Curse of Bitter Water
The image above of a dried-up water-hole with white alkali stains around the edges can be used to represent the bitter water of the curse. This represents something that can poison any believer (including Levites) and it can defile everything that they do.
Exodus 15:23 (CJB)
23 They arrived at Marah but couldn’t drink the water there, because it was bitter. This is why they called it Marah [bitterness].
The children of Israel could not drink the water when they arrived in the place which was later named Marah (meaning bitterness). This has great spiritual significance because if someone is poisoned by the bitter water of their past-life then this can poison everything they think and everything that they do and ruin every relationship that they have.
Exodus 15:24-25 (NIV)
24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
God revealed to Moses a piece of wood (which represents the cross of Calvary) where Jesus hung on the wooden cross to pay for the sins of the entire world and to redeem mankind from the curse (for whoever will call upon him by faith).
Galatians 3:13 (NIV)
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
The wood of a tree (representing the cross of Calvary) speaks of redemption from the bitterness of the curse. Adam brought a curse to the whole earth by his passivity in allowing his wife to assume leadership and following her and willfully eating the fruit after she had already done so herself. This passivity with sin and dropping his leadership as a man brought a curse to all humanity.
Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Adam was driven from the garden and separated from God’s presence and he had to labor by the sweat of his brow to produce a living. But his efforts were met with the production of thorns and thistles which represents everything that is cursed and bitter in life. Adam’s life was made bitter by the continual labor and sweat required to earn a living to feed himself and his family.
Bitter Water and Levites
Matthew 2:13 (HCSB)
13 After they were gone, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy Him.”
Joseph (the foster father of Jesus) was warned in a dream to take the infant child Jesus and his mother and flee to Egypt in order to escape the murder attempt of King Herod who would seek to destroy the child. King Herod was a natural human but he was inspired by satanic principalities to use his governmental authority to send soldiers to Bethlehem to seek the child Jesus for the purpose of destroying him. This was a satanic ploy to destroy the Messiah before he could grow to be a man and bring the kingdom of Satan into ruination.
In the same way, that Satan plotted against the child Jesus, it is also evident that Satan also plots against those men born with a gift of God as a Fivefold Minister.
Luke 4:33-36 (NIV)
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice,
34 “Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
35 “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!”
It is evident that the demons knew that Jesus was the Messiah and Jesus rebuked them and told them to be silent and come out. This shows that the demons do have some limited amount of understanding about spiritual things and can even recognize that Jesus was the Messiah. It seems that they can also recognize the calling and gift of God upon men born with a Fivefold Ministry Gift.
See the link “Fivefold Ministry Gifts” for more details.
Demons understand that these men born with ministry gifts are their greatest threat because they have the authority to wreak havoc with the devil’s kingdom on earth and to plunder the devil’s camp and take the unbelievers away from the devil and make them into faithful disciples of Christ.
It is for this reason that Satan typically targets Levite men from the youngest age and seeks to instill defects and damage and weakness within them for the purpose of negating their gifts before they grow up and become a threat to Satan’s kingdom.
Psalm 137:9 (CJB)
9 A blessing on anyone who seizes your babies and smashes them against a rock!
There is a spiritual principle evident here that a baby can grow up to become a giant so destroying them as infants is much easier than trying to destroy a full-grown giant later. Satan is also aware of the same principle and tries to apply it in evil manner to bring ruination upon those Fivefold Ministry Levites who pose a future threat to his kingdom of darkness.
Oftentimes Satan will find willing human vessels to do his dirty work in the form of parents or teachers or peers or others who are capable of instilling defects and wounds in the hearts of Levites during their childhood. This is commonplace and many Levites carry defects and inward damage from abuse caused by the human vessels used as Satan’s emissaries which wound the Levites during their childhood.
Compulsive Behavior
Compulsive behavior is often a symptom of satanic damage received by a Levite in their childhood. They repeated fall into the same behavior along a certain line and most often have no idea why they continue to act in this manner.
This can be identified as the effects of the bitter water of the curse resulting from the abuse heaped upon them from childhood. This was affected by Satan who seeks to neutralized them before they grow up and become a threat to his kingdom of darkness.
A Levite man poisoned by the bitter water of the curse will constantly suffer from the effects of this poisoning. It will poison his thoughts and his words and his actions and everything that he does in life.
For example, normally it is a good thing for a man to learn a trade to provide for himself especially if that man is a layman and is required by God to be a provider for himself and his own family. But suppose a layman father has a son who happens to be born with as a Fivefold Ministry Levite. Trying to force such a boy to work and earn a living by a trade or business would be a wrong application for a layman father because a Levite is required to live by faith.
