Webster Dictionary defines a curse as follows: 'a prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one' and 'evil or misfortune that comes as if in response to imprecation or as retribution'. Another definition of a curse could very well be the absence of blessings in our lives. In a biblical sense this means that if we break God's Commandments we fall under a curse from God. The Bible speaks over 230 times of curses. That shows us how seriously God takes them! From the Bible we also learn that one is either cursed or blessed. There is really no in-between. The Hebrew word for curse is "Cherem". Not only people can fall under a curse, but objects can also be cursed. Even though we may not see them, we may be living them.
There are several kinds of curses such as curses from God, curses of witchcraft, generational curses, self-proclaimed curses, and accursed objects. One way of finding out if you are living under one of these curses is by comparing the blessings listed in the Bible in Deuteronomy 28:1- 14. The Curses are listed in Deuteronomy 28: 14-57. Some of the symptoms that a curse might be operating in your life are poverty, sickness, accident prone, bareness, insanity, marriage breakdown etc. These are just a few of the indications that you might be cursed or that you have inherited a family curse. In most families where a curse exists, similar casualties seem to occur at the same age, time etc. Such occurences can be poverty, insanity, death at an early age (usually the same illness at the same age), loss of business, etc. If these things seem to recur in your family from generation to generation, this might be indicative that a curse is still operating in your life and your families' life.
Curses usually come due to sin and strong disobedience to God. Curses also come from strong involvement within the occult. Family curses come due to the sin of our ancestors and can stay within the family in this way for generations on end. God is very explicit when we sin, He makes us bear the consequences of our sin and not only us: "Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Ex:34:7.
From this verse we see that God takes sin very seriously. So seriously in fact, that we pay the price unto the third and fourth generation! Another source of curses in one's live is dabbing into the occult. The occult is Satan's territory and whoever goes into that territory, automatically falls under a curse of God. One of the occult curses is the curse of witchcraft. One of the definitions of witchcraft is the use of sorcery or enchantment with the help of evil spirits. Nowadays witchcraft is popularized under its new name 'WICCA'. But in fact this so called 'religion' has been practiced in Egypt long before the Old Testament times. It's origin seems to be Egypt. From the Bible we learn that the Egyptians were already in the times of Moses strong practicants of witchcraft. They were in fact very good at it.
Nowadays Wicca is rising in popularity not only with grown ups but with your youth as well. The New Age movement is also strongly involved with Wicca. We must realize that any involvement in such occult crafts will have its consequencs such as high demonic involvement in our lives and even demon possession. Deliverance's from people that have been involved in witchcraft are usually accompanied by strong demonic manifestations, before the deliverance and after. Wiccans, are known to curse their victims, Christians in particular.
Another way of placing oneself under a curse is to bring an accursed objects into the home. People who dabble into the occult often make use of these objects, a good example are amulets and masks and the like. They do not realize that by using these objects and placing them inside their homes they are actually cursing themselves. Objects like Tarot-cards, cristal balls, pendulums etc are known to have strong demons attached to them. By bringing these into the home you actually bring demons into the home who will for sure manifest themselves. . New Agers use stones which supposedly bring peace and harmony into the home. These crystals and other stones work quite the opposite.
I myself fell victim to this believe a long time ago. I let myself be convinced that my home needed peace and I placed such a stone in the house. It was until then that I realized because the very instance that stone got into the house, the peace left. God, in His infinite mercy graciously told me to destroy this object and when I obeyed, peace was restored into my home. Other objects which are strongly cursed and demon attached are African masks, Asian statues of Mahavira (an Indian God) who brings a curse of poverty into your house and the statues of Buddha ( who brings curses of destruction also into your house). I also have witnessed statues of Shiva being placed in Christian homes. This god is the goddess of death and destruction, are these people aware of what they place inside their homes? It is sad to say that the godliness in these last days is rampant and people, shops and businesses are all bringing these kind of objects inside their homes, businesses etc.
We must be very careful with this. It is fooloish to think that these statues, masks or whatever other object of foreign religions will do no harm. They do! Reproductions of Aztec gods for example which tourists like to buy when they go visit Mexico actually cause destruction. One must only look into the history of these gods to find out their nature. That is what you are bringing into your homes. These people fear their gods, these gods need continuous appeasement, otherwise the demons within these gods will do that which these gods stand for. Another example are the African masks and animals specially manufactured for ignorant tourists. These tourists do not know that while manufaturing these articles enchantments and incantations are being performed to induce so caleld life and power into these objects. Afrikaan people, as most of the Third World inhabitants, do believe in the powers of the occult. They know the evil world exists. They do not mess up with these powers, they fear them and rightly so.
It is us, the inhabitants of the so called civilized world who have a difficult time accepting the fact that there is an evil world existing parallel to ours. We easily reason that these civilisations are native in their believes. We close our eyes to the reality of the spiritual world and when the curses start to appear in our lives we reason them away as circumstances of life. Another accursed object can also be antiques. Many an antique object comes from churches (not Christian), unholy households etc. Antique jewelry is particularly dangerous. You never know who wore it!
Another source of curses are the so called self-proclaimed curses. These are the curses that we use on ourselves when we speak negatively over ourselves. Words like "I am no good" or "I am stupid" are in fact curses which you are placing upon yourselves. The spiritual world watches our every move. Both angels from God, but also evil spirits. These evil spirits will not hesitate to prey on you and perform that which you just have proclaimed upon yourself. This is because you have given them the 'legal authority' to by proclaiming negative words about yourself. This is how careful we must be. Let me share with you my testimony in this. I used to be very negative, due to severe rejection, from a family member. I went through life proclaiming all kinds of doom,negative words and destruction. Guess what? I did have all kinds of doom.
My friends loved to call me to see what negative experience Ann had experienced in the past week in her life. They would call me twice or three times a week, just to find out if I had had another weird experience. They enjoyed it while I hated it! When I broke this chain by repenting of all my self proclaimed curses and started to proclaim positive words this negativity in my life stopped. a If have lived the power of the self-proclaimed curse. Don't fall into the same trap as I have done, be careful with what you say. Seal your lips. Cry or laugh or run, but do not speak a negative word about yourself. This same principle applies of course for the words we speak about others. Did you know that every gossip that we engage ourselves in is actually a curse that we are placing upon these people?
Note: I know that there are ministries who teach that if someone curses you, you have to send that curse back seven times. That is unscriptural! I have found now place in the Bible that corroborates this teaching. In fact the Bible tells us to bless those who curse us. See Matthew 5:44