Curse Your Blessings!

Gen. Deborah Green

P RAISE GOD. Welcome to Battle Cry Sounding. What a privilege it is to be serving the Living God, to know that our God is alive, and what we do is evident to Him.

You know, the reason that I believe that people choose to serve idols, is because then they are in control—because an idol cannot see you, an idol cannot follow you, an idol cannot see your secret sins, an idol cannot perceive the intents of your heart, and an idol is dumb; and when you serve an idol, you're dumb like the idol.

But, at the same time you're in control—in the sense that you do not need to be subject to God. And, people choose to worship idols because GOD MADE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US WITH THE DESIRE TO WORSHIP SOMETHING.

Actually, He made us with a desire to WORSHIP HIM, but that's been perverted through sin. So, people take up idols, and make up idols, in order that they are the ones in control. But, you know, God doesn't want us to live in such a way, because the end of that is cursedness, rather than blessedness.

And, God doesn't want us to be in control of our own lives because when we are in control, we will lead ourselves down the course of destruction. But, when we allow God to be in control, God will lead us in the way of His life, direct us in the way of His truth, and instruct us in the way of His righteousness.

Now, you know, a lot of people, in these modern times, think they can come to God as they are, which is true, and then they think they can STAY as they are, which is FALSE. Because, when we come to God, we are meant to begin a new life. And, we are meant to learn God's way, to walk in God's way, to be purposed in God's way, and to be uplifted in His way. Because, it is God who is meant to bear rule over us. Amen.

Now, today, we're in Malachi, chapter 2, and the name of this message is, "CURSE YOUR BLESSINGS." Now, this is God who is giving forth this declaration, to His own people, that He is going to CURSE THE BLESSINGS THAT HE'S GIVEN THEM. You know, we can be blessed by God, and then, through disobedience, we can bring curses upon those blessings.

It's like God can bless me, with say, perhaps, a good job, and then I can make a god out of that job, and then I can begin to worship that job, and I can be more concerned with the opinions of men than I am concerned with God, and God can literally curse that blessing; because I've taken other things that I love more than God, that I prefer above God, that I figure are more important than my behavior with God, and in so doing, I prove myself to be unfaithful to God.God can turn around and CURSE the very blessing that He gave me. That job can become a whip on my back, my boss can become completely horrifying and intolerable, and you know, they can require me lengthy, and lengthy, and lengthy hours—whereby I'm working all the time and receiving no pay, or no extra pay, etc. Anything can happen—because God could allow that blessing to become a curse.

Now, for instance, in America, you know, everybody back in the old Pentecostal days didn't want to be poor anymore. They just didn't want to be poor anymore because the classic image of the Pentecostal was the tires are falling off the car, they'd just come flap-trapping in, you know. They're living in rags, they live in shambles, they're so destitute, they're so poor, and that that's why they're so IGNORANT to believe in God.

Have you ever heard that one—that “only ignorant people believe in God”? Well, it's not true. But, anyway, what I'm saying is they got tired of being poor, so they began to pray for prosperity. Now, prosperity rules the Church with an iron fist: “You're not even godly unless you have abundant gain.”

And the Bible says, "When you hear those professing that gain is godliness, from such turn away." And it says that, "The love of money is the root of all evil." But, this evil force has came in and taken over, and proved to be a curse because men cried out for something other than God. Why do you think that Paul said, "I have learned to be content in whatsoever state I'm in"? Because, God can give you something, and it can turn into your CURSE, if you don't keep your heart right with God.

How about when people are in the wretched side and God strips them down, and they see their misery, and all this, and they cry out to God, and God has mercy upon them, and maybe restores to them something that He has taken away, and then they begin to love and worship that thing, and think because they have that thing they're ok with God. God will turn that thing into a curse. He will. HE'LL TURN RIGHT AROUND AND CURSE YOU WITH WHAT YOU PUT ABOVE HIM, OR, WHAT YOU THINK IS YOUR TICKET IN.

So, when we think, "Well, I'm ok because God is blessing me!" Is He really? IS HE BLESSING YOU? Look at your life, look at your relationship with God, or look at what you're bringing forth. Could it be that you've brought a curse upon yourself because you've loved something, someone, or some thing more than God? including yourself?

You know, we need to really let God's Word examine our lives. "Well, I read my Bible, but I never change. There's nothing wrong with me." Then you're not really READING your Bible. You are merely going through a rote activity, and not allowing it to grip hold of your heart.

See, that was one of the disputations that God had with His own people, again, and again, and again, and that was what? THEY LET THEIR HEARTS STRAY FROM HIM. They went through the rote of their religion, they went through the rote activity of what they were supposed to do, but their hearts had departed from Him.