A Levite may have to work some secular job or business in the beginning until their faith is strong enough to go full-time in the ministry but eventually, they will be faced with living by faith and they cannot continue to try to fall back on earning a living for themselves as they did when they were immature. All Levites will have to eventually mature to a place of living full-time without a secular job or business and must receive their livelihood only from the ministry.
But there have been many ignorant laymen fathers who have attempted to force a Levite son to earn a living just as a layman is required to do. Some of these layman fathers have persecuted their Levite sons terribly so that even when the Levite is already an adult their layman father will still ask them, “When are you going to get a job and make a living for yourself?” Such ignorant laymen fathers have no concept about the calling from God and the requirement for the Levite to mature to a place of living of the gospel and going full-time in the ministry.
See the link, “Levites Commanded to Live of Ministry” for more details.
This type of persecution by a layman father will invariably install defects and wounds in the heart of that Levite which will not be easy to overcome. The ignorant layman father supposes that he can persecute his Levite son and shame him into getting a job by implying that if he does not earn his own money by natural labor then he is worthless. But making him feel worthless as a Levite, is like trying to make a bird ashamed to fly. It will not go well for the Levite when he rejects what he was created by God to be!
Fivefold Ministry Labors Spiritually
Acts 6:2–4 (NASB95)
2 So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.
3 “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.
4 “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
The entire reason that the first deacons were appointed over natural service in the church was so that the Apostles could devote themselves full-time to prayer and the ministry of the Word of God. This means that there is no such thing as a “freeloader” Fivefold minister because these men are engaged in “spiritual” labor of feeding the sheep by preparing spiritual food for the congregation to eat. When the people prosper spiritually then they will have divine order in their lives and will prosper naturally as well.
1 Timothy 5:17–18 (NASB95)
17 The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
18 For the Scripture says, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
Fivefold Ministry Levites are worthy of double-honor and this includes both spiritual honor and natural honor to be supported by tithes and offerings given to the Lord. They were not to be muzzled (restricted from natural income) while they are engaged full-time in treading out the grain of God’s word so that they can feed the congregation spiritual food of revelation.
Persecuted Fivefold Levites
There are many Levites persecuted by their own fathers in childhood and later in adult life also and this has caused these wounds which become a hindrance to living by faith. The compulsive behavior associated with these wounds is that the damaged Levite will repeatedly be seeking how he will make a living for himself (like a layman). This hinders his faith because he may go for decades without putting both hands on the ministry plow. Some wounded Levites have ended up meeting judgment after they refused for decades to obey God and go into the full-time ministry by faith!
I know of a minister who was running away from living by faith for many decades and was growing old in this area of disobedience until he was involved in a horrific car accident and nearly lost his life! He knew immediately that his prolonged and stubborn disobedience of not going into the ministry and resisting “living by faith” had opened the door to the devil to destroy him. When he survived the car accident, he determined right then and there that he would obey God and go into the full-time ministry and that is what he did. He was in the ministry for the rest of his life since that time and he dropped all sidelines and layman-type jobs and he believed God by faith to have his income solely from preaching the gospel.
In fact, when a Levite avoids living by faith and tries to behave like a layman by earning his own income then this most often has come as a result of the wounds, he suffered in his past that resulted in making him adverse to living by faith.
Lester Sumrall was raised by a layman father like this as well and his father would deride preachers to their face saying it must be nice to be a freeloader living off the labor of others and eating their food for free! These were all satanic words aimed at shaming preachers and it insinuated that they were worthless if they did not earn a living by their own natural labor. Lester Sumrall wanted to be like his father and spouted off the same verbiage and derided the preachers in the same way as well. The only problem was that Lester Sumrall was born with a dual-gift of Apostle/Evangelist and he was therefore called into the ministry and was required to live by faith himself.
It is hard on a Levite boy however when his father despises everything that God has called him to be as a Levite. Lester Sumrall lived in rebellion to the call to the ministry for a long time until he was confronted with death by incurable tuberculous. The doctor said he would be dead by morning and that night God gave Lester Sumrall a vision of a coffin and a bible and said he would make his choice that very night. He could accept his calling and preach the gospel (represented by the bible) or he could refuse and die and go to hell (represented by the coffin). So, Lester reluctantly chose to preach only to stay alive and then God healed him of incurable tuberculous. But then he found himself in an awkward position because he was now forced to be a preacher just like the very men his father had always derided and whom he had formerly derided himself.
