Blood Of The Lamb

In Hebrew, the word Adam means literally, first blood. Within the ancient Hebrew culture of the Bible, a son of his father resembled and behaved like his father because the strength or likeness or life of his father is in the blood. Because a son shares the blood of his father, he bears his father’s image in the way he behaves. He shares in his father’s name, character or personality and is part of his house. In the Book of Leviticus, the Israelites were forbidden to eat the blood of animals because the life, name or character of the animal dwelt within the blood. In the ancient world there was frequently no such thing as morality outside of the family. Often people groups were wholly enemies or wholly friends. Extended families or clans were seen as friends because they shared common blood, everyone else was a stranger and potentially an enemy. There were times when people saw they could benefit in a relationship with other families or clans. That relationship was made by making a covenant which is a form of contract. The most ancient covenants were probably made by the slashing of the palm or arm and the shaking of hands to cause a mingling of the blood. The terms of a covenant were often a common purse and common resources. This is because they shared common blood and therefore shared a common life. Those who were in covenant could call upon other members of the covenant for protection and provision. In Hebrew the word for sign or mark was tav, which meant literally the cross and the nail and the word for covenant was bereet which meant literally the sign or cross of my son. God made a blood covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 and confirmed this covenant in Genesis 17. The terms of the covenant were simple. Abraham was already living a life of implicit obedience and faith in the living word of promise that God had spoken into his grace humbled heart. However, God required one more thing; Abraham and all males within his household throughout all generations were to be circumcised. In return, God himself was to be Abraham’s shield and protection, and very great reward. God also promised to give Abraham and his seed or sons the land of Canaan as their inheritance. God promised grant them victory over the demon worshipping inhabitants of the land whose sins of cruelty had reached the limit as to what the amazing grace of God would tolerate. However, it is important to understand that physical circumcision itself was simply symbolic of a much more significant new covenant circumcision of the heart mentioned in Deuteronomy 30:6 “And the Lord thy God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of thy seed [sons], to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live”. That is what God did for Abraham. How do we know? Because God spoke to Isaac and in Genesis 26:4-5 “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws”. Abraham obeyed God’s voice, kept his charge, his commandments, statues and laws. The grace of Abraham’s Holy Spirit inspired obedience enabled Abraham to keep in covenant with God, and in return and on oath God promised to do what he had said. Why is this important? Because how people behave from the heart is the revelation of their sonship; their heartfelt behaviour reveals who their true father really is. Ultimately there are only two fathers just as there are ultimately only two kingdoms. The devil is the father of lies and the author of all rebellion and original sin, a murderer from the beginning. Those who sin are slaves of sin with Cain’s original prideful simply superior not marvellous but murderous sinning nature are part of the devil’s kingdom or house and are called the sons of destruction. Why? Adam doubted and rejected the living word of God and instead believed the lying words of the devil. Adam rebelled and ate forbidden fruit. He gasped the living word of God out of the house of his heart, and he descended into the darkness of a living death. The devil is the ultimate destroyer and father of destruction, and because of his rebellion and sinful pride, Adam in effect became his son, a son of destruction, the seed of the serpent. Cain was Adam’s firstborn son who, as the first fruit, bore the original sin of murder. Abraham proved in the way the grace of God inspired him to behave that his heart had been redeemed from being a son of destruction and that God had become Abraham’s true father just as God had promised.