They had estranged themselves through whoredom and gone a whoring after the ways of the heathen, and departed from the true relationship they were meant to have with God whereby they were meant to walk, and live, and act in the fear of God; whereby they were RESPECTING God, whereby they were OBEYING God, whereby they were LISTENING to God, and OBEYING what God said; not what their stupid carnal minds say.

Chapter 2, Malachi, "And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you." Now, as I said the other day, that we all love that Scripture that we're just “kings and priests” [1 Pet. 2:9, Rev. 5:10]. But yet, we don't want to come under the REQUIREMENT to be a priest—which is ALL FOR GOD.

We don't want to live under that requirement. All of a sudden, we're just happy: to be a church member, to just be a pew warmer, to just be a tithe-payer. We want the comfortable church; we want it our way; we want God to get out of our hair, to quit messing in our stuff, to leave us alone, and we can do it in the way we feel is best. Guess what? We either do it in the way that He feels is best, or we're not doing it! And that's the truth.

You know, I can build a whole world in my imagination, but that doesn't make it real. When we were kids in California they built, I guess what you could call was a mini-cycle version of a theme park, they called it "fairy-tale town;" and it was in the park.

And you'd go through there, and there was a big pumpkin, and you could sit in the pumpkin and act like you were Cinderella, or, you know, you could go down some bean-stalk slide, or something. I don't know, it was utterly ridiculous. But, it was a little-bitty place. If you looked at it now, you would just laugh at it, but, in those days, that was a big deal.

So, anyway, you could go through there, and live out these fairy-tales. But, you know, what? Once you got through there, you were back in your life, you were back in your existence, in your REALITY, and you weren't Cinderella sitting in the pumpkin coach, at all. And, you didn't have glass slippers, and you didn't have some handsome prince that was going to take you away from all your troubles. You still had your troubles. You still had your existence. You still had what it was that was your reality.

And, I could tell myself, "Well, I'm Cinderella and none of this is going to phase me because I wear glass slippers, and I'm going to marry the handsome prince." Don't go for it girls. But, the reality is, that is unreality. And so, we can imagine, "Oh, we're these kings and priests!" and we're meeting none of the requirements.

Now, the requirement of the priest was to STAY TRUE TO GOD so they could tell the people what God's requirements were. Now, aren't we supposed to tell sinners what God's requirements are—so they can be saved, so they can be spared from eternity in Hell? And, if we're not even living for God ourselves, how can we bear witness of Him? How can our witness be true to bring others unto salvation if we ourselves are not living in the very declaration of who Christ is?

Ok, it says, "And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart."

Now, what is God talking about there? He's talking about the priests, the ones who were supposed to be serving Him, knowing Him, learning His law, and dictating that to the people, so the people could walk uprightly, and the people could be well-pleasing to God.

They weren't doing it. THEY WEREN'T LAYING TO HEART, TAKING SERIOUSLY, seeking to obey, seeking to pay heed to what it was that God was saying, what it was that God had already laid down for His people to walk by.

In other words, the priests were being slothful, neglectful, of their job. And, it says here, "O ye priests, this commandment is for YOU." What is He commanding? He's commanding a curse on their blessings. You know, when we mess around with God, and think we get by, we are the fools. When we think we can play two-time, double-time, my-time, all these games, WE are the fools. Because God says, "This commandment is for you."

"Oh, good, another commandment, another chance for me to please the Lord." You lying hypocrite, the only one you want to please is YOU. That's what He's saying, "You don't lay to heart what I say to you, so here's your commandment—your blessings are cursed.” He said, "I have already turned them to curses because you do not lay it to heart. You do not take seriously your walk with God, you do not take seriously what I require of you, and you do not walk in the office of the priest that has been given unto you.”

You know, we are meant to be kings and priests in the New Testament dispensation. And, the men are meant to be the priests in their families. Men nowadays are the farthest thing from that. They let mama do it all, then they complain, then they complain, and they don't do anything—except lay up, belly-ache, dictate, and dissipate.

And mama wears the pants, mama earns the money, mama goes to church, and they lay up. They're not the priests in their family, and you know what, that family's going to be a curse to them—because they won't take the position that God has ordained them to take—at all.

And then they want to gripe about their “Jezebel wife.” Their wife's a Jezebel because THEY MADE HER THAT WAY. THEY DIDN'T WALK IN THE OFFICE OF PRIEST FOR THEIR FAMILY. They didn't seek God, seek the Word of God, seek the dictates of God, or seek obedience unto God that they could bring that blessing to their own family.

They sought for the world, they desired the world, and they lusted after trivia, nonsense, and foolishness; they were more interested that they had a pickup, and a boat, and 12 guns, and all these play-pretties—more than they were interested in bringing forth their wife and children in the fear and admonition of God. So, what's God going to do? HE'S GOING TO TURN AROUND AND CURSE THEM WITH THE VERY BLESSING OF A FAMILY THAT HE GAVE THEM—BECAUSE THEY REFUSED TO WALK IN THE OFFICE OF THE PRIEST.

