Derek Prince - Want to Be Blessed? Bless Israel!
This is an excerpt from: How To Pray For Israel
Now the next suggestion I have is bless and be blessed. I want to turn to Numbers 24, verse 9. You see, when we pray our grace, which we've just been through, you realize every time we pray it we're qualifying for the blessing of God. I mean, it's foolish to turn that down. I don't mean the blessing of God is easy because if you start praying for Israel you'll get all sorts of opposition you never experienced before. That reluctant prophet, Balaam, who was hired to curse Israel did his best to curse but under the overruling of God ended up by blessing more and more and more. And every time he tried to curse worse, he blessed more. His final words in Numbers 24, verse 9, speaking to Israel, he says: Blessed is he who blesses you and cursed is he who curses you.
So you've got a choice. You can either get a blessing or a curse. If you bless Israel God will bless you, if you curse Israel God will curse you. I have a book called Blessing or Curse, You Can Choose. The theme of this book is, first of all, are you under the blessing of God or the curse of God? Because, a lot of people are under the curse of God and don't know it, that's why their lives are going wrong. And then the next theme is how to get out from under the curse and get into the blessing. I deal with most of the common causes for curses. One of the commonest and the most destructive is anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism automatically brings the curse of God upon an individual, a community, a church, a nation or a civilization.
I have here in Chapter 8 of this book the testimony of a Palestinian Arab who is a personal friend of ours. His name, which is given in the book, is Nabil Hadad. He was born in Haifa, immigrated to the United States, went into business, became very successful. In fact, at one time he owned nine McDonald's. And then went bankrupt. And in the course of all that met the Lord and was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Then God began to deal with him about his finances and he heard Derek Prince preaching on curse or blessing, Or blessing or curse. Then he says at the bottom of page 85: For months the Lord continued to show me additional areas of curses in my life. Each time I repented and claimed my release on the basis of Jesus becoming a curse for me. One day as I was worshiping I said, "How great you are! You created the universe and everything in it". The Lord asked me if I really believed that. I said, "Yes, Lord". He said, "What about the Jewish people? Do you still hold resentment in your heart against them"?
Now, 98 percent of Palestinian Arabs have resentment for the Jews, and they have some pretty strong historical reasons for it. So God said to him, "What about the Jewish people? Do you still hold resentment in your heart against them"? I remembered how my whole family had always cursed the Jews. And this is a pretty typical Palestinian Arab family. He was a good class and they were nominal Christians. But they always cursed the Jews. I was trained to hate them from my earliest years.
Now in the presence of the Lord I said, "I renounce any resentment in my heart toward the Jewish people. I forgive them". Immediately something changed inside of me. Shortly after this I saw that God in His Word had told Abraham, the father of Jews, "I'll bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you". Then I realized that my finances had not been under a blessing but under a curse, a curse of insufficiency. I had never been able to make enough money to meet my needs. Even if I made $250,000 I would need 300,000. Later when I made 500,000 I would need 700,000 to cover my expenses.
Since 1982 when I was released from the curse of anti-Semitism and the curse of insufficiency that went with it, my income has always exceeded my expenses and my needs. And, I am able to give liberally to the work of the Kingdom of God. God has also healed my body and my emotions. I am totally free from depression. I can truly say I am walking in victory. My testimony has helped many others to be delivered from the curse and to live under God's blessing. And we know for a fact that to be true. He has a particular ministry to Jewish people. He relates to them in a special way. And also to Moslems. And quite a significant number both of Jews and Moslems have met the Lord through Nabil Hadad. But first of all the Lord had to do something in his heart. So there's a pretty up to date testimony. It doesn't pay to curse the Jews. It doesn't pay to have resentment in your heart against them. If you want to be blessed then you have to bless Israel.