As you can see, the conclusions that we have to reach to support the "we-don't-curse-people" rule are devastating to Christianity, for they turn Christianity into a fumbling religion plagued with errors that is spurred by a "Holy" Spirit that inspires misguided statements and a "Holy Canon" with very questionable books containing many questionable and "unacceptable" statements. We would also have to conclude that Christianity is a religion that borders on spiritism, since we would have to accept that Christianity's founder (Jesus) taught that he and his followers were to preach to evil spirits to make them repent. Dear reader, under such circumstances, this writer would have no choice but to abandon Christianity and declare it nothing more than just another religious deception manufactured by a buffoon named Jesus and a bunch of scammers known as the disciples. I would have no taste whatsoever for such an error-fraught and inconsistent philosophy. I would rather be an atheist than believe in such a pathetic "God" who could do no better than come up with such a pathetic and self-contradicting religion.

Since I unfortunately have come to know how stubborn matriarchal believers can get, I am certain that the few "matriarchals" who would take the time to read this posting will be quick to pounce on one of the passages above and raise straw men to attack the points made on it, in much the same way that criminal attorneys in America like to fill courtrooms with their clouds and smoke screens of paranoid and irrational doubt in an effort to confuse the jury into thinking that there is enough "reasonable doubt" to find the clearly-guilty defendant "not guilty". However, such matriarchal believers need to understand that, even if they can successfully "nullify" one of the passages above, they need to "nullify" ALL the passages. Even if just one of the passages remains standing after their arguments are through, they will have to conclude that either the "we-do-not-curse-people" rule is false or Christianity is a false religion. To make things worse for the "matriarchals", the passages above are just the beginning. We could write for years ad nauseum, bringing up passage after passage after passage after passage to prove the "we-do-not-curse-people" rule wrong, but, as we said earlier, all the evidence in the universe is never enough to a soul unwilling to let go of certain things; and, to be honest, I am at this late stage sick and tired of pointless arguing. If you, dear reader, still think the "we-do-not-curse-people" rule stands Scriptural scrutiny, I am willing to let you go to your grave believing that. If you are so confident of your "truth", I am willing to let you face God with that "truth" in your heart and allow you to face the consequences of that belief. To quote the Beatles, I have reached the point where I am willing to "live and let die". I have invested my entire life into the belief that this generation would see the light, only to come up empty-handed, and I am no longer interested in dumping my life down a futile sinkhole. To be sincere with you, I have just about had enough.

"The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall." (Proverbs 10:8)

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise." (Proverbs 12:15)

"As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly." (Proverbs 26:11)

"Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." (Proverbs 27:22)

"If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest. " (Proverbs 29:9)

A soul that may be stubbornly endeavouring to nullify the conclusions we reached on Luke 10:10-14 above may try to focus on that passage's use of the phrase "that day" when referring to the time when the judgement or cursing is to be made manifest, which, makes it sound as if the disciples are simply making a "chronological reference" to some inevitable event in the very distant future in which everyone is going to be "judged" by God "anyway". This raises the question as to what the phrase "that day" truly means in Scripture, a meaning that most believers in the Church are utterly oblivious to. However, if we assume, for the sake of argument, that it simply refers to a literal calendar date in the very distant future, it does not take away the "cursing factor" in Luke 10:10-14. When you curse something or someone, you are, in a sense, "cordoning off" that something or someone, declaring it as "scheduled for destruction", as when someone "condemns a building", which, in a sense, "quarantines" the building, declaring it "uninhabitable" and announcing to all that the building merits no additional investment because it is beyond rescue. Therefore, it becomes clear that, when Yeshua instructed His disciples to declare future judgement on the city, He was instructing them to "cordon off" the city and its inhabitants, declaring them as not meriting additional investment because they were in a state where any such investment would only go to waste. Just as with a condemned building, the actual time of the city's demolition is largely secondary, meaning that the reference to "that day" does not negate the fact that the city and its inhabitants were actually being cursed by the disciples.

All of the above raises an important spiritual question: Were the disciples simply stating a fact or were they activating it? In other words, if the demolition that they were declaring was to come to pass regardless of what they did, what need was there to declare it? To answer this question, we must remember that Yeshua instructed the disciples to make a rather public display of rejection, a display that many modern-day "believers" would label as "bitter", "spiteful", and "un-Christian" if they ever witnessed it in person (it is rather surprising how believers can mindlessly accept any principle if they read it in a Biblical passage, only to turn around and condemn it when they see it acted out in real life). As the disciples publically wiped the dust off of their sandals, they were first announcing that they abhorred the earthliness of the people in that city, and they were warning others to avoid all spiritual association with (and investment in) the people of that city, just as when people are warned not to be inside a building that has been condemned. Through this public display, they were also making the "building's condemnation" official. Buildings are often condemned because of structural instability issues, which means that, given enough time, the building will eventually fall apart. Even though the building's destruction is, in that sense, inevitable, it may be able to stand for decades in its unstable state. The public condemnation of the building, however, allows for the scheduling of a demolition date during which those in authority over the building will force the building to implode, thus accelerating its inevitable destruction. As you may know, structures such as stadia, for example, are often demolished when they are replaced by newer and more functional stadia, even when the original stadium is not structurally unstable and could remain in operation for many more years. In such cases, the demolition is ordained because there is no point in keeping the stadium standing when no one will be using it, even if it will not collapse on its own. Demolitions, therefore, need to be decreed on buildings in order to avoid them needlessly taking up space that could be put to better use, as well as to destroy buildings that pose a hazard to all around them due to their structural instability. To not decree the building's demolition (i.e.- to not "curse" the building) and to simply wait for the building to inevitably collapse on its own in some distant future is utterly nonsensical. This is why the disciples needed to publically utter the curse judgement against the city that rejected them, for Yeshua came to restore the authority of man's voice, an authority that man lost when he allowed the soul to rule over the Spirit:

"¹⁹ And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. ²⁰ And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." (Genesis 2:19-20)

"¹⁸ And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:18-19)

"²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: ²³ Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John 20:22-23)

The verb "remit" that appears in verse 23 above was translated from the Greek verb aphiemi, a verb that is commonly translated as "forgive" throughout the King James version of the New Testament. The King James translators shied away from properly translating aphiemi as "forgive" in this passage --- preferring a more ambiguous verb such as "remit" --- because their matriarchal souls were uncomfortable with the spiritual implications of what Yeshua was declaring in this passage. Let him who has uncontaminated ears, however, hear what Yeshua is saying here.