What is a young Levite to do when his father has always despised preachers when in fact, he is called to be one himself? Lester told his father he was called to go and preach and his father forbid him to do so and bellowed at him that he better still be there when he got home from work. But Lester had to obey God rather than his natural father so as a boy preacher he left home at age 17 and he lived by faith in the full-time ministry for the rest of his life.
When an ignorant layman father persecutes his own Levite son then he will force a separation because the boy must obey God rather than human fathers. God is on a higher level of authority than a natural father. A natural layman father may try to command his Levite son to get a job and earn a living but the Levite cannot do that but is instead forced to obey God and go into the ministry. God will not tolerate a Levite going to get a secular job every time he is faced with a difficult time. He has to remain in the ministry and use his faith or he will risk being rejected by God for his own continual unrepentant sin.
Continually refusing to live by faith is an “unrepentant sin” for the Levite who is commanded by God to live by the ministry. This compulsive behavior of repeatedly falling back on secular jobs (and refusing to live by faith) is often a result of wounds received in the heart of the Levite during childhood from people close to him (including parents). These wounds are like a festering sore and they continue to produce bitter water of the curse within the Levite. This bitter water poisons everything that they think and say and do. This bitter water can even spoil their ministry if they start to look to congregation or human supporters for financial income. If a Levite looks to humans, he will often become a man-pleaser. Such men will flatter evil rich men and give them positions of authority in their church as elders just to keep their money in the church. Such poisoned Levites will start pleasing the crowd by entertaining them rather than teaching the truth for fear of offending their donors.
Exodus 32:3-6 (NIV)
3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
Aaron was a Levite and served as the first High Priest of Israel but this same man fell into inventing a false religion and he was engaged in giving the people what they wanted to hear. He knew they wanted to be entertained and indulge their sin nature so after making a false god and inventing a false religion he then gave the people freedom to express their evil and they indulged themselves and engaged in revelry. This describes a false religion where they do not care about eternal life or saving themselves from hell but only live for the moment and do what feels good for the moment and even engage in sexual immorality in flippant manner!
This is what happens when a real Levite born with a ministry gift is poisoned by bitter water within them. This bitter poison can be the result of persecution from a layman father in their youth so that they grow up trying to gain human acceptance by trying to make a lot of money. But this goes contrary to the calling and purpose of a Levite. If they are poisoned by this bitter water, they can have their entire ministry poisoned. This is what causes even a real Levite to create a false religion as Aaron did and then allow the people to indulge in revelry and sin. Giving people what they want to flatter them for money is a symptom of being poisoned by the bitter water of past wounds which push a Levite toward focusing on earning money.
Such a poisoned Levite may even abandon the teaching of God’s word and start to replace faith with positive thinking or teach “human success motivation” rather than principles of God’s word. Levites poisoned by bitter water will even avoid speaking the truth and never rebuke sin because they are afraid that they will offend donors. These poisoned Levites will end up in hell because they sold their gift for money and followed the way of Balaam into destruction
Jude 1:11 (NLT2)
11 . . . Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion.
Those Levites who are poisoned inside by the bitter water of curse will be affected in thought and attitude and words and actions so that everything that they do is poisoned by looking to humans gain money. Flattering humans and avoiding rebuking sin and all things that bring a curse upon a Levite come from this bitter water within them that causes them to be adverse to living by faith. This is why such men invent their own religion like the Levite Aaron had done in pleasing the people and giving them license to sin and do whatever they wanted.
Balaam was entirely sold out for money and become symbolic of those Levites who have sold their gift for money and have become covetous. There are some Levites damaged by layman fathers in their childhood who have never gotten over this thing of trying to earn money and gain human approval by their income level. This is a compulsive behavior that is a result of being poisoned by the bitter water of the curse within them.
Exodus 15:25 (NLT2)
25 So Moses cried out to the LORD for help, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink. It was there at Marah that the LORD set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him.
Again, Moses cast a piece of wood into the bitter water and it was changed into sweet and was then fit to drink again. This has spiritual implications because a Levite poisoned by bitter water within them must go to Jesus and ask the Lord to heal them of the root cause of all their compulsive behavior. If the Levite flatters humans and seeks money because of wounds of his past then this compulsive behavior cannot be cured until he gives it to Jesus and asks the Lord to heal the wounds of his childhood. Then he can be free of the root cause of this compulsive behavior which results in his revulsion to “living by faith” and which causes “living by faith” to become repulsive to him.
