Blessing Or Curse?

In 1993, God spoke to us about a car dealership in our local town, Aylesbury. He told our son to go and tell them they needed God in their lives, and to offer them one of our booklets, God's Great Genius.

Richard also had to tell them that God had said He would give us a red BMW 325i estate car for use in our ministry, and that it would be donated by a garage. Of course, the garage staff, being suspicious about our motives, jumped to the conclusion that this was a clever ruse to try and get a free car out of them – which it was not.

Anyway, Richard did what he was told, even though the unique experience was not pleasant, or what he wanted to do, humanly. His words were regarded as a joke by the garage staff, and he was rebuffed as some sort of fanatic.

But God was not joking. God is no fanatic. He cares deeply about humans and their problems. And, even though people don't like Him invading their space, He tries to warn us all about our ways which are self-destructive.

If we choose to go our own way, we reap the harvest of that way we have sown – in one word, cursing! But if we determine to go upstream, and choose God's way, there is a harvest of good awaiting us – blessing!

The first way is the natural way; the second way is not natural. The principle is a living law of cause and effect. It operates in the world and it operates in the Church. Every human is subject to it in one way or another.

I was reminded of this principle one day when I drove past the garage where Richard had witnessed eight years ago. It was still closed![1]

I recalled some of the curses of the devil and his demons, like voodoo spells. These are very real! They are not mere 'hocus pocus'. If you go to Haiti and see the effect of voodoo curses, you will know they are not silly antics! They muster real spiritual forces that devastate human lives – even to the point of death!

God is far greater than any number of demons, and when people defy Him, they pay the price by bringing a curse upon themselves. He wants to bless, but He can only do so when we go the way He prescribes. The choice is ours.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7).

The premises of the former BMW dealership in Tiring Road, Aylesbury,

which was forced to close 13 months after they mocked God's warnings.

The premises of the former BMW dealership in Tring Road, Aylesbury, which was forced to closed 13 months after they mocked God's warnings.

I have only ever pronounced a curse on other people once in my life. It was upon 'our' former church, who threw our family out of their company without legitimate grounds, trumped up false charges against us, blackened our character, and criticised and ridiculed what we said under the anointing of God. While we sought to obey God unequivocally, they did not.

On one occasion many years ago now, God spoke to us to go to their headquarters offices to talk to a certain minister in their employ. So, we went there and asked to speak to this church leader. We were fobbed off by the doorman with excuses and lies. He told us that the man we sought to speak to was not there (but his car was in the car park). He claimed that there was no one representing the church, in the building, to talk to us. Yet, there were lights on in their offices upstairs, the blinds were partially drawn, and you could see some movement. There were people there! But, no one wanted anything to do with us, or to even speak with us!

Suddenly, a great anger welled up within me and as I stood in that car park, I pronounced a curse upon their organisation. That church was cursed from that day on! And it has paid dearly for their rejection of those whom God sent to them. It has lost truth, lost God's love, and lost lives!

Of course, it is not the pronouncing of words by themselves that brings a curse. Actions are the substance behind words. Words merely confirm or back up what is already taking place in the spirit realm.

The words I uttered in that car park remind me to this day of the very real judgements of God. These punishments come upon people when they step back from obeying Him or deny Him in some way.

Jesus warned the first disciples about this. He said that whenever anyone listens to, and heeds, the words of one whom God sends, he will benefit from what is said. But if he does not listen, he will pay the price for his folly. This principle is recorded in Matthew 10:40-42 and Luke 10:16.

This principle undergirds prophetic ministry. The trouble with people is that they don't take it seriously. I'm not just talking about the world. I'm talking about the Church. Believers don't soberly consider that prophets of God are given things for them. And when this occurs, if they dismiss the input, they dismiss God. They shut the door in His face. Jesus stands on the other side of the door, but how long He will continue knocking is a dangerously unknown entity.

We have seen this so often in our work. God brings people across our path. He speaks to us in dreams and visions (sometimes also through prophetic words) for them. We tell them the revelations, but they usually dismiss them as of no consequence or of little relevance to them. Why? Because they are self-willed.

This is especially true of those who may have received dreams themselves (and who doesn't, when God has shown them that He will speak to them via this avenue?). They think, "I don't need to listen to this guy. He may be a prophet, but so what? I can get what I need from God direct, without having to listen to him."

