Monday, July 23, 2012

The Blood – Part 1 of 3


The previous posts introduced the topic of spiritual warfare. This series introduces the spiritual protection and promises that are wrapped up in the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us. His blood is crucial to a Christian’s life.

God teaches us that blood is the life-source of every living creature and human being. For example, God gave women the potential to carry life. A necessary component to making that possible is our monthly menstrual cycle. Once an egg has been fertilized and travels to the uterus, this monthly flow ceases. The stored-up blood is now busy supporting life in the womb. In a similar way, Jesus gave His blood in order to support life. We had no life before we believed in Jesus. In fact, the Bible says that we were all dead in our sins. Now through His blood and by His Spirit we who believe in Him have received new life.

Also, when a baby is born it comes out of the womb covered in blood. The blood is not the baby’s, but its mother’s, “shed” on its behalf. This is a picture of how Jesus shed His blood voluntarily on our behalf so we wouldn’t have to pay the penalty for our sins. Who would have thought that something as natural as pregnancy and birth could remind us of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice?

Those who put their trust in Jesus not only have forgiveness and life because of Jesus’ blood, but also protection. There is an illustration in the Old Testament of how blood was used as a covering. When Moses and the Israelites were still in Egypt, they had to cover their doorposts with lamb’s blood. God instructed them to do this in order to protect their firstborn sons from the destroying angel. The blood from the lamb would protect them against God’s judgment on the Egyptians. Any family that chose to obey this command would be spared, including Egyptian families. This required their faith and obedience.

Today we don’t need to paint blood on our doorposts, because Jesus’ blood was shed once and that was enough. However, if we are led to, we can apply oil to anoint people, homes, doorposts, etc. for protection, healing, commissioning, and blessing. We do this as an outward sign of God’s presence and of our faith in Jesus’ finished work at the cross.

8 comments:

  1. Greetings - I just stumbled onto your blog. I am a messianic believer in Yeshua. What a awesome life, HaShem has chosen for you and your family.

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    1. Thanks! I checked out your blog and am now your 101 follower. I've also liked your page. I also have more than one blog. In fact, I have 5. The 5th one I share with hubby. Please take the time to like my FB too! The link is at the top of this blog. God bless!

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    1. Thanks! I hope you feel that love prayer I sent your way!

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  3. Stopping by to say hi from the GFC blog hop last week. So glad to meet you! Looking forward to following your blog. Hope you are having a great start to the week! P.S. I am super jealous now that I know you live in Africa! My friend and I both love Africa and dream of living on the beach of South Africa one day. :)

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    1. Thanks, Dalayna! I was already a GFC follower, so I included liking your FB page. Please take the time to like mine back. The link is at the top of this page. It's funny that you want to live here. You would have to give up so much that the U.S. has to offer, but it wouldn't be as bad as living in the African bush! Hahaha! I met a South African mom who had spent about seven years living in the States and who moved back to S.A. After a while, I think she was missing the States despite her best intentions to reclaim her roots. I've been here 17 years and I miss the States! :) God bless!

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  4. 5 blogs! I cannot even believe! I can't keep up with 1 much less 5! Thanks for following me on GFC. I am now 74 for you!

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    1. Hi Sarita! Yes, it can get overwhelming, but I had specific topics that I wanted to follow through as individual blogs. I love writing and communicating. This is also our ministry. We've recently moved away from an institutional missionary organization and when the little fellowship that we attended for several years was being "taken over" (that's a whole story in itself), we moved away from the institutional Church as well. We didn't know what we were doing exactly at the time, but it's starting to make more sense to us now why it was time to leave these places. Thanks for being my 74th follower! I hope you'll be richly blessed every time you visit this blog and the others. :)

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