Derek Prince - Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose

Biography

Appointment in Jerusalem

Guides to the Life of Faith

Atonement: Your Appointment with God

Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose!

Faith to Live By

God Is a Matchmaker

Gods Remedy for Rejection

The Grace of Yielding

Husbands and Fathers

How to Fast Successfully

The Marriage Covenant

Prayers and Proclamations

Protection from Deception

Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting

Spiritual Warfare

Thanksgiving, Praise and Worship

They Shall Expel Demons

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

Systematic Bible Exposition

The Last Word on the Middle East

Self Study Bible Course

The Spirit-Filled Believers Handbook

1990, 2000, 2006 by Derek Prince MinistriesInternational

Published by Chosen Books
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.chosenbooks.com

Chosen Books is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Ebook edition created 2010

Ebook corrections 06.03.2019, 07.21.2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4412-0011-2

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked TLB is taken from The Living Bible , copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

To protect the privacy of some of the individuals referred to, names of persons and places, and some other details, have in a few cases been changed.

Contents

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Foreword

The author of this book was my mentor and spiritual father. It was the privilege of my wife, Bonnie, and me to assist this great servant of God and work alongside Derek Prince as co-pastors for eighteen years. Over the years, we started traveling as an apostolic team. Derek would often have me hold the evangelistic and healing services.

Our lives have been influenced and transformed by the profound truths Derek Prince shared with us. He was our friend and senior elder. He stewarded these truths with grace and integrity, with joy and humor, and without religiosity or legalism.

On our first pilgrimage to Israel, Bonnie and I shared dinner with Derek and Ruth Prince on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He insisted on buying me St. Peters fish. As the steaming platter came out, Derek, with a serious face, told me it was customary for pilgrims on their first journey to Galilee to eat the eyes of this fish in honor of St. Peter. Being a good disciple, I immediately bit into them. It was the most terrible stuff I had ever tasted. As I was wiping my tongue with some wet towels, I looked up. Derek was grinning. He loved to tease his friends with practical jokes.

Over the years, I saw for myself the practical outworking of the truths shared in this book in the lives of countless people in Africa, America, Asia and Europe.

I recall our mission trip to Zambia. We were ministering deep in the interior of Africa, overlooking the Zambezi River, where thousands of area villagers had gathered to hear Gods Word. Derek, Ruth and I stayed in a nearby ramshackle house with big holes in the roof. Lizards would often drop through the roof as Derek would instruct the lead pastors and share a simple lunch of soup and bread.

A big field had been cleared close to the river, and a large crowd had gathered to hear the truths shared in this book. And we saw wonderful miracles, affirming that many experienced great deliverances from curses that had yoked them for generations. In the late evening, we would walk back through the bush to our lodging, carefully holding kerosene lanterns so as not to step on the abundant poisonous snakes that slithered all around.

As those humble African pastors said farewell, they thanked us and observed, The last notable ministry team to visit us before yours was Dr. David Livingstones. Thank you for this message. Now we know we dont have to be afraid of the sorcerers and their curses. The curses can be broken. We have heard and seen that the power of the cross triumphs over all.

In those great apostolic journeys with Derek Prince, I saw the greatness of the Gospel message, the breaking of curses and the importance of the blessing. I saw that these truths can transform and heal families, cities and nations. We are to lay hold of the blessing for ourselves, our children and our nations, as did Jacob in the book of Genesis.

When Rebekah pushed Jacob to the front of the line to receive his fathers blessing, she was on a mission from God. Jacob feared discovery, but his mother said, Ill take the curse. You obey my voice. Rebekah had gone from barren to doubly blessed. Some twenty years after her sons were born, the second of those twins inherited the blessing of a firstborn son. According to tradition, Jacob should not have gotten the blessing. According to his abilities, Jacob should not have gotten the blessing. According to the word of his own father, Jacob should not have gotten the blessing.

But the power of a blessing that comes from God is stronger than any curse the world or man can bring down! The power of the blessing that comes from God will overtake any power of destruction or failure chasing you. The favor that came on Jacob was the blessing of God on His friend Abraham, Jacobs grandfather. The covenant promise that God had made to Abraham was alive and active, even generations after Abraham had died. That covenant and those promises were the root and foreshadow of the promise and blessing that come to you and me through faith in Christ.

The shadow of the cross falling over a persons life is more powerful than any other shadow. Jesus took the curses of sin and death that we might receive the blessings of obedience to His Word. In the cross we are redeemed from every curse. Ultimately poverty, failure, disease, violence, destruction and even death must stop before the shadow of the cross that Jesus raised up for our lives.

The turmoil Rebekah experienced caused her to fear that something terrible was happening. It drove her to God, and she discovered the secret of His blessing. The key to receiving the ongoing blessing was obedience to the voice of God.

Centuries after His promise to Abraham, God delivered some three million of Abrahams descendants from slavery and death in Egypt. How did He do it? He did it by the power of the blood of a lamb. Today, two thousand years after His death and resurrection, the power of the cross of Christ still prevails in breaking curses and releasing the blessing.

Bonnie and I pray that you will be touched and transformed by my friends great teachings on how to recognize and release yourself from curses. May you and your family always walk in the blessings. It is, as Derek would emphasize, because of the cross.