The gypsy mother and her daughter smiled from ear to ear as they hurried out, wiping the tears from their eyes. Momma was healed! Her daughter, who was in her thirties, had all she could do to keep from laughing out of sheer joy! The heaviness was gone. Something had happened to her body, too. They could hardly wait to get home to tell the family what was going on. Their steps got lighter and lighter as they walked and ran and walked again. They felt as though a strong wind was blowing them on. It seemed as though it would blow them away with joy!
Earlier that afternoon, the wife of a gypsy pastor had brought these two women, a mother, and daughter, to me for prayer. They looked so depressed and oppressed and in terrible health. As I prayed, the Lord showed me I should take off some curses and then showed me which blessings to put in their place. As I ministered first to the daughter, she began to receive health. As I broke off a curse, she started to fall down in the spirit. (I quickly checked with the Lord to make sure if it was a devil or not, and it was not.) But it was interesting that when I went to catch her as she fell, she really didn’t have any weight. I just guided her so that she would fall onto a couch. I believe there was an angel holding her up so she wouldn’t get hurt when she went down! During that time, much deliverance happened to this young woman. Then I knew there was something going on with the mother. I questioned her and she admitted that her son-in-law was abusing her daughter. She then went on to admit that her husband had also abused her! I told her that a generational curse had just been broken. She agreed, because she now had freedom instead of fear, and could talk about it for the first time. Then she said, “My mother and her mother also had abusing husbands.” Then referring to her son-in-law, she said, “That man has hurt my daughter so much, I hate that man! I curse that man!”
Immediately I had to teach her that we are not to curse, but rather we are to bless. As soon as she realized it, she repented and tears fell. The whole atmosphere and situation changed. When the two women got ready to leave, I prayed for Momma again and this time she got complete deliverance from her past. It was a great time!
The key to these women getting delivered and receiving blessings was their repentance before God and their forgiveness of those who had cursed them. As soon as they were able to bless their husbands, God’s blessings began to be poured out on both the mother and daughter. They were totally bowled over by all the peace, the joy, the healing, and the restoration—all in one package deal! They were obedient to forgive their husbands and they got the blessings. God is awesome and merciful! I was crying inside at the beginning as they painfully told me their stories. But when it was all over, I was ready to dance right out the door with them to celebrate all the blessings that were overtaking them.
God is our Father and the blessings He has reserved for His children are tremendous. All we need to do is open the gates of Heaven with obedience and forgiveness and faith, and He pours it all out on us.
The Blessings of A Father
In Chapter 3, we saw how Abraham is our father of faith and his blessings are passed down to us, if we’ll receive them. Now, to get on with the story, along came Abraham’s grandsons, Isaac’s twin sons. Their grandfather was dead and their father was already very old. Esau, the twin who was minutes older, was the firstborn. The boys (actually about seventy six years old by then) got into a squabble about the inheritance. Jacob, the other twin, connived with his mother to make sure he got the blessings, instead of the older son. Here you have the sin of one parent loving one child more, and the other parent loving the other more. This brings into the bloodline a curse of division. The blessing of a Hebrew father for his first son is still very important, even to this day.
(Genesis 27:27-29) And he came near, and kissed him and Isaac smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:
Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
This blessing gave to Jacob the position of head of the family and protected him from the curses of others, as well as giving him all the blessings. Those are powerful words! And guess what? They were spoken to the wrong son. But Isaac had a problem; he favored one son over the other. Parents please don’t favor one child over the others, because it is sin and it causes destruction. I have five children and none of them will ever tell you that I love one over the other. Loving one child over another is a sin and it brings curses upon you.
When I was a child, I learned this the hard way. I was abused, because my father didn’t want me. I used to have so much pain that I would sneak away to my favorite place out on a hillside. In northern Minnesota during the day, when those clouds started moving, you could see every shape imaginable. At night, you could reach right up there and grab the stars of the Milky Way. One night at midnight, when I was about seven years old, I sneaked outside so my father wouldn’t see me. My father’s anger toward me hurt so bad that I didn’t even want to live. I lay there and looked at those clouds and the stars and just prayed. God talked to me, as He often would do. I just looked up at the sky and said, “God, some day I want to be a daddy, but I don’t want to be the kind I’ve got!” And God told me, “I have a lot of kids and I love them all the same. Do not ever favor one above another. Each of them has things that you can appreciate more and you encourage them in those things, but you love them all the same.”
