Curses - Cure - Part 1

It’s my purpose tonight to try and deal with the cure. But, first of all, I think it would be good for all of us, myself included, if I’d briefly recapitulate what I covered this morning. I used to be a teacher of teachers and one of the things I taught them was that recapitulation is an essential part of good teaching. We spoke about the nature of blessings and curses as being words spoken or maybe merely spoken in the mind that are charged with some kind of supernatural power that causes things to happen and of which the consequence tend to flow on from generation to generation whether they’re good or evil. In the light of that, I think it’s reasonable to suggest that in many cases the things that are happening in our lives, whether as individuals or as families or as nations, are the outworking of things that have gone before. In order to deal with our present situation, very often we have to go back and deal with something from the past.

One of the Scriptures that I quoted which I will just mention again was Proverbs 26:2 which says:

“A curse never comes without a cause.”

So, wherever there is a curse there is a cause. Sometimes we can solve a problem without knowing its cause but basically the sensible and scientific way to solve a problem is first to discover its cause and deal with that.

Now, I spoke about various different sources of curses and I would just recapitulate them briefly. First of all, God himself. God pronounces curses. It’s part of the total nature of God. For instance, just to give one example in Genesis 12:3 he said to Abraham:

“The one that reviles you, I will curse...”

That is basically, as I interpret it, a curse upon anti-Semitism. God says where there is anti-Semitism, I will step in with my curse. Obviously, if that’s a true interpretation, there are many, many areas in the human race that are in some measure under the curse of God for that reason. Many of them are in the United States...and a lot of them are inside the professing Christian church.

Then we looked at cases of curses pronounced by men on behalf of God. We looked at the case of Joshua who said after Jericho had been destroyed, “Cursed be the man who rebuilds this city. It will cost him the life of his firstborn and the lift of his youngest.” And a good many generations later a man did rebuilt Jericho and it cost him exactly what Joshua said, the life of his firstborn and the life of his youngest son. So you see there, if you have been ministering to the man who rebuilt Jericho, in order to deal with his problem you’d have to know the background. I think this is true many times.

There are people with what I call relational authority. Particularly parents and husbands but they’re not the only ones. We pointed out how Jacob unwittingly pronounced a curse on his own most beloved wife Rachel. Rachel had stolen her father’s terraphim, idols, and Laban, Rachel’s father, Jacob’s uncle, pursued after them and was complaining about the theft of his household gods. Jacob said, “I haven’t taken them. You can search anyone. The one that’s taken them shall surely die.” He didn’t know that Rachel had taken them. But he pronounced a death sentence on Rachel which was carried out the next time she was due to bear a child.

See, again if we’d been there praying for Rachel we would have had to understand the background to be able to deal with the situation.

Then there are what I call self imposed curses where people pronounce curses on themselves. One of the examples I gave was Rebekah when she was persuading Jacob to deceive his father and get the blessing by deception. Jacob said, “Well, I might be found out and then I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.” Rebekah answered very rashly...but many of us are rash at times with our words...she said, “Upon me be thy curse, my son.” She died, she never saw her son alive again. She pronounced that curse on herself.

Then there are curses that come from what I call Satanic influence. I took two different types of situations. One is where somebody gets angry with you. Maybe because you’re a Christian and starts to swear at you and curse you out of emotion rather than some deep laid plan. We are warned that to protect ourselves we have to respond rightly, we have to respond to that kind of cursing with blessing. Bless those that curse you. You see, under such pressures we’re going to react. We can either react negatively or positively. But to think that we will not react is to deceive ourselves. I think that’s why Jesus said when somebody strikes you on one cheek, turn the other. If you can’t do that the best thing is hit him back. But do something. The one who does nothing bottles it all up inside and starts ulcers 10 years later, not recognizing where it all began.

The other kind of Satanic influence is what I call the professional servant of Satan: the witch doctor, the witch, whatever it may be, the Muslim priest, it can be many, many different types. People who specialize. This goes back many, many centuries in Africa. One family quarrels with another, one family goes to the local witch doctor and says, “Put a hex on the other family.” And they’ll all believe it.

When I was in East Africa in the l950s at the time there was still some residue of the problem with Mau Mau, there were cases of Africans who confessed or betrayed fellow Africans. In some cases the witch doctor would put a curse upon them. Many of them simply pined away in prison. The British authorities did everything they could medically to keep them alive but there was nothing they could do, they just died because they were under a curse. They probably knew they were under a curse and they were probably dying partly of pure fright.