"Well, I'm a king and a priest both." You're a liar. You're not learning what God desires; you don't even care what God desires. All you want to do is exalt yourself. God's going to curse your blessings; He says it right there: "Because you do not lay it to heart, I have already turned them to curses." Your blessings are cursed. "Oh God, bless me Lord!" If I'm walking in disobedience, what I'm really saying is, "Give me more curses."

Come on, follow it on out here—apply the Word of God! In the obedience is the life, in the disobedience is the death. If we choose to disobey God, we're bringing those curses to ourselves. If we choose not to take seriously and lay to heart what God says to us, what God requires of us, what God's dictates are, all we are doing is CURSING our own blessings through our misbehavior.

I, myself, cannot understand how anybody imagines they get by on God—how they imagine they can sneak this one by, and pull this one over, and, you know, connive and get their way. God sees EVERYTHING, God knows EVERYTHING; how could we possibly think we are deceiving God?

The only thing I can think is people just get blinded by pride. They think they're such a smooth operator, or such a slick-o, or so clever, that they just somehow pull these manipulations. It's like a thief that doesn't know what he's doing anymore. He might have been good at one time in his life, and now he's fat, and he's clumsy, and he stumbles, and breaks the door down instead of picking the lock, and all kinds of things—goes in and the dog hears him, and starts barking at him, and he yells at the dog.

And, you know, he's lost it. And yet he still thinks he can get by with his sin, with his crime, with his evil-doing. "Behold, I will rebuke your seed [grain—which will prevent due harvest], and I will spread the dung from the festival offerings upon your faces, and you shall be taken away with it."

Now, what do you think He means "taken away"? And, what do you think He means about "spreading the dung"? He's saying, "That's what you are to me." He's saying, "There it is: it's going to be on your face because that's what you've done to me. You've offered unto me dung when you were meant to be offering to me your life. When you were meant to be giving your all to me, you've offered unto me this waste, this vile stuff, this defecation." And He said, "Now I'm going to smear the very thing, you offered to me, on your face—because of what you've done to me."

DID YOU KNOW WE GET BACK WHAT WE DO TO GOD? We get it back. We don't escape, we get it back, and we get it back, and we get it back—what we have done to God.

You know, a lot of people think it's cute to backslide and come back, backslide and come back, backslide and come back. And did you know what that does to God, what that does to His heart? It causes Him many sorrows, it causes Him so much grief, and they think it's fun to cause God to have to give them special attention, to cause people to have to make them over, and to always be carrying that rod of disobedience that, "If you don't give me my way, I'll backslide again." How UGLY.

I knew this person, their big thing was to try to bully God—BULLY GOD. Like, in other words, they're going to MAKE God give them what they want. And so they'd pull their big flare ups, and their tick-off and take-off acts, and do this big thing, and then, they got their way.

They got to go out to the world, they got to go suck after Sodom, they got to partake of that which is filth, they got to look upon the ways of the Egyptians, and imitate and emulate that, they got to eat what they wanted, and go to bed when they wanted, and get up when they wanted, and do what they wanted! And then they'd finally come to their senses—that they're in a lonely trap of their own despair, that they'd brought it to themselves.

Then, they'd come dog-crawling back, saying, "Here I am again. Oh, forgive me, I saw myself!" Then they'd do it again—BULLY GOD! And you know what? They day came, God said, "Good, the dung's on your face, you got it; have it." It says, "Behold, I will rebuke your seed [grain—which will prevent due harvest], and I will spread the dung from the festival offerings upon your faces, and you shall be taken away with it."

Now, what happened to bully? Bully's been taken away, and BULLY IS LEFT TO WANDER WITH THE DUNG UPON THE FACE, and bully is left to do their thing apart from God because God said, "You know what, I don't have no part of you. There, you got it, now you can go where? Into captivity. You can be taken into captivity by the very things you love more than me."

Did you know there are multitudes who are in captivity to the very things they've loved more than God? It's true. You know, look at an alcoholic. An alcoholic has made a god out of that bottle. And they will bow to that bottle, they will steal for that bottle, they will lie for that bottle, they will kill for that bottle, and they will even pick the fillings—the gold fillings, out of their own mother's teeth to buy that bottle.

You think I'm lying? It's true. They are possessed! Why? Because they have loved that more than God, "Oh, I once knew the Lord, but, I don't know, I can't give up this drinking!" Why can't you give up the drinking? Because it's your lover, because it's what you live for, and it's possessed you.

