FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP / ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
Brigid Kemmerer is a New York Times bestselling author of dark and alluring Young Adult novels. She has written a series on Breaking the Curse that includes, A Heart So Fierce and Broken, A Curse So Dark and Lonely, and A Vow So Bold and Deadly. From the reviews I have read, much of what is included in them speaks about the paranormal or bizarre.
Without any intent to rebuke her, my reflection on the series reminds me of some words of Jesus: “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” The incident about which Jesus makes His comment is reported in three Gospels (Matthew 12:22-30, Luke 11:14-23; Mark 3:20-27), but I quote Mark’s version:
Then Jesus went home, and once again, a crowd gathered, so He and His disciples could not even eat. When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind.” And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons.” So, Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if Satan is divided and rises against himself, he cannot stand; his end has come. Indeed, no one can enter a strong man’s house to steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.
I declare that Jesus was making clear that he had absolute authority over the forces of demons, not by any satanic power but by his divine power. Earlier, Mark reports that after Jesus appointed the twelve disciples, “He gave them the power to drive out demons.” (Mark 3:15)
The point is that Jesus Christ has all the authority to drive out any demon or break the power of any curse, and he is willing to share his power with all he chooses. Amid the pronouncements of the first curses after the fall of humanity, the announcement was made as recorded in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
This is the promise that has been recited in various ways to the antediluvians, such as Enoch and Noah, and then to the patriarchs and matriarchs, including Abraham and Sarah, to the prophets, the sages, and the people of God in ancient Biblical times, and found its fulfillment in the birth and death of Christ. This is the promise that is celebrated in our Christmas stories today.
The apostle Paul references the power of the promise when he takes note of what is written in Deuteronomy 5:22-23 to say, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14 NKJV)
Yes, we have been suffering general curses. I need not detail mine here. You should know yours, as I know mine. My Bible tells me that “all have sinned and become short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) That means nobody is left out.
The only real solution for our cursed situation is to trust Jesus Christ. Through his life and death, He has broken the power of sin. He has taken the punishment for our sins. He has broken the curses associated with the law of God. He became accursed us. That is, he took upon himself every curse, including generational curses.
Does this mean we go about being free of all curses, including generational ones? It should and would be nice. But in case you did not notice, there is a part we need to play in the removal of the curses. And it is simply accepting Christ, birth, death, and resurrection, by faith. We can claim every victory over all enemies through Jesus Christ. It is required for us to triumph over sin and its curses by faith.
The breaking of the curses is possible for every person in the world, but not everyone will exercise faith because they trust every other form of intervention except that of Jesus. We might find exciting material for novel reading about the Breaking the Curse Series and other literature of the kind. But still, they do not remove any curses, at least not the type that has impacted “the third and fourth generation.”
Maybe I should caution you that even when you accept Jesus, Satan will challenge your position and test how much you believe in the power of Jesus. If you are fooling around, you will open yourself so that what happened to the seven sons of the priest Sceva will more than likely happen to you. The book of Acts reports it thus, “Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”Then the man in whom the evil spirit dwelt leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” (Acts 19:14-16 NKJV).
Be watchful. Be vigilant. Learn to effectively break the curse by putting yourself into the hands of Jesus. As is stated in the lyrics of Richard Mullan’s hymn:
He can turn the tides
And calm the angry sea.
He alone decides
Who writes a symphony.
He lights ev’ry star
That makes our darkness bright.
He keeps watch all through
Each long and lonely night.
He still finds the time
To hear a child’s first prayer.
Saint or sinner call
And always find Him there.
Refrain:
Though it makes him sad
To see the way we live,
He’ll always say, “I forgive.”
