HOW TO DEAL WITH CURSES, WITCHCRAFT AND PERSISTENT DEMONIC ATTACKS

Introduction

Despite the many promises of the bible, many Christians are living as victims to curses, witchcraft and demonic attacks. They have gone for countless prayers, fasting and deliverance sessions with temporary relief. 

In this teaching we shall focus mainly on curses and then look at how they work, how demons use them and how as Christians we can have lasting victory over curses, witchcraft and persistent demonic attacks.

I will share a testimony of how I was cursed by someone, and the lessons that God taught me afterwards.

 CURSES 

As Christians we most often do not know how to deal with curses spoken against us by relatives, enemies, teachers, pastors or witches and witchdoctors. As a result we find ourselves suffering the effects of a curse, because of ignorance. Most Christians try to ignore the curse, whilst this may work in theory, it does not work for most Christians in practice because of reasons I shall explain. 

 A Testimony 

A few years ago a very popular Zimbabwean prophet, together with his spiritual son said to me, “If I be a prophet of God, your son shall surely die.” My wife was pregnant with a son, and this was a curse. By this time I now understood how curses work so I knew exactly how to handle it.

But before that, around 2007, I was still a young man when someone cursed me. At that time I did not know how to handle such things, however, all things work together for good. From that curse, God was able to teach me the lessons that I shall share in this teaching.

In 2007 when I was 21 years old, my friend and I were filming a movie called, “The Perfect Match.” We had a scene that was supposed to be shot in a garage. One of the actors who was in that scene said, “You can come and film this scene at my house. We have a very big garage that you can use. It will work best for this scene.” 

We told him, “As you know we don’t have money to pay for locations so we rely on goodwill.” 

He said, “Don’t worry, feel free, you are welcome to film at my house without any issues.”

So we agreed and went to his house the following week. We met his father who said to us, “Oh my children, I see you are working with my son. Please, you are welcome, this house is like your house. Feel free, and film your scene in my garage. Feel at home, and if you need anything ask me as your father.”

We were very happy to receive such warm welcome. We had been struggling, as young boys trying to enter the film industry. We would walk on foot for ten to twenty kilometers to attend meetings because we could not afford to pay for bus fare. It felt good to find nice people like this once in a while.

So, the shoot was supposed to be one day, and we started filming in this garage. About 2 hours into the shoot, we were almost done with that scene. It was a short scene. The father then sent someone, saying “I want to see the director.” I was the director and my friend was the producer. We both went to see the dad.

When we entered the lounge, his whole demeanor had changed. He was serious and very formal now. He said to us, “So you children are going to make money with my house”

We replied, “No, father we have no money, and films in Zimbabwe don’t make any money at the moment, we are just trying to use this to open doors for us and your son.”

He said, “No, I want USD5,000 for filming my house”

We were shocked. Even if we had hired a lodge, we would have paid $40 or less. But we were two broke young boys. His son was one of the actors. No-one pays $5 000 to use someone’s garage for a few hours. I had never handled even US$100 in my whole life at that time. 

The old man then said, “You have used my house, and I want my five thousand dollars.” We didn’t know what to make of this, it sounded like a bad joke. So we got our actors and we left.

Then he started calling my brother and my mother, every day. I did not have a phone of my own, so he would call my brother and mother asking to speak to me. He would shout over the phone, “I want my $5,000. You used my house, and you don’t want to pay me?”

You could not reason with him. I even tried to tell him, that we thought you had given us this place for free. We can even delete the footage and film it somewhere else. We are just kids who have no money at all. You and your son said we can use your place freely.

He was adamant. He would rant and shout for 15 minutes straight or until the phone switches off. After 2 weeks of these daily calls, I told him that I was never going to be able to give him that money, and he had tricked us by telling us that we can use his garage for free, and then charged us an unimaginable amount. He then said to me over the phone, “You are never going to succeed in the film industry, this film will come to nothing, it will never go anywhere. I will make sure that it crashes to the ground”

His last words were, “I am going to Malawi next week, and I am going to sort you out. This film will come to nothing.”

I told my friend this and we both laughed and said, nothing can happen to us. We are born again Christians. So we ignored these words. 

We soldiered on, and continued working on the film. We ultimately could not finish filming, but I edited the scenes that we had and made it work. We sent the film to the Zimbabwe Film Festival and begged them to show it. They didn’t want to because the quality was bad. But when they screened it, in all the places they screened it, it had the highest attendance, and best reviews from audiences. They initially wanted to do one screening, but after that one screening, it was so well received that they screened it in four other cities. It was bad quality, but it was entertaining.

