Breaking a Curse, Step by Step

"In My name they will cast out demons." — Mark 16:17

The Practical Lesson

Everything so far has been diagnosis. This lesson is the procedure. Read it carefully, because you will return to it many times over the lessons ahead.

Three kinds of curses. Three procedures.

If the Curse Is from God

  1. Acknowledge your own sin and the sins of your forefathers. Confess them to God and repent, asking for forgiveness and cleansing. Then separate yourself from that sin and from anything connected to it. Change your life — not your feelings about your life.

  2. Ask God to remove the curse He has placed. He placed it. He lifts it. This is a request, not a command.

  3. Command any spirits that entered through those sins to leave you at once in the name of Jesus.

If the Curse Is from the Enemy, With Legal Right

  1. Confess and acknowledge the sin that granted the right. Repent and ask God for forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ.

  2. Speaking out loud, take authority over the curse in the name of Jesus Christ and command it broken. For example: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I take authority over this curse of ______, and I command it to be broken now."

  3. Command every spirit associated with the curse to leave immediately. For example: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command all spirits associated with this curse to leave me now."

If the Curse Is from the Enemy, Without Legal Right

  1. Speaking out loud, take authority over the curse in the name of Jesus Christ and command it broken.

  2. Command every spirit associated with it to leave immediately in the name of Jesus.

No repentance step is needed here, because no ground was given. Do not manufacture guilt where God has not shown you any.

Notes on the Practice

Say it out loud. Throughout Scripture, authority is exercised by speech. Jesus spoke to storms, to fevers, to demons, to a corpse. Your thoughts are known to God; they are not a command to anything else. Speak.

Be specific. Name the curse if you know it — poverty, infirmity, destruction, barrenness, death, strife. Vague commands produce vague results.

Do not shout. Volume is not authority. A police officer does not need to scream to make an arrest lawful. Speak calmly, plainly, and with settled confidence in the name you are using.

It is the name, not your feelings. You may feel nothing at all. The transaction does not depend on your emotional state. It depends on the authority of Jesus Christ, which does not fluctuate with your mood.

Follow up. Ask the Lord to heal the damage that was done, to fill what was emptied, and to seal what was opened. A cleaned house should not be left vacant (Matthew 12:43–45).

Point to Ponder

Authority is exercised out loud, specifically, and calmly — in a name that does not depend on how you feel.

Verse to Remember

"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." — Luke 10:19

Question to Consider

Have I ever actually spoken out loud against something, or have I only ever thought about it and hoped?

Today's Practice

Copy the three procedures onto a card by hand. Handwriting them will fix them in your memory in a way that reading will not.

Then find a private place where you can speak without self-consciousness.

Take one thing the Holy Spirit has already shown you during these lessons — something clear, not something you are guessing at — and walk through the appropriate procedure out loud, start to finish.

Then thank God, and stop. Do not repeat it compulsively. It is done.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, You said that in Your name Your people would cast out demons. You said You gave us authority over all the power of the enemy. I take You at Your word.

I confess that I have often been passive — hoping something would lift rather than dealing with it in the authority You purchased for me.

Teach me to speak. Give me a settled confidence that has nothing to do with my emotions and everything to do with Your name. Keep me from theatrics and keep me from timidity.

And where I act today, let it be complete. Break what needs breaking, cleanse what needs cleansing, heal what has been damaged, and fill what has been emptied. In Your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Authority you never exercise is authority you might as well not have.