The Importance of Blessing
by Francis MacNutt
Fall 2015
Deep within us we often judge other people. We want to see ourselves as part of a select group or as a special person, and we often judge ourselves as superior if others seem inferior or even different to us. In other cases, we judge others when we feel jealous and wish we were in their shoes. Do you remember hearing or saying the words "teacher's pet" or "goody–two–shoes" when a student in your class had favor with the teacher, instead of speaking complimentary words for good actions? What we fail to realize is that harsh, rash or unfair judgments against others can really affect them at the core of their being. Judgments are like curses, and we often judge rashly and harshly. Most of us are not naturally inclined to build each other up nor to speak kindly of people. But the Gospel strongly warns us against making harsh or false judgments against others.
We all have a major human need to receive both God's blessing and the blessing of other people, especially from our parents. We often haven't been taught as Christians how important it is to bless and be blessed. Something really happens in both the acts of blessing and judging people, but many Christians have yet to realize this. This truth was brought home visibly through a discovery by Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, who studied the molecular structure of water. He found that the structure of water molecules actually changed in the presence of positive thoughts such as love, peace and joy. On the other hand, the molecular structure disintegrated with negative or evil thoughts. So, if ideas and attitudes have this effect on water molecules, then how much more so on people?
Our society has become immersed in a culture filled with negative attitudes, offensive language, violence, and insolence just to name a few negative occurrences. The very air we breathe can lead us to feel cursed or that something is wrong with us, just because of the environment we are exposed to and the judgments others make against us. False judgments against us are like curses and can affect our health and break down our immune system. The potentially negative physical results of people who live under false judgments is extraordinary.
Strangely, people often become more judgmental when they begin to take their religious life seriously. Because we become more consciously aware of sin and wrongdoing, both in ourselves and others, the outcome is often behavior that is more judgmental. And yet, we cannot judge the interior motives of other people or know why they behave in a certain way — only God knows. Perhaps He will be merciful with them because of their mixed motives, even when their actions are totally wrong.
Sometimes we make judgments in order to direct a change in people who don't seem to be measuring up. But to use a confrontational approach can be very damaging. In talking to people about these things, I find that almost everyone has some area where they feel judged or actually inferior. It is not necessarily a demonic presence; it simply comes from living in a fallen world with a fallen human nature. We take these false judgments into ourselves and take on a false identity, one which was never intended by God.
A very tragic reality is that 60% of babies born in our culture are not actually wanted. The child can sense this even in the womb and will start to shrink back at a very early age. We know that the attitude and judgments of the parents toward the child affect the child's self–esteem and his/her ability to cope in life. This is where the conception–to–birth prayer can bring a great level of inner healing. We are not only under the curse of judgments placed on us by others, but we may also tend to judge ourselves harshly. When these self–criticisms are excessive, we need to recognize them as being like curses and break them with the authority of Jesus Christ. Sometimes they need to be broken multiple times, because we have developed destructive habitual thought patterns over the years. You can read about this further in our book Praying for Your Unborn Child.
People in our society sometimes feel like they are cursed because they feel they've failed in life. We tend to measure success by material wealth and status: the Three "P"s — Possessions, Prestige and Power. We judge people as failures if they haven't made it in any of these realms. We must learn that God loves us in spite of our material failures, and that such worldly "criteria" are directly opposed to Jesus' teachings. He never measured success on this level; by this standard, Jesus himself would have been deemed a failure too. He was rejected by his people and the religious leaders of his day. He had no possessions and died naked upon a cross. But the Heavenly Father said to Jesus what we all want to hear Him say to us. At Jesus' baptism (and again on the Mount of Transfiguration), God announced, "This is my beloved Son; with him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)
So when you consider how much people are bound up by judgments, it's easy to see how desperately we all need blessing. God forgives us for our wrongdoings; in addition, we also need to be freed from the effects of sin, such as the results of the judgments that we carry. That's one of the deeper meanings of the Scripture (Matthew 18:18) on binding and loosing — (Jesus speaking) "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
God wants to teach us that love is the main element in our lives. Love is the thing that helps us grow into the person God has created us to be. When love is not present, something is missing that we desperately need. We are connected to each other through relationships, and these associations can have far–reaching positive or negative results. Back to the study of molecules, a group of scientists discovered that when two molecules touch, then become separated, whatever happens to the one at a later time will affect the other, even though they may be a great distance apart.
Blessings and curses are real, although educated Christians tend not to believe in their real influence, viewing this as a primitive and superstitious worldview. It is important for Christians to recognize the reality of blessings and curses and to learn more about them, so that we can be free to live in the profound joy into which God has called us. Something that we don't think about very much is that places also need God's blessing. Have you ever been on land or in buildings where you can just sense peacefulness or the presence of God? This is because it is a blessed place. The reverse is also true: a negative presence will remain in a place where evil things have happened. It is a long tradition that places can be cursed, and Christians need to understand how very important it is to bless places, especially homes. In the healing ministry, this is critical.
Deuteronomy 28 lists God's decrees of blessing for being obedient and the curses that happen to those who disobey His commands. These spiritual curses can be passed down through the generations, particularly if ancestors were involved in occult or satanic practices. Covens and Satanic groups practice witchcraft, and they target ministries and Christian leaders by praying against them. Their driving force is hatred, and their version of prayer puts curses on people to destroy them. Most Christians do not understand this dimension of reality, but these things do happen. Christians need to realize how important it is to pray for God's protection, for themselves and their families, and to ask God to send His holy angels to watch over them.
In prayer ministry, it is very important to "undo" or break these judgments or curses that have come down upon the prayer recipient. Usually, there will also need to be prayer for inner healing because of the hold these wounds have had on the recipient's life. This is where the prayer for binding and loosing will be very effective. Sometimes, when habit patterns are so embedded, it may be necessary to break the judgments several times. A great level of discernment is needed to know how to pray into areas that involve judgments and curses.
In the healing ministry, we need to learn how to affirm people and encourage them in the way of justice, truth and goodness. This is not to ignore or deny the evil — we have to speak against that — but we need to encourage and build up the goodness that we see in people, and to ask Jesus to bring them into blessing and freedom. The good news is that Jesus can break curses and judgments and set us free from their harmful effects.
CHM's Prayer to Be Set Free is available as a free resource.
Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM. |