Gregory Dickow - From Cursed to Blessed
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Now, today we’re diving right back into how we are redeemed and delivered from the curse of the law. We’re delivered from curses, generational curses, and strongholds. Today we’re breaking generational curses. We’re breaking the strongholds. Jesus already broke the curse, but we’re breaking it in our own personal lives. We’re pulling down the strongholds. We’re casting down these false images of ourselves. We’re taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Real spiritual warfare is taking what belongs to you because of Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection, and giving back to the devil what the devil gave you, and taking from Jesus what he gave you. Okay? And now we’re talking about breaking free from generational curses. The Bible talks about how these curses will be passed down to the third and fourth generation, and in some places, to ten generations and beyond. But Jesus Christ interrupts the generational curses, absorbs them in his own body on the cross, and then transfers to us all of his blessings because of his payment for our sins and for the curse that Adam and Eve brought upon mankind.
So we’re breaking these curses, pulling down strongholds and limitations. Now science shows us, through neuroplasticity, that we can alter our genetics from one generation to the next. The generational patterns-even science now backs up what Jesus already did for us in Christ. The generational patterns, the strongholds, the curses can be radically transformed by an intrusion of new ways of thinking and new ways of seeing ourselves.
Now what we have to understand is that trauma forms our belief systems. Genetics creates our predispositions. If you’re predisposed to heart failure, heart disease, some forms of cancer, high cholesterol, or various things that are passed down genetically, we don’t have to realize these predispositions. We can actually experience God’s predestination. Your predispositions do not have to become your predestinations. Jesus Christ has interrupted those predispositions. Jesus Christ has interrupted those curses.
We need only to recognize that we’re new creatures in Christ and a new species of being. The Bible says with a new predisposition for the blessing rather than the curse. We need only to get our minds and our thought patterns into agreement and alignment with this newness of life that God gave us in Christ Jesus. Science proves that God delivers us from the curse, and we can renew our minds and begin to manifest the blessings of God in our lives through the renewing of our minds.
This is what we call fasting from wrong thinking. What it’s all about is we’re essentially disinheriting — the patterns, the strongholds, and the limitations that were assigned to us by Adam. Listen, we’re disinheriting the strongholds and the curses and the limitations that were assigned to us by Adam and Eve’s sin. And we are rewriting the new patterns of thought that set us free.
Now, last time we talked about the seven categories of generational curses. These curses show up in emotional problems, mental illness, family destruction, marriage and family devastation through our children, our grandchildren, sickness and disease, poverty and lack, terrorism, failure, defeat, doubt, and fear. These seven categories of curses show up at various times in our lives.
We can either allow these things to keep us captive, we can allow these things to keep us in bondage, or we can let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We can actually declare that we’re redeemed from these curses. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. When he said, «It is finished» on the cross, he said, «It is finished.» Sin’s dominion over you is finished. Emotional trauma and mental illness are finished in your life. Poverty and lack are finished in your life. Sickness and disease are finished. It is finished. It is done away with. It is destroyed. It no longer has power over you. Failure and defeat no longer have power over you. Terrorism no longer is coming near your dwelling place. Doubt and fear are no longer going to continue to strap you down and limit you to previous predispositions of limitations and failure.
No, this is the day the Lord has made. And the Bible says, «Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.» Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
So now, if we can categorize seven areas of curses, we can in the same way recognize seven areas of blessing, seven categories of blessing that will now begin to show up in our lives. And how do we know these will show up? Because in Galatians 3:13 it says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. So all of these seven curses, and every curse, falls under one of those seven categories. All of those curses we are redeemed from. We are bought back. Christ redeemed us from these things so that the blessing would come upon us. Galatians 3:14 goes on to say we’re redeemed from the curse. Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse on the cross so that the blessing would come upon us by faith.
And so, in the same way that these seven areas-these seven curses or these seven categories of curses-show up in people’s lives, we can now reclaim the seven categories of blessing in our lives because of what Jesus did. Remember it says, «Because he loved us» in Deuteronomy, because God loves us, he turns the curse into a blessing. He reverses the curse.