After that, my friend the producer found a sponsor who agreed to give us money to reshoot the movie, with better cameras and better equipment and crew. He gave us $5000, a car, and agreed to hire equipment for us. This was now early 2008. We were so excited. We even got some American actors, and were given great expensive houses to film in. We had a bigger crew, professional and experienced.

We had everything we had ever wanted and prayed for, but for 3 months we would go on set to try and film, but we just could not film for reasons no-one could understand or explain. Ultimately, our budget ran out, so we had to take a break, and most of the tapes with the footage we had filmed over those three months mysteriously disappeared from where they were stored. Without the footage we could never finish the film. Everything had crashed. My friend and I split and went different ways. As I was sitting at home, depressed and wondering why all these things had happened, the words of that man would come playing in my head, “This film will never be completed, it will never succeed, you will not be anything in this industry.”

 HOW CURSES WORK 

After this point, the Lord began to teach me about how curses and blessings work, and how we as Christians should appropriately respond to them.

The angels of God follow the word of God, so when we declare a blessing from God’s word, His spirit through his angels, will work to bring that word to pass according to our faith.

 Jeremiah 1:12 (ESV) 12: Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.” 

God in his word, contains both blessings and curses. However, in this instance I will not be addressing the curses that come from God’s word. I want to talk about curses that operate by human authority.

 Adamic Authority 

When Adam was created he was given dominion over this planet and everything in it. 

 Genesis 1:28 (ESV)   28: And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

So Man has dominion over everything that is alive on earth. This is called Adamic authority or human authority. Every human being has this Adamic authority, whether they are rich or poor, good or evil. They have it. Then among human beings, some have more authority over other human beings than others.

For example: Parents have authority over their children, kings and leaders have authority over their subjects.

And because this Adamic Authority was instituted by God, it is a Godly authority regardless of whether it is used well, or misused or ill-used by the people that use it.

 Romans 13:1 (ESV)   1: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 

Any spirit that wants to do anything on earth requires Adamic authority to be able to do it. Every spirit that works on earth and in our lives, requires permission and an agreement or covenant with a human being in order to do anything. Whether that spirit is good or evil. 

Before we look at how demons work with curses, let’s first see how God works. The devil copies God. 

God himself requires this human authority in order to operate on earth. This is why we have to pray, to ask God to do the things that he already wants to do on earth.

 The Abrahamic Covenant 

When God wanted to save mankind and become king on earth, he himself had to become a human being; that’s Jesus Christ. But for him to introduce his son Jesus into the human race, he needed human authority to do this. And he got this authority through the Abrahamic covenant.

Abraham has fatherly authority over his descendants. And he can make certain agreements with a spirit, on behalf of all his children who are still in his loins.

Abraham’s wife was barren. God made a proposal to Abraham and in this proposal, Abraham and his seed would be blessed, but in turn his seed would be placed under the complete authority of Yahweh. Abraham agreed to this proposal and this proposal is a covenant between God and Abraham and his seed. 

 Genesis 17:7 (ESV)   7: And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 

As long as Abraham’s children were circumcised, they were agreeing to have Yahweh as their God, who can control their lives, and in essence granting him permission to do what he wants among them. Even when it came time for Jesus to be born, Mary herself, had to give God the permission to do it through her.

 Luke 1:38 (ESV)   38: And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. 

Human authority is extremely powerful, and it is through human authority that the devil is able to work on earth. Witchcraft, Satanism and all spiritual works of evil require human authority to operate.

 How Witchcraft Works?

In the same way that we have seen God using human authority to work, let me give examples of how demons work in witchcraft.

This example is not the only way that demons work, but this is one of the ways.

Let’s say there is a demon that follows your family, and this demon wants to destroy your business.

Whether you are a Christian or not, this demon cannot just start working in this world without any authority. If you are a Christian, you have surrendered your authority to God, so the spirit first needs permission from God to tempt you. Just as we see in the case of Job whore Satan needed God’s permission to test Job. However, even then, the devil worked through human agency.

Demonic spirits will generally need to be commanded by a human being to come to you, and then require you to apply your faith to make it destroy your life.

