But what about “satanic curses”?
First, there is nothing in the entire Bible that indicates Satan is able to “put a curse” on anyone, nor are there any examples of his doing so. Certainly we find Satan afflicting people in the Bible, but never do we find him “putting a curse” on a family which then results in continual bad luck upon them and their successive generations.
Every Christian is harassed by Satan and evil spirits (to a limited extent) all of his life, but this does not mean that any of us need someone to “break a satanic curse” over us that has been passed down to us from our parents. What we need to do is stand on God’s Word and resist the devil by faith, as we are told to do in the Scriptures (see 1 Pet. 5:8-9).
In the Bible, God is the one who has the power to bless and curse (see Gen. 3:17; 4:11; 5:29; 8:21 ; 12:3; Num. 23:8; Deut. 11:26; 28:20; 29:27; 30:7; 2 Chron. 34:24; Ps. 37:22; Prov. 3:33; 22:14; Lam. 3:65; Mal. 2:2; 4:6). Others may curse us with their mouths, but their curses are powerless to harm us:
Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, so a curse without cause does not alight (Prov. 26:2).
Balaam had it right when, after being hired by Balak to curse the children of Israel, he said, “How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce, whom the Lord has not denounced?” (Num. 23:8).
Some Christians have gone overboard on the idea of people placing curses on other people based on Jesus’ words in Mark 11:23: “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him.”
Notice, however, that there is no power in just speaking words, but rather in speaking words that are believed from the heart. There is no way a person could have faith that his curse against someone could actually bring harm to that person, because faith is a confident assurance (Heb. 11:1), and faith only comes from hearing God’s Word (Rom. 10:17). A person might hope his curse against someone will bring misfortune, but he could never believe it, because God has given no faith-supplying promise about cursing people.
The only exception to this would be if God gave someone “the gift of faith” along with a “gift of prophecy” (two of the nine gifts of the Spirit), that would be spoken in the form of a blessing or curse, as we see He occasionally did in the lives of some Old Testament characters (see Gen. 27:27-29, 38-41; 49:1-27; Josh. 6:26 with 1 Kin. 16:34; Judg. 9:7-20, 57; 2 Kin. 2:23-24). Even in those cases, the blessings or curses originated from God, not man. Thus, the whole idea of someone being able to “place a curse” on another person is just a superstition. This is why Jesus did not instruct us to “break curses that have been spoken against us,” but rather to simply “bless those who curse us.” We do not need to be afraid of any person’s curses. To be afraid of someone’s curse is to display a lack of faith in God. Unfortunately, I meet pastors all the time who seemingly have more faith in the power of Satan than the power of God. Although I travel to different countries every month doing a lot of damage to Satan’s kingdom, I am not the least bit afraid of Satan or any curses being placed on me. There is no reason to be afraid.
