The blood of Jesus

For me it was the realisation that as powerful as His sacrifice had been, the moment of freeing all mankind (and me) from sin and death, there was more.

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It always amazes me that, sometimes things that are so familiar to us can suddenly burst into life before us just because we see it in a different way. A bit like sitting and looking at a garden or a piece of scenery we have looked at loads of times and suddenly a shaft of sunlight hits it and illuminates something we have never seen before and we become aware of its beauty and awesomeness in a whole new light.  

This happened to me recently in a church meeting. It was on a cold evening in a cold building and a small group of us had gathered to “wait on the Lord” and seek his presence. We had sung a few worship songs and had then come to prayer and seeking. A few people had prayed and then suddenly the group and the room became completely silent. A Godly silent, one where you know the Lord is there by his Spirit and you need to pay attention only to Him.  A time where each person is no longer aware of each other but is completely enveloped in the love of God and what He has to say to them.  The Lord chose to reveal to me a truth I had not before fully realised, and this is what I would like to share today.

As I was praying and sharing with the Lord all the things that were weighing heavily on me. How badly I was coping and how overwhelmed I sometimes was feeling. Then suddenly in my mind the Lord took me to the foot of the Cross, and I began thanking the Lord for His sacrifice for me. But then my worries and concerns and the things in my life that were difficult suddenly overwhelmed me again. And I said Lord I don’t know what to do?  And the Spirit of God said open your hands and look to me. 

As I did, I became aware of the Lord’s blood, the blood that flowed from Him because of all the wounds He had received both at the trial and the flogging, and from the thorn of crowns pushed down hard on His brow, and from the hands and feet cruelly pieced with nails to hold Him to the cross. But even more so, I was aware that each drop of blood, so devastatingly extracted from him, was for me, so that I might live in Him.

I have been a follower of Jesus now for 48 years, and have heard so many times about the blood Jesus shed for me, have heard comments about covering everything with the blood of the Jesus and by His stripes (wounds) I am healed.  But up until that moment I did not fully recognise the intimacy of the understanding that Jesus had shed His blood for me! And that each drop lost from His body was to both pay the eternal price to free me from my sin, to purchase my salvation, to redeem me from the power of the evil one, but the sacrifice was also to be effective in all areas of my life that I was worried and concerned about.  

As I brought all the things that needed solving or healing or whatever, it was as if a drop of blood dropped into my hand to cover each one by Jesus sacrificial blood, by His sacrificial love. It was so real, but also so full of love from the Lord, that I was so aware that because He loved me, He had poured out His life for me, and wanted to pour into my life the reality of that sacrifice, both for myself and for the ones, situations etc that I was concerned about. I realise sadly, that I cannot adequately retell the power and intimacy of the revelation of this truth. 

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As I was sitting lost in the reality of this revelation to me, the Lord had one more truth to show me. I was thanking Him for covering both my sin and weakness with His blood and for covering those I was praying for with His blood. He showed me in my minds eye His resurrection. His rising from His period of being dead (in human terms) to life and walking, in total victory over all things for all time, from the open tomb door. For me it was the realisation that as powerful as His sacrifice had been, the moment of freeing all mankind (and me) from sin and death, there was more. The realisation that the Son of God shed His blood both for me, and to be effective in all the areas and concerns of my life, - it was not a dead sacrifice, a giving up of one’s life to save many - but it was a living sacrifice! The power of which is not a lovely story from long ago, but a living and real truth for today. Jesus’s precious giving of Himself to pay for each and every one who ever would live from that day forward, is alive and effective today because He smashed through the barrier of death, and lives!

Even though as Christians we have heard and know this truth to be so, and if we do not yet know the Lord as Saviour, we may have heard that He is not dead but has been raised to life. When we get a glimpse even of a miniscule fragment of the truth of the power of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, it changes every part of our life that seems dark and hopeless into a place of hope and possibilities. Because He already knows of it, and has covered it with His blood and power.

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I know that there will be, and are, dark times ahead for me and the ones I love simply because `that is sometimes the way of life`. Also, because we live in a world that chooses not to believe and acknowledge the love and power of God, this choice has consequences for us all. But I pray that I, and all of us who know the Lord will know the power of the blood of the Lord and the power of His resurrection.

Philippians 3 v 8- 11 (NLT)

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.  I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.  For Gods way of making us right with himself depends on faith.  I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead!

Lord thank you today that You gave Your life, shedding Your precious life blood to save me and to cover me and all I place in Your hands. And thank You that this is a living hope, because You rose from the dead and now, I live in You. Keep me close to You today and continue to reveal to all of us the love and power we have received from You.

Author: Jan Pearson

May God bless and enrich your life

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