“As the bird by wondering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come” (Prov 26:2).
A curse does not come upon a person without cause. It is likened to a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow that flies about without landing in absence of cause. This is in harmony with spiritual principles found in Deuteronomy 28. If one is obedient to the commands of the LORD, there’ll be blessings. If one fails to obey the commands of God, “all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you” (28:15-65). This principle applies to the new covenant as well while leaving room for curses as a consequence of the Fall in Eden. But deceived persons refuse to accept a possibility of their disease being secondary to a spiritual issue, so great is their deception. This was a personal issue for years as I struggled without success to overcome what are known as generational iniquities. One of these was a spirit of fear, being anxious concerning any number of issues. There exists a polar opposite to fear, namely faith. Jesus tells us to not worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34), yet despite attending church for decades, I did not put His command into practice. Fear manifested itself in high blood pressure starting in my early forties. At 45, an irregular heart beat, chest pain, and an abnormal EKG led to hospitalization for an expected bypass operation. However the cardiac angiogram found no blockage and the cause was attributed to stress. Years passed before I recognized a spirit of fear was keeping me from trusting Christ for my tomorrows. Very shortly, my irregular heart rhythm disappeared and my blood pressure began to return toward normal. Taking thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) is yet to be mastered, but I no longer get so caught up with the cares of the world and worries of life. Another generational iniquity was a spirit of rejection, clearly manifested in the life of my mother who required anti-depressants most of her adult life, having passed down from her father. Self-rejection began to manifest in my life during childhood with two episodes of rheumatic fever although such was not recognized as an autoimmune disease at the time. What is now diagnosed as Crohn’s disease had onset in my thirties, and both lupus and rheumatoid arthrites in my sixties. It was only when a spirit of rejection was identified together with the awesome love of my Father in heaven that the autoimmune symptoms resolved and the daily use of immune suppressing drugs could be discontinued. And during my 40 years of medical practice, I watched multitudes die from self-imposed causes including the use of tobacco, alcohol, and intemperate eating leading to obesity. Behind such causes, there were spiritual roots in nearly all cases, i.e. failure to live in harmony with the will of God as revealed in His Word. In the vast majority of instances, the curse causeless does not come. In America, a relationship between spiritual roots and various diseases is neatly side-stepped in the pulpit, lest people be exposed to what their itching ears do not wish to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). It is exactly as Paul prophesied would take place two thousand years ago in these latter days. And in America, the miraculous finds itself conspicuously absent as a confirmation of authentic truth being preached in contrast to areas of Latin America, Africa, Asia (e.g. China and Korea), and a few isolated areas elsewhere. Instead, we often see a refusal to accept the truth of Proverbs 26:2. I fear a spirit of Ichabod (the glory of God has departed) has overtaken American churches with reasonable cause.