So, it finds a person who knows you, who struggles with envy, jealousy or hatred. It then begins to influence and magnify that person’s jealousy and envy towards you. It then introduces words of cursing into that person’s mind.

So that person will begin to speak in their mind out of envy saying, “That business will crash, he will never rise, he can never be rich” etc.

From thoughts, the person begins to speak these things to other people, and may even say them to you. The demons can use these declarations as a command to fight your business. Sometimes the person may even go to a witchdoctor and perform a ritual, where they are pronouncing a curse upon you. In this situation, they are entering into a covenant with a demon, in which by their words they are instructing the demons of poverty, demons of misfortune to attack your business.

We see that when Christ was casting out legion, the demons needed his permission to enter into the pigs. They could not just enter.

 Luke 8:32 (ESV)   32: Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 

All people who are not born again, are already under the power of the evil one.

Ephesians 2:1-2 (ESV) 

 1: And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2: in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience 

 1 John 5:19 (ESV) 

 19: We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 

If you are not born again, when this curse is pronounced against you, the demons will come and fight you with or without your consent because you are already submitted to the power of the evil one.

However, an unbeliever can still protect themselves by going to a witchdoctor. 

What the witchdoctor will do, is to create an evil protection on you. I call it an evil protection because it does not destroy the curse, but it diverts the curse to someone of your own blood. So the curse that was on you, goes to your brothers, your parents, or children. So in this way, you yourself have become a cursor, a witch. And when your parent goes to another witch doctor or prophet, because of challenges they are facing, the witchdoctor or prophet will see the demons as coming from you. Because the demons are now attacking them by your authority. Though you did not do it intentionally. Your relatives will now start to see you in their dreams, in prophecy as the source of the attack.

They will also go to a witch doctor or prophet and receive another evil protection like yours which will send attacks to their other blood relatives, and the cycle of witchcraft goes on and on and on.

This is what has plagued Africa.

 For the Christian 

If you are a Christian, you are protected by the blood of Jesus, however, you yourself can allow the demons to enter your house by agreeing with them. And once you open the door for them, the curse or attack will hit you badly.

Here are a three ways that Christians open the door for curses and spiritual attacks into their life.

 1. By your own Confession of Faith 

When God heals people, even though he has all power, he still requires our faith for that power to work in us.

 Mark 5:34 (ESV)   34: And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 

Just as God’s power requires our faith for it to be effective in our lives, so does the devil’s power. Keep in mind that the devil’s power is simply God’s power misused. Because the power that Satan has, he received from God when he was created. So it’s God’s power that he is misusing.

Let me give an example. 

In this first example, I will look at a situation like mine, where the person who is cursing you, actually curses you to your face, in your hearing. He pronounces the curse directly to you.

This may be a relative, a stranger, your teacher, you parents, your pastor or your enemy.

Your teacher has authority over you, and he may say, “You will never be anything in life.”

Your parent may say, “Because you have not honored me, you will never get married and if you do, your marriage will never last.”

You relative may say, “Because your fathers did not finish paying lobola, or did not do this and that ritual, you will have misfortune for the rest of your life.”

These curses release and empower demons. But for you as a Christian, the demons require your faith for their power to work in your life.

So the moment you hear these words and believe them, you have agreed to the curse, and by your belief, and by your faith the power of these demons in this curse will work against you. 

So why would you believe this curse over the blood of Jesus. Let me explain. 

A) It is easier to believe that bad things will happen than good things, because there is so much evil that happens around us.

B) We have so many examples in our lives for prayers that were not answered, and this makes us doubt the reality of the word of God.

C) We have so many examples in Africa of how powerful witchcraft is, and witch doctors are, and we as Christians are always confessing about how powerful the devil is.

The devil does not need you to receive this for a long time, even if it’s just for one minute, that’s enough to count as acceptance.

Some Christians will not believe it immediately, but the devil is relentless, he does not eat or sleep. He will remind you of those words whenever you face a trial and a challenge. God has set up that we must face trials and challenges in our life, that will strengthen our faith.

But the demon will be there with you, for one year, two years, five years, twenty years. Every time something bad happens, he reminds you of those words. Remember what your mother said, “you will never have joy in marriage” 

At some point, when you are weak and depressed, you give in to that word and say,  “For sure, this is what my teacher said, it’s happening, I will never be anything.” 

Or,  ‘this is why my aunt said, I will never get married’ 

This is all the demon needs. For this reason, it is necessary to not just ignore a curse when it is given.