In Deuteronomy 28 we looked at an entire chapter of blessings and curses. That’s the total theme of the chapter and it’s got, if I remember rightly, 68 verses. By the time you’ve been through that you’ve been through a lot of blessings and curses. The root cause for blessings is listening to the voice of the Lord and doing what he says. That’s the basic qualification for blessing. That’s why he blessed Abraham. He said, “You obeyed my voice, I’ll bless you, I’ll bless your descendants.” If you want to be blessed, if you carry no other lesson away from this, carry away the lesson that if you will listen to the voice of the Lord and do what he says, you are guaranteed a blessing. And it’s probably one that will extend beyond your own generation.

The root cause for curses is simply the opposite, not listening to the voice of the Lord. Actually, the whole success or failure of the Christian life basically depends on listening to God’s voice. That’s the one unvarying requirement of God from his people in all different dispensations: before the law, under the law, under the gospel. The one thing that never changed was the requirement that you listen to the voice of the Lord.

Then I gave...and this is closing my summary of this morning’s message...I gave my own little list of things that can very well indicate the outworking of a curse. Please understand I am not saying that they inevitably or invariably do. But the more there are of these things or the more conspicuous they are or the more abnormal they are, the stronger the evidence that you’re dealing with something supernatural. This is my list. It’s based on experience. It’s not based on theology, though I could offer many confirmatory scriptures. It’s simply based on dealing with people. I have six points.

Number one, mental and emotional breakdown. I’m speaking now not exclusive or primarily of individuals but of families. Where the family history contains these elements. The more often the greater the evidence. So, number one, mental and emotional breakdown.

Number two, repeated or chronic sicknesses. Especially without clear medical diagnosis. There are some sicknesses, you get them in one place, the doctor does something and they just shift to another place. The doctor does something and they shift again. You are almost certainly dealing with something spiritual.

Number three, repeated miscarriages or related female problems.

Number four, the breakdown of marriage and general family alienation. That may be between brothers and sisters, between parents and children.

Number five, continuing financial insufficiency, especially where the income appears to be sufficient.

Number six, being accident prone.

Now probably you have sat there making a little mental checklist which is what you were intended to do.

Now, we’re going on to the cure. I need to say again that there are areas in this whole field that I feel I still do not clearly understand. All I can do is give you what I understand and trust, if necessary, the Holy Spirit will make up to you beyond that if that’s the area of your need.

The basic provision of God for release from all curses is the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. His atoning subsitutionary death as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In fact, my personal conviction after many years of studying the Bible is that every good and positive provision of God comes only on the basis of what Jesus did on the cross. There is no other basis. Let me say this. There’s only one source, it’s God...I’m talking of the good. There’s only one channel, it’s Jesus. There’s only one basis, it’s the cross. And, there’s only one way to appropriate it and that is by faith. That’s the gospel in simple language. Let’s say it again. There’s only one source of good. Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. So there’s only one source, it’s God the Father. There’s only one channel, it’s Jesus Christ the Son. There’s only one basis because God is a legal God, he never does things that are illegal. The only basis is what Jesus did on our behalf on the cross. And, the only way to appropriate them is faith.

Let’s look at the provision of Jesus specifically with regard to curses and blessings. Galatians 3:13–14.

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree. In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles; so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

It’s the first verse, verse 13, that I’m primarily concerned with. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is that which is stated in Deuteronomy 28:15 and following. “If you will not hearken, all these curses will come upon you for breaking the law.” By the time you’ve exhausted those curses there isn’t much unpleasant that’s left that could possibly come upon you. I mean, it just about says it all.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law how? Becoming a curse for us. See, this is a doctrine that contemporary theology finds very hard to swallow but it just happens to be the way it is. Jesus is the sinner’s substitute. He is the last Adam. He took upon himself the entire evil inheritance due to the entire Adamic race. On the cross he exhausted the evil, everything evil, that was every due to come upon any descendant of Adam came upon him on the cross. That, in return, those who repent and believe might receive all the good that was due to him for his perfect obedience to the Father. There was an exchange. Again, if you carry anything away, this is much more and much more far reaching than merely a way of escaping from a curse. This is the absolute heart of the gospel message. It centers around the cross and the exchange that took place.