As indicated in Romans 1:18 above, the focus of God's wrath is against those who "hold the truth in unrighteousness". As we have studied before, the word "hold" was translated from the Greek word katecho, which literally means "to hold back, to restrain, to hinder". In other words, God's wrath is against those whose attitudes work to actively hinder the full-blown manifestation of truth. God does not absolve these people on account of "ignorance", for, as He declares in Romans 1:19, there is enough truth available to them to make them turn away from their active hindrance of God's full-blown manifestation. In fact, it is their awareness of truth that prompts them to hinder it. In other words, they know enough truth to understand that, if they allow more truth to be made manifest, they will have to surrender things within their hearts that they are utterly unwilling to give up.

In Romans 1:18, therefore, the Holy Spirit is certifying that the ones with the true authority to hinder God's righteousness are men, not the evil spirits. If there were no men hindering His righteousness, the evil spirits would be powerless to hinder it, multitudinous as they may be. As we have shared before, Scripture clearly shows that God has given man authority over what may or may not happen on Earth (Psalm 115:16). This is why God had to ask for "permission" from Moses before performing a quick obliteration of the rebellious Israelites who came out of Egypt (Exodus 32:9-10), and it is why God was forced to put up with them for 38 years due to Moses' refusal to grant God that "permission". This is also the reason why one of the first things that Yeshua taught His disciples to pray for is for God's will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10), meaning that God wants us to constantly utter words on Earth that enable the quick and transforming execution of His will on Earth. If we are not interested in His will being made manifest, it will remain unfulfilled, regardless of the number of evil spirits that may or may be working against God's will on Earth. Thus, in order for God's will to be furthered on Earth, a critical mass of humans aligning themselves with His will is required, and that critical mass must be reached within the ultimate "agent of change" on Earth: His Church (Ephesians 1:22, Matthew 5:13). If that critical mass of people is not reached, His will remains little more than a possibility, a "pipe dream" that is perpetually postponed and never materialised.

One of the reasons why the "matriarchals" have a hard time understanding this (clear as it is throughout all of Scripture) is that, as we have shared before, the matriarchal soul has a tendency to raise a "pastoral shield" around people, shielding them from God's judgements in unrighteous mercy. This causes the "matriarchals" to portray the unrighteous less as instigators and more as "victims" of unfortunate circumstances. This is the reason why alcoholism is often portrayed merely as a "disease", as if it were a bug you can catch by unwittingly sitting on a contaminated barstool. This is also the reason why AIDS amongst homosexuals is often seen as an "unfortunate epidemic" and not as the result of homosexuals' irresponsible and lecherous behaviour, and it is why the financial and emotional burden to eradicate AIDS is always placed on society and not on homosexuals (and lascivious heterosexuals), and why the solution to AIDS is always more "fundraising" and "awareness" and not homosexuals and lascivious heterosexuals repenting from their behaviour.

Since matriarchals are not about to start blaming people for their unrighteous behaviour (for that is tantamount to begin "judgemental"), the evil spirits that roam the Earth's spiritual atmosphere become the perfect scapegoat for all of the world's woes. These spirits become the perfect "disease" to blame the world's unrighteousness on. Under this scheme, people are basically nice and good, but they have unwittingly come across one of these spirits, in much the same way that someone may unknowingly catch the flu after turning a tainted doorknob. Once they become "diseased" with one of these spirits (almost always against their will), they need the loving intervention of Christians with expertise on "spiritual warfare" who can diagnose the infecting spirit and clean it out of the person's system so that he or she may be "whole" again. This way of visualising the world conveniently removes the need to "judge" people (which can make you very unpopular with the matriarchal world), and it turns the battle into a rather "straightforward" and "winnable" clash of powers rather than a complex and often drawn-out battle of wills. Since God is obviously stronger and more powerful than any other spirit in the universe, reducing the conflict to a mere battle of spiritual forces means that all that is required to win is to pour as much of God's "ammo" into the battle as possible until the evil spirits are overwhelmed by God's might and the battle is over. There needs to be no analysis of right versus wrong (at least beyond diagnosing the evil spirits that need to be exorcised), and there is no need to hold anyone accountable except the evil spirits doing the damage on humanity. The only human pseudo-accountability under this scheme is the need for churchgoers to become more "active" in this battle in terms of "revival events" and the occasional "intercessory session" where these evil spirits are "sprayed" with the "blood of Jesus" and forcefully cast out "in His Name" (whatever that means). In all of this, the importance of knowing what evil spirit needs to be exorcised is mostly so that they can be called out "by name" because, according to traditional liberation doctrine, knowing the spirit's name somehow gives you more power over it. Thus, the spirit's name is more for the sake of greater "power" than for the sake of truly understanding the spiritual dynamics of the battle being waged.

As we have studied before, the difference between a false prophet who works iniquity and a true prophet who works righteousness is that a false prophet is primarily focused on activating [poieo] dunamis power that "fixes up" the external symptoms, as opposed to a true prophet, who focuses primarily on activating [poieo] logos word that judges the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Therefore, we can conclude from the above that the "we-only-curse spirits" attitude is derived from a false-prophet paradigm, which allows us to get to the "heart" of the problem with this mindset.

As we have studied before, false prophets are focused on the external symptoms, i.e.- the external consequences of a spirit's influence in a person's heart. They therefore focus all of their energy on exorcising the spirit so as to put an end to the physical and emotional consequences caused by the spirit's presence, but they make no effort whatsoever to remove the thing in the "victim's" heart that drew the spirit's presence in the first place. Why? Because the spirit's presence is viewed as nothing more than a haphazard intrusion and not as something attracted by factors of the will (Proverbs 26:2). However, when the "spirit-attracting" throne of iniquity in the person's heart is not removed, any expulsion of the evil spirit becomes nothing more than a temporary solution, and the evil spirit that was initially expelled comes back to "his house", bringing with him more evil spirits, which makes the person's latter condition worse than the former (Luke 11:24-26).

What a false prophet fails to comprehend is that the evil spirits' presence in people's lives do not "magically" happen "willy-nilly". A person does not wake up one morning with an evil spirit inside of him or her out of the blue. An evil spirit can only gain access into an individual or a group of people if those people's hearts allow themselves to believe a certain falsehood. As we have shared before, truth and judgements are inextricably intertwined, meaning that, when a heart accepts a falsehood (i.e.- the opposite of a truth), one or more judgements of God need to be replaced by one or more judgements that are soul-centred. The serpent in the garden of Eden, for example, did not come with an "army of demons" to snatch the Earth's spiritual atmosphere from man's grasp; instead, he had to convince mankind to fall for a falsehood, and, once it did, the evil serpent became the "prince of the air". As we have studied before, this falsehood entailed a changing of the "judgement system" employed by man. Once man agreed to found his judgements on the "female" soul rather than the "male" spirit, his world collapsed and came under the control of satan.

