(The fourth and final in Martha’s article series, Our Right of Entrance.)
Recently I was asked the question, “How do you forgive yourself?” And I gave an answer. But this morning the Lord gave me a much bigger, more wonderful answer. He showed me how you forgive yourself, and it has to do with the Blood. I’m seeing that there is a madness in guilt, a torment. Matthew 18 talks about it: “If you don’t forgive… you are turned over to the tormentors.”
Even if you’ve been forgiven, the one who doesn’t extend forgiveness is turned over to the tormentors. That’s very real.
But! Your forgiveness is not complete until it is tied to, and soaked in, the Blood. I never know how to express it…the wonder and power of the Blood. The Bible shows that the Blood is the power internally to cleanse our conscience, and the Blood alone is the payment for your sin. So if you confess your sin but you don’t access the Blood by faith, then you really never have the work of the Spirit and the Blood within you – you never really have that internal presence of the Blood that the Spirit applies.
The Bible shows us that the Spirit comes with the Blood, and the Spirit makes the Blood active and operative, bringing the Blood into our entire being by our faith in the Blood. So the Blood is this great mystery, but we just have to accept that the Blood is the essence of the whole Bible.
The Blood is the essence of Abel’s sacrifice right up to the end in Christ.
The Blood is living; it is present and current. And you can’t really have forgiveness unless you access the Blood. To say, “God forgive me…” alone doesn’t do it. He wants us to know the efficacy of the Blood. And that’s one reason we take communion…
To forgive yourself… no, that’s not really it. The sense of your forgiveness comes first from complete responsibility and confession. It comes from the repentance that the Holy Spirit gives. When the Holy Spirit tells you who you are, that is repentance. And repentance goes down to the bottom of the barrel and you come out totally accountable for all of it with no excuse. That alone is repentance. If there is any blame or any excuse for what you did, there is no repentance—therefore no Blood, no cleansing, no forgiveness, no internal freedom from your sin.
So it all depends on the degree of confession. If you confess your sins with the Holy Spirit, to the extent He takes it…then God goes to WHY you did what you did. And if you get to the bottom of it, then you’re humble enough to receive the Blood. I’ve said again and again, “Only humility will receive the Blood as the payment.”
And it is only the Blood that makes you truly free.
Copyright © 2012 Martha Blaney Kilpatrick
” . . . the Blood is this great mystery, but we just have to accept that the Blood is the essence of the whole Bible.” What a powerful statement! So really, all we need is the Holy Spirit: to activate the Blood of Jesus by the faith HE gives; for the repentence He brings; to apply the Blood of Christ to our spirit; to bring us to accountability with no excuses (this is a big one! My excuses may not be verbalized, but God knows my heart — definitely need a death here). Thank you, Martha, for making this… Read more »
The sense of your forgiveness comes first from complete responsibility and confession. It comes from the repentance that the Holy Spirit gives. When the Holy Spirit tells you who you are, that is repentance. And repentance goes down to the bottom of the barrel and you come out totally accountable for all of it with no excuse. That alone is repentance.
Amen amen I agree with Sam this sums up the entire series so very well.
May God bless you for sharing with us
Oh, amen, amen, amen.
I had never read this series (it was in the “to-do-list”.) So enriching: “If you confess your sins with the Holy Spirit…”
The “enabling” Person is the Holy Spirit… He “engages” Christ in us, He brings about the heavenly reality/touch. He brings the Blood, and He makes it real in our hearts.
Bless you Martha.