I’ve never forgotten that. He said one other thing, and that’s my excuse for being childlike, “Never forget what it’s like to be a kid!” At fifty-six years old, I can get down and play with the kids just as much as when I was six years old. Children are a great heritage.
Esau and Jacob had a problem because Esau was Daddy’s favorite and Jacob was Momma’s boy. This cost Momma her life and it caused all kinds of destructive things in their lives. This is an important thing that we have to watch carefully. The wrong son got the blessing because of deception, at Momma’s suggestion. There are curses that come from deception. Deception won’t pan out. It takes truth if you want to be blessed. If you are going to get the greatness of the blessings of God, you have to tell the truth.
There was not truth there. How did the younger son get the blessing? The older son was very selfish. He sold his birthright for his belly’s sake. He had set himself up. He had self-imposed curses. Self imposed curses are on the types of curses we need to deal with in our lives—our confession, the words we say. Have you ever heard anybody say, “Well, I’ll be damned?” Whenever I hear anybody say that, I say, “No! No! Be blessed!”
Our words set us up for curses or blessings. Did you know that angels have no authority on this earth? Our words give them authority because we come from the dust of the earth, the “dirt connection,” all the way to the heavenlies. There are two kinds of angels: God’s heavenly angels and the devil’s angels (those who fell by disobedience). They all listen to our words. We have the uniqueness of having the Spirit of God in us, so when we speak we have power. We’re going to face judgment for all idle and evil words. We send out the devils against people, by speaking evil of them or even of ourselves. We say things like, “I’ll never be able to do that,” or “I’ll never understand this.”
James, the brother of Jesus, talks about the power of the tongue very clearly in the third chapter of the epistle.
(James 3:2-5) For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
I would admonish each of us that what comes out of our mouth is what is in our heart. The tongue is a little member, but it can bless or curse us.
(Genesis 27:33) And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.
It was very important for Esau and Jacob to get a blessing from their father in this situation, but the whole thing was set up for evil and to cause curses to come on people. It was a total set-up! Isaac realized that he had given the blessing to the wrong son. The father couldn’t take back the blessings he had already given to Jacob. Did you know that blessings are irrevocable, that the only person who can revoke a blessing is the receiver? That’s why, when someone says, “God bless you,” it’s there for eternity. Don’t let go of it, and even more so if we say, “God bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!” It is a powerful thing. The same permanence occurs when a person speaks a curse on someone. If it’s not dealt with, the curse stays there.
(Genesis 27:37) And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
A blessing means the giving of all. When God blesses you, He’s giving you all His greatness. It’s really interesting that the Father’s blessing does not hold anything back. If you are not receiving God’s blessing, it is because you’re not doing faithfully what He says or you’re not obeying, because God does not hold back.
(Genesis 27:38) And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
Isaac didn’t have anything more to give. He had given all the best to Jacob. That’s why when someone says lightly, “Bless you, brother,” I say, “Yeah, right.” That’s just like someone saying, “Merry Christmas,” or “Excuse me.” It’s more than just a greeting or salutation. It’s something that we have mutilated by not recognizing the greatness of it. Who do you think is behind that? Satan!
If you have been a victim as a child of being favored or not favored, it is necessary that you forgive your parents so the curse can hold no authority. If you are a parent and have been guilty of this, it is necessary to repent to God and then ask your children to forgive you also. And of course, you need to forgive yourself.
(Genesis 27:39, 40) And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;
And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
Esau’s blessing was a curse. Isaac didn’t have authority to bless him; he’d already given the blessing to Jacob. In his trying, he literally spoke a curse. When you try to bless someone with the wrong heart, you can literally curse him or her. It took a matter of about twenty years before these brothers got back together, and then it was very timidly. It had all started with deception and favoring one child above the other. It’s amazing!
