Blood and Spirit

For the last month, most of the posts on this blog have touched on the power of the Blood of Christ in some way. We’ve all revisited (or discovered) different teachings and books on the Blood, and it’s been life-changing. I don’t think that we can ever know all there is to know about the function and power and mystery of the Blood ­– there’s always more to be revealed.

To that end, we’re going to post a really wonderful series by Martha on the Blood over the next few days. Each time I read these articles, the Holy Spirit ignites something new in my heart and enables a whole new receiving of this foundational issue.

Without the Blood and the Spirit, nothing in this life is possible. Everything that we write about on this blog means nothing without the Blood and Spirit. Before I was truly born again, I saw plenty of things. I read the Bible deeply, but without the Spirit, I accessed wisdom—not Wisdom. I could identify and diagnose many of my most troublesome issues, but without the Blood, my fundamental nature remained unchanged.

I remember Martha saying to me, kindly and gently, “Jennifer, it’s not supposed to be this hard.” Considering all the suffering and dying innate to this normal Christian life, that’s a rather funny way to put it, but she was absolutely right. I may wrestle daily to bow my will, and have a very personal understanding of the agony of Gethsemane-death, but compared to my old life, this life is easy. Even when I’m in the wilderness, dying ugly and full of either turmoil or emptiness, my new-creation life is better than the best day in my previous existence. There’s just no comparison.

Shame and failure and despair and rage are temporary now. They’re no match for the power of the Blood, so they’re no longer ever-present. It’s not a world-ending crisis to have sin exposed, because it actually CAN be overcome. My life changes so quickly now! I am not the same from one month to the next because the Spirit is always at work in me, whether I know it or not.

Jesus said, “But they will do all this to you [inflict all this suffering on you] because of [your bearing] My name and on My account, for they do not know or understand the One Who sent Me” (Jn. 15:21). We will suffer in this life, we will know pain, and we will be hurt. That’s true right out of the gate. But this is also the life of Sabbath Rest. We do not walk through this world under our own power. We are lit up from within, powered by the Life of Christ Himself, led down a path that few in the universe will ever see. This life is many things, but when Martha said that it just isn’t that hard, she was right.

And it all begins with salvation – initiated by God, powered by the Blood, and ignited by the Spirit. I live a life made possible by the Blood of the Lamb, and I’d like to take that in as deeply as possible. Martha’s series is used by the Spirit to do just that each time I read it. May you be equally blessed by it this week, with Wisdom’s own understanding of the Blood and the Holy Spirit’s personal revelation just for you!

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
Revelation 12:11 NKJV