Living Under A Curse

You can spend a long time unconsciously living under a curse that someone put on you without even knowing that they were doing it. You can find out if you're living under a curse by paying attention to what is in your mind. If you are arguing with someone in your mind, or criticizing them; if your heart is hardened against them, you are living under a curse that you have allowed Satan to put on you through that person.  You are creating unnecessary suffering for yourself and probably others also. If you are living fretfully in fear of what another person may do or fail to do, you are living under a curse. The sinful nature/darkness/unconsciousness in others tends to connect with or evoke our own sinful nature-- and empower it. Our sanctification process in Christ is to allow His Light in us to drive out all the various darknesses of those curses--to deliver us from vulnerability to others' sinful nature processes. As we sing in one of our Christmas hymns, Joy To The World, "He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found." The curse, however, is widespread and deeply rooted in the human psyche. We are acclimated to it. Christ's command that we love each other and His promises of peace, abundant life and joy press against and expose it in the deeper regions of our unconscious. When we sincerely try to love and to receive the gift of these promises, we find resistance within ourselves. We find that we cannot love adequately, and we do not experience the peace, joy and life that Christ promises. This is a great discovery! Now we have the opportunity to discover some of the darkness of the Curse that is lurking within us; and to bring the Light of Christ in to destroy or overcome it in the power of His Grace. We see the patterns that were established in us growing up in this fallen world--patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviors that we were not aware of until we sincerely tried to love with Jesus' love and abide in His peace and joy. We discover subtle layers of guilt, anger or fear. Maybe we were holding a grudge. Maybe we were making ourselves miserable trying to get someone to love us because we grew up feeling unloved; or maybe we had given up, in despair. Jesus awakens us from all this and transforms us by the renewing of our minds. His Spirit in us [by our invitation only] begins a process like metamorphosis, transforming us from the caterpillar of the curse into the butterfly of salvation and redemption. He releases our souls from the captivity of the darkness of the Prince of this World, even in the depths where we did not realize we were enslaved.  Just like He said [Luke 4:18].