(Genesis 27:41) And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
Curses set up evil. Esau’s father was a wonderful man and you would think he would be concerned and mourning for him. Esau literally didn’t care what happened to his father. And because of the hatred that rose up in him, he was willing to commit murder. “As soon as they get done mourning him and all the traditional stuff that the church requires so they don’t talk about me, then I’m going to kill my brother.” Unforgiveness will cause death. It opens a door to more and more evil. Hollywood makes great movies of this. They portray the image that it is honorable to carry out vengeance. It is not honorable at all!
A very important key is that you remember to forgive the people who curse you. Forgiveness is everything and we are responsible to forgive, whether people deserve it or not. When we forgive, we’re in God’s grace and mercy and love. Of course, some people don’t deserve it. Did we deserve to be forgiven? No! But God sent His only-begotten Son to die on the cross so that you and I could be forgiven. It’s a very important thing to get curses out of our lives. God sets things up so that we forgive, but it’s not an easy thing to do. The more we forgive people, the more we appreciate what Jesus has done for us.
If you have areas of your life that are not under control, I would bet that you have a curse. And I’d also bet that when that curse is gone, your life will change. I know this for a fact, because I had curses on my own life and didn’t even know it; I couldn’t figure out why things didn’t work out in my life. When the curses were removed, it made all the difference.
It is not my purpose to get everyone focused on curses to the point of fear, because this is not the heart of it. I do believe that when we expose the snare of the devil, the devil loses his power and we all want his power gone, right? That is the heart of this book and all the classes that I teach. It is to cause the devil to lose his power in your life and in my life. We can touch hundreds of people’s lives with these simple keys and then we will see the devil’s dominion being broken more fully. There is so much we can look forward to if we obey God. His blessings are overflowing and He is ready to pour them out at any time!
Back a few thousand years ago, there was a man named Moses who was God’s friend and His servant. He was chosen to lead Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt. They were called Israelites after their great-great granddaddy. Did you know why God changed Jacob’s name to Israel? Because God changed him from a cheat and a “supplanter” into a “prince with God.” Jacob may have been very cursed, but the day came that he repented before God and asked Him for forgiveness. He also asked his brother Esau for forgiveness. Guess what? The curses were broken and God blessed him with tremendous blessings.
Moses finally got these people (three or four million of them) to the borders of the Promised Land, promised to them by God Himself. There he told them that on that day they would cross over the River Jordan. He told them that they would have to take the land. They would have to claim that which God promised them. We have a common thief that steals away our “land” (John 10:10). And we too have to make the good fight of faith for the promises of God.
(Deuteronomy 11:26) Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
God reminds them of all the commands of God and then tells them all about the blessings they will receive if they obey God.
Blessings will overtake you
(Deuteronomy 28:1) And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
God gives us responsibility. He says, “If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” Only we can do this for ourselves. Then God says what he will do. He will set you on high above the nations. But this is only after the big “if” we do our part.
At one time, we in the United States were blessed, but we’re not there anymore! Wake up America! Why do you think our country is faltering? Because we did not obey the voice of the Lord! I’m talking to Christians here. It is not the army that keeps the nation free. It is the obedience of God’s people. The army is important, but it’s the people of God who make it free. We did not listen to God’s commandments diligently and now we’re in big trouble!
(Deuteronomy 28:2) And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
Do you know what? It’s amazing to me that Christians are running everywhere looking for blessings! Have you ever been “crying in your beer” because of things going wrong in your life? The key is that if you obey God’s voice, blessings will overtake you—you won’t have to look for them. All these blessings will overtake you; they’ll catch up with you. When I was in high school, I liked to play football. I had a good arm and was fast on my feet, but the taller boys tried to overtake me. When you’re overtaken, you can’t get away! You can have the blessings so much that you can’t get away from them.
