This brings me to the question, “Can a Christian be cursed?” A quick glib answer is, “No”, but I shall qualify that. Are such things real? The answer is yes. It is a matter of authority. Jesus has all that authority, so the devil has none. He only has what we allow him to have. If we wonder why the world in such a mess, the simple answer is that people give it to him. Adam did!

All of us have been created as a free-willed spirit being. We make a choice to give our allegiance to Jesus who has all authority spiritually as an act of our will, or giving that authority to satan in the form of accepting wrong thinking, wrong beliefs, willful and continual disobedience and such. When people give their authority to the devil, he can use their own authority against them. What you see in the world is the cumulative effect of generations and sometimes whole nations who have given their authority to him, which he has used to oppress millions upon millions, generation after generation, sometimes for centuries.

Once we have given our authority to Christ, we become one with His authority, which is why He said those who believe in His name will use His name to cast out demons, lay hands on the sick and see them recover etcetera.  Anyone why says things like that have passed away is denying the truth of Jesus’words, or calling Him a liar. That is taking sides with the devil.

No Christian is subject to anyone’s witchcraft curse. If however, we believe we are subject to demons or a curse, we are legally giving them our authority and they may use that against us. The sins of your dead or living relatives can’t affect you if you will rise up in your authority to reject them. If they are generational curses, those things were broken when you repented and made Jesus the Lord of your life and like our past sins, wiped away and erased by the blood of Jesus.

We are not immune from temptation but should not be afraid of it. Jesus was tempted, but did not succumb. We talk of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, but sum them up in two areas of the flesh and enticement. Jesus was hungry and that was the flesh that was perfectly natural. Satan tried to entice Him to turn the stones into bread. Jesus came to show us who He is and that was in the flesh and was perfectively acceptable, because He was the Son of God in the flesh. Satan tried to entice Him to prove it. Jesus came to save mankind and restore the world’s governments to God and that was in the flesh. The enticement was to misuse Jesus’ authority and bypass God’s plan so that He could rule on the earth, but give the worship to the devil.

Remember that the evil spirits may observe us, so that may know any weaknesses and try to exploit them.

We must have an honest conversation with ourselves about how our flesh likes sin. Once you know yourself honestly, then you can fight temptation. You can’t fight a temptation or a demon if you and the demons know you really want that sin. You will lay down your authority every time until you learn to value your fellowship with God more than you value that sin.

No Christian should ever be afraid of the devil, but if a Christian has been taught in error that we are to pray against the devil, they might draw unwarranted attention to themselves. Why do that?  It is said that we should not wave a red flag at a bull. I do not know if that is true or not, but  the idea is that we get that bull’s attention and he then charges.

Smith Wigglesworth was ministering in a city and woke during the night to see a dark shadowy figure standing at the foot of his bed. He said that he bound the thing, commanded it to leave “in the Name of Jesus” and prayed much, but it remained there. In the morning, that thing turned out to be a raincoat hanging on a coat hanger on the door. Many Christians could be Praying like that, shadow boxing and going nowhere.

If we are properly taught to obey Jesus by using His name correctly, we can live demon-free, no matter the devil’s plans. The temptations in life are the devil’s efforts to get you to give him your authority in that area, so he can use your authority against you. He lives in the darkness and light always overcomes light.

Darkness is nothing literally. It doesn’t exist as a ‘thing’ because it is merely the absence of light. We may think that darkness is advancing, but in reality it cannot exist in the presence of light. In reality darkness comes when light retreats. If we allow the light in us to retreat, darkness can come.

Jesus did not command us to make our light shine—He told us to LET it shine.

Think of a vacuum.  Can you measure it? Not really, but we can measure air pressure. A vacuum is a lack of air pressure. Air will fill that vacuum just as much as light dispels darkness.

We can measure brightness, using instruments and obtain figures in lux, lumens, foot-candles etcetera but I challenge you to be able to measure darkness.

Those bad things may be able to get into our lives—but only if we let the light in us retreat.

Evil doesn’t exist as a ‘thing’ that can be measured. Evil is the absence of Good. It is the absence of God in any given situation. It is the rejection of all that is God. Only good can be measured. To explain that, consider what Jesus said about faith. He spoke of little faith, great faith and no faith, so in that sense, faith and goodness can be measured. Evil is a comparison against the degree of good.

We can stand up and exert our “good”—Christ in us and not give in to fear and intimidation. We are one with Him. When we submit to God and resist the devil, according to James, he will flee for us.

John said:

Beloved ones, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of Elohim, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of Elohim: Every spirit that confesses that יהושׁע Messiah has come in the flesh is of Elohim,and every spirit that does not confess that יהושׁע Messiah has come in the flesh is not of Elohim. And this is the spirit of the anti-messiah which you heard is coming, and now is already in the world.
You are of Elohim, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:1-4