From all of this, we can conclude that it would be utterly useless to successfully expel a trillion evil spirits if we simplistically ignore the hearts of the men and women who harboured them in the first place, for those spirits will inevitably return and make things worse. It is also evident, from all of the above, that the key to removing the "thrones of iniquity" that attract these evil spirits is the application of Spirit-centred judgements that mould men's hearts into alignment with God's truth. As these Spirit-centred judgements are applied, there will be men and women who will become staunch enemies of these judgements. Why? Because these souls have a "vested interest" in the soul-centred judgements that are being overthrown. People fall for an erroneous judgement system because it offers them certain "benefits", and the hearts of many become so attached to those benefits that they would rather die than see those benefits annulled. These are the people who "hold [back] the truth in unrighteousness" that Romans 1:18 refers to. If these people are not judged unto destruction (i.e.- cursed), the soul-centred judgement system cannot be toppled, and the evil spirits that feed off of that system will remain in control of the spiritual atmosphere in that place, meaning that all the people who could be rescued unto righteousness in that place will remain in bondage. This is why Moses was sent to Pharaoh to let God's people go, and why God was willing to judge Egypt so harshly through Moses so that the Israelites could be free. If God has not given man authority over what happens on Earth, why would He need to ask Pharaoh to "let His people go"? If man is not the one ultimately accountable for what happens or does not happen on Earth, why did God need a Moses to go tell Pharaoh to let His people go? Why didn't God do it Himself, and why did He need for Pharaoh to decree the Israelites' freedom? If the Israelites' bondage was merely a spiritual matter that did not involve judging men, why didn't God simply wage "spiritual warfare" against the evil spirits of Egypt somewhere in the Earth's "stratosphere" until Pharaoh could wake up one day in a cheery mood and say, "Hey, I have an idea: Why don't we let the Israelites go and allow them to freely worship their God in the desert? Who is with me on this one?" Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit of God is more than clearly saying throughout Scripture.

If transforming the Earth unto God meant cursing spirits only, why was Yeshua so determined to publically condemn (i.e.- curse) the religious leadership of His day? Why didn't Jesus simply spend His time in prayer cursing and casting out the Jebusite, Girgashite, Amorite, and Canaanite spirits that were in the Pharisees' hearts? Why did He spend much of His time, instead, judging them in public and exposing their unrighteousness in front of those who followed them religiously? Why did He spend His time voicing wrath-filled words of damnation against them, exposing them as hinderers of God's purposes?

"¹³ But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. ¹⁴ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. ¹⁵ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. ¹⁶ Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! ¹⁷ Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? ¹⁸ And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. ¹⁹ Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? ²⁰ Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. ²¹ And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. ²² And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. ²³ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. ²⁴ Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. ²⁵ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. ²⁶ Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. ²⁷ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. ²⁹ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, ³⁰ And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. ³¹ Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. ³² Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. ³³ Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? ³⁴ Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: ³⁵ That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. ³⁷ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! ³⁸ Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." (Matthew 23:13-38)

A spiritual principle prevalent throughout all of Scripture is the "point of no return" principle, and anyone who refuses to recognise that principle is ensuring his or her own spiritual demise, preventing him or herself reaching God's Promise. As we have shared before, Scripture clearly speaks of a special type of sin, a "sin unto death":

"¹⁶ If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. ¹⁷ All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death." (1 John 5:16-17)

Since all sin causes "death" (Romans 6:23), we can safely conclude that the "death" this passage refers to is a special type of "death". Otherwise, the statement "there is sin not unto death" in verse 17 would make no sense at all. This passage, therefore, is pointing to a "second death", i.e.- a death that goes beyond the "first death" that a person immediately experiences from sin. The Holy Spirit is therefore declaring that some sin attitudes can take you into a "second death" from which there is no return, i.e.- a point after which any effort by others to restore the "sinning" person is utterly futile.

When Saul had the kingdom snatched away from him, there was nothing that Samuel or anyone else could do. Saul had had ample time to repent, ample time to absorb God's corrective judgements and turn his heart in a different direction, but he chose to "keep on going" down the wrong path, and he had become so entrenched in that path that, even after God cast him off, all that he could think about were the temporal consequences of God's rejection. The Lord God of Israel, the reason for His very existence, had just declared him "persona non grata" in His presence, and all that he could think about was how that rejection might affect his "poll numbers":

"²² And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. ²³ For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. ²⁴ And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. ²⁵ Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD. ²⁶ And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. ²⁷ And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. ²⁸ And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. ²⁹ And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. ³⁰ Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God." (1 Samuel 15:22-30)

[Notice how Saul says, "that I may worship the Lord thy God" (v30). The God of Israel was no longer his God, but that was inconsequential to him as long as he could keep the people thinking that God was on "his" side.]

As we have studied before, when we are to place a person under judgement, our main motivation must be to destroy the unrighteousness in their hearts that is preventing them manifesting the God-potential within them. As the unrighteous person responds to the judgement and the fruit of repentance is produced, the intensity of the judgement can be decreased and God's peace and kingship can abound. If the person hardens his or her heart, the judgement must intensify, after which the person will have to choose between surrendering the unrighteousness and dying along with it. If the person chooses death, then he or she is to be cursed unto death by those in the Spirit. This cursing unto death can apply either to a specific part of the person's eternal calling or to the person's entire being, depending on the circumstances. In other words, the person can either suffer a partial "hurt of the second death" within him or become fully immersed in it.

"¹ It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. ² And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. ³ For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, ⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵ To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? ⁷ Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:1-7)

"⁸ For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. ⁹ Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. ¹⁰ For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. ¹¹ For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter." (2 Corinthians 7:8-11)

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." (Revelation 2:11)

"⁶ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." (Revelation 20:6)

"⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? ⁸ But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. ¹² Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; ¹³ And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. ¹⁴ Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: ¹⁵ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; ¹⁶ Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. ¹⁷ For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." (Hebrews 12:7-17)

In a sense, you can visualise the dynamics of judgement and cursing unrighteousness in terms of the following scenario: Imagine a wild animal such as a hyena that has been adopted as a pet by a person called "Krüger" living in a remote, small town that has no official police system (due to the town's small size and remoteness). Those "thinking straight" in the town realise the danger that the hyena poses, and they become offended by Krüger's irresponsible behaviour in adopting such a vicious and treacherous animal as a pet. They know that the pet can end Krüger's life at any moment, as well as ending the lives of many people around him. However, since Krüger refuses to kill the hyena, defending it instead, those in righteousness are forced to attack and isolate him as they endeavour to attack and isolate the hyena. As Krüger becomes more and more violent in defending the hyena, shooting and even killing those who are attacking it, and, as the hyena starts killing more and more people in the area, the point will come when those in righteousness will be forced to kill Krüger in order to kill the animal. They would have the option of simply waiting for the hyena to eventually kill Krüger "one of these days", but, if they do, they will have to watch more and more people being killed by the hyena until that happens. By fighting the hyena and its host from the very beginning, those in righteousness are actually enabling the possibility of Krüger eventually acquiescing and surrendering the hyena to be killed, thus sparing Krüger's very life and the lives of many people around him. By doing nothing and not cursing the hyena, those in righteousness would ironically be condemning Krüger to a meaningless life and to certain death. By refusing to curse Krüger unto destruction if he refuses to yield under the pressure of the judgements against him, those in righteousness would also be condemning many around Krüger to the same fate. Mind you, this imaginary scenario assumes that there is no way of truly ending the threat of the hyena's presence without Krüger's consent, in much the same way that an evil spirit cannot truly be defeated unless the heart of the spirit's host loses its soul attachment to it. In that sense, we can say that, even if the hyena could be killed without the person's consent, Krüger would simply go and get more hyenas to replace the one forcibly taken from him, making the problem worse (Luke 11:24-26).