In saying, “all these blessings shall overtake thee,” to Israel, it was because they were His people. Today we as Christians are God’s people and so we can have these same blessings overtake us. God took it from the nation to the individual, because the nation is made up of individuals. Now, there are only two nations I believe the Lord works with directly in this day: the nation called the Body of Christ and the nation called marriage, because a Christian marriage is to be the example to the Body of Christ and the world of our relationship one to another.
The Christian marriage is what rises up the next generation of the Body of Christ. One of the effects of a Christian marriage is that it stops the continuance of generational gaps. It is never God’s will that we have a separation between the generations. Generational gaps are the fruit of sin in our homes and in our churches.
The Christian marriage and the Body of Christ are the two groups that God works with today. He does not work directly anymore with the nation called Israel like He did be in the Old Testament. He works with His people through the Body of Christ and through Christian marriage. Of course, He does work through single people because they are part of the Body of Christ.
Have you ever stopped to think why marriages receive such strong demonic attack? Just like the Body of Christ, attacks are relentless to keep people from seeking the Lord. They are relentless against the marriages to prevent the Word of God from being transplanted into future generations. I recently heard that Christian marriages passed the fifty percent mark in divorce rates. But when both the marriage and the Body of Christ put God first, then Christ can be the head in both and blessings will be the fruit.
(Deuteronomy 28:3) Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
The issue is not where we live, the issue is, are we blessed? If we were not, blessed it does not have to do with where we live, but whether we obey God.
(Deuteronomy 28:4) Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body,
What we have to do to get the blessings of God back in our children is to hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord our God and to obey His commandments. God is bigger than civil and national governments. We have a King whose name is Jesus and his nation is the Kingdom of God. This is the eternal nation. It is not falling apart; it’s getting stronger. The fruit of your body can be blessed.
…and the fruit of thy ground,
Look at all the floods. We either have floods or droughts, floods or droughts! In the spring of 1998, the Red River Valley in northwest Minnesota flooded. My brother-in-law flew over it and discovered it had flooded to over forty miles wide! That’s how bad the flood was, the distance from here to another city forty miles away! That’s a big lake. This area is the breadbasket of the United States, big potato, and sugar beet country. Those aren’t blessed fields, are they? What about the Mississippi Valley? They are having the five hundred year flood every other year!
…and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
What about the mad cow disease? Such events are not without a cause, and they are not coincidental! Blessings from God flow because of obedience!
(Deuteronomy 28:5) Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Cupboards full! Did you know that there was a time when America had enough food stored to feed the free world for two years? That was in the 1950’s. Then the government came up with a program called “Soil Bank,” in which they paid you not to farm. Now people are wondering what’s going to happen in the year 2000!
(Deuteronomy 28:6) Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
Nobody knows whether they are coming or going anymore. It does not matter whether you’re coming or going, you’ll be blessed if you obey the Lord. That’s awesome! Even if you don’t know which way you’re going, you’ll still be blessed!
(Deuteronomy 28:7) The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
I love this! I used to be a fighter. If an enemy flees seven ways, it will have to be in seven pieces, two men in three and a half! What chance does your enemy have against you if you hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God? They don’t stand a chance. We can save America. It does not have anything to do with deserving it. God says that if we’ll repent, He’ll save the nation.
When I was in the Ukraine in 1994, the people who were our interpreters were of the communist government, whose bosses had changed their system. The government didn’t need interpreters anymore. All of a sudden, these people were out of work. These were people with Ph.D.’s who knew English very well, because it was their job to infiltrate America. They came to me and said, “Russia is not disarming. They are still building a new submarine every month.” (Now, their nuclear submarines are so silent that we can’t detect them. They are still building them!) They asked me to talk to the President when I got back.
Do you know what? The leaders of our nation already know this. They are helping to break our nation. But, it’s not the politicians that are going to save our land. If I’m stepping on your heroes, change heroes. I’m going to keep stepping. The Bible says I can step on his (the devil’s) head! We can make our enemy flee. Honestly, we can turn around our nation so that we are blessed nation again. Get a picture of this! Get the picture: we can change things. Organizations are not the answer; they are just like another church. It’s not the church; it’s the people in the church, God’s saints getting together. We can change this!
