We’ve all heard the expression, “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”  That is not a quote from the Bible but it reflects biblical truth. James, the brother of Jesus, spent a good bit of his five-chapter epistle warning us about the words we speak.  One small part says the following.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. (James 3:9-11)

We have talked about blessing and cursing before along with our authority as believers. To pronounce a blessing is a form of prayer that asks God to direct good toward the individual we have blessed.  A curse, on the other hand, is a form of prayer that asks for someone to direct evil toward an individual. Since God is not in the business of sending evil in response to hateful prayers, someone else in the spiritual realm will be glad to act on that prayer – especially a prayer uttered by one of God’s own children since that prayer gives the enemy authority to go after someone – even a fellow believer.

As a culture, we tend to dismiss words as meaningless but scripture doesn’t dismiss them so easily.  James clearly commands us to bless and not to curse. Proverbs tells us “the tongue has the power of life and death” (Prov.18:21). Jesus warns us that men will have to give account on judgment day for every careless word spoken (Matt. 12:36). And Paul admonishes us to let no unwholesome talk come out of our mouth but only what is good for building up other people (Eph.4:29).

Since our words carry authority as children of God and representatives of the King, they also carry the weight of prophetic messages calling things out that have not yet come to pass.  A prophetic word over a person does not just tell about future events but often activates a seed that God planted in that individual years earlier. A prophetic word about events moves things in the heavenly realms to bring that word to pass in the affairs of men and nations.

The point is that our words are more than random sounds or sentiments. They carry power or spiritual energy to influence things for good or bad. So God calls on us to speak well of those who would curse us, to pray for authorities, to give honor to whom honor is due, and to bless and not curse.

How many times have we spoken negatively about leaders, celebrities, cities, nations, or even preachers we don’t’ agree with?  How many times have we declared their depravity, their upcoming fall from grace, their darkness and their failure? How many times have we called judgment down with our words declaring that God should wash some city away, destroy it with an earthquake, or declare that some nation should be “nuked,” etc.?  But God was concerned even about the people of Nineveh who were Israel’s sworn enemies.

What if we spoke life, blessing, wisdom, revival, righteousness and hope over the people we usually curse? Would our words impart life rather than death, righteousness rather than depravity, peace rather than war, and love rather than hate?

Would politicians begin to serve the nation rather than themselves? Would presidents begin to make wise decisions instead of foolish ones? Would Muslim terrorists begin to see the world through different eyes?  Would failing husbands and fathers begin to succeed and marriages flourish rather than inch closer to divorce?

God wants us to bless and not curse because he desires that none should perish.  Blessing then becomes a powerful, divine weapon that God can use to transform men and nations. Blessing takes fuel and authority away from the enemy and begins to strangle demonic supply lines of hate and bitterness and cursing.

So today, ask the Holy Spirit to make you aware of every word so that none are spoken carelessly. Ask him to make you a spring of fresh water rather than salt water and a fountain of life rather than death.  I will ask him to do the same for me.

Once demonic oppression is indicated in the life of a believer, dealing with the demonic is fairly straightforward.

Deliverance is based on a few essential beliefs and principles.

1.  The kingdom of heaven has power and authority much greater than anything in the kingdom of darkness.  Satan was cast down.
2. Jesus demonstrated that authority over demons again and again while on the earth as the Son of Man.
3. Satan, death, and the grave could not hold the resurrected Savior who died for our sins to take away Satan’s legal claims against us.
4. Positionally, we are sons and daughters in the house of God, kings and priests on the earth, and the representatives of Jesus Christ who carry his delegated power and authority over the enemy.
5.  The only power Satan has over believers is the power we give him when we choose to live unaligned with God in all or part of our life. Others to whom we are connected may also have given him that right (sins of the fathers, curses, etc.).
6.  Our misalignment gives Satan a legal right to “rent a room,” i.e. afflict or oppress us.
7. Re-aligning ourselves with the Father removes the enemy’s legal right to afflict us.
9.  Having removed that right, we can command demons to leave us by the authority of Jesus Christ who has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Basic Process for Finding Freedom from the Demonic

Make all declarations or statements verbally because you are declaring these things to the spiritual realm.

1.  Begin your re-alignment by declaring your faith in and allegiance to Jesus Christ.
2.  Renounce sin and all the works of Satan.
3.  Acknowledge the areas in your life that are unaligned with the Father. These may be areas of persistent unrepented sin, unbelief, or unforgiveness. As King David prayed, “Search my heart O God and show me if there is any offensive way in me,” you should also pray and ask God to show you any hidden sins or rebellion in your life. Do not rationalize, minimize or blame others for your sin and do not accuse God of having unjust standards.
4.  Confess and repent of your sins by declaring God’s standards to be righteous and agreeing with him about his standards and your failure to keep them. Ask for forgiveness in the name of Jesus based on his sacrifice for you and nothing else.  Be as specific as possible. Thank God for forgiving you. (See 1 Jn. 1:9).
5.  Confess the sins of your Fathers if you know them specifically.  If not, confess the wickedness, known and unknown, of your ancestors and renounce their sins and wickedness. Ask God to break the affects of their sins in your life and thank him for doing so.
6.  Forgive all those whom you have not forgiven.  This is an act of the will not your emotions. Biblical forgiveness is choosing to no longer require payment for a wrong done to you.  It is turning judgment of the matter over to God.  It is a decision to no longer act in any way designed to make someone pay for the wrong he/she did to you.  Jesus then instructs us to bless them and pray for them.  We must forgive those who sin against us because Jesus forgives our sins. It is not because they deserve it, but because Jesus deserves it.