So in Christ, now when you accepted Jesus Christ, you were redeemed. These curses were broken over your life. And now we’re breaking the patterns of these things showing up in our lives. So what we can now expect is mental health and emotional well-being. This is blessing number one: mental health and emotional well-being. God tells us we have a covenant of peace. That means God is making a promise, a contract sworn in the blood of Jesus, that he will give you peace that will surpass understanding, and it will be a covenant of peace. In other words, a peace that will never be taken from you-a contract forever that you will have peace, nothing missing, nothing broken, undisturbed composure, and calm.
Isaiah 54:10 says, «Though the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed from you,» says the Lord who has mercy on you. In Isaiah 53:5, something powerful that God tells us here: The chastisement for our peace fell upon him, fell upon Jesus on the cross. So the punishment that we deserved was put on Jesus on the cross so that the peace that he deserves would come upon us. The punishment fell upon him so his peace could fall upon us.
And in the Hebrew language, this word peace means shalom. It means quiet, tranquility, contentment, fulfillment. Isaiah 32:17 says something very powerful; it says, «The fruit of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and assurance forever.» Calmness, faith, assurance is faith, confidence, trust in God, peace with God in a covenant relationship with God. That’s what this word peace means. It actually comes from the word whole. To make peace means to be made whole, to be restored, to have quiet, tranquility, contentment, safety, soundness in body, mind, health, and prosperity in friendships.
This is a powerful blessing. And remember, these are the blessings that are given to us in exchange for the curses. Jesus takes our curses and gives us his blessings. So the first one he gives us, obviously, is the gift of righteousness. But he gives us, through that gift, mental health and emotional well-being: Number one, supernatural peace. Number two, family blessings, and salvation is number three. Family blessings, a happy and healthy family. Deuteronomy 28:4 says, «Blessed shall be the fruit of your body.» Acts 16:31 says, «You and your whole household shall be saved.»
Now I realize that there are people who will read Deuteronomy 28 and say, «Well, this says if I don’t obey God completely, these curses will come upon me.» Well, the Bible says if you disobey in one way, you’re disobedient to all. If you break one law, you’re guilty of the whole law. That’s why Jesus, he doesn’t expect your obedience to redeem you, but it’s his obedience that redeems us. It’s his death on the cross, it’s his obedience to go to the cross sinless and take our sins upon himself. And it’s his life that he’s giving in exchange for our life, his blessing. He’s trading us by taking our curse on the cross. And he took it on the cross, buried it in the ground, and was raised from the dead.
So he’s living in freedom. And so now you can live redeemed as he is. But this family blessing shows up in your life and in your home, and in your family. And if your family is broken, claim freedom from that curse and claim the blessing of family well-being, family salvation, family health, family happiness. Claim this safety. This word family blessing says you’ll be made whole, safe, cured, enduring salvation, wellness, wholeness, recovery, restoration. Whatever has been stolen from you is going to be restored.
The fourth covenant of blessing that redeems us from the curse of sickness and disease is health and healing. 1 Peter 2:24 says, «By Jesus' stripes we were healed.» It says, «He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we could die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed.» By his wounds we have been healed. Healing is emotional, healing is physical, healing is spiritual, healing is relational, healing is financial. Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil.
So don’t let the devil lie to you and say you can’t have these blessings because you’re not 100% obedient. Because the only way to be blessed is to be 100% obedient to everything, and nobody can do that except Jesus did that. And then he hands it to us. He makes the great exchange. He takes our curses, he gives us his blessing, he takes our sin, he gives us his righteousness, he takes our sorrow, he gives us his joy.
Woo! This fifth covenant of blessing is a covenant and a blessing of abundance and prosperity. Deuteronomy 28:8 says, «The Lord will command the blessing on you and your storehouses and all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.» And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, the increase of your livestock, and the produce of your ground in the land where the Lord swore to give you.
