Keep Yourselves from the Accursed Things
"And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it." Joshua 6:18
Several weeks ago at The Body of Christ, Inc., Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn began teaching us about removing the accursed things in our lives.
When thinking of the word accursed we may think of something like witchcraft, spells, devil worship, demonic activity, or idols and false gods or things that appear to be "unchristian like" or ungodly. But it's time for us to think again. Accursed things often are born from what's in our hearts.
What Chief Apostle Gunn broke down for us is that the accursed things in our lives are often not just tied to the devil or things we would quickly identify as evil, but instead they come from us, from our choices, from our desires, from our rebellion. They come from our disobedience and unwillingness to change or comply with God's way. They come from wanting the wrong stuff and the wrong people more than we want God.
For instance, holding on to a person, relationship, situation, or thing from your past when God is telling you to let it go and trust him because he has something better for you, can become an accursed thing.
Not paying your tithes, holding back on God in your givings, and not taking care of the household of faith, and being selfish and unwilling to share with others will make your finances and money accursed things.
Not backing up the teaching, refusing to be a Godly and watchful parent, and failing to show your children how to love and obey God through your actions, or even encouraging them to be like the world and desire material things, can make your home accursed.
A nasty attitude, lack of care, indifference, coldness, and abusing, using, and mistreating people and loved ones can bring a curse on yourself, on your body, and over your life. The way we treat others is how we treat ourselves, so we must expect that the wickedness we put out will return to us. We reap what we sow.
Anything that we put before God or abandon God for is an accursed thing. This could be a job, a spouse/companion, a child, a TV show, a sports team, a habit, a desire, or addiction and so much more.
For example, if God told you not to quit your job or move to another city and you went anyway and claimed that it was a blessing from God that you got a new job and home, even though he said it wasn't his will, then your time in that new home and on that new job could be operating under a curse. Or if you received a new vehicle, and used it to travel to places that God told you not to go, then that car and your travel can become a curse because you have made it a tool of disobedience to God. Nothing will work right if you are not under God's covering. Believe me, I know. I have made many decisions before without God or against his counsel and only calamity followed.
An accursed thing can be anything that is not God's will for our life that we continue to allow to operate despite his warnings and the teaching. It could be a family tradition, it could be spending time with a person or at a place that God told us wasn't good for us, it could be anything we are giving our time and attention to that is enmity with God.
There are two questions that came to mind when studying about accursed things in the Bible that we can ask ourselves to ensure we are not partaking in accursed things:
1. Is it detestable to God? (disagreeable, dishonorable, unpleasant, distasteful, offensive, appalling). We must remember that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts, so something we think is okay to do could not be okay with God. If we love him we will check with him or our pastor to make sure what we desire is in alignment with God.
2. Will it cause us to be separated or have broken accord/fellowship from God, our spiritual leader, and the people of God or, even cause harm or hindrance to those we love and ourselves? Usually, when we are involved with accursed things, we find ourselves having to hide and be secretive, forgetting that God sees all. Or we create an atmosphere that people who want to please God don't want to be around. Think of Adam and Eve. When they sinned and touched the accursed thing (the tree was not necessarily a curse, but their disobedience to his warning made it accursed for them), they hid from God. Their sin and wrong desire made them want to be away from the very definition of love and their loving Creator. Because of their decision to want what God did not want them to have they ended up being removed from the most beautiful, healthy, and sacred place, they would know and the rest, as they say, is history. Disobedience in any form (known and unknown) is sin, and sin separates us from God and makes it harder for us to draw close to the people who are obeying God. Chief always tells us that the people we are the closest to will show us how close we are to God.
We must remember that when we partake in accursed things we bring curses upon those among us as well. Look at what happened to Cain and Able and the future generations after Adam and Eve's decision. It was only Jesus who could come and break the curse that separated us from God. Without his obedience, we would have been separated from God forever.
In the Bible, when Jonah chose to disobey and run away from God he brought a curse to himself and to those around him. So much so that when he ran to a ship, a storm came and the people could have died because he was hiding, but God would not allow Jonah to hide his sin.
The people found out that it was Jonah who caused the turmoil and he was thrown off the ship and God sent a whale to capture Jonah to cause him to repent and break the curse of rebellion, but, even after the whale, Jonah thought he still knew what was best. Of course, there is more to that story and I encourage you to read it. But let us choose not to be like Jonah.
When Chief Apostle first begin to teach us about accursed things he reminded us of the story of Achan. God had given Joshua and the children of Israel specific instructions after allowing them to accomplish victory at the Battle of Jericho, but after that victory, they were overtaken. God can not honor disobedience and he can not bless cursed things. It was the disobedience in the camp that caused them to be smitten by the men of Ai.
After the victory at Jericho, the Israelites were instructed to destroy everything in the city and to only keep specific gold, silver, bronze, and iron for the tabernacle of God's treasury, making it sacred and devoted to God.
However, Achan coveted these things and kept some of them for himself. He cared more about what he wanted than what God said and he was willing to violate what was sacred to God to advance his own agenda. He hid the items he stole from God in his tent and to make a long story short, he and his family (including the children) ended up having to die in order to be removed from the Israelites so that the curse he brought could be removed. Read the whole story in Joshua 7.
God's will must be done. He will move anything and anyone out of the way to ensure it is accomplished. No, disobedience does not always end in physical death but separation from God and his plan for our lives is spiritual death. Sincere repentance and willing obedience are what can return us to life with God. The word speaks for itself, so I will close with a few important and eye-opening verses from Chapter 7.
"12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies because they were accursed: neither will I be with you anymore, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. 13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you."