We are only looking today at one aspect of the exchange: the curse, the blessing. But, there are many, many others. Jesus was made sin that we might be made righteous with his righteousness. He was wounded that we might be healed. He was rejected that we might be accepted. Whatever way you look at it, he took the evil that we might receive the good. We’re focusing this evening on this one particular, relevant aspect. He was made a curse...what’s the opposite of a curse? That we might receive the blessing. That is the legal basis for everything. I’ve said already God is a legalist in the sense that he’ll never do anything illegal.

There’s another legal expert in this whole thing, too. Do you know who that is? The devil. And unless his legal claims are dealt with, you’ll never get him off your back. You have to know the legal answer to the devil. It’s no good trying to evict him until you’ve got a legal case that he can’t answer. That’s really what I’m trying to help you to do tonight.

Jesus was made a curse according to the law of Moses because it says in Deuteronomy 21:23:

“Every one who hangs on a tree [dead] is a curse.”

And God therefore instructed the children of Israel don’t leave a person hanging on a tree after sunset. When Jesus was hung on the tree, which is the cross...and in Hebrew, the one word means a tree that’s growing and a tree that’s cut down. So, the cross was linguistically a tree. When Jesus hung on the cross, that was God’s demonstration to the entire Jewish people that Jesus had become a curse. He was rejected from earth and he was not received in heaven. He hung between heaven and earth, accepted by neither, totally rejected, the sin offering, the curse. On him came the entire blight of all the rebellion and the evil of our total race.

Jesus did not atone for angels. We’re not dealing with angels. He was not the last angel, he was the last Adam. We’re talking only about one area of God’s total creation. Why God cared so much about our race I don’t think even eternity will ever enable me to understand. It is the mystery of all mysteries but I’m simple-minded enough to believe it even if I don’t understand it. I’m glad I believe it because it makes all the difference.

Jesus was made the curse that we might receive the blessing. In actual fact, he wasn’t made a curse for everything, we need to understand that. He was made a curse for the broken law. However, I believe that in a certain sense within that is included everything that we may need.

Let’s look at one other scripture. Isaiah 53:6. It’s very important that you grasp these scriptures because if you don’t, you will not have a real solid basis for your need being met. Isaiah 53:6:

“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.”

I believe that is a prophetic preview of Calvary and of Jesus. There is the basic problem of the human race. We have all gone our own way. Some of us have gone a religious way but it’s our way, not God’s. We’re doing our own thing. The Biblical name for that as translated there is iniquity but I prefer the word rebelliousness because it’s more vivid and more clear. We have all been rebellious without exception. The Lord made to meet together on Jesus, the literal meaning of the Hebrew, the rebelliousness of us all. He took our rebellion and all its evil consequences. It staggers the imagination but again, even if my imagination cannot encompass it all, I am determined to believe it. As a professional logician, to me the logic of it is flawless. Absolutely flawless. What the cross is is logic worked out in history.

Even though we have accepted the atonement of Jesus on our behalf as the basis, it still takes hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord to qualify for every area of deliverance and blessing. Entering by the cross is the gateway but whatever area you need to possess in your inheritance, the key is hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord. Let’s look again in Deuteronomy 28. We really can’t look there too much. I’m going to read the marginal version which is closer to the original. Verses 1–2:

“Now it shall be if you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.”

I’ve often commented I think it’s better not to run after the blessings. I think it’s better to live in such a way that the blessings run after you. If you hearken diligently and obey, God says the blessings will overtake you. No matter how fast you’re traveling they will catch you up.

I find that people who spend their time chasing blessings are often very frustrated people. They hear about one preacher and go here, they hear about another conference and go there, they’ll get another book and read that. They’re pursuing blessings. I think they’re missing the heart of the matter which is listening to the voice of the Lord and doing what he says.

Oh yes, there’s one other scripture I’d like to read there which is a favorite of mine. Exodus 15:26. It’s an interesting thing. This is just a comment on the New American Standard. We have exactly the same words in Hebrew but they’re translated differently in English. I think Exodus 15:26 translates them better than Deuteronomy 28:1. I just make this by a passing observation. There’s a good many examples in the New American Standard that are precisely the same words in the original language translated different in different places. Which, I think, is a weakness in the translation in most cases. However, there are other aspects of the translation which are good and helpful. Verse 26:

“He said, if you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God...”

If you will listen listening, the Hebrew says.

“...and do what is right in his sight...”

There you are again. Listen and do.

“...and give ear to his commandments...”

Notice the third condition again concerns our ears. The ear is the vital factor in this. What you listen to is going to be determinative of your destiny.

“...and keep all his statutes; I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I the Lord am your healer.”