When we pray, God often puts his angels to work to make things happen. Have you ever seen an angel? The closest that we have figured out is that there are about 30,000 angels per saint. I use mine and some of yours that you’re not using! They hate unemployment. In America, we believe more in devil spirits than in angels. But it is the angels that are really impressive and the devil spirits that are just a joke.
Let me give you an example from something that happened in Romania. We had a foot washing in one of the communion services we did. It’s not a religious thing. I’ll tell you, if you have trouble with someone and can’t get along with him, try washing his feet! Why do you think Jesus did that foot-washing experience with Peter in John 13:3-12? Because it took the arrogance out of Peter. It humbled him. It was a very humbling time. What we taught on in Romania was being worthy to receive communion. “Discerning the Lord’s body” is not just picturing Jesus getting beat up for your healing. What it’s talking about is that if I have a problem with you and I have bitterness towards you when I take communion, then I’m cursing myself. When I was done, the pastor told the people (about 250 of them) to get on their knees and repent so we could have communion, and boom! There were 250 people down on their knees repenting out loud. It sounded like a honeybee hive; it was so beautiful and productive. The Holy Spirit was in this because they were all talking and repenting and all of a sudden without any cue, everyone stopped talking.
As these people were on their knees repenting, all of a sudden I saw that the place was filling up with angels. As the people repented, the angels walked right over, cool and effortlessly, and grabbed devils. The devils were skinny and not very tall, distorted, twisted and ugly, biting and growling and kicking. They were doing everything they could to get loose, but the angels had them by the seat of their pants and by the nape of the neck and just walked out of the church with them. The devils could no longer hang on to the people because they had all repented of their sins!
So that I would not cause offense, I was not going to tell these people what I saw. The pastor turned to me and said, through the interpreter, “You have received a vision for this church and you’d better tell it.” So, I told them what I saw. The faith of these people was strengthened and encouraged. Usually, after a meeting in a church that size there would be lines and lines of people standing to be ministered to, going on for two or three hours. This day only seven people came up for prayer, five of whom wanted prayer for their relatives! The rest had received their deliverance during the communion service.
That was the power of repentance! Those angels are there to serve us. It’s quite an experience to see them at work. They have a ministry toward us in which we pray and they go out and do. We could pray something totally impossible, because to God all things are possible. Angels are ministering spirits sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation (Hebrews 11:14). They are our servants, there to carry out God’s purposes in our lives. It’s their job. They are the ones who can scatter your enemies in seven directions. They are the ones who can do things to cause submarines to bump into each other, to blow up, or whatever it would take to stop our enemies. We’re talking about war and war is not friendly. I’m not a terrorist. If I didn’t have Jesus, I’d be a terrorist and I wouldn’t blow up buildings. I’d blow up people! Praise God, I don’t do those things, but I do understand the reality of warfare. When you have an enemy, you have to come on full force. God has made available to us seven times more protection over the size of the enemy coming at us.
Unfortunately, there are people who just can’t accept the blessings God has for them. One time I was ministering healing to the associate pastor of a Pentecostal Church and he started getting healed. He started getting new bodily parts put in, because his intestines had been taken out and all he had left was a sack. He felt new organs being put in, and even commented to the Senior Pastor that he could feel them being put in. He felt the heat but as soon as I took out a spirit of infirmity, I was kicked out of the church. In this particular brand of church, they do not believe that any Christian can have devil spirits. All of a sudden, doctrine had become more important than deliverance. The man lost his healing as a result.
(Deuteronomy 28:8) The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
When God commands something, you can’t stop it. Right now, America’s food surplus is just a few weeks. If you don’t have some extra rice and beans stashed away, just a scare would cause everything to be grabbed up quickly. The warehouses would be out of food quickly. I’m not saying this to scare you. Wake up, America! It’s not a sin to be prepared. Joseph took all the wealth of Egypt of the day and prepared it for the children of Israel.
(Deuteronomy 28:9) The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.