YOU MUST REBUKE AND REJECT THE CURSE ACCOMPANIED BY YOUR OWN DECLARATION OF THE WORD OF GOD.

When the devil came to tempt Jesus, Jesus did not just ignore him. If you ignore him he will never go away. He stays there like a parasite nagging and pushing until in a moment of weakness you give in. Jesus immediately rebuked the devil and commanded him to go away.

 Matthew 4:10-11 (ESV)   10: Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” 11: Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. 

This is how you must respond to a curse. You must immediately rebuke it in Jesus name and quote the word of God by which you stand. 

We see Jesus doing this again when the devil came through one of his disciples.

 Matthew 16:22-23 (ESV) 

 22: And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23: But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

You should never ignore the devil, rebuke him and tell him to go away immediately. Don’t wait for tomorrow, don’t wait for church service, don’t wait for prayer time. Rebuke him immediately.

Let’s say Someone tries to bring a generational curse on you. Or maybe there are issues of avenging spirits because your grandfather killed someone. You can say something like: 

  “Get away from me Satan, you have no part in me. I reject this curse in the name of Jesus, for I am a new creation in Christ Jesus, It is no longer I that live but Christ, I died to this world with Christ and am Risen to the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ and you have no claim over me, and any debt owed to you by my Fathers was paid by the blood of Jesus. Get away from me”  

You have to say this as often as the thoughts come to your head. Those thoughts are a sign that a demon is around, and wants you to open a door into your life.

 2. By The Spirit of Fear 

Fear is not a feeling that comes from God. It comes from an evil spirit called the Spirit of fear.

 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)   7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 

Fear in itself is a form of faith, but it is faith in the negative, faith in the power of the enemy or circumstances, over the power of the word of God.

A lot of times we lie to ourselves. It is not easy to self-analyse. We tell ourselves that we have faith in God when we don’t. FEAR is a sign that you have lost your faith in God’s promise and have believed the word or circumstances of the enemy. Every time you are in fear, then know that you have believed the power of the enemy, over the word of God.

Let me give an example of God’s promise to those who are positioned in Christ.

 Psalms 91:4-7 (ESV) 

 4: He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 

 5: You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6: nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 

 7: A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 

There is a global COVID 19 pandemic that is hitting the world. It is real and it is deadly. When you are walking in faith, you don’t deny the pandemic, you don’t deny it’s power, but you rest in the promise of psalm 91, and know that though a thousand may fall by my left side, people I know may die, and ten thousand at my right hand; neighbours and relatives and workmates may be killed by the disease, but it will not come near me.

But in reality, when we hear that our friend has caught it and died, or we hear that our neighbours child has died, we start to be very afraid. And this fear is a sign to you, that your faith no longer rests in the promise of Psalm 91, but now you are actively believing that the disease can override God and kill you. Your fear is a form of faith, and by your fear, you open the door for the devil to touch you. And by your own fear, the disease will catch you and may kill you, unless God has mercy on you.

We see an example of this with Peter and Jesus. Peter saw Jesus walking on water, and he asked Jesus for a word so that he also can walk on water. 

 Matthew 14:28-30 (ESV) 

 28: And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you,  command me  to come to you on the water.” 29: He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30: But when he saw the wind,  he was afraid,  and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 

Even though Peter had received Jesus word and command, by his fear, it meant he had now believed the threat of the waves, more than the word that Christ gave him originally, and so indeed the waves overpowered him. He began to sink despite the word of Christ.

This happens to many many Christians. They receive a word from God concerning their children, their lives, their businesses, their ministries. But when the waves come, when curses are spoken against them, when they receive false prophecies, they become afraid, when they hear global policies and national threats, they become afraid. And that fear nullifies the word that they initially believed, and that which they feared, happens to them. And then at the end, they wonder if they had heard God in the first place. They wonder if the bible is true. Yet their enemy is fear.

 What to Do? 

When you recognise that you are now in fear, anxiety and worry are signs of fear. Then know that you have already fallen into the devil’s web and so you will need to pray accordingly. Fear and anxiety are not according to faith and so they are sins in themselves.

 Romans 14:23 (WEB)   23: But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and  whatever is not of faith is sin.  

So, the moment you find yourself in fear of the curse, of the devil or witches etc. Immediately repent of the fear before Christ and ask Jesus to strengthen you, and to establish you. Reaffirm the word that he gave you originally or the word that is in the scriptures and declare it over your life.