In modern Hebrew, “I am your doctor.”

Israel did not ask God for that revelation, it’s important to see that. God of his own sovereign decision said, “I’m willing to be your doctor.” I would think that if Almighty God were to say to any of us, “Would you like me as your doctor?” we would hesitate about saying no. I mean, I would be scared to say no, I wouldn’t know what other doctor I could go to after that. He says, “I’m willing to be your doctor if.” There is a condition. If what? “If you will listen listening to my voice.”

See, there’s something about a voice that’s very personal. It’s the most personal thing about a person. It’s distinct. I believe scientifically there are no two voices that are identical. I understand that they have some banks now in which they have safes that open electronically at the sound of a certain person’s voice. Nobody can counterfeit that voice, it’s unique. I think we all know that there are people in our lives whose voices we recognize and when we hear that voice it speaks to us of that person. God says, “I want you to have that relationship with me. I want you to hear my voice and recognize it. The way you respond to my voice will determine your destiny.” Really. I think it’s impossible to overemphasize this. I preach on this many times but I never preach on it without preaching to myself. Believe me, I’m listening to every word I’m saying.

We’ve talked about the legal basis for escaping from the curse. It’s the cross, it’s what Jesus did on our behalf. That has totally satisfied every legal requirement. If you can meet the devil fair and square on the basis of the cross, he’s a defeated enemy. If you try to beat him on any other basis...tell him you’re a Baptist, he’ll laugh in your face. Or a Catholic, it doesn’t make any difference. Tell him you’re a preacher, he chews them up by the dozen. The only thing that he respects and fears is the cross.

I learned that in deliverance. It isn’t how loud you shout at the demons, believe me. They’re not deaf. Some people waste all their energy shouting at demons. The basis is meeting the legal requirements...and knowing you’ve met them.

What I have to say now is important. It’s one thing to have the legal rights, it’s another thing to have the experiential enjoyment. Okay? Somebody can bequeath you a fortune and once all the papers are in order, legally it’s yours. But very often you’ve got to go through quite a number of steps before it’s experientially yours. Somebody may contest your claim. That happened to me when my mother died. I can’t go into the details. But another member of my family who had no claim whatever on anything that my mother might leave tried to get half the inheritance. So, it’s very real to me. It’s one thing to have the legal claim. It’s another thing to have the money to spend, isn’t it? It’s all right saying, “My grandfather left me so much.” That’s wonderful. But how much are you actually enjoying? You’ve got a very crooked lawyer on the other side who will do everything he can to cheat you out of what is legally yours. But you’ve got another lawyer in heaven, Jesus Christ our advocate...you know what an advocate is? He’s a lawyer. It’s a legal battle.

God doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be no conflicts. God spoke to Joshua in Joshua 1 and said, “I’ve given the children of Israel this whole land.” And all they could do was look across Jordan and see where it lay. They didn’t have one square inch. They had to cross Jordan, take Jericho and fight for every other area. God had already given it to them but they had to fight for it.

So it can be in our experience. Sometimes there’s no problems, sometimes it just comes. Other times we have to assert our claim, we have to know our legal rights and how to conduct the legal battle. And in doing that we become mature. There are reasons why God permits that to happen.

In moving from the legal to the experiential very many times the key is isolating the cause. I have proved this over the years both in my own experience and in the experience of many other people I’ve dealt with. I would say there are certain particular types of situations where it may well be that the key is determining what’s the cause. For instance, persons with relational authority, which I’ve already defined. I spoke this morning about a practicing professional witch who was introduced into a fellowship. Why was she a witch? She was born a witch, she was born on Halloween. When she was conceived, her parents dedicated her to Satan. You say that wasn’t fair. Who says the devil plays fair? In fact, you can be sure of one thing, he doesn’t.

What a father does with a child is of tremendous importance. If a father continually tells his child, male or female, “You’ll never amount to anything. You’re no good, your brother can but you can’t.” That is really just about pronouncing a curse. It has the authority of the parents behind it. I’m telling you in order to get out of it you have to know how you got in it. When I say these things please understand I’m saying your case is hopeless. I’m simply saying it may be you won’t get out ‘til you know what got you in.

The longer I’m in the ministry the more I see that we spend so much time dealing with branches that grow on bigger branches that grow on trunks that are supported by roots. When we’ve cut off all the branches we still got the trunk and the roots. One of the things in my ministry, I think, over the years is that gradually I’ve been getting down to the roots. What I’m speaking about now is being pretty close to the roots.