The psychology behind this response is grounded in pride. Some people want pre-eminence or think they ARE pre-eminent, so they don't care what others receive, whether it is for them or not. They are the masters of their own destiny – or so they think. But they are in for a mighty rude awakening.... if they ever do wake up!

When God speaks, He does not waste His words. So, we must take great note of all that He says. He speaks cryptically and the imagery or words He chooses generally take some figuring out. They are not always immediately understandable. The more we are willing to submit to Him and obey Him, the more sense we will make of what He is saying.

God's prophetic pronouncements are lost on those who are not walking in His will. Their self-will and disobedience causes blindness.

And those who are turning away from Him will lose what they have already, if, when a prophet comes with a revelation from God, they dismiss it. God comes again into their lives through this avenue of another person, to try to wake them up, to help them move on. But when they reject His prompts, they even lose what they had previously.

Therefore, take heed how you hear, For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him (Luke 8:18).

When believers reject prophetic input, they retrogress spiritually. They lose spiritual insight. Their lives become empty. They find that God leaves them to their own devices, more and more influenced by demons.

This is the curse. There is only one way to defeat it, and that is to do the will of God.

The principle has been written in black and white for millennia. Yahweh (God) told it to Israel:

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord [Yahweh] your God, to observe carefully all His command- ments... that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God... (Deut 28:1,2).

But, God knew what is in the human heart, so the way Israel went is the way all humanity has gone. He predicted their downfall through Moses:

For I know that after my death, you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days [our time now], because you will do evil.. (Deut 31:29).

The closure of the car dealership is a type of the foreclosure of Britain. When a nation goes its own way, it eventually reaps the fruit of that way.

When God spoke to me and told me that the closure of the garage was a type of the foreclosure of the nation, I didn't know what He meant.

I looked up the word in a dictionary. The word 'foreclose' means to 'bar, preclude, prevent, shut out from enjoyment (of)...' (Concise Oxford Dictionary).

National skirmishes like the Falklands War are now a thing of the past. Britain will have no further national successes of this nature. Her moral or spiritual defeat will automatically lead to her national and material defeat.

While the nation is now morally bankrupt, it is only a few steps away from financial bankruptcy. The government is abysmally unaware of the working of spiritual principles behind its success or failure. It looks merely at fiscal policies. But fiscal policies cannot save it from the curse of disobedience to God.

The now infamous London Millennium dome, which the British government commissioned to celebrate the new millennium, was hailed by them as a symbol of a new, brighter Britain. But it failed to meet expectations and proved to be a massive commercial flop. It closed a year later, after staking up huge losses.

All that is built on the shifting sands of human achievement, without God, will come crashing down one day. And that day is not far away for this country.

When any people forget God, throw out the morality which should govern their behaviour, and become utterly corrupt, they are finished!

I was working in our garden recently, cutting hedges, when my thoughts suddenly gravitated to some of the awful things going on in this nation. God was wanting to speak to me about this, so that others can take heed.

Then He dropped certain words into my mind. They were these: vulgar, bawdy, and indecent. He gave me a mental picture together with these words, and I noted what He said:

What is vulgar, bawdy, lewd, crass, crude, indecent and seductive in society is now accepted, promoted and even commended! This is a spiritual atrocity. And the society that promotes this spiritual reversal is doomed to fail.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Is 5:20.)

The cheapness and vulgarity of 'comedy', the tackiness of much of 'entertainment', and the crudity prevalent in British society are only the tip of the immoral iceberg. TV channels promote sexual perversion and degradation with impudence and brazenness, as if the basest elements of society have a right to openly exploit and indulge every form of vileness and filth. And the undiluted folly of the liberalism of our times justifies this 'right'. The result is a tarnishing of everything that is sacred, and the dehumanising of whoever is respectable.

These satanic individuals are dragging down many formerly decent members of society into the pit of promiscuity and vice. The rotten apples in the basket are corrupting the others. The contagion is spreading rapidly.

One sin, when tolerated, breeds another. It happened before in Israel; it is happening today in all lands. Israel is the example for all:

Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward.... You will revolt more and more... (Is 1:4,5).

You see this revolt in fashion, in the arts and entertainment. Trends have become revolting and ever more depraved as time goes on!

I will turn My hand against you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and take away all your alloy (Is 1:25). The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed (Is 1:28). The strong shall be as tinder, and the work of it as a spark; both will burn together, and no one shall quench them (Is 1:31).