Everyone who was ever, or will be, born except Jesus was in the house of the body of Adam when he sinned. The original prideful simply superior sinning nature displayed in the life of the marvellous Cain is in the blood passed down from father to son, from Adam to you and me. It says in Hebrews 2:14-15 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Jesus] 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; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to slavery”. God took upon himself the flesh and blood nature of Adam the earthly man so that through his death and resurrection, the heavenly man Jesus could destroy the devil and the prideful stranglehold that the devil has over those who are slaves of the marvellous me pride of original sin. It says in Hebrews 9:22 that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Why? Because what is sown must one day be reaped and the harvest of sin is death. It says in Hebrews 10:4 that it is impossible for the blood of sacrificed bulls and goats to take away sins. Why? Because in Leviticus 17 it says that the life is in the blood, and the life that is in the blood of a bull cannot atone, cover or pay the price for murder. The life of a bull cannot change the heart of the original murderous prideful sinning nature of corrupted blood that people inherit from Adam. God loves individuals but works in corporate totalities. In Exodus 12, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. God commanded that each family adopt a lamb into their household. After four days, they were to sacrifice the lamb and place the lamb’s blood upon the door frame and lintel of their houses. Having to slay an innocent and precious lamb would have been a heart-wrenching thing to do and the people would have been cut to the heart. Once the blood had been placed upon the lintel and door frames of their houses, the people were then to shelter under the blood of the lamb. That night, God would then hover or pass over the houses where he saw the blood of the lamb to prevent the angel or messenger of death striking dead the firstborn of each family. It did not matter whether the people were worthy or not; it was about corporate totality not personal individuality. Those that believed God obeyed God and sheltered under the blood of the lamb. In the Bible, all sacrifices and offerings offered in accordance with God’s will were a foreshadowing of the offering of the sinless blood of the Lamb of God. Jesus came as the real Passover Lamb of God to set aside the offerings of the blood of bulls and goats and instead offered to God himself in obedience and his own blood which, when applied by the Holy Spirit to people’s hearts, takes away the sins and murderous prideful Cain nature of the whole world. The ultimate cause of the Fall was the devil, the serpent, the father of lies. It says in Genesis 3:14-15 “And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”. Originally, the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit was in the blood of Adam. But because of the Fall, his blood became corrupt. The life within the blood of Adam became natural life poisoned with pride, natural life which perishes and eventually dies. God promised to put enmity (hostility) between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent. The woman is of course Mary, the mother of Jesus. The seed of the woman is of course Jesus, and the seed of the serpent is everyone else; those that share in naturally prideful simply superior marvellous me sinning nature of Cain, the original son of man. Here, God is making a promise that one day the head of the serpent (Lucifer) would be bruised at the cost of a bruised or pierced heel of the seed of the woman (Jesus). Blood comes from the fathers, and as seeds or sons of the serpent, everyone was within the body of Adam when he sinned. Jesus was not in the body of Adam when Adam sinned because Jesus is God. However, he is described as the seed of the woman because blood comes from the father not the mother and he was born as a sinless man without sinful pride-corrupted blood. It was the devil working within the hearts of his sons or seed that nailed Jesus to the cross, but God turned the tables on the devil. The very worst thing that anyone could ever do in murdering the God that created them, potentially became the very means for their redemption, healing and wholeness. We will discuss this in much more detail later in this book. Jesus is described as the Son of both Abraham and David, and he came as the heir of the covenant kingdom promises that he as God had spoken to them. God kept his covenant promises. It says in John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” In obedience to God as his Father, Jesus suffered as the innocent Lamb of God the dreadful curse of sin: betrayal, injustice, rejection and crucifixion. In Hebrew, the word for scorpion means literally to wound the heel. Jesus’ heel was pierced on the cross by the seed of the serpent but through his resurrection from the dead and his exaltation on to the throne of his father David, Jesus proved that God is faithful to the promises he made to Abraham and David and has dealt a death blow to the devil and father of lies, forever. Jesus took the original fallen prideful simply superior sinning murderous not marvellous nature of Cain to the grave so that those who die with him by repenting from their marvellous me pride and sins and give their lives to him rise with him and live in the undeniable power of resurrection life. That is why Paul says in Romans 16:19-20 “I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you”. However, if all people have is an intellectual appreciation of Jesus’ victory over the devil on the cross, they have