"¹⁸ For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. ¹⁹ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. ²⁰ For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." (2 Peter 2:18-20)

Another way of visualising the dynamics of judgement and cursing is in terms of the following imaginary scenario: Consider a situation in which someone near you acquires a book filled with profanities against God, reading them out loud to everyone within earshot and encouraging everyone to join him in rejoicing over the obscene and blasphemous words he is reading. Those with the zeal of God's righteousness will be unable to remain idle as they watch God openly being mocked before all (Numbers 25:7-11, 2 Corinthians 7:7-11).

"And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Samuel 17:26)

Therefore, those with the zeal of God's righteousness will be quick to pronounce a curse of destruction on the book. Obviously, there is no point in hoping for the book to "repent", meaning that any judgement other than a "curse unto destruction" would be nonsensical for the book. Once that curse is decreed by a human being on Earth imbued with God's zeal for righteousness, a dark cloud of death and judgement will begin to hover over the book. Wherever the book goes, the cloud will follow, and those who stand close to the book will come under the influence of that cloud. Those with "redeemability" in their heart will somehow perceive the cloud of judgement and feel compelled to move away from the book. Those who choose to remain near the book (whether because they ignored the warning they perceived or because they are simply too hardened to care) will begin to experience the consequences of God's judgements in their lives; these consequences may be manifested in the form of disease, financial troubles, disarray in social and family relationships, etc., and the intensity of these consequences will be directly proportional to both the time they willingly remain under the cloud of judgement over the book and the enthusiasm with which they embraced the book's words. Thus, we can say that the cloud of judgement hanging over the book acts as a warning system, as an opportunity for repentance for all those who may be susceptible to the book's unrighteous words. Those who are impervious to the "warning rains" issued from the cloud shall become more and more attached to the book, and, as they do, they shall begin to share in the book's curse. Whilst under the proactive curse of God's people, the book becomes like a "time bomb"; the curse initiates the bomb's countdown, and those who ignore the ticking of the bomb's clock and who therefore remain close to the bomb shall perish along with the book when the bomb finally blows up. The longer they remain around the bomb, the more they will share in its destruction, in the same way that a person suffers greater harm the longer he or she stays around a very radioactive rock; and there is a point of no return beyond which the person goes from being "judged" by the radioactive cloud to being "cursed" by it, as when a cancer metastasises and no amount of "tumour cutting" can save the person's life.

Like a child who clasps his ears and starts humming, there may be some souls who, despite reading all of the above, will still cling to the "we-do-not-curse-people" rule by repeating the following passage in their minds like a mantra whose words they know but whose meaning they ignore:

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12)
 

To the natural mind, this passage seems to be certifying that we are never to battle against the wills of people but against spirits. I encourage you, however, to read the entire chapter of Ephesians 6 and evaluate whether the Holy Spirit's words in the chapter are consistent with a person trying to espouse the "we-do-not-curse-people" message. If you read through the chapter, you will realise that the message has nothing to do with the debate over whether we are to deal with spirits alone, without any consideration for their "human hosts". The best way, therefore, to truly understand the verse above is by discerning what the Lord meant by the phrase "flesh and blood". As we have shared before, the best way to understand a "new language" is by studying how the "native speakers" of that language use its words and phrases. Thus, it is imperative to consider how the Lord uses the phrase "flesh and blood" in other passages of Scripture in order to understand what this phrase means in the language of the Spirit.

The words "flesh" and "blood" in Ephesians 6:12 above were translated from the Greek words sarx and haima respectively. The Lord only uses the phrase "flesh and blood" (using sarx and haima) in 5 New Testament verses, one of them being the following:

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." (1 Corinthians 15:50)

If we were to assume that "flesh and blood" means "humans" as opposed to "spirits", we would have to conclude that humans will not inherit the kingdom of God and that only non-human spirit beings will inherit it. This would not only contradict other passages of Scripture that clearly indicate that the kingdom of God is intended for humans, but it would also render the entire Gospel message sad and meaningless, since it would relegate humans to secondary relevance in God's future plans. Therefore, we can safely conclude that the phrase "flesh and blood" is not intended to mean "humans" as opposed to "spirits".

To get a better understanding of the phrase "flesh and blood", we must consider other passages that use the phrase. The first time this phrase appears in the New Testament is in verse 17 of the following passage:

"¹³ When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? ¹⁴ And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. ¹⁵ He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? ¹⁶ And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. ¹⁷ And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ²⁰ Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." (Matthew 16:13-20)
 

Notice that Jesus very clearly indicates that the Kingdom of Heaven is intended for men (v19), which once again certifies that the phrase "flesh and blood" in 1 Corinthians 15:50 does not refer to "men" as opposed to "spirits". Notice also that the emphasis of this passage is on natural versus spiritual perception. Jesus was asking the disciples what people were perceiving about Him, and, even though all the answers that they gave had some element of truth to them, they all fell short of Yeshua's true and full nature. That is when Jesus asked the disciples what they perceived, and that is when Peter declared that Yeshua was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God (v16). Peter was able to perceive this because he was willing to step outside the bounds of natural man in order to perceive something that was beyond the reach of religious man's understanding. When people were saying that Jesus was "Elijah", they were saying so because of what they had been taught at the synagogue about Malachi 4:5-6, and, when they were saying that He was "Elijah", they were actually saying that Jesus was a literal reincarnation of the "raptured" Elijah (in much the same way that the foolish matriarchal Church of today believes that the literal, historical Elijah will come back as one of the "2 witnesses" mentioned in Revelation 11).

The fact that many people thought that Jesus was the literal reincarnation of Jeremiah reveals something about Jesus that the matriarchal Church is utterly unwilling to concede. If you read through the book of Jeremiah, you will see that he was a very conflictive man, a man burdened by God with words of harsh judgement against the people of Israel, so much so that he lived most of his life in constant persecution, rejection, and imprisonment. Therefore, the fact that the people who heard Jesus preach would see a "Jeremiah" in Him reveals that He was in no way the lovey-dovey, "let's-give-peace-a-chance" type of preacher that the effeminate Church makes Him out to be. This is evident enough from objectively reading through the 4 Gospels, but, as we said at the beginning, soul-centred people are so impermeable to the truth that they can get hit in the face by a hurricane-blown branch and still claim that the weather is calm (just because it makes them feel better to think so).

