1 Chronicles 4
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⁹ And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow.

¹⁰ And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

What can we learn from the life of Jabez? Several things. Let's begin:

1.

Jabez's major problem started at his birth; his own mother laid a curse on him calling him "sorrow" or "pain". As a result Jabez lived a sorrowful life of poverty and failure.

We can clearly see here that the major problems we confront in life lies with curses! Curses are foundational to at least 99% of the major battles and issues we struggle with in life daily.

Why? Nothing is as powerful as the spoken word. The spoken word made all things and is the most effective weapon in spiritual warfare. A lot of good and evil can be accomplished by our words.

The enemy speaks a lot of evil against us every day through evil altars and witchcraft to try to control our destinies.

Spoken words are powerful and should not be taken lightly. This is why Jacob wisely changed the name of his newborn son to Benjamin (son of the right hand) after his mother called him Benoni (son of my sorrow). (Genesis 35:18)


2.

Jabez' main enemy was actually but sadly his own mother.

“And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.”
— Matthew 10:36

Our real and major enemies are from our family households. They could be siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles, mothers, fathers, inlaws, etc.

The toughest battles we face in life come from our households. We see this evidently in scripture:

*Cain killed Abel his own blood brother. (Genesis 4:

* Esau wanted to kill Jacob his brother. (Genesis 27:41)

* David was sought to be killed by his own son Absalom. (2 Samuel 25:14)

* King Saul wanted to kill own his son Jonathan. (1 Samuel 14:44, 20:30-33)

* Joseph's brothers wanted to kill him but later sold him as a slave to Egypt. (Genesis 37:19-28)

* Jerubbal killed seventy of his half brothers on a stone to take over their father's house. (Judges 9:5)

* Athaliah killed all her royal grandchildren to become the sole queen. (2kings 11:1)


3.

God's blessing brings enlargement and greatness. God's blessing make rich (proverbs 10:22) and can help us recover our stolen destinies. We should often ask God in faith to bless us.

Believe it or not, greatness is your destiny. Nobody is born to be poor or a nonentity. Jabez's destiny was seriously dealt with by a curse, but his greatness was later restored after crying for God's blessing; a whole town or city was named after him:

“And the families of the scribes which dwelt at JABEZ; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.”
— 1 Chronicles 2:55


4.

God's blessing and favour wins our major battles in life.

God's blessing is the invoking of His favour.

“And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD: possess thou the west and the south.”
— Deuteronomy 33:23


“For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.”
— Psalms 5:12

When we ask God to bless us like Jabez did, we are asking for His favour. Now when God favours you, He will fight for you.

It does not matter the type of enemies or curses you face, God's blessing and favour will give you complete victory.


“By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.”
— Psalms 41:11


Genesis 12
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²... and I will bless thee...


³... and curse him that curseth thee...

If God out of His favour for us, decides to curse our enemies, I don't think we have a problem.


5.

God's blessing destroys curses.

Now we know that curses are real, but no curse issued by a human can withstand the blessing of God. Why? God's Word is more powerful than that of any man, woman or child no matter how anointed or demonic they may be.

Jabez's freedom from his mother's curse came as he sought God's blessing in faith.

It doesn't matter who curses you; if you seek God's blessing, that curse will be annihilated:


Judges 17
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¹ And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.

² And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.

Micah was living under a curse spoken by his mother until she released him by pronouncing God's blessing on him. The blessing of God releases us from curses, it is a major source of deliverance from curses and those who curse (witchcraft).


To sum, what can we learn from the life of Jabez? We understand the power of God's blessing and the power of curses.

Nothing can increase us more to success, riches and greatness than God's blessing. Nothing can break the yoke of witchcraft and curses over our lives than God's blessing.