For example you could say,  “Lord I repent of my fear, and for doubting your word. Strengthen me now, and I declare that all these things are working together for my good, and this endeavour shall succeed as you have spoken” 

Or you can say,  “I repent of my doubt for you word, and I declare that I will live and not die, even as you have promised me.” 

I am not asking you to repeat these prayers word for word, but I am giving examples of prayers that I have made with success, as the spirit led me.

 3. Sin in Your Life 

The third thing that the demons can use to open doors for curses to become effective in your life is sin. When a spirit comes with sinful suggestions to your mind, when you choose to obey that spirit and willingly engage in that sin, then that spirit will now have authority over your life.

By submitting to the word of that spirit, you are surrendering your authority to that spirit. The apostle Paul explains:

 Romans 6:16 (ESV)   16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 

I had an encounter with a mermaid spirit at some point in my life. After that encounter, I had a dream where I saw that mermaid coming and kissing me. 

From that day, I would have this dream where a woman would come and kiss me, and whenever that happened I would have great misfortunes. I went to a brother in the faith who was gifted in dealing with such issues. He told me that this is what is called a spiritual wife. He prayed for me, and it went away, but after a few months it was back again.

So I began to ask the Lord why? The Lord then revealed to me in a dream that this mermaid spirit has access to my life, through another spirit, which is the spirit of lust. When I entertain and allow the thoughts of lust in my heart, this gives the spirit of lust power over me, and that spirit of lust opens the door to the so called ’spirit wife.’

So I began to guard my thoughts against lust, at the same time confessing the scriptures that say we are new creations in Christ. When I would give in to these thoughts, I would immediately repent before Christ, as the Holy Spirit taught me. Don’t wait for prayer time, don’t wait even a minute. Repent immediately, so the power of the blood can cleanse you and restore your standing immediately. The devil will use every second he has of authority to cause havoc. Havoc that you will see the results of after some weeks.

 1 John 1:8-9 (ESV) 

 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 

The moment I began to apply this, I never again saw that spirit in my dreams. It was over. You see, during the deliverance, that spirit was chased away, but when I allowed lustful thoughts in my head, I opened the door for it again.

By dealing with the lust, I overcame the mermaid or ‘spiritual wife’ for good.

Homosexuality is empowered by the spirit of lust.  Deal with lust, and you deal with homosexuality.

The demon of witchcraft is empowered by the spirit of envy and jealousy. The demon may be cast out, but if you don’t deal with envy and jealousy, the demon will come back.

Some demonic oppressions are empowered by the spirit of lying. As long as you submit and entertain the lying spirit, the oppression on your life remains, no matter how many deliverance sessions you go to.

Some oppressions are empowered by the sin of rebellion. As long as you rebel against authority figures in your life, you open the door to that oppression.

Some oppressions are empowered by unforgiveness, as long as you live in unforgiveness, that spirit has an open door to torment you.

Jesus even gives this example:

 Matthew 18:32-35 (NKJV) 

 32: Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33: Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34: And his master was angry,  and delivered him to the torturers  until he should pay all that was due to him. 

 35: “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” 

The torturers mentioned there are demons. Those are the tormentors of this age.

If you are struggling with a generational curse, or a spirit that won’t go away, look into your life and look at the patterns.

You will realise that whenever those attacks come, there is a habitual sin that you entertain. And it is that sin that opens the door for the other demon.

If it’s not sin, then it may be doctrines and stories that have cultured a fear in you.

If it’s not fear then maybe you have accepted that this curse is true because of challenges you faced, and incepting that word as true, it then became true.

In all these cases, start by repenting, confessing that you did wrong by sinning, or by fearing, or by accepting this curse as truth. By confessing, it allows the blood of Jesus to be applied in that situation and to cleanse you and restore your status. Then declare the word of God.

 CONCLUSION 

A lot of Christians have struggled with many spiritual attacks and curses, and been led to feel that the bible is not true and the word of God is ineffective. All this is a result of an ignorance on how the enemy works, and how God’s word is established in their lives.

Do not ignore the devil, rebuke him and declare the word of God over your life.  Do not ignore sin, confess it, and declare God’s word over your life. You will see great victories in your life by these principles. This has worked for me against many great challenges. It will work for you also.

Stay Blessed, In Jesus Name. 

AMEN