How Negative Self-Talk Opens Doors to Spirits

Then we come to another tremendously important area, perhaps the most common of all, what I call self-imposed curses. People pronounce curses on themselves. In

“Genesis chapter 27,”

we have the story of how Isaac was going to bless Esau, and the mother, Rebecca, who was the first Yiddisha mama, if you know what a Yiddisha mama is, switched them, and she got Jacob acting like Esau and claiming the blessing. Jacob wasn’t reluctant, but he was afraid, and he said this in verse 11.

“Jacob said to Rebecca his mother, ‘Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him, and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.’”

But his mother said to him,

“‘Let your curse be on me, my son.’”

She took on herself the curse that would have been due to Jacob. A self-imposed curse.

Now, if you go to the end of the chapter, just the last verse, you find Rebecca beginning to use very negative language about herself. Rebecca said to Isaac in verse 46,

“‘I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?’”

I’m tired of living. What’s the good of living? That’s a typical statement by somebody who’s under a curse, you see? Never permit yourself to say that.

Don’t make negative statements about yourself. Don’t say, “I’ll never be able to do this. I never succeed. I’m no use. I’m a failure. I just can’t take it anymore.” And then you go on and say, “I wish I were dead. I’d be better off dead.” Do you know what you’re doing? You’re inviting the spirit of death. And he doesn’t take many invitations. Ruth and I have dealt with countless people who needed to be delivered from the spirit of death because they’d invited it. They’d imposed a curse upon themselves. And we’ve learned one beautiful verse that will help, that has helped hundreds of people, and I’ll share it with you.

“Psalm 118, verse 17.” “I shall not die, but live, and declare or proclaim the works of the Lord.”

If you have made a negative remark about yourself, if you’ve imposed something negative on yourself, you need to revoke it by the positive.

You see, as a remarkable example, you know that Peter denied three times he knew the Lord. Later on, after the resurrection, beside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus had a personal talk with Peter, and three times he said, “Do you love me?” He made Peter affirm three times that he loved him. Why did he do that? Because Peter had to revoke the negative statements he’d made before the crucifixion, see? So, if we’ve said something negative and brought some dark shadow over us, we need to revoke the negative and replace it by the positive. And this verse is a perfect one.

“I shall not die.”

Doesn’t mean you’ll never die, but it means Satan’s not going to kill you before your time.

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

I think it’d be good for all of us to say that. I’ll first time you say it after me.

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

Now, let’s all say it together this time.

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

Now, once more.

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

Now, saying that may change the destiny of your life.

All right, let’s go on to another example, the great tragedy of the Jewish history.

“Matthew chapter 27.”

Jesus is before Pilate, and Pilate is willing to release him. And we read in

“Matthew 27,” verse 24 and 25. “When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.’ And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’”

What’s that? A self-imposed curse. The great tragedy of Jewish history. And by that, those words, a strand of tragedy was woven into Jewish history, which has run for 19 centuries. What a lesson not to say the wrong thing about ourselves. I pointed out to you in the previous session that God had protected Abraham against curses. Said,

“Anyone that curses you, I will curse.”

There’s just one area that God could not protect the Jewish people from: from themselves. See? And that’s true in our lives many times. God can protect us from everything except what we say about ourselves.