If we obey God’s commandments, God will establish us. Do you know what it means for God to establish you? There could be a whole army coming after just you and they would not succeed. He can cause nuclear warheads to turn around and go back to where they came from, like a homing pigeon does! We don’t have a problem, if we do what God wants. If we won’t obey, we’ll have a big problem.
(Deuteronomy 28:10) And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.
The people of the United States of America, used to be greatly blessed. Other nations feared us. We have authority in the name of the Lord and need to use it. Now other countries are making fun of us. I travel on a lot of airplanes. Do you know what I do when I get on one? I walk down the ramp and before I get on the airplane I say, “God bless you, airplane, in the name of Jesus Christ!” There’s power in that. I had a stewardess tell the pilot what I had done and then he came back to where I was sitting, shook hands with me and said, “God bless you, sir. Thank you. I’ve never had anyone bless this airplane.”
If you say, “God bless you,” you’d better mean it and expect to have it. When you obey the voice of the Lord your God, you have authority. When I pray for you and say, “God bless you,” guess what happens? God assigns angels and whatever else it takes to work so you will be God-blessed. It’s not because of our greatness; it’s because of the power of Christ in us, the hope of glory. It’s something very real. It’s the same when you tell me that God may bless me. I’d love to see this nation get to the point where all the people of the earth shall see that we are called by the name of the Lord.
(Deuteronomy 28:11) And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
Israel was an agricultural society. But this could be interpreted for our time, to bless our work and our businesses. And, instead of our children being a cursed generation, they could be a blessed generation, and continue to serve God.
(Deuteronomy 28:12) The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
You see, if you hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, He shall do it! He takes upon Himself this responsibility. America is so indebted that the American dollar has very little value overseas anymore.
When we were in Amsterdam on our way back from India, we had nine hours to wait in the airport for our flight out to the USA. After twelve hours of travel from India, we were looking forward to going to a restaurant and having something good to eat for breakfast. We shopped around and they were charging $30 to $40 dollars just for a breakfast of eggs, sausage, and toast. Now is the time we should be considering investing in God’s work before the dollar loses its value totally, unless we have a big turnaround.
When our nation stood on godly standards, we lent and did not borrow. Now our nation is so indebted that the farmland is owned by foreigners, the manufacturing, the oil, and most of the things that belonged to Americans are now owned by foreign investors
(Deuteronomy 28:13) And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
I like this verse! I have a T-shirt at home showing a dogsled in Alaska and it is captioned: “The scenery is great in Alaska—as long as you’re the lead dog!” Guess what the second and third dogs get to look at? God will make obedient people into being the head, not the tail!
(Deuteronomy 28:14) And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
This is what is happening in America today! How much clearer could it be? You might say, “Well, but you’re reading in the Old Testament.” I can find every one of these things in the Church epistles, and so can you. What we need to do is to obey God and repent, and His blessings will overtake us.
After Moses told the Israelites about God’s commandments and the rewards, or blessings, for obeying them, he went on to tell them what would happen if they disobeyed God. Then he instructed them that after they crossed over the Jordan River into the land of promise, they were to have a very serious ceremony. God set it up so the people would never forget. (That’s what ceremonies are all about. We have weddings so the vows and the pictures and the witnesses will all remind us that we made some very serious promises to our husbands or wives. It’s also good for the kids. They look at our photo albums and recognize something much more important than just a birthday bash.)
On that day, God told the children of Israel that half of them were to stand on Mount Gerizim and call out God’s blessings. Then, on the other side of the valley, on Mount Ebal, the other half of the Israelites were to stand and call out the curses from God for not obeying His commands. Can you imagine what that must have been like? A million and a half, or two, people calling out blessings and over yonder, another one and a half or two million calling back with the curses? Man, if I had been there I’d never have forgotten that day! I would have thought twice before I disobeyed the commands of God. Don’t you think that if our children heard even two hundred of us on one side of a gully and two hundred on the other responding, that they’d take us a lot more seriously? God loves to bless us, but He is not to be mocked. He is serious about it. We had better get serious, so we don’t get cursed by God Himself!