BLESSINGS AND CURSES

The Elements of Blessings and Curses 

What is a curse? The simplest way to define a curse is to say it is the opposite of a blessing. But this is so simple and would easily make some to easily label anything bad a curse. 

It is scripturally true that the whole creation is under a curse or bondage from God having fallen through the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned,” Romans 5:12.

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God,” Romans 8:20-21.

Yet the context that we’d define such a type of a curse or bondage is only in the context of the Original Sin that God brought on all creation. Outside the context of the Original Sin we’d end up labelling everything bad thing in our lives a curse. Even persecution, trials of faith, every sickness, every failure, every accident, every type of poverty, carrying the spiritual cross, and so on would be labelled curses. 

1.  Blessings

a.  Bountiful provision.

b.  Protection and security.

c.  Peace and Harmony.

d.  Love the motivating force.

2.  Curses

a.  Loss or theft.

b.  Destruction or hurt.

c.  Strife and conflict.

d.  Fear the motivating force.

 

Sources of a Curse

1. Violation of the Law - the Old Covenant.

2. The words of man

a.  Noah cursed his son's generations.

b.  Curses of the Patriarchs on their children.

c.  Peter curses Ananias and Sapphira.

3. Associations 

a.  Identification with another person.

b.  Transmitted through conversation.

4. Family generations

a.  Third and fourth generations.

b.  Family sicknesses and disease.

c.  Family poverty.

d.  Family conflicts. 

5.  Breaking the spiritual Links - cut the umbilical cord.

a.  Break links with parents.

b.  Break links with spouse.

c.  Break links with other family members.

d.  Break links with other believers.

 

Dealing with curses

1.  Deal first with personal sin.

Bitterness.

Lust.

Temporal Values.

2.  The Law of Judgement.

Look for the signs. 

Let go of the judgment.

3.  Family generations

Apply James 4:7

Submit to God.

Resist the devil.

 

4.  Associations

a.  Break spiritual links with daily contacts.

b.  Deal with words spoken against you.

Mostly other believers.

Do not permit bitterness.

Send words back where necessary.

c.  Contamination may be removed by prayer

Hold it up to the Lord.

Transmute it out of darkness into light.

Speak blessing on it.

TIPS TO PREVENT SCANDALS IN LIFE

The world has seen quite a few ministry scandals over the past year. Fortunately, these are 10 tips on how you can prevent scandal in your own life. 

     

Here is a summary.

Live a humble, transparent life.

Stay open to correction. 

Audit your actions regularly. 

Stay in touch with the real world.

Ministry is about loving people. But you will never develop compassion unless you are close enough to the grass roots to smell the poverty, lay hands on the sickness and cry with those who are in pain.

Don’t allow people to make you a celebrity.

Make family a priority.

Live modestly and give extravagantly.

Don’t build your own kingdom.    

Develop keen discernment.

Maintain your spiritual passion.

     

People who experience moral failure almost always lose their spiritual passion first.

No matter how scandalous it just might seem, still ask God for forgiveness for He still cares. 

VISION BUILDING

What is a vision?

A vision is a deeply held picture of where a person or group wants to get to in the future. When everyone in a group thoroughly understands and shares the same vision they become intensely motivated. They will apply their whole selves to achieve their vision.

A holistic vision

The vision needs to engage the whole person if it is to be powerfully motivating. The richer it is, the more people will commit to it. Thus, a vision can use pictures and words. It can appeal to the mind and the emotions. It can make financial and spiritual sense. Creating one requires logic and imagination. All the stakeholders in the business, including customers and suppliers would own a shared holistic vision. All would say "It means so much to me to be part of this venture".

Practical methods

You can use these methods and others for developing groups and individuals. You can also mix elements of the methods to suit the situation and culture.

Pairs and share

Ask people to think about how they would like things to be in their work or life. Ask people to take turns listening to each other as they each explore this question. Then ask each person to summarise the main points of their vision to the total group. Encourage the group to listen and avoid criticism. At the end, focus on the common vision. Set up a planning process where people work together to achieve their vision.

Pictures

You can use a picture of your vision to make it concrete and attractive. When you describe the picture and what it means to you, you use your imaginative and logical side. You often get surprising insights from your own and other people's pictures. Perhaps we edit our imagination less than our logic. The pictures create the data about how an individual wants things to be. Then share the data in the group, focus it and decide what to do. Pairs and share (above) is one good method. Another is to use the "Verb/Noun" process described below.

When a team has developed a common direction, they can easily agree on the priority issues that they need to work on to achieve it.

In change management

Managing change is a three-step process. You have to be clear about how things are now, about how you want things to be in the future, and about how to get there. 

You can use any of the methods above to create clarity on all three steps.

SOME WAYS TO MAKE YOUR LADY SMILE

Every girl is different and are pretty in their own way!

Tell her she is beautiful

Hold her hand at any moment … even if its Just for a second.

Leave her voice messages to wake up to.

Don’t go hang out with you ex when she is not with you, you might not relize how badly it hurts her.

If youre talking to another girl, when you’re done talking, walk over and hug her and ….let her know she’s yours and they aren’t.

 

Write her notes or call her just to say “hi”

Introduce her to your friends …

Play with her hair.

Pick her up (she loves it)

Get upset if another guy touches her and she doesn’t like it

Make her laugh

Let her fall asleep in your arms.

If you care about her, then TELL HER

  

 Every guy should give their girl 3 things: a stuffed animal (she’ll hug it every time she goes to sleep), jewellery (she’ll treasure it forever), and one of her t-shirts (she’ll most likely wear it to bed) 

Treat her the same around your friends as you do when you’re alone.

Look her in the eyes and smile.

Hang out with her on weekends

If your listening to music, let her listen too.

Remember her birthday and get her something, even if its’n simple and inexpensive, it came from YOU. it means all the world to HER.

  

When she gives you a present on your birthday, or just whenever, take it and tell her you love it, even if you don’t (it’ll make her happy.)

Always call her when you say you will, it may not seem like it, but it does hurt her and makes her think you don’t care so call even if you can only talk for a minute. Girls don’t necessarily have to have hour long conversations every night but its nice for them to hear your voice even for a quick hello.

Give her wat she wants

  

Recognize the small things … they usually mean the most.

Don’t hug her friends or your friends that are girls cause she’ll feel left out.

Hang out with her whenever you are free

If u care about her…let her know and show her!

Our perception of beauty is distorted. Every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is. Ladies, don’t let your other half change how you look like. Be original, be yourself!