Jesus came and broke curses over our lives by becoming a curse for us on the cross (Galatians 3:13).  He translated us from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:13) and redeemed us by His blood (Ephesians 1:7).  So if all of this is in the present-tense, and we really are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), why do we still live under the reign of curses in our lives, at least from time to time if not from generation to generation?

The answer is that a curse is a kind of contract.  It says, “Bad things will happen to you.”  Or, “God’s will isn’t going to be manifested in your life.”  It gives the devil a legal right to torment, annoy, or medal with a person or situation.  It can be everything from catastrophic – “Every male in your family will die young” – to simply irritating – “You’ll have a lingering cough that doesn’t affect your overall life, but that the doctors can’t figure out.”  Of course, curses don’t have to take the form purely of medical conditions; there can be curses on finances, relationships, and anything else in a person’s life.

A contract can’t be broken without consequences.  The implications may be financial, or one party may take the other to court to determine the penalties for the breaking of the contract.  Online, many sites have “user agreements;” if a user breaks this contract, they will be removed from membership on the site.

In the same way, you can’t just decide that you aren’t bound by the devil’s contract of a curse anymore.  There has to be some kind of greater contract that supersedes the contract (curse) of the enemy, or else there is no way out of it for you.

Christ’s blood is the new contract.  It sets us free from the works of the devil, including curses.  But sometimes it can take some work to prove that you have, indeed, a legal right to no longer be contractually obligated to the curse.

I like to think of it like this.  The court of heaven is convened.  The devil I both bring testimony.  The devil reminds the judge (that’s God (Isaiah 33:22)) of the terms of the contract.  he has legal right to me through the terms of blessing and curses, and according to the Bible, there are still curses until the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:3).  When it’s my turn to bring evidence, I plead the blood of Jesus and His work on the cross.  I remind God of the things He has said in His Word – that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and that Jesus gave me authority over the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19).  Then we both have to wait for the verdict.

God looks at the evidence (He is a just God, after all, and impartial (2 Thessalonians 1:6; Romans 2:11)), and He comes to a decision.  He proclaims that His Son’s blood is greater than the devil’s claim on me, and because I am under the new contract cemented on the cross, then the power of the curse is broken over my life, and the devil has no right to torment me in this area anymore.

I had to come to God with this issue.  I couldn’t just walk away from the old contract; I had to take the devil to task on the fact that, in reality, he was overstepping the new contract by trying to insist that the old contract was still valid.  This is why we need to break curses in our lives instead of just seeing it all taken care of the moment we say the sinner’s prayer – because the devil likes to remind us of the old contract until God makes the final verdict.

So if you know of a curse in your life, I highly recommend that you take it to the court of heaven, plead the blood of Jesus, and then trust that God will decide on your behalf.  “However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.” (Deuteronomy 23:5)