Breaking the Authority of the Bastard Curse
Restoring the Congregation of the Lord
By Carl L. Fox and Paul D. Norcross
Introduction
While in Romania at the close of a church service one evening two years ago, I watched as a woman came forward for prayer for her granddaughter. The little girl was about six years old, and had an unusually short attention span – about two seconds. She was unable to stay focused on any person speaking, even one that was two feet in front of her face. Pastor Carl Fox anointed her with oil and began to pray. As I watched and listened, the girl couldn’t sit still.
Carl prayed the words that the Lord gave him. They included removing the curse of the bastard off the little girl. I watched as the girl immediately stopped her wild agitation, and sat perfectly still, her attention locked onto Carl’s face. She stayed that way the rest of the evening, and is still delivered today.
I wondered. As a pastor of a small country church, and an itinerant preacher in various countries, I had seen several deliverance ministries, and participated in many victories helping people overcome demonic manifestations. But never had I heard of such a thing as the curse of the bastard.
Neither had Carl. We talked about it as we rode home together late that night. He confessed that he had never heard of anything called the bastard curse either, and he has been teaching and delivering people from curses for over fifteen years. We each went our way at the close of that ministry trip to Romania – he to his home in New Mexico, and me to mine in Massachusetts. But neither of us forgot the incident.
A year elapsed, and the Lord began showing Carl the Scriptures which mention the bastard curse. They appear in Deuteronomy 23 and Hebrews 12. In Deuteronomy, the bastard curse is noted to last for ten generations, at least 400 years, keeping God’s children from being able to come into the congregation of the Lord. In Hebrews, the same words are used to signify those who are unable to receive the chastisement of the Lord – they are called bastard sons. As a result, they are not able to come to the place of obedience, rest, and growth as children of God.
Is there a connection, an application to the Body of Christ today? Jesus Christ was accused of being a bastard. Why is this such a singularly significant accusation? The flood of Noah was the consequence of this curse on the earth. Why is it so acute an issue in the heart of our heavenly Father?
The Holy Spirit began to release Carl to share what he had learned so far. In various travels, he began to see that the bastard curse was real, and surprisingly pervasive – both in the Scriptures as well as in modern experience, though it remains very hidden in both. We arranged for Carl to come and teach what he knew thus far in a series of campfire meetings in my home area. I was prepared for the theory, but not for the application that surfaced in those meetings.
At the close of the teachings, as we prayed together for the bastard curse to be removed, many in attendance started weeping, and those that weren’t weeping distinctly felt a great weight taken off in the spirit. Those that wept knew of illegitimate circumstances within their own kin. Those that felt weights removed, knew something had been jettisoned from their generations past.
A week went by. In my spirit, as I evaluated the impact on the people present, I saw a picture of a river full of logs. The logs were slowly traveling downriver. They were tangled, and jammed in places against the curves at the banks, though still moving slowly. Then I saw, as in the old time photographs of explosive charges being set off to break up the jams, that breaking the bastard curse off generational bloodlines was breaking apart the logjams in people’s lives — both individually, as well as corporately in the church body.
In the weeks that followed, I continued to notice dramatic reductions in offenses, an increase in reports from the people and congregations present of more intimate experiences in prayer closets with the Lord, and remarkable stories of how the Lord was breaking into old anger and wounded-ness. It was clear that though these were people that eagerly seek the Lord, and who loved the Scriptures, praise and worship, yet there were still citadels that needed taking. These were mature, serious Christians, many with Bible school backgrounds. Yet underneath the surface there were still areas that needed tending. I am convinced those areas would have stayed in place, immune from the chastisement of the Lord, had not the legal bloodline bondage of the bastard curse been broken from them.
The results of breaking the bastard curse off these believers got my attention. I went to the Scriptures to study. On my next engagement to preach in another part of the country, I shared what I had learned, and at the close of the session, I broke the bastard curse off those who had gathered. Immediately I noticed an identical result as when Carl had taught in our campfire meetings – about one third of the group wept, feeling the release of known illegitimacy in their family. The rest felt a tangible release from unseen weights in their spirit which were real. They knew something had been broken from their generations.
What is this bastard curse? How can it affect believers today so dramatically, and yet be so hidden? Do curses really exist among believers? If so, how can they be broken? Why have so many congregations split over offenses, and why are sheep lost over offenses so easily? Why is it that anger flares up and ruins so many relationships in the churches today? Is it merely that we are all so immature in areas of forgiveness? Why do the same offenses seem to come up over and over?
One of the major contributors to these questions lies in the bastard curse which Scripture declares is the reason why believers are cut off from the congregation of the Lord. This is a genuine problem that exists even today. In words applicable to the church today, the bastard curse affects the ability of believers to build a close fellowship with the Lord, with the Father, and with other believers. In doing so, this curse targets the free flowing of the Spirit of Adoption noted in the New Testament – that Spirit which enables believers to cry out, “Abba, Father.” Satan’s purpose is to prevent or destroy the intimacy of our Father with His children, preventing them from having a close and personal “Daddy” relationship.
In coursing through the material in this book, the reader is invited to first consider the Scriptural evidence: both doctrinal as well as through Biblical examples. It is surprising how frequently the effects of this curse appear in the Scriptures. The evidence is surprisingly widespread.
Freedom from the curse of the bastard has deep implications for the practical deliverance of God’s people. This curse is a noteworthy device of satan to manipulate behind the scenes in order to keep God’s people from their rightful inheritance in the congregation of the righteous. In teaching this material, the authors frequently encounter believers who become aghast at the realization of how closely the bastard curse comes to their personal experience. Thus we want to state very plainly up front in this book that there is no intent to bring shame or judgment. Rather it is the opposite: God wants His people set free from this curse, and so do we! We must realize that there can be no setting free where ignorance has prevailed.
This book is not presenting a new doctrine, nor establishing a signature theory to package a new formula for deliverance ministry. It is merely honing in on a root cause of many recurring pastoral nightmares – the spirit of offense, and the wounding of the sheep despite numerous and frustrating hours of counseling and teaching on forgiveness, controlling the tongue, etc.
There is a root cause for these recurring problems, and the weapons of our warfare against them are spiritual weapons. We cannot war after the flesh, nor is our adversary our fellow believers. Rather we wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and wicked spirits in high places who use secretive, wily methods to pit believer against believer through offenses.
As documented in this book, the bastard curse is one of satan’s most refined tools to cause offenses. This curse is shown to have had continuing and profound impact on the church, even as much or more as it had on our Old Testament forbearers.
So please journey with us in these pages to identify, understand, and overcome this weapon of the enemy, the bastard curse, and enable God’s people to become set free. Our love for the Lord Jesus Christ and His remarkable power to help His people overcome in these last days of the church age propels the offering of this material for your consideration and growth in ministering to God’s people.
May the Lord give us all grace and mercy to continue to set captives free, and confirm His work in them with signs, miracles, and wonders following.
Paul Norcross