As stated on newworldencyclopedia.org, there were compelling reasons for the people of Yeshua's earthly-ministry days to think that Jesus was Jeremiah, the greatest one being the New-Covenant message that both Jeremiah and Yeshua heralded. Even so, they were unable to see how Yeshua was coming to rend the veil that could usher in a widespread manifestation of the New Covenant that Jeremiah spoke about. In short, the people of Yeshua's earthly-ministry days were analysing some of the literal words that Yeshua was speaking and using them to tie Jesus to Jeremiah, but all that their natural minds could do with this evidence was to conclude that Jesus was the historical Jeremiah reincarnate, and nothing more. In other words, their natural minds were unable to distinguish between the spirit of Jeremiah and the historical Jeremiah. As usual, the natural mind takes the few spiritual concepts that it can grab a hold of and pulls them down to the ground in order to make earthly sense of them.

The last verse in Scripture where the phrase "flesh and blood" appears is the following:

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14)

The word "children" was translated from the Greek word paidion, which literally means "young child, little boy or girl, infant". Therefore, it has the connotation of someone who has yet to mature. Thus, the Spirit is establishing a connection between the phrase "flesh and blood" and someone in an incomplete or immature state. By declaring that Jesus also partook of "flesh and blood", the Spirit is pointing to the maturation or perfection process that Jesus went through, as indicated in Hebrews 5:7-8 (despite popular belief, Jesus, though sinless, was born "imperfect", and He had to go through the entire human process in order to be "perfected" --- "perfection" and "sinlessness" are not synonyms). As shown by Scripture, man is to progress from the state of "living soul" to the state of "life-giving spirit" (Genesis 2:7, 1 Corinthians 15:45). This means that lack of maturity is equivalent to remaining in the "living-soul" state. Therefore, we can conclude from Hebrews 2:14 above that "flesh and blood" is equivalent to operating as a living soul without yet entering into the level of the spirit.

The remaining verse that mentions "flesh and blood" in the New Testament is verse 16 of the following passage:

"¹³ For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: ¹⁴ And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. ¹⁵ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, ¹⁶ To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: ¹⁷ Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. ¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days." (Galatians 1:13-18)

Notice how Paul speaks of transitioning from a state of earthly religiosity to "having the Son revealed in him" (v16). As Matthew 16:13-20 above shows, this revelation of the Son of God implies understanding that the Spirit nature of the Immortal God can dwell in the tabernacle of human flesh, and it is a revelation that cannot come from "flesh and blood". This is why Paul chose not to "confer" with "flesh and blood" to verify this revelation, for it is like asking a preschooler to validate your solution to a differential equation. The "revelation of the Son" is more than the traditional revelation of Jesus as "Saviour from hell"; it is the revelation that man is called to be a manifestation of God on Earth, and this is a revelation that "flesh and blood" can't even begin to comprehend. It is worth noting that the Holy Spirit prompted Paul to mention his meeting with Peter at the end of the passage above (v18), which emphasises the spiritual connection between this passage and the epiphany that Peter experienced in Matthew 16:13-20.

Besides the 5 verses that mention the phrase "flesh and blood", there are 5 other verses in the New Testament that include both the word "flesh" (sarx) and "blood" (haima); 4 of those verses appear together in John 6:

"⁵³ Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." (John 6:53-56)

Notice how Yeshua is speaking of things that sound totally nonsensical to the natural soul, so much so that the large crowd that had gathered around Him that day to make Him king went away in disgust after hearing these words. Therefore, it is clear that the Lord used these words regarding His "flesh" and His "blood" to "weed out" those who were following Him in their natural, earthly understanding and who could not transcend the realm of the soul and operate in the understanding of the Spirit. In a sense, the Lord was telling the crowd to absorb His "flesh and blood" in order to replace theirs. In their "flesh and blood", they were unable to have life inherently within them, according to verse 53, which points to 1 Corinthians 15:45.

"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45)

A living soul has life in it in the same way that a woman can have a baby growing inside of her; however, once the baby is out of her, that life is no longer inside of her, and she depends on a male impregnating her again in order to have another life on the inside. This means that a female does not have new life inherently within her; she can act as a host to it, but she cannot beget it. A male, by contrast, does have life inherently within him, and that life goes with him wherever he goes. Thus, when Yeshua declared to the crowd of John 6 that their "flesh and blood" did not have life inherently within them, He was calling them "living souls", and, by telling them to absorb His "flesh and blood", He was calling them to walk as "life-giving spirits" that would carry life within them and be able to give it out to others, just as He was able to by imparting His "flesh and blood" to others.

The last New Testament verse that includes both the words "flesh" (sarx) and "blood" (haima) is verse 13 of the following passage:

"¹³ For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: ¹⁴ How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:13-14)

Notice how this passage points to a transition from a "blood" that purifies "flesh" at the natural level (v13) to a "blood" that purifies "flesh" at a spiritual level (v14). The latter blood, the blood of Christ, is spiritual in nature, and it cleanses a spiritual "flesh", the conscience, from "dead works", i.e.- works that have no life inherently within them, so that we may serve the living God who has life inherently within Him.

From all of the above, we can safely conclude that the phrase "flesh and blood" in Ephesians 6:12 refers to an attitude that remains focused on a natural understanding of its surroundings and is unable to peer into the realm of the Spirit. In Scripture, the Lord divides the human body into 3 components: flesh, blood, and bones, each of which correlates with the 3 components of the human being: the body, the soul, and the spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The flesh correlates with the "body", since it is the most visible and "external" of the 3 components; the blood correlates with the "soul", since the "life of the flesh is in the blood", according to Leviticus 17:11 (the word "life" in that verse is translated from the Hebrew word nephesh, which literally means "soul"); and the bones correlate with the "spirit", since it is the most "hidden" of the 3 components, and it is also the one most capable of lasting beyond death, which correlates with the Spirit's eternity. Therefore, those who operate in the realm of "flesh and blood" are those who see the world in terms of the material (i.e.- the body) and in terms of temporal emotions and relationships (i.e.- the soul), but who cannot understand the spiritual components of the things behind what they see and feel. Thus, those who "wrestle against flesh and blood" are those in the Church who see Christianity's battle in terms of natural factors and who are utterly oblivious to the spiritual nature of the battle. These are the believers who think that, to spread Christianity, you must focus on "raising funds" and increasing "religious activism", and that the key to "conquering a nation for Jesus" involves becoming "politically active" so that more and more evangelicals may rise to positions of power in government and pass more and more legislation that is in alignment with "traditional Christian values". Their goal is to fill up their "Christian churches" and to have a majority of their country's population carrying Bibles and attending "church" on Sunday. Such are the people "wrestling against flesh and blood", fighting the battle with the 2 swords of material resources and cheerleader emotionalism (Luke 22:35-38), not with the Sword of the Spirit. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Paul goes on to speak of the Sword of the Spirit as the element that completes a true believer's armour a mere 5 verses after Ephesians 6:12.

