel that God is very distant and far away, that He is angry with them and that He is not listening to their prayers. Those feelings do not portray reality because God never draws away from one of His own just because someone curses them. But the devil can empower that type of curse; he can be pretty convincing to make it "feel" like God is very distant. The devil does that in hopes that the believer will become frustrated and stop pressing into God to draw near to Him. And if the Christian does stop pressing in, then they really do begin to slip further away from God, e.g., their intimacy with God begins to deteriorate.

In a similar manner, both curses and blessings can effect a person's physical health. Some sicknesses are caused by curses. In that case, it is good to break the curse when you pray for healing and then release blessings on the person you are praying for. If you know the specific curse, you want to break it specifically. Let me give you an example or two. The first is the example of a self-curse.

I ministered to a lady who came to me because she was feeling tired and weak. When I interviewed her, I discovered that she had not eaten for three weeks because she would get extremely nauseous and throw up if she ate. (No wonder she was feeling tired and weak.) So I asked her what had been going on in her life three weeks ago when this condition started. She had received her grades in university and her marks had not been very good. Her father, who was paying her tuition told her that he was very disappointed in her and hoped she would do better next term. She was a "Daddy's girl" and took her father's gentle rebuke very deeply.

She began to tell herself that she was no good and did not deserve to live because she was disappointing her father with her grades. She would mumble this to herself constantly. Her body began to oblige her and was trying to kill her by making her too sick to eat. There were (obviously) some inner-healing issues that needed to be addressed in terms of her sense of self-worth. I was unable to minister inner-healing in this short ministry session, but I dealt with the curse when I ministered to her. I explained to her how she had been cursing herself and how it was affecting her health. Then I asked her to renounce the curse. After that, I prayed blessings over her and I particularly blessed her stomach and digestive system and her body's ability to absorb nutrients from food. Her physical problems went away after the prayer, and she was able to eat without getting sick. Her strength and energy began to return after a few days of eating.

Here is an example of a curse that a mother released on her daughter. When the daughter was growing up, any time she would misbehave, the mother would say, "I hope you never have any children so that they won't treat you as poorly as you treat me." This poor woman grew up, got married and had three miscarriages. She was about 5 weeks pregnant, and came to me for prayer that she would not miscarry this baby. We discovered the curse her mother had inadvertently put on her and broke it. Then I blessed her reproductive system to be able to function properly and to be able to carry and nourish the baby for the entire 9 month gestation period. The mother's careless words, spoken in anger many years ago had been empowered by the devil and they affected this woman's ability to have a baby.

If you know specifically the curse that was released, break it specifically. If you don't know the specific curse or you are not sure whether or not there is a curse causing this illness, you can do a general curse breaking instead. Pray along the lines of, "If there is any curse involved in this sickness, I break it in Jesus' name and cancel it's assignment of harm against this person." It is always more effective to be specific, but when you can't be specific, then breaking unspecified curses is usually better than not addressing them at all.

We have seen that curses can be rather powerful and have potential to do great harm. But blessings can be even more powerful than curses.

There are times when God will release physical healing in a person as we speak blessings over them. Let me give you an example. One time a lady came to me for prayer for her feet. She had some sort of degenerative disorder in them that made it very difficult and painful for her to walk. She wore orthopedic shoes and needed a cane to walk, and she could not walk very far even with all of that. As I began to interview her, I kept hearing that verse, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them who bring good news." I asked her if she moved in the gift of evangelism before she got sick. She said that she used to do prison visitation to tell inmates about the Lord. I felt led to pray blessings on her instead of praying for healing. First I began to proclaim that verse over her, then I began to bless her gift of evangelism and to call it forth in greater measure. Then I began to bless her feet. I blessed the bones to be strong and in their proper place. I blessed the ligaments and tendons and muscles to perform the way God created them to perform and not to degenerate. I never actually prayed explicitly for healing, and I never broke any curses; I just released blessings on her and on her feet. When the prayer was over, she was able to walk barefoot without the cane and she had no more pain.

There can be great power in blessing for healing. Because of this, I like to bless the sick or defective body part to function properly and the way God created it to function.


-- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <godspeak@godspeak.org> --

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