It may be that somebody with relational authority has said something about you that has in some sense given Satan some kind of hold over you, there’s some kind of dark shadow over your life. I’ve dealt with cases where actually a father made a covenant with Satan concerning a child. A terrible thing to think about but it happened. I’m trying to trust the Holy Spirit to give me the right examples for you people here tonight. It might be a situation in which a wife really didn’t love her husband but loved another man and in her heart was wishing her husband dead. That could cause a fatal sickness in the husband. It’s probable that he would never get permanent deliverance or healing until that invisible root was uncovered. A death wish is a very powerful thing.

Then there are self imposed curses. Again, you can impose a death wish on yourself. I’ve said many times to people one of the most dangerous things you can ever say is “I wish I were dead.” You have put a curse on yourself. You don’t have to say it many times, once could be enough.

I think Ruth will forgive me, I’ve related this story before but it’s so vivid. Before we were married, if I remember rightly, about that time, she was telling me that she had such pain at times in her legs, would I pray for her? Well, we were on the beach at Fort Lauderdale both in our swimming costumes so I said, “All right, I’ll pray for your legs.” When I started to pray all I could do was something that struck me as extremely silly. I said, “Thank you, legs, for all you’ve done for Ruth all these years. I want you to know I appreciate you. You’ve carried her around, you’ve brought her to me, here she is. I’m just grateful to you.” I’ve never prayed for anybody’s legs like that before or since! But, by praying that way brought back to Ruth that when she was a girl in high school she was dissatisfied with the particular contours and shapes of her legs. She had said something once in the bathroom something like, “Legs, I hate you.” You see, she had pronounced a curse on her own legs. God, through the Holy Spirit, wouldn’t let me just pray for the legs because it would have been in vain. I had to deal with the thing that had opened them up to that dark, evil force.

Not a few people look in the mirror and speak very ill of themselves. “I’m the wrong shape, too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, my hair is too wavy, my hair is too straight.” Who are you to criticize the handiwork of God? He is the potter, you’re the clay. If you take that attitude toward yourself you’re going to end up a negative type of person. It can have a very definite physical effect on you.

Then, Satanic influence. I have to be very careful what I say because my tapes end up everywhere, that’s the problem. I just say something here and before I know, it’s there. There was a period after Ruth and I were married when she got a very acute pain in the area of the diaphragm. We got everybody to pray that we knew, I prayed, she prayed, we fasted, we went to a very proficient doctor who gave her every type of test. I mean, she went through these tests. All of them, praise God, negative. But the pain was still there. Then the doctor gave her a relaxant which was, more or less, a drug. I mean, she was woozy when she took it but when she took it, the pain subsided. However, I was not prepared to have a woozy wife on my hands for the rest of my life!

Now, the pain started at a certain point when a certain lady approached Ruth in a certain situation. Ruth was protecting me because the lady really wanted to get at me. One of Ruth’s ministries which she inherited from my first wife Lydia was to run interference for me...which is a very important ministry! If you’ve not been a preacher you can’t understand there are times when you just can’t bear to talk to one more person. Really, on the whole, I get on all right with people but when you had 1,500 of them coming at you from different angles, “Just one question, Brother Prince.” As Lydia used to say, “If 50 people each asked one question, that’s 50 questions.” She also used to say, “One fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer.” Let that stay on the tape!

But, I was under tremendous spiritual pressure. I was really fighting for my life spiritually and physically about two years ago. Well, Ruth and I came to the conclusion that this particular lady had decided that she would be a much better wife for me than Ruth. Which is something that happened more than once in my experience. I am so naive I just think everybody means it the right way. At the very moment that this lady was talking to Ruth and Ruth was shielding me, she got this stabbing pain. And, I told you, we did everything we could spiritually and medically to get rid of the pain. Nothing worked. One day when Jim Croft and Mahesh Chavda were there Ruth said, “I believe that was witchcraft.” Maybe I said it. We said it. That woman put a death wish on Ruth. When we prayed on that basis against witchcraft, she was instantly delivered, there was no struggle, it was finished. God would not answer our prayers until we’ve learned the lesson.

That particular lady was no different than thousands of other ladies; Charismatic, tongue speaking...basically a good person. But, just soulish.