In conclusion, when the Spirit of God declares that we are not "wrestling against flesh and blood" in Ephesians 6:12, He is warning against getting caught up in the natural realm and losing the spiritual dimension of the battle we are to engage in, but He is no way denying the role that human wills have to play in those spiritual issues, and He is no way stating that our battle will not involve battling against the human agents of those spiritual issues. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit would be contradicting Himself in passages such as 1 Corinthians 16:22, Hebrews 6:4-8, Luke 10:10-14, Romans 1:16-19, and Matthew 23:13-38, and the Bible as a whole would quickly degrade into a bunch of self-contradicting gibberish.

Instead of pointing us away from "judging" and "cursing", Ephesians 6 actually points us towards them, as shown by the verses that immediately follow Ephesians 6:13-14:

"¹³ Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; ¹⁵ And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (Ephesians 6:13-15)

The word "evil" in verse 13 was translated from the Greek word poneros, which, as we have shared before, goes beyond the more "common" understanding of what "evil" is; poneros, in its truest form, points to Girgashite earthliness, i.e.- to people who become caught up in the natural realm. Thus, you can be doing "evil" (poneros) works in God's eyes by performing a great deal of meaningless religious works, even if there is nothing seemingly "evil" about them. This certifies the fact that Ephesians 6 is intended as a warning against allowing satan and the evil spirits to cloud your spiritual understanding and leave you operating purely in the natural realm, in the realm of "flesh and blood".

Notice that, to avoid the trap of the natural realm, the passage above points to 3 elements:

1. Truth

   As we have shared before, Scripture reveals that truth and judgements are inextricably intertwined. As more and more truth is revealed, subtler and subtler falsehoods and incompleteness that are hiding behind "irrelevant" subtleties are exposed, meaning that judgement (i.e.- the sentencing of what is "good" or "bad") automatically increases as more truth is revealed.

    

2. Righteousness

   The word "righteousness" in verse 14 above was translated from the Greek word dikaiosyne, which can also be translated as "justice". There can be no true "justice" without true judgements; in other words, there can be no justice in any place where what is "bad" is called "good", "acceptable" or "perfect", and where what is "good" is called "bad". As long as evil is either ignored or enabled, and as long as true judgements are hindered, injustice will remain. True judgements, therefore, are essential for "justice" or "righteousness" to be wrought.

    

3. The Gospel of peace

   Once righteousness or "justice" has been wrought, true peace can reign. It is farcical and self-delusional to think that true peace can reign in an atmosphere riddled with injustice. God cannot be at peace with men whose hearts remain bent towards unrighteousness and where unrighteousness is calmly "tolerated".

    

   The fact that "peace" is connected to the "Gospel" in Ephesians 6:15 is because God's Gospel is a "Kingdom Gospel", i.e.- a Gospel that promotes the Kingship of God on Earth. As righteousness is established, the atmosphere is cleared for God to reign in peace as His judgements permeate the atmosphere (Psalm 105:7) unhindered by men bent on the unrighteous soul remaining queen. Thus, "peace" and "God's Kingship" cannot exist independently of each other.

    

   "⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." (Isaiah 9:6-7)

   [Notice how the Lord declares that the "zeal of the Lord of Hosts" shall carry this out. The reference to "zeal" points to God's zeal for righteousness (Numbers 25:11, Psalm 79:5, Psalm 119:139), and the reference to the Lord as the "Lord of hosts" points to God's warrior nature. God's peace cannot be wrought through men ruled by a lovey-dovey effeminate soul. The God of Israel can only forge His everlasting peace through men and women operating in the nature of His "male" Spirit. This is why the Lord declares that His Kingdom shall be established with "judgement" and with "justice" (v7), not with "evil-rationalising compassion" and "unconditional tolerance for all".]

    

Therefore, we can say that Ephesians 6:14-15 points to Isaiah 32:16-17:

"¹⁶ Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. ¹⁷ And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever." (Isaiah 32:16-17)

As we have studied before, Isaiah 32:15-17 reveals that, as the Spirit is manifested, judgements are unleashed, and, as judgements are unleashed, righteousness is wrought, and, as righteousness increases, peace can abound until it reigns and fills all in all. As long as the soul is allowed to reign, the Spirit cannot be manifested, and this peace-yielding process cannot commence. Therefore, it becomes evident from all of the above that Ephesians 6 is actually encouraging the issuing of Spirit-centric judgements, not discouraging it. If the phrase "flesh and blood" in Ephesians 6:12 had been intended to discourage judgement against the men who hinder truth, the Holy Spirit would have promoted wearing the "belt of mercy", the "breastplate of patient kindness", and the "shoes of readiness to help your fellow man".

The next 3 armour elements mentioned in Ephesians 6 are the following:

"¹⁶ Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:" (Ephesians 6:16-17)

[The word "word" near the end of verse 17 was translated from the Greek word logos]

The word "wicked" at the end of verse 16 is a mistranslation of the word poneros mentioned above. Therefore, the Lord is declaring that the "shield of faith" is to fend off all of the enemy's Hittite efforts to get us to believe that the spirit realm is a mere figment of our imagination so that we may descend to a natural understanding of reality. Through these "fiery darts", the enemy spirits will try to convince us that we are seeing "evil" where there is none and that we are "making a fuss" over things that we should simply learn to live with. This poneros effort is geared towards hindering the expansion of God's judgements throughout the spiritual atmosphere so that God's Spirit may not reign. This is why the next armour element mentioned by the Spirit is the "helmet of salvation". The "head" in Scripture points to Kingly Authority; therefore, the "helmet of salvation" refers to a believer whose heart is focused on spreading the Kingship of God on Earth. The fact that it is a helmet of "salvation" does not point to "salvation" in the sense that the matriarchal Church understands the word. Instead, it points to the following:

"⁵ The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. ⁶ And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure." (Isaiah 33:5-6)

Notice how true "salvation" thrives in an environment of "judgement and righteousness" (v5). Notice also how it leads to the "fear of the Lord" (v6). This contrasts with the matriarchal Church's belief that "salvation" is a "get-out-of-jail-free" card that liberates you from having to worry about God's judgements altogether.

The final armour element mentioned in Ephesians 6 is the "sword of the Spirit", and, as shown by Hebrews 4:12, the sword of the Spirit is to judge the hearts of men (as opposed to spirits). This therefore certifies even further that the phrase "flesh and blood" in Ephesians 6 is in no way a call to focus on "spirits" and disregard "men". On the contrary, it is a call to focus on a Spirit-centric releasing of judgements that confront the hearts of recalcitrant men bent on keeping the soul in control and the Spirit of God out of His rightful throne on Earth.

