Ministering Deliverance

I have a friend who is a pastor in Southern California. He told me how he was ministering to somebody who had Tourette Syndrome. That is where somebody has an involuntary movement or twitching a lot of the time. They may even yell or scream and a lot of times they yell and scream profanities. Personally, I have a little problem with somebody who is always doing profanity when they yell something. Why aren't they yelling something like, "Crackers!" or "Peanut butter!"? Why is it profanity and taking the name of God? When that comes up, I become very suspicious. I'm not saying that everybody who has Tourette Syndrome is demonized. I believe that is a very legitimate situation that somebody has, but I'm just real suspicious of it whenever they're always using it to curse and profane God.

This person had Tourette Syndrome really bad. This person is in church and all of a sudden he'll just start screaming profanities and cussing God. It was real irritating. My friend said they would try to show grace to this person as much as they could. But one day they were in there and he was ministering to him and they found that there was a curse of words on him from his parents. His father had Tourette Syndrome. His grandfather had Tourette Syndrome. His great-grandfather had Tourette Syndrome. Now we're looking at this ancestor thing. We could probably pretty much figure that one out. But then the words that were put upon him, the breaking words were: "Well, you're going to be just like your father," which he was.

They broke the power of the words off of him and he lost his Tourette Syndrome. So they thought, "Why don't we go pray for the father?" They went and prayed for the father. Sure enough, the words had been spoken that he was going to be like his father who had Tourette Syndrome. They broke the power of the words off him. He got free of Tourette Syndrome. They realized the grandfather was still living. So they went to the grandfather, and same thing, same effect.

Now the vehicle appeared to be the generational things that came from one generation to the next. But the vehicle that they ended up breaking to really set these people free was the power of words that were spoken over them that they would be like this. They accepted and they received those words rather than rejecting those words and they became that very same thing.

Here's some curses. Check it out. Are you living under a curse like this? You know, you're just like your father. Usually when these are given, they're not given to be a blessing. When they say you're just like your father, they're not giving that to say, "Oh, bless you. You're so wonderful. You have just his characteristics." Usually when that's given, it's not given in that way. It's given as a curse.

Here are some others: "You're just like your mother." "Why can't you be as smart as your brother or sister?" Some of you got these words in yourself there. And these become arrows. They just pierce our heart. You'll never make it in life. "You're doomed to be a failure." These are arrows. They just sink in. You know church members can be a part of the devil's demolition team. Do you know that?

I tell you most of the people we deal with have been church wounded. The church is the only army that shoots its wounded. Well isn't that the truth? Here they come. "I knew that pastor couldn't be trusted." "She isn't good enough to lead that ministry." "Yeah, she isn't good enough to lead that committee, or that thing."

You know what I do? I make it my habit to break the words that people speak over me and I realize that as the pastor of a church I have arrows coming at me all the time. I don't make everybody happy, for one thing, and so there are some sheep who curse. I give grace. I understand that's where they're at. I will always understand, I guess, but I try to be understanding as much as I can, but I understand that the sheep curse. So what I do is, I bless and I ask the Lord to remove every arrow that has been sent against me this week. I ask Him to remove every curse of words that has come against me and I pray this for the leadership of our church and I pray it for our church.

Every Sunday morning the elders get together and we pray. One of the things we do in that prayer is to break the power of words that are spoken and the curses that have come against us for the week. If you are in any leadership position at all, and most of you are, I would recommend that you begin your prayer time at least on Sunday morning or the day in which you are ministering with breaking the power of words that have been spoken against you.

Whenever those words are broken off you, there is a literal change that takes place in your life and you can feel the change. When I do deliverance ministry, I find I break a lot of words that were spoken over people that they had embraced. Remember, the devil doesn't play by fair rules. Any time he can get an inroad into somebody's life he will and words are one of the major powerful ways the enemy gains an inroad. It's a road, it's an avenue and we've got to break those off. I just break them off me every Sunday.

This is what I do. I say, "In Jesus' name, I take authority over every word that has been spoken over me to curse me. I render powerless its assignment. I cast it down. No weapon formed against me will prosper and I speak the blessing of God to cover me instead. In Jesus' name. Amen." It's an easy prayer to pray.

Parents, you are in a position of authority over your children. You can pray this over your children. But keep in mind that God has also given your children a free will and they will choose a lot of things and they may even curse themselves, especially if they're living under your home. There's great authority in that. Later on we'll talk about how to do deliverance in children. Like your older children, there are a lot of things that they're going to be held accountable for because they did it.

Let me give you another example of a self-curse. It is a very common one, the words "I can't." Here are some more that we frequently say, not realizing we are cursing ourselves: "I'll never change." "Over my dead body." "I knew he or she was going to leave me some day." By the way, on the positive side, the word of God says they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb, because of the word of the testimony and they did not love their life even to death. On the positive side, your words have power to overcome the enemy. Your words have great power to overcome the enemy.

What you send out of your mouth will come back to you. So, here's the question. What sort of harvest do you want? Do you want a harvest of blessing or do you want a harvest of cursing? In Luke 6:27 it says, "I say to you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." Luke 6:35, "Love your enemies, do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High for He himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful and do not judge and you will not be judged and do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Pardon and you will be pardoned, give and it shall be given unto you, good measure pressed down, shaken together running over they will pour into your lap for by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

Do you see this? We quote verse 38, "Give and it shall be given unto you," a lot during a tithing sermon, and it is a legitimate use because it's the principle that's involved. That is simply a biblical principle regardless in what area -- whether it's finances or whether it's a ministry. Anytime that you give for the Lord, it will be returned to you. That's a biblical principle.

This principle applies to the words that you speak -- giving a blessing or giving a curse. The context of it is there. So here it is. Whenever I choose to bless somebody, what's going to come back to me? Blessing. Whenever I curse, what's coming back to me?

Based upon that, we let the Lord curse who the Lord wants to curse and we just bless. When we bless them, that turns people over to God. We release these people into the hands of God. It's not ever our job to curse. We just simply bless.

Now there are certain things that God may lead you to curse in the sense that He wants to kill or to snuff out. For example, if you're praying for the sick or something like this, God may just have you curse the sickness as Jesus cursed the fig tree. But you should do that type of cursing only when God leads you into to. You need to follow the leading of the Lord because that's what God is doing. That's what God is about, so you come into an agreement with that.

But when it comes to people, you don't curse them. You simply bless people. You turn them into the hands of God and God will take care of them. God doesn't need your help in that area. You just need to make sure you're not sending something up that's going to come back on you. And if you're sending out curses and you're cursing people like that, and that's why some people just can't seem to get out from underneath it because they're always cursing everybody else. So guess what's coming back to them -- a curse. Some people think that if I just curse them then I am hurting them. Well, there's some truth to that. Your cursing does hurt them. But who does it hurt worse? It hurts you worse than it hurts them, because you reap what you sow.

Let me give you an example. Pharaoh cursed the Jews when he was killing the firstborn. And it came back and took them all out. That's right, it got worse for them. The firstborn of all of them were killed.

It is your birthright to be free from the bondage of the curse of words. Galatians 3:13 says: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Having become a curse for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree.' " He took your place. So it is your birthright to be free of all the power of the curses of words that others have spoken over you and that you have spoken over yourself. It is your birthright to be free.