The poisoned Levite must save himself from hell because he must live by faith and is commanded by God to live by faith but if he retains this “repulsion” or disgust at having to live by faith then it will poison everything he does. Even his ministry can become defiled if he is looking to humans for money and trying to please donors rather than fearing God and speaking the truth.
Only Jesus can heal the wounds of the past which produce the bitter water of the curse and poison the Levite and everything he says and thinks and does. The cross speaks of Jesus bearing the curse for us and becoming a curse in the place of sinful humans. The Levite has only to examine his compulsive behavior (such as having an aversion to live by faith) and then he can ask the Holy Spirit to show him the root cause of these wounds that are producing the bitter water of the curse within him.
This curse is like a poison spring that continually produces bitter water of curse within them. The Levite has only to ask the Holy Spirit to show them the root cause then ask Jesus to heal these festering wounds and then source of bitter water will be turned sweet.
Turning the bitter water sweet most often has the application of the Levite gaining freedom himself so that he is able to help others once he has overcome himself.
Luke 22:32 (NLT2)
32 But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”
There was a wound in the heart of Simon Peter and coupled with his Sanguine-type personality resulted in him having a strong bondage to the fear of man.
See the link “Temperament Types” for more details.
This Sanguine-type “fear of man” poisoned everything that Peter did but Jesus prayed for him that he would repent of the sin of “fear of man” and when he recovered himself from this bondage of the devil then he would be able to strengthen his brethren. Those Levites who suffered bitter water of curse and recovered from it are those who have understanding of how to help others who are languishing in the same bondage. It is for this reason that all Levites must overcome so that they will be able to help others after they are restored to the Lord themselves.
There are numerous Levites suffering from being poisoned from the bitter water of the curse. Often these wounds were instilled within them from childhood when the adversary used parents or teachers or siblings or peers to wound or hurt them in some way. All of these things can be healed by the Levite applying the wood of the cross to that bitter water within them and then it can be changed into a source of something sweet instead. Instead of ruining their lives and ministry it can be something powerful to help others who suffer the same things.
These types of wounds can be numerous and wide ranging in type. But the wood of the cross can cure all of them because nothing is too difficult for the Lord to heal. Some Levites crave human acceptance like a drug and it poisons everything that they do. Even certain types of lust are results of a perverse way of trying to gain human acceptance of some kind. When they acknowledge these voids and defects then they can apply the wood of the cross and turn this bitter water into something sweet.
Also, these wounds can be compared to a hoof-print by a watering hole where an animal steps into the mud and leaves a deep impression in that mud. This impression then fills will bitter water and mosquitoes hatch out it in and it soon defiles any creature that drinks from it. In the same way, wounds of the soul found within the Levites (often from childhood) can be compared to a hoof-print in the mud which fills with bitter water that causes a curse. Only Jesus can heal these wounds and only Jesus can stop that bitter water of curse from seeping into the soul of the Levite and bringing a curse to everything he says and thinks and does.
The Levite only has to ask God to heal any wounds within him. He should name them specifically and they can be identified by his compulsive behavior. If he is always looking for jobs for financial support or he looks to a congregation or donors or humans for money then that indicates he has an aversion to living by faith in God alone for his provision. If he was abused by a laymen father and persecuted to get a job or pushed to earn his own living then he must ask Jesus to heal those wounds from his past. Only by casting the wood of the cross into the bitter water of curse can this be made into something sweet inside of him which he can use to help others in trouble.
Root of Bitterness
Hebrews 12:15 (NLT2)
15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
The Apostle Paul refers to the “Root of Bitterness” that can spring up and defile the believers and that also includes Levite believers as well. The “root of bitterness” is another comparison or illustration of the same thing because just like a weed (with deep roots) a believer can chop off the weed but it will continue to grow back again. In the same way, if a Levite is defiled by bitterness it is like a weed that will continue to grow back. They can deal with the symptoms forever without curing the problem unless they go to the root of the problem.
The root of the problem is the deep-seated root or “wound” within the soul of the Levite which produces the water of bitterness that poisons everything that he does. He has to identify that wound and cast in the wood of the cross to turn that bitter water into something sweet and cure the root problem otherwise the symptoms will continue to surface like a weed that grows back repeatedly after it was chopped off on the surface.
These wounds (and the compulsive behavior they produce) can be numerous and various but the same cure works for all of them. Only the cross of Jesus can cure the bitter water of curse and the cross of redemption will instantly cure the cause and stop the negative resulting behavior from continuing.