Having re-aligned yourself with the Father, you may….

• Declare that Jesus became a curse for you so that you might blessed (Gal. 3:13-14).  Because of that you may ask Jesus to sever, make null and void, and cancel any curses that have ever been established against you by words or sins. Thank him for doing so.
• Declare that you are a son/daughter of the king. God’s representative on the earth, and that you serve in the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
• Renounce any sin, emotions or thoughts contrary to God’s truth that you believe demonic spirits have prompted or produced in you.  It may be something like … In the Name of Jesus I renounce fear, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bitterness, pornography, unbelief, gossip, apathy, etc.
• Then in the name and the authority of Jesus Christ and by his blood that was shed for you, you can command those spirits to leave you immediately and never return.

That is the basic process and scriptural principles for breaking the power of the enemy in your life or someone else’s life based on whom Jesus is, what he has done and who you are in him.

For more details about this process and for suggested commands and declarations over the enemy I would recommend reading my book Born to Be Free. It is also important that you learn how to walk out your freedom so that the enemy cannot return. The book will give you a more thorough theological base, a more thorough understanding of who you are in Christ, and lead you through a thorough assessment of your life to discover entry points for the enemy.  It will also walk you through a systematic process for deliverance and maintaining your freedom.

All I have trued to do in this blog is to give you a sense of how the demonic operates and a basic framework for understanding deliverance.  Faith in Jesus is still the key in all of this.  I hope this eight part series has been helpful.

Words have power.  Your words have power.  Not just the power to influence or persuade but supernatural power.  God spoke creation into existence – both the seen realm and the unseen realm, the spiritual and the natural.  You are made in God’s image.  Your words also carry power. Although our words have power to create to a much lesser degree than the Father’s, they still have power to set things in motion with life-changing and world-changing  outcomes.

God intended to rule the earth through those he created and into whom he breathed his life giving Spirit.  He gave Adam and his descendants dominion over the earth and all the works of his hands.  They were given authority to subdue the earth and establish the culture of heaven (God’s will being done) on this earth.

How does anyone rule?  With power and authority.  Authority directs the power that backs it up.  In the case of Adam, he would command with authority and the power of heaven would back him up.  How do you command?  You command with words. As Adam would command, the Spirit of God or the angels of heaven would move to establish what he had spoken.

Our prayers accomplish the same thing.  As we pray, we invite heaven to act on our behalf or another’s behalf to bring about outcomes on the earth that are consistent with God’s will.  When we speak a blessing over another person, it is a form of a prayer and by faith we believe that God will act on behalf of the one we blessed to bring about some positive outcome.

In other words, your words set things in motion in the spiritual realm that creates realities in the natural realm.   That is why we pray and bless.  That is why we are commanded to pray and bless, even our enemies, because the heart of God is to do good to all men.  When we speak, he acts on our words.

But there is another part of the spiritual realm that hopes to harm, to oppress, and destroy.  The demonic realm also hears our words and has the capacity to act on them.  When we speak hurtful words, condemning words, or vengeful words we are declaring curses.  Curses are simply prayers for the harm or destruction of another.  Curses have the capacity to mobilize the demonic realm to being about destructive realities in the natural realm.

In Numbers 22, Balak, the king of Moab, was confronted with the presence of a million or more Israelites camping along his borders.  Terrified, he summoned Balaam and asked him to place a curse on Israel so that Moab might defeat them in battle.  The idea was to summon spiritual powers to war against Israel and to hinder them so that they might be defeated. Balaam sought God before he pronounced the curse.  God told him not to do so because he should not curse what God had blessed.

The blessing of God sets angels in motion to bring about positive outcomes for the one who is blessed – provision, success, victory, good health, protection, favor, etc. God commanded Balaam to refrain from the curse because that would set the demonic realm against Israel and hinder the blessing and victories that God intended.

Words, then, have the power to set things in motion for good or for bad in the spiritual realm. That’s why proverbs tells us that the tongue has the power of life and death. It’s why James counsels us to guard our tongues so that we don’t burn down a forest with one spark – so that our words don’t ignite a destructive force in the spiritual realm that goes far beyond what we intended.

Your words have power.  You walk in the authority of the kingdom of heaven so your words have great authority.  God directs us to bless and not curse. He directs us to be careful with our words and speak only those things that build others up. In the same way we need to speak life to ourselves.  We need to speak blessing and goodness over ourselves rather than condemning words that curse and demean.

Watch your words.  They are powerful and authoritative.  Speak blessing, strength, success, peace, competence, provision, safety and affirmation over others as well as yourself. You have the capacity to set powers in motion in the spiritual realms for great good or great harm.  Watch your words and choose to be source of blessing.  Be fresh water that gives life wherever you go because you speak life to every person and situation your encounter.