nothing. That is why Jesus said in John 6:63 that the Spirit gives life, but the flesh counts for nothing. Nothing, except of course the pride of religious tradition, is the operative word within the church establishment. It is when Jesus opens the eyes of people’s hearts to the real meaning of his blood shed on the cross by the people that he came to save that everything changes, hearts included. The blood of Jesus works in two different ways. To God, the innocent and precious blood that Jesus offered to God means that the immense debt of people’s own personal sin can be cancelled if properly applied. To humanity, the blood has the power to circumcise their hearts and change their nature from murderous sons of destruction to being the Sons of God if it is properly applied. How? As we have already seen, in Hebrew, the name Satan or adversary means literally the snake that surrounds and devours life, or simply the murdering snake. That is why Jesus said in John 8:44 that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. Murder is the shedding of innocent blood and is the devil’s mark, signature or calling card. It was marvellous me pride that inspired Cain to murder his brother out of a bitter root judgement against God. Cain would have murdered God if he had the chance; he didn’t but the people of Israel did! It was their simply superior marvellous me pride that inspired the people of Israel to crucify their own saviour and King. On the Day of Pentecost, when the innocent and precious blood of Jesus on the hands guilty of Jesus’ crucifixion was applied by the Holy Spirit to their proud but penitent hearts, their hearts became humbled, broken, contrite, cut or pierced and they received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. That is why David said in Psalm 51:16-17 “For thou did not desire sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delighted not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite [circumcised] heart, O God, thou will not despise”. It was ultimately God who provided the precious blood that Jesus offered to God. Faith in Jesus precious blood applied to people’s proud but penitent hearts is the foundation of the unmerited favour and blessing of the corporate covenant-covering of Abraham’s blood-covered umbrella. Why? Within ancient Hebrew culture, the expression coming in and out represented life, and a door was symbolic of every aspect of life. So, when Yehovah God saw the blood of the Passover lamb, slain by the people of Israel who were slaves in Egypt, applied to the lintel and door frames of their houses, he passed or hovered or placed a saving covering or umbrella over them and refused to allow the angel of death to strike dead their firstborn. In the same way, when Yehovah God sees the precious blood of Jesus, slain by the people he came to save, applied to the lintel and door frames of their proud but penitent hearts, he gives them a new heart and places a saving covering or anointing or umbrella over their lives, and refuses to allow the angel of death or any other evil angel to bring them any curse or harm whatsoever. That is why it is important to take the blood of Jesus to heart because this is the heart of the gospel. Those who are willing to share in the corporate responsibility for Jesus’ death and repent from the murderous not marvellous pride that nailed him to the cross, will also share in his glorious resurrection life. We will discuss this at length later in this book.

It says in Genesis 4:1-8 “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why are you wroth? and why is your countenance fallen? If thou do well, shall thou not be accepted? and if thou do not well, sin lies at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shall rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him”. As we have already seen, Cain was the original son of man, the first fruit or first-born over all creation. Within ancient Hebrew culture, the first fruit was important because it if the first fruit was bad, the whole harvest would be too. In the fullness of time, both Cain and Abel brought an offering to God. Within ancient Hebrew culture, gifts and offerings had a specific purpose. Gifts were given because those who received a gift were obliged to respond in kind. Cain and Abel both brought an offering to God and so it is clear that they wanted God’s blessing. It is possible that they had lost God’s blessing by arguing and falling out. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:23-24 “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has ought against you; Leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift”. It says in Genesis 3:21 that after the Fall, Yehovah God made coats of skins and clothed Adam and Eve. This would have required the shedding of blood, and it is clear from Hebrews 9:22 that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Both Cain and Abel must have known the importance of blood. The sacrificial shedding of blood was clearly a foreshadowing of the blood of the sinless Lamb of God. Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Out of a relationship with God, Abel brought to God an offering of the fat portions of a firstborn lamb of his flock. Within ancient Hebrew culture, the fat portions were the best part of an offering because they represented prosperity. This would have required the shedding of the blood of the lamb and such an offering would have been difficult for Abel to bring. Having to slay an innocent lamb and offer its precious blood to God would have changed Abel by bringing humility into his naturally proud marvellous me heart. This pleased God and God accepted his offering. Why? Because in the Bible God is One, and one day, God Himself in the person of Jesus would offer his own blood on the cross to take away the sins of those who repented from the pride that murdered him. That is why it is likely that God required an offering of blood from Cain, but Cain did not keep flocks. It is possible that the only way he could have obtained a lamb for sacrifice was from Abel. Cain would have had to humble himself and trade with Abel to obtain a lamb. In the pride of his fallen marvellous me great I am heart he imagined he could bring something much more marvellous. Cain brought marvellous offering from the harvest of the ground cursed by sin and tilled by the sweat of Cain’s hard-working brow. As a slave of sin, Cain grasped equality with God and brought to God a simply superior offering of what Cain felt was wonderful in his own marvellous me eyes. Rather than being humbled by an offering of precious blood, the pride of Cain’s heart was strengthened by an absolutely marvellous offering of what Cain admired: his very own marvellous me best self-effort. Cain wanted worship from God based upon his own simply superior marvellous merit but did not get one. Why not? According to Revelation 13:8, the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world, and there is only one way that fallen humanity can be reconciled both with each other and God. What is it? Through the blood of the Lamb. That is why it says in Hebrews 10:4-10 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he came into the world, he [Jesus] said, Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but a body have you prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin did not want, neither did you have pleasure in them; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. God rejected Cain’s offering because Cain’s marvellous self-effort could not reverse the devastating effects of murderous pride that came from the Fall. Why? Because those who sin are slaves of sin. Cain was a slave of sinful pride, and the only resources that such a slave can draw upon are prideful sin. God warned Cain that sin was crouching at the door of his heart, ready to pounce. Cain could have humbled himself and asked God for help; God would have provided the blood of the lamb through which Cain would have overcome (see Revelation 12:11). Instead, with a heart poisoned by pride, Cain partnered with the father of lies and in a fit of rage murdered his brother. This was the marvellous Cain’s final solution to the problem of the incensed rage of his bitter root judgement towards God: the murder of his brother. Why? As we have already seen, in Hebrew, the name Satan or adversary means literally the snake that surrounds and devours life, or simply the murdering snake. That is why Jesus said in John 8:44 that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. Murder is the shedding of innocent blood and is the devil’s mark, signature or calling card. Cain was a murderous snake, a seed or son of the serpent, a son of the destroying devil who rejected the grace of God’s provision of the blood of the lamb. When challenged by God, Cain refused to repent and instead said in effect that he could never be forgiven. Why? Because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. In his pride he had rejected God’s humbling provision of the blood of the lamb and Cain inevitably came under condemnation. In the pride of his simply superior marvellous me heart he said in effect, how could someone as marvellous as me have done such a terrible thing. In the judgmental pride of his heart, his worm of resentment will never die, and his fire of incensed rage at being rejected will never be quenched. He blamed God for driving him from the Earth, and for the Fall, and everything else that was wrong in his life. He forever left the presence of Yehovah God and dwelt in bitterness in land of restless wandering to the east of Eden.

God wanted the Israelites to be free from the curse of the Fall when they entered the promised land, so he gave the Israelites the law of Moses. This law was a covenant sealed with the blood of bulls and goats that promised that if they obeyed the terms of the covenant laid down in the law, they would be free from curse. However, the covenant of the law also included curses for disobedience and rebellion. In their hearts, the people departed from Yehovah God and broke the covenant. As such, they remained not only under the original curse that came from the Fall, but also under the curse of the law. God said in Jeremiah 31:33-36 “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”. God promised to take the original law of Moses that was written on tablets of stone and write the righteous requirements of that same law, to love God and to love everyone else, on people’s hearts. It says in Luke 22:19-20 that Jesus “took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you”. The new covenant is when the blood of Jesus on people’s guilty hands changes their nature to be like his when it is applied by the Holy Spirit to their proud but penitent hearts. Jesus’ blood takes away the original prideful simply superior marvellous me sinning nature of Cain in the hearts of God’s people that made a bitter root judgement against Jesus and nailed Jesus to the cross, and instead imparts new contrite or circumcised heart, a new spirit or life’s breath, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within people’s hearts. It is God himself becoming people’s shield, defender and very great reward, providing His protection and His provision in every circumstance of life. Jesus said in John 6:53-57 “Verily, verily, I say to you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whosoever eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me”. Jesus is talking about eating the flesh and blood of his heartfelt identity as the Son of God. He was not talking about any kind of ritual or religious sacrament or any kind of means of grace solely ministered by the priests or Constantine’s ordained clergy of the established religion of church tradition. Those that share in Jesus body and blood are part of him and share the same Father. John said in 1 John 3:11-15 “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that love not his brother abides in death. Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him”. The life of the father dwells within the heart of the seed or son to bear fruit after the father’s kind. The natural life of the marvellous Cain, the original son of Adam, that abides in the blood of the original sinning Adam is quite capable of hating, and the bitter root judgement of a hateful heart’s final solution is always murder. It was the devil who was a murderer from the beginning. Paul said in Romans 5:8-10 “But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”. Being justified by the blood means having a new heart or personality that is saved by the life of Jesus, God’s Son. This is the eternal life of God, and it is not capable of hatred, it doesn’t murder, it only ever loves because God is love. People who hate don’t have eternal life living in them even if they firmly adhere to the hypocritical boasts and claims of the church establishment. They may be walking in the light of the dogma of their creed, rituals, theologies, incantations, prayers, liturgies, rites, rituals or spells of established church orthodoxy but they are not walking in the light as Jesus is in the light. That is why John said in 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”. Those that walk in the light of the love of God’s amazing Fatherhood are cleansed by the blood from all sin before they sin. How? On the Day of Pentecost, when the innocent and precious blood of Jesus on the hands guilty of Jesus’ crucifixion was applied by the Holy Spirit to their prideful murderous not marvellous sinning judgmental hearts, their hearts became humbled, broken, contrite, cut or pierced and they received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. It is the application of Jesus innocent blood to not marvellous but murderous guilty hearts that circumcises their proud but penitent hearts by removing the stranglehold of prideful sin sickness that is naturally part of the devil’s fallen original sinning nature of the marvellous Cain. They can then receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit and find that slavery to sinning, and the sickness associated with original sin are increasingly no longer part of their lives. As they walk in the light that it was their pride that nailed Jesus to the cross, they don’t love the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh or the pride of life anymore. Those things come from the blood of Adam’s pride-poisoned corrupted original prideful sinning nature of the murderous Cain that craves and demands to be accepted and even worshipped by God on its own merit. The blood of Jesus cleanses people from sin because it changes or justifies people’s nature. They are supernaturally enabled to have a change of father. God becomes their Father and as the Sons of God they supernaturally love the Lord their God with all their hearts and love their neighbour as themselves. In fact, they can’t help but love. Why? Because they know in their circumcised hearts that it was their marvellous me pride that murdered the Son of God, and the Son of God rose from the dead to forgive them. That is why Paul said in Philippians 3:3 “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh”. Why does Paul have no confidence in the flesh? Because it was the flesh, the nature of prideful sinning the murderous Cain, that everyone naturally shares in, that crucified Jesus.

It says in Revelation 12:10 “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death”. How does the devil work? The devil knows pride-poisoned not marvellous but murderous me sinful nature off by heart because that is what is in his murdering heart. The devil appeals to people’s pride and evil lusts to inspire them to sin, but when they do, he accuses them before God and demands the right to legally curse them for what they have done even though it was his idea in the first place. It was the devil who inspired the people of Israel to crucify and kill their own God and King in the person of Jesus. However, Jesus interceded for the transgressors who murdered him and rose from the dead to forgive them. The devil has no legal right to accuse before God those who have repented from the murderous pride that shed Jesus innocent blood on the cross, have taken that blood to their once proud but now redeemed hearts, have not only been forgiven, but are now transfigured by receiving the blood-borne gift of the Holy Spirit into becoming the Sons of God. This gives them the power and legal right to overcome. How? God speaks his living word by his Holy Spirit into humble, trusting and believing hearts redeemed from murderous pride to bring the illuminating light of divine life. This is the foundation of true faith and is the principle of the living word of God. True faith is an inspired obedience to the will of God that cannot be daunted and a heartfelt faith or trust in the word of God that cannot be denied. Why? Because God’s words are true, God’s promises are true, and a blood-borne Holy Spirit inspired rock-solid faith that God is true to his living word puts the Sons of God in a place where God’s word can perform for them that which was promised. Satan has no sinful stranglehold on those who live under the new covenant power of the blood