Letter to V

In answer to your email, and at the risk of offending you (I will use the same word Jesus used in Matthew 11:6: “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”) which I do not want to do, I would like to continue to send you bits and pieces here and there, like the Sid Roth TV show clip and the copy of the Blessings and Curses book, and my commentary on your email.

I would like to comment on your statement that God has a plan and a purpose for all of our situations. Well, maybe part of His plan was to put me in your path to help you understand that you need deliverance from your situation. My mother has been a deliverance minister for 30 years – I never told you this, but I’m telling you now. She was called supernaturally by the Lord to minister to Christians (not non-Christians) who are trapped in bondage through their own sins, the sins of their ancestors, curses put on them by other people, etc. etc. etc. Myriads of evil ways that Christians can get trapped. She has an extensive website and has written two books.

Paul says in the book of Galatians:

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 13 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”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Yes, Jesus redeemed us from curses, but we have to appropriate the breaking of the curses – it’s not automatic. Jesus also died for our salvation and our eternal life in Heaven, right? But we know not everyone is not saved, because they have to confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe with their hearts that he was raised from the dead (Romans 10:9). In the same way we have to break curses – with our mouths.

See, the Jews in Jesus’ day knew all about curses. They were very well versed in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) also called “The Law”. They knew all about the curses in Deuteronomy 28 (read them). They knew that they were cursed if they broke anything in the Law – that’s what Paul was writing about in Galations. And they had no way to get out from under the curses – until Jesus came. And then those Jews who believed in Jesus could be free from the curses and the consequences of those curses: poverty, sickness, disease, barrenness, broken homes, wasting diseases like cancer, and on and on), but only if the breaking of the curses was appropriated. See, curses aren’t discussed that much in the New Testament, because the Jews in Jesus’ time when the New Testament was written knew ALL about curses – unlike us today. Remember, what we call the OLD Testament was Jesus’ and the disciples’ BIBLE – it was their Bible.

Today, not much attention is paid to the Old Testament as to the New Testament, and this is entirely wrong. What did Jesus say in Matthew 5:

17 Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Has Heaven or Earth passed away? No. So the law has not been fulfilled yet. So when a pastor dismisses Old Testament things as unimportant or not necessary in today’s post-resurrection world, the pastor is WRONG according to what Jesus said above. Which brings me to another subject.

If you’ll notice in the Gospels, the only people Jesus was really angry at during his entire ministry were the religious people – the religious leaders of the Jews. The equivalent of our pastors, priests, reverends etc. today. Jesus didn’t get mad at the prostitutes, the tax collectors (thieves), etc. It was the religious leaders. The religious leaders were so narrow-minded and full of know-it-all religious pride that even when Jesus did incredible, unbelievable miracles right in front of them, they couldn’t see them – they couldn’t be in awe of them because of their religious mindset, their self-sufficient pride and their hardened hearts. When our hearts are hardened to God trying to teach us something or show us something new that might be out of our “comfort zone”, then we miss out – we are in danger of losing His favor and His blessings. All because we have an attitude of “My way is the only way. My way is the right way. My pastor taught me this and that and that’s the way it is.” And all because we have been taught wrong.

You see, my secular parents sent me to an Episcopal private school (for a superior education, not because it was Episcopalian) from the time I was 5 years old until I graduated from high school. I had to attend chapel service every day and take religious classes all my life – Episcopal style. So when my mom became a born-again Christian when I was 16, it caused a lot of turmoil with me. She started to have a lot of supernatural things happen to her (Godly supernatural things, not evil supernatural things) and I couldn’t make what was happening in her walk with God fit into my “religious” mindset. After all, I was WAY ahead of her in terms of ALL the years I had been carefully taught Episcopal-style, right? Because my mother had no religious teachings at all, she was able to hear God’s voice easily when He called her because she didn’t have any religious “filters” like I did.

For years she worked on me, trying to teach me that God was not going to fit into my little box – my paradigm of how He was or should be. Our God is much bigger than that. Until one day in my 30s I hit rock-bottom with another tragedy in my life. I felt cursed. I thought, “How could I have such bad luck – how could these bad things keep happening to me? I’m a good person!” Then I thought, “I wonder if all those things my mother has been trying to tell me for the last 20 years are true?” I started to study for myself, without telling her. And slowly, I came around – the lightbulb went off in my head, and I understood that there are spiritual forces – good and evil – all around us, that are either working to destroy us or helping to keep us from destruction.

I also learned that our “traditions” – the traditions that we learn from our pastors or possibly from our parents – keep us from God’s blessings and favor too. The following scripture is stated three times in the Bible (twice in the gospels and once in Isaiah, from where Jesus quotes this – so this must be important):

Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.  Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:  “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

I like this translation from the Living Bible:

8 “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.

We have to be very careful that we don’t get “religious”. When we get religiously prideful or hard-hearted, we miss out on God’s blessings. God doesn’t always do things to fit our paradigms. One of the weirdest stories to me in the Bible was when Joshua had to take the city of Jericho by parading around it seven times and then shouting for the walls to come down (Joshua 6:20). Who would have thought to do something like that? Only God. But Joshua was pure in heart – God could use him because he humbled himself before God and could hear God’s voice telling him what to do to be successful. And even when it seemed ridiculous, it worked, because Joshua trusted God and humbled himself to do whatever God asked of him.

On an ending note, someone you know came to my home so that my mother and I could minister deliverance to her. We broke a witchcraft curse off her in the name of Jesus and it was pretty powerful. She had suspected that someone had done that witchcraft on her. She later brought a relative for us to minister to her.

You see, many people of Hispanic descent, like your husband, have witchcraft in their background – maybe not them personally, but their ancestors. The second commandment says that if we worship other gods (that is what witchcraft is – turning to Satan for power instead of our God) then curses come upon us and our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, etc. Notice the second half of the second commandment – this is from the Living Bible:

You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.

So, you can see that if you or your husband did not know your great-grandparents, how do you know whether they were involved in horrible sins like witchcraft, which you are paying the price for? Perhaps you are paying the price TODAY in poverty and illness for THEIR sins.

This is what we do – try to teach people like you who are in need about these things that the mainline American church does not teach because they are blinded. The American church, for the most part, is a business, not a ministry. And pastors, for the most part, just want to give feel-good messages and not delve into the hard stuff for fear of “offending”.

Jesus said he who has ears to hear, let him hear….He also said, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)

I want to help you, friend, not offend. I hope this helps. Please don’t go another 5 or 10 years waiting for God’s plan and purpose and wondering why it hasn’t come. The Bible says we have to be actively seeking Him all the time, and that we have to engage in spiritual battles (read Ephesians 6 and II Corinthians 10).

Why don’t you come over to my house one Sunday afternoon or Wednesday evening for coffee and to talk. Bring your questions, concerns, reservations, fears, arguments, etc. and let’s just talk.