entrance into the world, the church, and even our own lives. The original gate of hell was in the garden. He gained access to the world by convincing the man and woman, who had been given authority over the world, to believe his lies. Once man listened to the devil, because the devil was “a murderer from the
beginning” (see John 8:44), it was inevitable for man to become a murderer. The lie that he used to lead
to the release of murder was envy, or jealousy.
Cain allowed the jealousy he felt toward his brother’s acceptance by the Lord to drive him to an even worse sin, murder. Jealousy, or envy, is still found as a root cause of murder in the world. We are even told that Jesus was crucified because of envy (see Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10), and the persecutions that rose against the apostles and early church were because of jealousy (see Acts 5:17; 13:45).
How will the church be used to shut this door of hell which can lead even to murder? First, we will not have authority over the devil in others if he has a root in our own lives. Jealousy can ultimately lead to murder, but it is also the root of many seemingly lesser, but destructive sins. As we read before in James 3:16, jealousy is usually linked to selfish ambition. The result will be disorder, or division, and can be the opening to “every evil thing.”
Jealousy is almost always found to be the true root of divisions within the body of Christ today. Men will usually try to justify their actions by claiming that their reasons are something else, but the real root is usually jealousy. It can rise in the heart of any of us. If it does and we do not repent of it, jealousy can destroy the work of Christ, or will at least do it damage. Even so, in the end the church will prevail
against this terrible gate of hell. How? Love is the truth that will ultimately overcome jealousy. We are told in I Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails….
Jealousy divided the first two brothers, but love will ultimately unite those who are in Christ, so no evil will be able to stand against them. We are told that “the gates of hell will not prevail against the church,” singular (see Matthew 16:18). When we are united, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. When we are divided, they will. But love will ultimately prevail, and before the end there will be a church that stands together in unity because they love one another. Let us determine in our hearts right now that we are going to be controlled by love, not envy. If we do this we cannot fail because “Love never fails.”
Day 43- The Curse from the Ground
Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?”
And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.
“And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
“When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you; you shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth” (Genesis 4:9-12).
Curses release the powers of evil against us. Because the devil was “a murderer from the
beginning” (see John 8:44), few things can release his evil powers like the shedding of innocent blood.
Here we see that Cain was “cursed from the ground” because he murdered his brother. The very earth itself curses man today in many regions because of the innocent blood that has been shed upon it. Therefore, many revivals and moves of God could not be released in these regions until there was repentance for the sins that had been committed in those places by previous generations.
Why would the curse brought on by one generation get passed on to the next? Because every time there is sin, there is a wound that is inflicted upon the glorious harmony that was originally established in the creation. For wounds to be healed they must be disinfected and closed, which is true throughout the creation. For the consequences of sin to be removed, there must be repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. A good biblical example of this is found in II Samuel 21:1:
Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the presence of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
King David’s administration suffered a famine for a sin that his predecessor had committed. The curse did not come upon David’s administration to punish him, but because the ground was cursed. When the curse became evident, David made restitution to those who had been wounded by Saul’s sin so that the curse could be removed. Thus, we find righteous men in Scripture such as Daniel and Nehemiah asking forgiveness for the sins of their fathers. The reason that the sins of the fathers are passed on to following generations is not to punish the children for what the previous generations did, but to remove the curse and bring repentance and restoration. Curses upon regions are to alert the righteous that the healing of a spiritual wound in that region is needed.
King David lived under the law, so the only way the curse could be removed because of Saul’s sin was to let the Gibeonites have revenge on Saul’s house. Under the law it was an “eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth” (see Exodus 21:24). However, we are no longer under the law. The curse is now
removed by the cross of Jesus.
Even so, there must be an acknowledgment of sin, and repentance for the cross to be applied. For there to be repentance, there must be an identification with the sinner, or credentials for repentance. It required the king of Israel to repent for the sins of the previous king. Likewise, only a white man can repent of the sins of white men against blacks. Only a Baptist could repent for the sins of the Baptists, or a Charismatic for the sins of the Charismatics.