Now there’s lots of situations that are much less kind of what I would say normal. There are many situations in which servants of Satan deliberately seek to harm the people of God much more than we know or imagine. I think if the whole truth were opened up to some of us now we would swoon away right where we are out of shock because we’re at war. The other sides knows it, a lot of Christians just don’t. They’re out for our hide, that’s what they’re out for. They would like to stamp us into the ground and bury us and put an end to the church of Jesus Christ. I would have to say people such as myself, because of the ministry God has given me, I am a particular threat to them. I could tell you stories in which witches were warned not to come to my meetings by other witches. Well, that’s a compliment as far as I’m concerned.

You know, when Paul dealt with the man that had the evil spirits, the sons of Sceva couldn’t deal with...when they were dealing with him they said, “In the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Do you remember that? The spirit said, “Jesus I acknowledge, and Paul I know about but who are you?” So there are people who are known about in the camps of Satan. I honestly have to say I think I’m one of them. I walk around with an invisible body guard. I don’t think there’s really time for me to tell you about my body guard but that’s another exciting story.

Well, I think I will. It’s really a remarkable story. And at just about the same time that this other thing happened. I think it was the same situation. About a year and a half ago I was reading Proverbs 2:1–11 and it was like the Holy Spirit just rooted me on them. I saw God was telling me there was something I needed. And out of those 11 verses I picked out the fact that there are three things that go closely together: understanding, insight or discernment, and discretion. I investigated the words in Hebrew, I went into it quite thoroughly and I said to myself, “God has given me a measure of understanding, I need a whole lot more insight. And as for discretion, I don’t think I’m very good at that.” It’s not my nature to be discreet, I tend to say it like it is and, you know, just walk away for somebody else to pick up the pieces. I began to pray, “Lord, I really seek, I need understanding, insight or discernment...”—and they’re very closely related in the Hebrew language but they’re not the same—“...and discretion.” Discretion is an interesting word because at least 50 percent of the time in the Bible it’s used with a bad sense. It means to plot or to plan to be cunning but it’s very definitely here used with a good sense. I think maybe we better look in Proverbs 2:10–11. You need to go through the whole passage.

“For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you...”

See that language?

Well, I was in a meeting about six months after I started a prayer like this and there was a man there who wasn’t what I’d call by any means super-spiritual. He was a professional psychologist, I believe. Not that I’m saying psychologists can’t be spiritual but, I mean, he was not a kook, that’s what I’m trying to say. This man didn’t even come to me, he went to Don Bohl who happened to be there. He said, “While Derek was speaking to us I saw this.” And Don Bohl said, “Why don’t you tell Derek?” So very reticently he came to me and he said, “I don’t know what to make of this but while you were speaking I saw three figures behind you. I blinked and closed my eyes and looked out of the window but when I looked back they were still there.” He was reluctant but this is the way it was. He said, “The first one was very masculine, it was a very full figure, I saw every detail. It had a beard, it was a strong face. That was on your right-hand side. The next one was right behind you and it was wearing something like a cowl and it could have male and it could have been female, I couldn’t see. It was not so clear. And then there was one on your left which was much less clear, I couldn’t see very much about it.” I didn’t appear too interested, I tried to keep it on a very low key and I got him talking and explaining in greater detail what he’d seen. Then I said, “Now, would you say that these figures you saw were for me or against me? Were they on my side or on the other side?” He thought for a moment and he said, “Well, it’s like if you’re watching on television and the president of the United States appears, in the crowd you’ll pick out the Secret Service men, the FBI men or whatever it is that protects the president. You’ll see them always watching the president. They’re watching him to protect him from any attack. That’s what they were like.” I thought that’s really so clear and so vivid. Then I thought to myself, “I’ve been praying understanding, insight, discretion.” I knew from then on the one on the right, that’s understanding. He was well formed, clear, authoritative. Behind me was insight. It could be male or female.

Again, that’s very true. You see, insight is something that women tend to have much more easily than men. Discernment, what you call intuition. You know, the husband goes into a business deal and the wife says, “How can you get on with that crook?” He says, “Look at all his credentials.” She says, “I don’t care about all his credentials, he’s a crook.” And about six months later he realizes when he’s lost half his money that he was a crook! That’s insight. I realize I need a lot more insight.

Then over here is discretion and I realize discretion was a very vague, shadowy figure with me. However, I’ve been working on it since, believe me. I’m just wondering now whether discretion is approving of what I’m doing or not! But I tell you, for me that is very, very vivid. It’s such a beautiful thought that God has got his Secret Service men watching out for you. I really want to cooperate with them, I don’t want to step out of the area where I’m under their surveillance.