In the question that prompted this posting, the visitor also asks, "Don't we bless our enemies?". This question, however, contains a hidden element that betrays its true source, and that hidden element lies under the word "our". By using the word "our", the visitor soulishly personalised the battle against the men who hinder God's righteousness, reducing it to a conflict between people, which therefore turns the battle into a conflict between humans of "flesh and blood". If the judgements and cursing issuing from your mouth are merely a result of the personal damage and inconvenience done to you, you are not operating in the Spirit, you are operating in the soul. If you are angry because of what has been done to you per se and not by the callous unrighteousness in the other person's heart, your zeal is not an objective zeal for righteousness, which turns you into an enabler of soul-centredness on Earth rather than a destroyer of it. By contrast, if your anger is Spirit-centric, your anger will stem from the fact that the other person has chosen to act as God's enemy, not yours. Since that anger will be focused on what God thinks, your mind, emotions, and heart will be receptive to all the nuances of the other person's unrighteousness as the Lord God perceives them. You will be able to discern the level of the person's hardness, and God will calibrate the judgements issuing from your mouth according to that hardness; as this happens, you will not be "matriarchally" afraid to issue harsh judgements when the other person or persons merit it. You will understand when the problem in the other person's heart is fundamentally due to ignorance, in which case you will focus on teaching and correcting with much patience as the Lord leads you (2 Timothy 2:24-26), and you will also be able to discern when the root of the problem is one of outright stubbornness and wilful rebellion for which "gentle correction" and "patient instruction" will be an utter waste of time. This is when the judgements issuing from you will intensify, eventually reaching the point where you will be cursing unto destruction the recalcitrant human agent that remains bent on defying God and preventing God's righteousness being fulfilled. These judgements are spiritual in nature, meaning that the brunt of their effects will be unleashed from the invisible realm into the visible realm through the releasing of logos words from your mouth and into the spiritual atmosphere. This requires faith, and this is why the Holy Spirit speaks of the shield of faith that quenches the thoughts that will try to drag you back into a poneros understanding of the world; this is also why the Holy Spirit mentions the shield of faith one verse before mentioning the logos word of God in Ephesians 6:16-17.

"⁵ And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, ⁶ And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. ⁷ And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. ⁸ The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. ⁹ For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. ¹⁰ When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. ¹¹ And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ¹³ And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. ¹⁴ And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. ¹⁵ And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them." (Matthew 8:5-15)

[The word "word" in verse 8 was translated from the Greek word logos.

Even though a "matriarchal" may see this passage merely as another example of God's gooey love and healing compassion, there is an undercurrent of judgement running beneath what seems to be a passage on "compassionate healings":

1. For one, notice how Yeshua takes the opportunity to pronounce a word of harsh judgement against the literal "sons of Abraham", declaring that they shall be "cast out into outer darkness" where "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (v12). Does that sound like a Yeshua who was at that moment entranced under an "anointing" of "gooey and caring" desire to "heal all" and "end everyone's suffering"?

    

   In a sense, we can say that the exhibition of faith from a literal "non-Israelite" released a word of cursing from Yeshua against the literal "Israelites", meaning that the Roman centurion condemned many of the people around him through his faith, just as Noah did with the world of his day (Hebrews 11:7).

    

2. Second, the fact that the centurion requested a logos word from Yeshua means that he asked for judgement, for, as we have studied before, the logos of God is intrinsically laden with judgement of the hearts of men (Hebrews 4:12).

    

3. Third, what happens in the verses that follow Yeshua's encounter with the centurion reveals what actually happened in the spirit realm when Yeshua's word went out to the centurion's servant. In verse 14, the Holy Spirit speaks of Yeshua coming into Peter's house, touching Peter's mother-in-law in the hand, and the judgement "fire" (pyretos in the original Greek text) leaving her; after this, Peter's mother-in-law immediately arose to serve them (diakoneo in the original Greek). Why did Yeshua touch her hand? Why didn't He place His hand over her head, which is what most people praying over a "fever" would have instinctively done? The reason is that Yeshua was pointing out and judging the source of the woman's disease.

    

   As you may know, Scripture is somewhat "opposed", shall we say, to the idea of "mothers-in-law" living with the married couple (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7, Ephesians 5:31). One of the reasons for this is a sad truth that people have learnt for centuries the hard way: that mothers-in-law have a tendency to forget that, even though they are older than the couple, they are not the "masters" of the house; mothers-in-law also have a tendency to act as protective mothers over their son or daughter, placing a "pastoral shield" over him or her to protect their "little baby" from the "unfair" judgements of their "precious" baby's "evil" spouse. In other words, mothers-in-law have a general tendency to establish a pastoral matriarchy over the couple's home, replacing the husband as the "head of the household" and establishing the "female" soul as head over the "male" spirit. Whereas the "matriarchal" soul wants to be served by a subservient spirit, God's design is for the "female" soul to serve the "male" spirit, and in doing so, the "female" soul is blessed, edified, perfected, and made One with the "male" Spirit of God in blissful matrimony. Therefore, we can conclude that, what was happening in Peter's household was that his mother-in-law had taken over as "head", and, instead of adopting an attitude of serving Peter and his wife, showing gratitude towards them for allowing her to live with them, she was expecting them to serve her. This is why, as Peter's relationship with Yeshua grew, judgement "fire" began to fall upon her through Peter as Yeshua's logos began to burn daily into Peter's heart, to the point that she became ill with fever. In Scripture, the "hand" is often a figure of "service" and "ministering unto others". Thus, when Yeshua touched her hand, He was pointing out the root of her disease: she had forgotten to serve and had established a matriarchy over Peter's household. As the judgement medicine ran its course through the heart, she opened up to the truth and repented. That is when Yeshua came, touched her hand, and, in essence, said to her, "your heart has been restored, for you have finally learnt to serve again; get up, so that your body may reflect what has just happened in your heart". This is why she immediately got up and began to serve everyone in that household (v15).

