Accessing Resurrection Life: Part 2 - The Blood - David Mitts

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God Day and night, has been cast down. 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. (Rev 12:10-11 NKJV)

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Last chapter, we began to look at how to overcome evil in these days. This verse tells us of 3 main strategies that believers use to overcome the accuser of the brethren.

Accusation is the main method of the enemy. When you accuse someone of something you bring the voice of your experience to someone in authority in this case the authority is God Himself. As we mentioned a couple of chapters back, the throne of God today is in the heart of believers.

"Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." Joh 14:23

Satan has been kicked out heaven. Unlike the book of Job, He doesn’t go to heaven to access the throne of God. Today, Satan accesses the Father through the hearts of believers. This is in part why there is such a vicious attack on our beliefs. Satan is at his core, a legalist. He is the prosecuting attorney in the realm of the heart. This is the realm of both condemnation and justification.

Paul declares about us:

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." Rom 8:1

So, the key to living free of the condemnation that is thrown at us, is to be in Christ Jesus and to walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. So how does this operate in real life? We must go up higher. As we hear in Lisa’s song by that name, there are so many voices screaming loudly at us trying to draw us into the babel of the crowd. Babbling is the sound of confusion that comes from the multitude of different voices. Our ability to listen to the voice of the Lord can become obscured by the sheer volume of other voices.

How do we learn to tune into the voice of the Lord? Is there a secure pathway? The answer is a resounding yes! To access the higher voice of the Lord comes through the blood. The voice of the accuser is silenced by the voice of the blood. The voice of the blood? What do I mean by that? The blood of Jesus speaks. It answers the cries of condemnation, the “crucify Him” that the accuser screams about all of us.

“They shouted back, “Crucify Him!”” (Mar 15:13)

Let’s dive a little deeper into the voice of the blood.

Turn with me in your bibles, to Genesis, chapter 4 to the famous story of Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel brought an offering to the Lord:

"And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell." Gen 4:3-5

Notice Abel brought a blood offering. Cain brought a fruit of the ground offering. This is important because the blood is where the life is. Once you cut fruit, it’s life declines rapidly. An animal however contains life in its blood and the death of the animal only transfers the life into the blood. Therefore, we can do a blood transfusion. This is also the reasoning behind Jehovah’s Witnesses not receiving blood transfusions. Biblically, it was prohibited for Israel to eat the blood.

"For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore, I said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.'" Lev 17:14

What was special about Abel’s offering is that it honored the tree of life. Blood containing life, expresses life in the offering. Cain’s offering honored the tree of the knowledge of good and evil How do we know that? By Cain’s response to God. Cain got angry when God preferred Abel’s offering. Cain’s anger came because he had a different expectation. He thought that God should have respected his offering. This is a result of honoring the tree of knowledge of good and evil because it seduces us into thinking our ideas are right. When we discover they are wrong, we often respond in anger.

Abel brought the offering of the blood. This would be the offering that would prefigure the offering of Yeshua bringing his own blood. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. The life in the blood and its consecration is the only acceptable offering to God.

Cain responds by plotting and killing Abel.

"Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand." Gen 4:8-11

Do you see the expression, the voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me? The blood has a voice. In this verse, the blood is screaming from the ground. What do you think it is saying? It is calling for justice. When blood is shed, the blood itself cries for justice.

Remember the story of Jonah? When it was discovered that he was running from God and it was bringing judgment on those who were with him, they decided to throw him in the sea, which they thought would bring his death, they spoke:

"Therefore, they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You."" Jon 1:14

The taking of innocent blood demonstrates that the blood cries out for justice.

Let’s peek into the Exodus story to gain a little more insight about the voice of the blood. Since we know the story of the 10th plague, I want to just grab a couple of verses out of this story:

"And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it." Exo 12:7

This is the blood of the Passover Lamb, which prefigures Yeshua, the Lamb of God.

"Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt." Exo 12:13

The blood spared the firstborn of Israel from the plague which killed the firstborn of Egypt. This was the final plague and the one that broke the heart of Pharaoh who released Israel into their destiny.We could spend a lot of time on this one act, but what I want to emphasize here is that the lamb’s blood served as a redemption price for Israel, and their firstborn. Egypt had no such redemption and so justice came upon them directly through the death of their firstborn.

Now, we think that the blood was just applied to the doorposts and lintels of Israel like paint. BUT what if the blood spoke to the Lord that the lamb had paid the redemption price for the people of Israel? The blood speaks. It is life speaking from death.

Let’s turn now to Yeshua and His blood, the blood of the Lamb of God. He spoke something very powerful about blood:

"Therefore, the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,' that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation." Luk 11:49-51

The blood of the prophets, who were persecuted and killed. If we think about who the prophets and apostles were, they were the agents of the word of God. They were bringing the message of love and justice, the message of the king and His kingdom. This message began with Abel. His blood is still speaking crying out for justice. Yeshua said it would be required of this generation. That blood debt had to be satisfied. Israel would have to pay for her crimes. How? Through the act of redemption by the blood of the Lamb of God.

Yeshua called this eating His flesh and drinking His blood.

"Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Joh 6:53-54

Now, it begins to make sense. If the blood speaks and the blood contains the speaking of God, the blood of the prophets and apostles. The blood is crying out for justice. Eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood is really receiving His word into our being. Since His words are eternal life, then it becomes life to us. In this way the blood is the activation of the life, the words of life.

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." Joh 6:63

The blood of Yeshua opens the words of life, because the life is in the blood!

One final verse to open it all up for us:

"To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven," Heb 12:24-25

The blood speaks of better things than the blood of Abel. His blood speaks to us from heaven! The blood opens the voice of heaven and this is how we overcome the adversary who speaks accusation into our hearts.

Activation: Applying the blood to the doorposts and lintels of our house, our heart. See the living blood of Yeshua applied to your heart boundaries. By heart boundaries, I am referring to the limits you set on yourself or God in you. Apply the blood as an act of faith to block the angel of death, the accuser who limits you and allow God’s voice to penetrate your heart, the dwelling place of His voice!