Power of the Blood

~Dear and Precious Child of God,
~May we all receive greater revelation of His love and our how we overcome the enemy/the accuser of the the Brethren, by the Blood of the Lamb. Have I laid hold of all this? Certainly not by any means! But I do declare to you this day the mercy, grace and compassion of our loving Heavenly Father and a glimpse into His Blood which sets us free in Jesus' Name!
~Do I say this as a license to knowingly and rebelliously live in sin and contrary to the Word of God? Not at all! For I believe we have an accountability before Our Father to allow the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to regenerate us and to walk in righteousness before Him. But what I am saying, is that when we have come to a point in our lives to lay that sin down before the Cross, ask His forgiveness and plead the Blood of Jesus over that sin, that God does indeed forgive us and has washed us white as snow.
~It is the desire of God's heart that we repent and receive His salvation; that no man should perish, but have everlasting life! The Apostle Paul told us what a wretch he considered himself, and who is there to save, but Jesus! (my paraphrase).
~It was somewhere back in the early part of this decade. By His grace and mercy, the Lord had brought me out of a sinful relationship. The summer of 2000 was a time of "wandering" and "wondering". It was an extremely pitch black time in my life.
~I had fallen into the trap of letting whatever came into my mouth just spill forth, and it wasn't pretty. It wasn't edifying. It wasn't glorifying to God. It was pure garbage. I'd just let it slide, because after all, "God knew my heart and loved me for who I was - imperfect though I may be."
~Well, that is a true statement! I'm not perfect, and He still loves me. However, it is the desire of God's heart to bring us to the point where we allow the Holy Spirit to do the work that we are unable to do ourselves. It is His desire to sanctify us - to set us apart. (See John 17) His desire is that we be in the world, but not of the world; that we crucify the flesh; that we walk not in the power of the flesh, but the power of the Spirit.
~The Lord took me to Ephesians 4:29 "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." Ouch! He was dealing with me on this one, and it was time for me to lay it down. I couldn't do it by myself. Was I really willing to give Him my mouth?
~O, wretch that I was...Who would save me? For I had also fallen into a trap of eavesdropping on internet chat rooms where I had no business! O, wretch that I was!....Who would save me? Those things which I knew were not fitting for me as a Christian...I was right there - partaking with my eyes.
~God was dealing with me. It was time to lay some things down at The Cross. Asking His forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit to do what I was unable to do for myself, I repented.
~It was one evening in prayer that the Lord gave me this vision:
~I saw myself before God. (Now, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but the Lord showed me an image of my "Uncle Al"...Uncle Al always held the stub of a cigar between his teeth, and sometimes spit tobacco juice on our toes, but one thing we knew, Uncle Al loved us! He'd take us to Christiansen's Drugstore for a 3 cent orange sherbert ice cream cone...nibbling the cone off around the top - just to make sure it tasted good enough for us to eat. He always brought us liversausage from Sagninaw, packed in the salmon colored meat wrapping and tucked under his arm. ~I didn't see Uncle Al too often, but my memories are very fond. I can still picture him facing us, baseball bat in his thick, meaty hands, swinging from right to left across his broad stomach, so that he could hit a pitch from any direction out of our little 5 year old mitts.)
~God was helping me to understand the loving side of Him in greater depth. As I was standing before God, Satan showed up. And he was literally spitting mad before God.."DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE'S DONE!!??!!! DO YOU KNOW THE THINGS SHE'S SAID???!!!! And then God looked him square in the face and said, "She's covered by the Blood of the Lamb. She's Mine." And that's all He had to say. Satan left in a huge huff...stomping and spitting mad that he couldn't have me anymore.
~Satan is livid when our hearts repent which brings forgiveness, but more so for the Blood which washes away our sin and keeps the Believer in right relationship before God. When we involve ourselves in sin, we hand the keys of our house/our heart over to the enemy to place us into bondage. But when we repent and plead the Blood, we overcome our accuser. Praise God! And it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are set free!
Revelation 12:11 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony..."
...more later....