This is the destruction facing this country. Britain is headed for takeover by the European Union. She has sold herself to foreigners. She has lost her common sense because of the prevalence of sin. It has stolen her reason and her values. There is no way back without humbly, obediently, turning to God! Malcolm B Heap

I am writing this in mid-August (2001). Yesterday, I took some time to have a look at some magazines that had come in from other ministries. But as I did so, I felt down. I didn't know why. I thought it might just 'be me'.

After ten minutes I began to feel even more 'edgy'. I was taking a look at Proclamation, the magazine put out by Derek Prince Ministries (DPM). It seems to be targeted mainly at young people.

But as I sat there, I felt less and less in the mood to read what lay before me. I felt an irritation, an annoyance, even displeasure. At first, I didn't know what I was sensing, or why. Then, it came to me: I was sensing in the Spirit, the displeasure of God at what lay before me.

Readers who know what God gave us to pass on to DPM are aware that they have rejected our input. (This is recounted in AA 5-3 under Paedophiles In The Church! That article is also included in Sunday Versus Sabbath – The Final World Crisis.)

Shortly after sending Derek Prince Ministries some of our literature on a couple of occasions, they instigated a policy of refusal to even accept literature and input from outside sources. They established a cast iron policy of returning it to the sender. I asked them how they would hear from God through prophets with that approach, but I suppose that letter also got binned.

On one occasion when I was writing another letter to Derek Prince hopeful of objective consideration, Jesus spoke to me with these words:

I continued writing the letter, and the number of words in it indicated beforehand that I would not receive a positive response.

At the time, I could see that DPM was institutionalising, but it has moved on (the wrong direction!) much further since. I notice that they have taken on large premises in Baldock, Hertfordshire, to provide the needed office space, and their ministry is expanding by leaps and bounds, which will make many people think it is growing with the blessing of God. But appearances can be deceptive.

I remember another time the Spirit of God spoke to me when I was writing God's Church – Whose Authority? He said that as church organisations grow, so do the satanic elements that infiltrate them. I have never forgotten that statement.

As I read Proclamation, I saw some astonishing comments by the office manager. They are very revealing. He wrote:

"Over the last four years, I have become increasingly convinced of two things: Firstly, through his books, tapes and videos, Derek has provided us with an incredible resource of clear, biblical and powerful teaching. Secondly, because of the tremendous changes taking place in our society, people need more help and support, in order to extract the maximum benefit from teaching such as Derek's."

That's all very true, but something is dreadfully wrong also. Do you perceive what it is?

The emphasis is on the man. It's not on what Jesus has done, on what Jesus has provided, but on what Derek has done, on what he has provided. I have a high regard for Derek Prince. His teaching is very good as far as it goes. But it needs to go further into accepting the entire faith once delivered to the saints.

I am not saying that his ministry is worse than any others. In fact, if you want to compare his output with that of other ministries, it is far and away better than multitudes of others. But that's not the point. Comparisons between one person and another, or one ministry and another are unhelpful and can even be divisive (1 Cor 1).

For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise (2 Cor 10:12).

Do you know what Paul was getting at? He was inferring that any human appraisal in matters to do with the promotion of heavenly values and teachings are futile and worthless. The ONLY ONE with whom we should compare or look up to is Jesus.

The Only One who can really commend any teaching is Jesus! And do you know how He does it? Through supernatural means: signs and wonders, dreams, visions, revelations, etc. Paul could 'boast' of plenty of those (2 Cor 12:1-7,11-12), but he didn't do so to elevate himself, because he knew himself to be nothing by comparison with Christ!

And so, God has given us many dreams and visions, prophetic words and miraculous signs – with more to follow soon, by raising the dead – that this work is not a work of Malcolm and Helena Heap, but of the living Jesus, who is behind us in what we write, where we go and to whom we take these things. (Some proof is given in What God Said About MM.) It's not a boast when we say that we act as prophets of the Almighty. It's within the limits of the sphere of God's appointment. Paul said:

We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God has appointed us (2 Cor 10:13).

I hope you can understand that what I have written is not to elevate us, but to elevate Jesus, His teachings, and to help the Church mature. I don't want people looking to Helena or me.

When the now famous early 20th century evangelist Smith Wigglesworth heard in his old age that people would not know what to do when he went, he wept. He even considered that his whole life had been wasted if he had not got across to people the fact that he was nothing and that Jesus was everything. If they did not look to Jesus at the end of his teaching them, he felt he had utterly failed!