of Jesus. Satan has no legal claim over the hearts and minds of those who are living under the new covenant power of the living word of God and the provision and protection or umbrella of the blood of the spotless and sinless Lamb of God. All of the resources of heaven are at their disposal. It says in Revelation 1:4-6 “Grace be to you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen”. When the marvellous Cain murdered Abel, Abel’s original sinful pride-poisoned blood naturally called out to God demanding vengeance. However, according to Hebrews 12:24, the new covenant blood of Jesus speaks a far better word that the blood of Abel. The blood of Jesus speaks of love, mercy and forgiveness to those who share in the pride of the people of Israel who murdered him. Only the new covenant blood of Jesus, the blood of a different Father could redeem the sinful sons of the original prideful simply superior murdering me sinning nature of Cain that nailed Jesus to the cross into the paradise of God’s fatherhood so that they could overcome and become kings and priest to his God and Father forever. This does not apply to the sand-builders of the church establishment who listen to the words of Jesus but do not do what he says. These blind guides are following in the way of the marvellous Cain and teach that freedom from sin and sinning is theoretical and through their marvellous religious rituals, sacraments, observances or creeds, overcoming victory is conceptually credited to them by God on an imaginary basis. Like Cain, they were deceived by the father of lies. They make up their own marvellous gospel and limp through life in an endless cycle of sin, confession and presumed forgiveness. Those that reject the new blood-covenant promises of the blessing of God’s fatherhood and overcoming kingdom power promised to both Abraham and king David and their heir, practical day by day victory over pride, sin, sickness, Satan and indeed death is as far from their experience as the heavens are above the earth. Those that reject the living word of God, God will reject them as priests and kings to him as God and Father, forever. That is why the kingdom power of God is not manifest in their midst. Instead of reigning in life, the devil reigns and they live in defeat, and yet as they are so deceived by the established orthodox tradition of their marvellous teachings, rituals, rites, spells, theologies, creeds, incantations or traditions, they don’t even know it. Those that habitually offend, those that habitually do iniquity, those that do not love as Jesus loves are not the Sons of God. They are the sons of the murderous devil with unredeemed murderous pride poisoned hearts. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 13:41-43 “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear”. They will be cast into a furnace of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why? Because they could have cut the shorelines of religion and with redeemed hearts, launched out into the deep things of the paradise of God where the full tide of the blood-borne Holy Spirit flows. Instead, they rejected the living word of God and like the marvellous Cain came to God on the basis of their own merit and marvellous religious self-effort. They were deceived into believing in the efficacy of their creeds and religious observances. The life is in the blood and the eternal life of the paradise of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood dwells within the blood of the Lamb. It says in 1 John 3:9-10 “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the sons of God are manifest, and the sons of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother”. The Sons of God are born of God. They received a change of blood, a change of heart, a change of fathers, a change of strength, a change of breath, a change of house, a change of behaviour, a change of name and a change of destiny. They will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the paradise of God’s fatherhood will fill their redeemed hearts, forever.

So, what about you? Someone once sang; some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire but all through the blood. As we have already seen, on the Day of Pentecost, when the precious and innocent blood of Jesus was applied to the murderous hearts of those who crucified and murdered him, they were cut to the heart by the Holy Spirit. They were humbled, repented from the pride that nailed Jesus to the cross and received new hearts and the gift of the Holy Spirit. They became the Sons of God. In Acts 6 and 7 there is a man called Stephen who had been redeemed from slavery to the sin and pride that crucified Jesus by the precious blood of the Lamb; he was filled with faith and the Holy Spirit. He was falsely accused of blasphemy and brought before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of elders and religious leaders in Jerusalem. In Acts 7, Stephen was led by the Holy Spirit to give a brief history of Israel but ended by saying in Acts 7:51-53 “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it”. It says in Acts 7:54 “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth”. When the religious leaders were accused of murdering the prophets and betraying and murdering the Righteous One, they were also cut to their simply superior murdering me hearts but this time by offended pride. Like the not marvellous but murderous Cain, they flew off the handle into a fearsome murdering frenzy. That is why it says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can understand it?” These religious leaders had desperately wicked hearts just like everyone else but instead of being humbled by the grace and mercy of God they partnered with the devil and