The Curses of Anger and Poverty

Tuesday, June 28th, 2010

Today's Passage: Numbers 20: 1-13
Memory Verse: James 5:16

This first curse is close to home because the effects of it still impact my family today.  I cannot say for sure which ancestor passed it on to us, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that this was a generational curse that was passed on to me.  The details of how this spirit manifested in my home when I was a child are a little fuzzy, but I do remember the blow-ups between my siblings.  I also remember that I was often put down when I didn't get something right the first time, and that tempers flared easily at our house.  Add that to a couple of really humiliating experiences in my young adulthood, and you've got a recipe for outbursts of anger that my children are still recovering from.  All I can say is, praise God for freedom!

When I tell you that anger is something that stops you from walking in the blessings of God, it's from personal experience.  But today's passage gives you a pretty close view of how negatively anger will impact a child of God.  Moses was entrusted with the challenge of taking the children of Israel into the promised land, and he was not unfamiliar with their complaining.  But he forgot that God's ways are not our ways, and neither are His thoughts ours.  So when he openly disobeyed God's command to SPEAK to the rock, and struck it in an outburst of anger, his consequence was that he would not be able to see the promised land.  Verse 12 shows God' heart on anger.  When we focus more on things that we can't control and allow those things to dictate our emotions, we make our Father God look bad.  We misrepresent Him in front of people who may interpret our behavior as something all Christians do.  And as a result of of this, we forfeit the personal promised land we're praying for.  As James tells us to do, confessing this fault to someone you trust will bring healing and freedom like you'd never imagine.

The next curse is something that has plagued believers for many generations: the spirit of poverty.  It's the enemy's attempt to stop us from being the witnesses God intends.  Rather than opening our spirits and asking the Owner of cattle on a thousand hills to open the windows of heaven over us so that we can be the blessing to this world in the end-time harvest, many of us are holding on to man-made traditions (NOT based on the Word) that are stopping our blessings.  Many churches believe that Jesus was poor, so we were destined to be as well.  Some believe that money itself is evil, when the Bible says that it's the LOVE of money that creates evil schemes and causes man to sin against God.  Even more Christians are convinced that prosperity is not God's plan for us.  No wonder many believers still do not tithe, and give very little offering to a church.

Which bring us to the basis of prosperity: why DO we want to be prosperous?  If you were given a million dollars right now, what would you do with it?  If you looked around you at the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the enormous parties and multiple cars are the result of the extent of their dreams.  That's NOT why prosperity is being made available to the saints of the Most High God.  Our Father wants us to be the answer to starvation, homelessness, slavery and every evil that's been unleashed on the earth by the enemy of our souls. The Word tells us to cast down imaginations (thoughts, basically) and everything that goes against the knowledge of God.  So when we hold on to traditions that stop the financial blessings from coming through, we are also saying no to the Will of God on this earth.  We need to get to the place where we're so devoted to God and His Will that, by faith we must get rid of everything that's not like Him -- starting today.

Prayer: Father, I believe everything that Your Word says I can be and do.  Today I release myself from the spirits of anger and poverty.  I declare that I SHALL prosper and be in health, even as my soul prospers.  My desire is to make You famous with my life, my peace, my wealth, my giftings, and everything that bringsYou glory.  I pray this same prayer for my brothers and sisters, asking that You get the glory out of their lives in every area as well.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.