To continue with what Mark Buchanan at DPM wrote. He stated that they intend to hold "seminars based on Derek's teaching."

There is a very subtle transition that has taken place. The man who founded the ministry has taken Jesus' place! This is blasphemous. Of course, it's not intentional. They don't deliberately intend to blaspheme or to put themselves in place of Christ before the people. But it occurs. And it happens all over the place in churches and ministries which have become well established. People lose sight of Jesus. He takes a secondary place behind the man who has inadvertently usurped His position in the Church. For DPM it began when they shut the door on the prophet(s) God sent them from outside.

Many ministries and believers forget that Jesus HAS (continuous sense) placed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in the Church for its edification and maturing. They are there until the body of Christ on earth reaches maturity (Eph 4:11-13). And it has not attained that yet.

If a ministry shuts the door on prophets, they shut it on Jesus who sends them. We have experienced this so often, it's most unusual when we find that someone listens to us or welcomes our input.

Just in case anyone might get the wrong impression by our claim to prophetic status, let me repeat: we are nothing! Don't look to us! Look to the words we bring. See and hear Jesus in those, but don't see and hear us. Look past the packaging to the package. I hope you know what I mean.

Let not anyone look up to us as if we were some humans above the level of others. We are not. Of and by ourselves, we are no better than any one of you reading this. It's the FUNCTION that we perform that is different, and because it is a prophetic function in the Church, that function (or office) is to be respected and heeded. If you heed a true prophet's words, you receive the One who moves him, and you receive the benefit of what he brings from God for you – the prophet's reward (Matt 10:41).

Unfortunately, DPM, like so many other ministries, did not. They shut the door on Jesus through the input He gave us for them. And they have begun to lose their way, as a result.

They are by no means the only ministry who have done this. I'll list a few others, just for the record. (They are 5 of over 100 we contacted.)

Between 1992 and 1994 we had contact with Morris Cerrullo's ministry, which has a huge worldwide outreach of multiple millions. We attended some of their meetings and worked with them for a while behind the scenes.... until we came up against a false minister promoting himself within their ranks. (And there are a number of them there!) We warned Morris Cerullo in writing of this debacle, and that if they didn't deal with the false minister problem within their ranks that they would meet their demise. That is now occurring.

This capable and erudite speaker trained many Christian leaders, preparing people to lead and minister. In the 1990s I presented him with some truths of which he was not aware, namely that of the Sabbath and holy days which are part of the faith once delivered (Jude 3,4). But he didn't want to know. I sent material to him on several occasions, until one day my wife received an irate phone call from his right hand man. He told her in no uncertain terms that he wanted these mailings ceased! We ceased, at their request, but soon afterwards so did Bob Gordon. He died.

He was a fairly prominent radio- and tele-evangelist in the USA from about 1965 to the 1990's. But, like his father Herbert W Armstrong, who founded the World Tomorrow programme and reached millions, he got too big for his boots. He never accepted the Holy Spirit into his life. In fact, he and his father spoke against the baptism in the Spirit and 'pentecostal' gifts. They ascribed them to the devil! But these men were of the devil in that assertion.

I wrote a 9 page letter to him on 28th February 1994, telling him of his need to imbibe the Holy Spirit and to accept believers of other Christian persuasions (he was a cultic exclusivist) and confronting him about his comments disclaiming that some other tele-evangelists have heard directly from God. He hadn't, so he assumed they could not have heard from God, either.

He dismissed my input. (It is customary for such high and mighty individuals from that background to completely ignore negative input. They would reject it as 'critical'.)

Some time later, he descended into gross sexual sin and was publicly exposed (in every sense of the word) and humiliated. He fell from his exalted position. Nine years later he died unexpectedly!

You will know that God does nothing before He reveals His intentions to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). When God moves a prophet to go to someone with a specific message, you can bet something's afoot! Judgement follows if those words are not heeded.

The number of words God had me write in that letter to him were 5497, which is 239 x 23. (The content of that letter is contained in Newsletter 15.) In biblical numerics, 23 is frequently used to denote hypocrisy. There is much hypocrisy among those who lead in churches.

Reinhard is probably highest on my list of evangelists. He's a fine servant of God in every sense. He's a wonderful man in many ways, totally different from the previous individual. But remember, comparisons can be unhelpful, because we are not to compare ourselves with one another, rather with Christ.

When Jesus has things on His agenda and we are ignoring those things, He raises up prophets to try to wake up others to what He wants them to take notice of.