father of lies to murder Stephen. However, as Stephen was dying, he said in Acts 7:59-60 “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”. The precious blood of Jesus had changed Stephen from an original sinner with a deceitful and desperately wicked heart into a Son of God. How do we know? Even as he was dying, he loved his enemies and was interceding for the transgressors who murdered him, just as Jesus had done. Some people come to God through the water, others through the flood. Some come through fire, but all must come through the blood. God insists that people come to him through the blood of the cross because in his absolutely unconditional love, the blood reveals to the eyes of the heart both the problem and the solution in the same instant. It reveals the truth about the desperately wicked not marvellous but murderous fallen human hearts that nailed Jesus to the cross and at the same time the absolutely amazing unconditional love, mercy, forgiveness and acceptance of God for those who repent from this same marvellous me murderous pride that they share with the devil. Remember, in Hebrew, the name Satan or adversary means literally the snake that surrounds and devours life, or simply the murdering snake. Murder is the shedding of innocent blood and is the devil’s mark, signature or calling card. Everyone everywhere quite naturally thinks that somehow, they are really not that bad. In fact, they often condemn themselves, wondering how someone as marvellous as me could do that. But the blood of the cross reveals that if provoked, they are murderous not marvellous and desperately wicked; far worse than they ever imagined that they could be. On the other hand, the blood of the cross reveals that God is far more merciful, forgiving, accepting and loving than people imagine he ever could be. Why? Because if God can forgive those who repent from the desperately wicked murderous pride that crucified and murdered him, for those that truly repent, could there ever be anything that God would not forgive? However, there are millions of people who reject the truth regarding the blood of the Lamb and instead attempt to come to God, like Cain, on the basis of their own merits, religious observances, or tradition. In fact, they imagine that they are acceptable to God when they do the very best that they can do and fly off the handle into a fearsome murderous frenzy when God says NO to such simply superior pride. Everyone’s favourite religion is the marvellous me religion of self-worship. This is the desperately wicked prideful murderous Cain nature that forms the foundation upon which the religion of established church tradition is built. Had they been in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, the religious church establishment imagines that they would have been Jesus’ disciples, sitting with Jesus at the Last Supper. But that is not true, the disciples were hand-picked by Jesus. The religious establishment would have been with the Chief Priests, plotting to arrest Jesus and have him crucified. Why? Because the real Jesus was a threat to the desperately wicked murderous pride and hypocrisy of the tradition of established religion in Jesus’ day just as he is today. When Jesus was arrested, the only person that spoke in his defence was the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate whose wife sent him a message proclaiming Jesus’ innocence. They knew that Jesus was innocent and Pilate wanted Jesus to go free. However, Jesus’ disciples abandoned him, Peter denied him, and those that had a voice that could be heard, including the religious establishment of the day, shouted for Jesus to be crucified. They demanded that Barabbas the murderer should be released in Jesus’ place. The religious church establishment is happy to celebrate holy communion and declare that the communion bread is the body of the crucified Jesus, broken for you. This admirable sentiment often just makes people feel guilty. What they do not understand is that the bread is the body of Jesus, broken by you. Jesus body was broken by the seed of the serpent; the deceitful desperately wicked murderous pride nature that you, me, and everyone else naturally shares. This changes the meaning of the cross and the blood of Jesus completely. This expels guilt and condemnation and opens the door of people’s hearts to receive in full the amazing grace of God. How? By God turning the tables on the devil. The crucifixion of Jesus was the most hideous act of cruelty possible orchestrated by the devil working within those with desperately wicked hearts against the purest, kindest, and most gentle-hearted loving person that ever lived. However, God took this most hideous act of cruelty, the devil’s worst, and turned it into God’s best. On the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came, there were only 120 disciples. After Peter’s message to the crowd which accused the murderous people of Israel of murdering their own saviour and King, and the same message to the crowd the day after, 5,000 people were cut to the heart by what they had done, repented, were baptized and joined the Early Church. That means that more than 97% of the people in church at that time were guilty of rejecting and crucifying Jesus and shedding his precious blood. So, when the Early Church celebrated what the church establishment now calls holy communion and broke bread from house to house, they knew exactly what it meant. They knew within their hearts that they were not marvellous but murderous; it was God that was marvellous, not them. Why? Because it was they that had broken the body of Jesus, it was they that shed his precious blood and yet they had repented, been baptised, been forgiven, been given