    

   Why, then, would the Holy Spirit "digress" to speak of Peter's mother-in-law "out of no where" immediately after speaking of the centurion and his servant? Because He wanted to illustrate what had happened when God's invisible logos arrived in the centurion's home. The word "servant" used to refer to the centurion's servant in verses 6 and 8 was translated from the Greek word pais, which can also be translated as "child" or "infant", and is in fact translated as such 7 times in the King James version (out of the 24 times it appears in the New Testament). Interestingly enough, this word is applied to Jesus twice (Acts 3:13, 3:16) when referring to Him as the "Son", and is used by Jesus when telling a father that "his son lives" (John 4:51). Therefore, we can infer that the centurion saw the sick servant as more than "part of the help"; he saw him as a member of the family and a son. This is evidenced by the fact that he took the time to go find Jesus so that Jesus could heal him. Being so well treated, the servant forgot his calling to serve, and he began to expect to be served. Instead of being up and about serving, the young man had become "static", lying around like a lazy, sloppy son "on the couch all day". This is why God struck him down with a paralysing disease to expose what had happened in his heart (the phrase "sick of the palsy" in verse 6 was translated from the Greek word paralutikos). Since the young man had turned "Hivite", thinking that the world was created to serve him, God afflicted him with "grievous torment" to compensate for his search for Hivite delight. The door for this judgement on the young man was opened through the centurion's righteous heart. As the words that he spoke to Yeshua clearly bear out, the centurion was not a Canaanite condoner of Hivite hedonistic laziness; he understood that, under "his roof" (v8), a servant was supposed to put into practice (poieo) something when he was given the logos to do so. It is as he began to reconcile his heart with this basic truth that the path was opened for his oft-pampered servant to be healed, both spiritually and physically. Based on the words that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to write in verse 15, we can safely assume that, once the servant was healed, he got up to serve as well.

    

   Yeshua's visitation of Peter's house was a physical portrayal of the invisible logos' visitation of the centurion's house. Just as the invisible logos arrived in the centurion's house to deal with the non-serving servant, the logos made flesh arrived in Peter's house to deal with the non-serving mother-in-law.

    

The fact that all of the above happened when Yeshua entered the region of Capernaum (v5) is no "coincidence". As we have shared before, Capernaum speaks of the pastoral-matriarchy roof that the enemy has placed over the Earth, and it speaks of regions that are "cursed unto destruction" for allowing that roof to perennially remain over them. As the logos in the flesh (i.e.- Yeshua) walked towards and into that region, the spiritual judgements that had been impeded by Capernaum's matriarchal covering began to be released, and issues that had been allowed to fester "forever" were promptly dealt with. This release of judgements was enabled by the few people in that region who were receptive to them, people like the centurion, who apparently had a different attitude from the rest of the people in Capernaum because he was foreign to that culture, both literally and figuratively.]

Even after all of the above, a matriarchal soul may want to dismissively retort that the Bible calls us to "bless our enemies", as if that was enough to nullify everything we have detailed so far. However, even if we grant the (false) point that we have been talking about "our enemies", we must explain to the matriarchal that the word "bless" is not necessarily what he or she interprets it to mean. As we have studied in detail before, Scripture clearly reveals that the deepest and most transformative "blessings" from God are the ones that are capable of sending you through death and hell. A blessing in the Spirit goes way beyond granting banal wishes in the earthly realm, for God is not a "genie in a bottle" that has come to fulfil every one of your heart's desires. It is ironic that even Christina Aguilera knows that "there is a price you have to pay" if you want a "genie in a bottle" to grant you a wish, which contrasts with the "Christian" Church's way of perceiving God as a "freebies-giving satan claus". When God wants to bless someone, He thinks about that person's eternal inheritance, meaning that He will be willing to place that person through harsh judgements if that is what is needed to prevent that person not reaching that eternal inheritance. Therefore, if you truly want to "bless" someone, you must be willing to place that person through the judgement process required for that person to be perfected in the Spirit. Thus, when Scripture speaks of "blessing our enemies", He is calling us to long for those around us to complete their calling, even if they have set themselves up against us on a personal level, and we must also be willing to make ourselves available before God if He requires someone to make a deep sacrifice on those enemies' behalf. This in no way means that we are to be all "nice and gooey" with our enemies at all times, for, if we behave like that, we could actually be cursing our enemies' eternal inheritance, the way a mother can unwittingly send her son's future to hell by pampering him with "mercy" and shielding him from the necessary judgement:

"¹³ Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. ¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13-14)

In short, a person who is blessing in the Spirit will be willing to send the "blessee" through hell on Earth so that he may not end up with his inheritance in hell forever (it is better to go through hell than to go to hell). When we are called to bless our enemies, God is calling us to bypass the natural, soulish predisposition to see their eternal calling perish. Even as our enemies do us harm, we must endeavour to rescue their eternal promise from destruction, which will mean that we must be willing to put them through God's judgement process. If we perceive in the Spirit that that enemy is beyond redemption, we must be willing to curse him unto destruction, not only out of our zeal for righteousness, but to save those who may be around that person from further contamination so that their eternal promise may not be destroyed as well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you cannot consider yourself a person in the Spirit unless you are willing to be overjoyed over the destruction of all the agents of unrighteousness (Revelation 19:1-4, Malachi 4:1-4, Isaiah 63:1-3). You cannot claim to be a son or daughter of God the Father if you are unwilling to curse the unrighteous unto destruction; as a son or daughter of God, you will know that the destruction you decree over others can be either "voluntary" or "involuntary"; if the unrighteous person wilfully yields to the judgement pressure that your logos has placed upon him, the "evil man" within him will be destroyed and a new righteous person will be born; if the unrighteous person prefers to "go down swinging", he shall be destroyed by your cursing, with no new righteous person being harvested from your judgement words; even so, peace will be achieved and the contamination terminated.

If your only motivation for anger against a person is because they are your personal enemy and not God's enemy, you are viewing the world from a soul-centred perspective, and not the perspective of the Spirit. If you cannot see how cursing something or someone unto destruction can actually redeem others and glorify God, you are a long ways away from being an agent of God's purposes on Earth. If you are unable to see the compatibility between being an agent of God's glory and being an agent of God's judgements and destruction on Earth, you are not fit for battle in God's Spirit Kingdom. If you are unable to distinguish between carnal cursing and cursing in the Spirit, you are still an immature believer operating in the soul. If you are unable to understand how you can love your enemies and make profound sacrifices on their behalf, whilst still cursing the irremediably unrighteous, you remain with the spiritual understanding of a young child and will be unable to make the transcendent sacrifices that God will call you to make, for, in defending the soul paradigm of unrighteous mercy, you are proving yourself unable to let go of the deeply entrenched things that are dear to your soul but unpleasant to God's Spirit (this is why the Holy Spirit speaks of letting go and allowing the "dead to bury the dead" a few verses after the passage of Matthew 8:5-17 studied above).

If, after all of the above, you are still convinced that Christians should not "curse people", there is no point in you ever visiting this website any longer, for that principle is permeated throughout this entire site. Ironically, those who abhor the concept of "cursing people" are always the first to curse unto oblivion anyone who promotes such an idea, for, in relegating someone to the valley of the forgotten because you deem his or her thoughts deplorable, you have, without knowing it, already cursed that person in your heart.

Let him who has ears hear from the Spirit how the passage below certifies everything above:

"⁷ Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! ⁸ Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. ⁹ And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. ¹⁰ Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. ¹¹ For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. ¹² How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? ¹³ And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. ¹⁴ Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. ¹⁵ Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. ¹⁶ But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. ¹⁷ And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. ¹⁸ Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹ Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:7-20)