I have had several dreams about Reinhard, to do with his work, and ours in relation to his. I have printed them in our newsletters, as well as sent them to his ministry base. But whether they reach him I don't know, because he's such a big wheel. And big wheels have a momentum that is hard to slow down. I am still hopeful of positive feedback from him.

More than 50 years ago, God prophesied via a lady in Germany that Reinhard (he was a very young boy at the time) would be the servant God would use to bring millions to Christ in Africa. She saw a vision of a blood-washed Africa, and a little boy who would be God's instrument for that purpose. Then she pointed to Reinhard and said that he was that boy in her vision!

Credit automatically goes to Reinhard for his 30 years of unstinting labour and sacrifice to achieve that goal. But, it doesn't mean that, at this juncture now, he has all that Jesus wants him to have.

The anomaly is that had he had what is now being made more widely available to the whole Church, he would not have been so widely acceptable to most churches, nor would he have been able to achieve what has been accomplished over the past three decades.

That is not to put a damper on the 'new' truths being presented now. It is just a fact of life that many people don't want them. To be more precise, about half the Church doesn't want them. But then, half of the virgins didn't want what Jesus wanted them to have, either (Matt 25). That parable is a warning to the Church now!

The Midnight Cry goes out. The prophets who have been appointed for this task are doing their job, but who's going to listen? I am confident that Reinhard will. But will most who read these words?

Like Reinhard, millions of believers know of Kenneth Hagin Sr. Jesus began a healing ministry through him from a young age. His ministry from Tulsa, Oklahoma also majored on the power of faith, with resultant gifts of the Spirit, miracles, healings, visions and dreams.

His teaching has spawned a radical movement that has been dubbed the Faith Movement, or more derogatorily as the Faith Cult or the Name-It-And-Claim-It People. While there is much value in his teaching in helping ritualists and legalists to move into a new sphere of faith, it is not complete, and it contains some serious errors.

A few years ago God gave me a clear dream about Kenneth Hagin. I wrote to him about it, and I give him credit for replying! I explained the dream, but when I told him what it meant, that Jesus was pointing out that some of his teaching was in need of revision because it contained error, he didn't want to know. That was where the correspondence ended.

On 7th August Helena was given this dream: She saw a person packing the toilet with thick steaks of meat and fish.

This is allegoric of how the Church cares little for the truth and for the real meat of the Word. Instead of living by the meat of God's Word, the Church has despised it and degraded it. It has treated it cheaply. This response is reflected by most we have tried to reach. Prophets are seldom received, especially in their home country.

As we met together for worship on 28th July 2001, we received the following prophetic words.

Many people come before Me, says the Lord, and they pray. But they have their own agenda. They have not My agenda, says the Lord. And they are seeking the things of themselves; they are seeking the things of the flesh; they are seeking to glorify themselves, or to establish what they have started. But I have not blessed their agenda, says the Lord, for I am here to bless what I have started, not to bless what man has begun.

That's a pretty shocking corrective word from God. We also received these words on 4th August:

There is little time, and the darkness comes over this world... the time is short. [God] will do a short work on the earth and cut it short in righteousness.

Too many are waiting for God while He is waiting for them. But He will not wait for long. He has His agenda, and what He has called us to promote should be accepted by the Church. But because many will not, He will cut His Work short in righteousness (Rom 9:28). & Malcolm B Heap

For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God (2 John 7-9).

This is a warning against letting false 'apostles' ruin you spiritually through wrong teaching, so that you forfeit your ultimate reward.

Take heed how you build on the foundation of Jesus Christ because at some stage your work will be tested by the 'fire' of God. If your workmanship is poor quality it will be burned up and you will suffer loss, although you may still be saved, but only through a fiery trial. You are the temple of God, and such a holy edifice should not be defiled. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him (1 Cor 3:10-17 paraphrased.)

Poor building involves acceptance of false doctrine, failure to utilise the power of the Holy Spirit, unwillingness to accept the full will of God in your life, laziness and apathy.

"You wicked and lazy servant, you should have used what I gave you, to gain in value. Take the valuables from him and give them to someone who will use them. For more will be given to everyone who uses My riches, but I will take them away from those who don't." (Matt 25:26-29, paraphrase. See also Matt 13:12.).

Five of them were wise, and five were foolish. The foolish virgins took their lamps and took no oil with them (Matt 25:2,3).

If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut if off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, and to be cast into the unquenchable fire (Matt 18:8).