new hearts and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was their Passover Lamb whose blood the Holy Spirit placed on the lintel and door frames of their hearts. As it says in 1 Peter 2:24, he bore their own sins in his body on the tree so that they could die do sinning and live to do what was right, and by the wounds that they inflicted upon Jesus, they were healed. The very worst thing that they could have ever done by partnering with the devil to murder the God that had created and loved them, had become God’s very best and the very means of their salvation. That is true salvation and is what the breaking of bread really means. Unfortunately, this real meaning of what is celebrated as holy communion within the established religion of church tradition has been lost. Remember, it says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can understand it?” Any ritual or ceremony that celebrates the bread and wine without a heartfelt understand of what it really means is a counterfeit communion, an empty, meaningless, established religious ritual with fine sounding words divorced from their original meaning and devoid of heart-changing, life-giving and healing power. Such counterfeit communion is unable to redeem murderous deceitful and desperately wicked hearts. This is the way of Cain that rejects the living word of God and considers the precious blood of the real Jesus as worthless compared to the simply superior self-effort of orthodox religious rites and rituals of the church establishment. The church establishment does not see or apply the blood of the real Jesus to the door posts and lintels of people’s desperately wicked murderous hearts and the angel of death has the legal right to cross their threshold to bring harm to the established church faithful. However, when the precious blood of the real Jesus is applied by the Holy Spirit to proud but penitent hearts, it transforms people from being marvellous me slaves of the devil’s sin nature into becoming the Sons of God. How? By washing their desperately wicked sinful murderous pride away and imparting to them a new nature, a new nature that the angel of death has no legal right to access or harm in any way. That is why it says in Hebrews 10:19-22 “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water”. The amazing grace of God is such that the blood of Jesus shed on the cross is the means by which anyone who wholeheartedly repents from the marvellous me pride that crucified Jesus and believes in the redeeming power of Jesus’ blood can come under the corporate covenant covering of Abraham’s umbrella and live in the undeniable power of resurrection life. They can live with all of their sins forgiven, their diseases healed, be redeemed from the destroying devil’s destruction, be crowned with love and compassion, and have their strength renewed like the eagle. As we have seen, God loves individuals, but God dwells outside of time and sees things and works in corporate totalities. The blood of Jesus works in two different ways. To those who reject Jesus, God will hold them corporately guilty for the shedding of Jesus’ innocent blood. Why? Because they have the same original sinning marvellous me Cain nature of those with pride-poisoned hearts that demanded Jesus’ crucifixion and stoned Stephen to death. This will ultimately lead to their corporate condemnation. Those who accept corporate responsibility for the murderous pride that nailed Jesus to the cross, the blood of Jesus applied to their proud but penitent hearts by the Holy Spirit washes their sins away and imparts to them a new nature. The testimony of Jesus’ blood applied by the Holy Spirit to their hearts overrides any other testimony, accusation of guilt or claim of condemnation and brings all things into back into divine order with itself. Why? Because the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the paradise of God’s fatherhood dwells within the blood of Jesus. Those with the blood of Jesus applied to their once prideful and sinful hearts have redeemed humble and heavenly hearts that can overcome by engaging the reality of God in their lives through the blood. The blood of Jesus makes things the way they should have been, could have been, or would have been before the tragedy of the Fall. So how about it? The blood of Jesus can work for you, and it is ultimately the only thing that will. Will you trust in what you can do for yourself like the marvellous me Cain and inevitably come under condemnation, or will you trust in what the precious blood of the Lamb of God can do when applied to your heart like it did for Stephen who prayed for the forgiveness of those who murdered him? Will you stay an original sinner like Cain, or will you be transformed by the precious blood of Jesus into becoming a Son of God like Abraham and David and come under the corporate covenant-covering of Abraham’s umbrella? The choice is yours. Jesus is waiting for your answer. Which will it be?

Prayer: Dear Father, in the name of Yeshua, the Messiah I renounce the false and counterfeit green leaf religious coverings and declare that the only covering that I desire is the blood of Jesus. On the Day of Pentecost, the innocent and precious blood of Jesus was on the guilty hands of those who crucified and murdered Jesus, but you applied Jesus’ blood to their prideful but penitent sin-enslaved hearts. Their proud hearts became humbled, broken, contrite, cut or pierced and you gave them the gift of your Holy Spirit. This brought them under the fulfilment of the corporate covenant-covering or umbrella of sovereign grace or unmerited and unearned favour of the blessing of Abraham. Please do the same for me.

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