You've been taken into captivity by what? By that which you love more than God. You know, if you let other things intervene in your relationship with God, interfere and take over, you are refusing to lay to heart what God desires for you. And what is the consequence of that? God will curse your blessings, and YOUR LIFE WILL BE A CURSE, rather than a blessing.

And, you know, you talk to alcoholics, their lives are so cursed they're the walking dead. It's true. I talk to them every week. Their lives are so CURSED they are the WALKING DEAD. And they'll tell you, point blank, they'd “be better off dead.” Now, what's happened? They've lived under that curse, their whole life is a curse—because they've chose to love something, to lay to heart the insinuations, and the seductions, and the enticements of alcohol over the Living God.

"You can't live without me. You've got to have me. You've got to partake of me. You've got to be captivated of me. You've got to be a slave to me;" the commands of the demon of drink. And they say, "Ok, yes, you're right!" God says, "Come on, follow me. I'll give you peace. I'll give you strength. I'll give you safety." "Oh, no, I can't do that, it's too hard!" Their whole life is a curse—from morning until night.

You know, how would you like to be a grown man, had maybe fantastic skills, and abilities, and you're reduced to sticking a rod in a garbage can, or even going down and digging with your hands and pulling up a bashed up can, or a can you bash up, stick in a sack so you can drag it all over town and then by nightfall, you can buy your bottle? That's your whole reason for being. You think God don't allow people to go in captivity? Come on! You think God won't turn you over to that which you love more than Him, to that which you've made an idol of, to that which you've bowed to? Come on!

And then there's the other guy, he's strapped in to making money. 24/7 he's got to get that dough, he's got to go, go, go, he's got to push himself, he's got to do the invincible feats of a conqueror because he's got to have more money—so somebody else can steal it from him. And he's consumed of it, driven by it, possessed of it, and he's CURSED.

Oh, you could just go on, and on, and on and look at the state of human beings, and it's cursedness, it's not blessedness. There's no peace, there's no strength, and there's no safety; it's a continual marauding fear that stalks them every day and drives them on to deeper demonization.

"And you shall know, recognize, and understand that I have sent this [new] decree to you priests, to be My [new] covenant with Levi [the priestly tribe], says the Lord of hosts. My covenant [on My part with Levi] was to give him life and peace, because [on his part] of the [reverent and worshipful] fear with which [the priests] would revere Me and stand in awe of My name, would revere Me and stand in awe of My name."

That was the original purpose of the priesthood. It wasn't so you could walk around in a robe and have everybody look at you, and think you were something, or so that you could say, "Hey, I'm a kingdom priest! I'm a king and a priest" or, "Hey, I'm the boss of this family! Open the fridge, I need another beer."

It wasn't so you could be a damned, cursed, fool. The ordination of the priest is that they would live, and walk, and conduct themselves in the reverence, in the fear, of God, and that they would teach the people to fear God, that they would teach the people to respect God.

"The [reverent and worshipful] fear with which [the priests] would revere Me and stand in awe of My name." Ok, THE PRIESTS WERE SUPPOSED TO LIVE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD THAT THEY COULD TEACH THE PEOPLE TO RESPECT GOD, that they could teach what God was showing them, and people would see, by their example, that it was true.

So, when the priesthood turns aside, and the people are following the priesthood, where do the people end up? When the blind lead the blind, they all end in a ditch. When you have ministers, like you have in this hour, who are greedy for gain, who are lusting for power, who are lusting for the same-sex, or the other sex, who are lusting, and lusting, and lusting, what is it that they do? THEY TEACH THE PEOPLE TO LUST.

Why do you think America’s a nation gone mad after the accumulation of stuff and things, after lust, and greed, for sex, and sex, and sex till their butts rot off? It's because the priesthood has not stayed in the fear of God, AND ALL THE BLESSINGS ARE CURSED.

And everything that God intended to do for the people, that they would eat the good of the land, now what are they eating? They're eating plastic food and killing themselves on the same. "*singing*You can have a brand new day;- nobody can make your day, like MackieD's." Nobody can make your day—plastic fantastic. Take in those hunks of plastic food, build up that tire on there, get diabetes, get cancer, get your bowels blocked up, locked up.

Oh, wow, we have really improved on God. "Well, at least I don't have to eat those old nasty vegetables." No, you don't have to do anything but let your self be cursed because you're so stubborn, and proud, and willful against God. And guess what? You've been cursed.

There used to be this song, "I've been changed." Well, the new song should be, "I've been cursed—I've been cursed because of departure from God, because of refusing to lay to heart what God's dictates, what God's standards, what God's requirements are, and to walk in obedience to the same.”

You think you get by? You think you get by on God? You get cursed. YOU GET CURSED! LOOK AT YOUR OWN LIFE. Are you cursed, or are you blessed? And I'm going to tell you something: if you're cursed, you brought it to yourself. Amen.