Now why do we have the rights to this? We’re not Jewish. Why do we have the rights to this? We haven’t been fully obedient. Because in Galatians 3:8 it says we are blessed with Abraham, the believer. And it goes on to say, «The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and foretold the gospel to Abraham, saying all the nations will be blessed through you.» So he says in verse 9, «So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.» All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. But for you, you have the blessing now.
We have the blessing because of faith in Christ, faith in Jesus' finished work on the cross. And the fifth covenant of blessing is that all your enemies will run from you. All your enemies will be afraid of you. They’ll be terrified by you. Verse 10 says «All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.» Then it says you’ll have a lifetime of victory. Our sixth blessing is a lifetime of victory and wins. Deuteronomy 28:13 says, «And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not beneath.» What a powerful covenant of blessing.
So instead of, remember, instead of failure and defeat, we have a lifetime of victory and wins. Instead of us running from our enemies and being terrorized by them, they’re running from us. Instead of us having lack and poverty, we have a covenant of abundance and prosperity. Instead of sickness and disease, we have a covenant of health and healing. Instead of our families being destroyed and broken, we have our families being saved, restored, and blessed. Instead of having a life of mental illness and emotional trauma, we have a life of mental health and emotional well-being. Supernatural peace belongs to you.
And the seventh blessing that overtakes the doubt and the fear is assurance and confidence and faith. It says in Romans, chapter 12, God gives to everyone a measure, the measure of faith. God gives you faith so you can have assurance and know that all these promises are yours in Christ Jesus. Wow! Think about this. He says «Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall you be your basket and your bowl. Blessed shall you be when you go in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.»
What does this speak of? All of these blessings speak of victory without a fight. It says, «The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face. They’ll come out against you one way, but they’ll flee from you in seven ways.» God promises you’ll have more than enough. I want you to just see these bonus blessings: more than enough, more in your storehouse. The Lord will command the blessings on you in your storehouses and in all that you set your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
And he says you will have blessing and victory in all things. Genesis 24:1 says Abraham was blessed in all things. In every way, God blessed him. In every way. And if we belong to Christ, we’re Abraham’s seed (Galatians 3:29). So God blesses us in every way. Expect the blessings. Declare you’re redeemed from the curse and expect the blessings. It also includes divine protection. The Bible says in Isaiah 54:17, «No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against you in judgment, it will be condemned.» No evil will come near your dwelling place. Psalm 91:10 says, «Nor will any plague come near your tent.»
Now how do we activate these blessings? With our mouth. Proverbs 18: 21 says, «Death and life are in the power of the tongue.» Death and life are in the authority of the tongue. The Bible says in James chapter 3, with the mouth we bless. With the mouth we bless. How do we manifest or activate these blessings? With our mouth, with our words. Matthew 18, Jesus said, «Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth, or whatever you permit on earth shall be permitted in heaven.» Romans 10:9 says, «With the mouth we confess, with our mouth Jesus is Lord. Believe in our heart God raised him from the dead.»
With the mouth we declare. With the mouth we let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Psalm 107: 2 says, «Say so!» Has the Lord redeemed you? It says in the New Living Translation, «Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak it out.» Tell others he’s redeemed you from your enemies as well. Has the Lord redeemed you? Speak it out! Declare it! Say in the name of Jesus, «I am delivered!» Say that! «I’m delivered from the curse of failure, and I am redeemed!» And I receive the blessing of success, the blessing of faith.
Say, «I’m redeemed! I’m delivered from the curse of sickness, and I receive the blessing of health and healing.» Say, «I’m redeemed from the curse of disease, and I receive the blessing of healing.» Say, «I’m redeemed from the curse of lack and poverty, and I receive the blessing of abundance.» Say, «I’m redeemed from terrorism and fear, and I have the blessing of my enemies running from me without me having to even chase them.»
Say, «I’m delivered and redeemed from mental illness, and I have supernatural peace.» I’m redeemed from family destruction, and I have the blessing of family salvation and family happiness in Jesus' name. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Jesus did it with his blood. Now you activate it with your words, and everything is going to be all right. And you’re going to see the things that chased you start running from you. The bad that chased you is going to start running from you. The good that eluded you is going to start chasing after you in Jesus' name. Expect that!