1 JOHN 1:7-9 LIVING BIBLE
7 But if we are living in the light of God’s presence just as Christ does then we have wonderful fellowship and joy with each other and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.
9 But if we confess our sins to him he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.
There is tremendous power in the Blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the Cross.
• Power to Save, Heal and Deliver.
• Power to Overcome any adversity.
• Power to bring Freedom and Hope.
• Power to Break every Chain of the Devil.
• Power to Transform Your Life and Destiny.
If the heart of the Gospel is the Cross then the Blood of Jesus is the life force that propels its power. Before the Blood of Jesus was shed on Calvary’s Cross Jesus preached the Gospel of the kingdom.
MATTHEW 4:23-24 NKJV
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics and He healed them.
And what was His message? KINGDOM TAKE OVER MATTHEW 12:28 NKJV But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God surely the kingdom of God has come upon you
In other words the defeat of sins, curses and demons.
And to accomplish a once and for all defeat of the powers of darkness Jesus Christ the sinless, perfect Saviour went to the Cross of Calvary and was crucified totally absorbing the penalty of our sins once and for all.
After this monumental event the Gospel message becomes a message centred around the Cross. You don’t find the term Gospel of the Kingdom used anywhere except in the 4 Gospels. From the Book of Acts onwards the central message is the Message of the Cross.
GALATIANS 6:14 NKJV But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS 1:18 NKJV For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ brings an end to sins, curses and demon affliction in a persons life.
It destroys sickness, depression, poverty and fear. It neutralises all disappointment, grief and despair. it is the antidote to guilt, shame and hopelessness.
No other message on the earth today compares with the message of the Cross because what circulates through it is the eternal Blood of Jesus which still today has exceedingly great life changing power. Thank God for the Blood of Jesus.
COLOSSIANS 1:19-20 TPT
19 For God is satisfied to have all his fullness dwelling in Christ. 20 And by the blood of his cross everything in heaven and earth is brought back to himself back to its original intent, restored to innocence again!
The Blood of Christ deals with sin. The Cross deals with self. You accept the Blood to forgive but you die to self on the Cross.
I said this statement a few weeks ago that perhaps the two most important messages taught by the Apostles after the resurrection of Jesus are…
1. The Message of the Cross.
2. Spiritual Warfare.
And one could say that today in most Churches these two vitally important messages are not being taught as the Apostles once did.
I’m not suggesting that other Churches are not preaching the Gospel nor teaching legitimate messages but I’m simply making the point that the Message of the Cross and Spiritual Warfare are incredibly important for the Church know and understand.
I will go so far now as to say that over the past 30 years I have witnessed many good Christian people get shipwrecked in their faith and some even fall away back into the world and in all circumstances without question there had been a failure to fully appreciate and understand the Message of the Cross and Spiritual Warfare both are extremely important.
You see central to the message of the Cross that gives you victory is the Blood of Jesus and central to Spiritual Warfare to have victory is the Blood of Jesus.
REVELATION 12:11 NKJV And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb.
The precious Blood of our Lord not only serves as atonement for our sins but it also totally devastates the demonic realm. Every Christian must know and identify with the Message of the Cross and know how to engage in Spiritual Warfare. If not you simply will not live a victorious Christianity it will be defective, lacking power and be void of any testimony.
We have our Mid-year Prayer & Fast over the next 3 days. This is a time to recalibrate, refocus, be revived, refreshed in His Presence. To press the pause button in our lives spiritually to allow our spirit to be enriched and importantly engage on spiritual warfare.
The Message of the Cross and Spiritual Warfare are the most important messages to come out of the New Testament and we need a revelation of both of these.
You see the trend today is SELF IMPROVEMENT and this has crept into the Church with most messages orientated around improving SELF.
Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself and wanting to get better as a person but the problem is that IMPROVING SELF is not God’s way.
God’s way is not to IMPROVE SELF but to CRUCIFY SELF. ‘Man’ is a sinner lost without any hope of renewal without God’s intervention and when God intervenes He starts by first putting to death SELF. But many churches today are afraid to call ‘man’ what he is a ‘sinner’ but without this realisation there can be no freedom.
The OLD MAN the Bible calls it must die. This is why entrance into Christianity begins by being BORN AGAIN and to be BORN one must first cease to exist then be born.
This is where many people who claim to be Christian’s are not experiencing the Presence and Power of God in their lives because they are not BORN AGAIN.
SELF has not died and is still very much alive therefore the NEW MAN created in Christ Jesus is unable to emerge and its the NEW MAN that God blesses.
ROMANS 6:5-8 NKJV
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him.
The BLOOD forgives SIN but the CROSS crucifies SELF.
ROMANS 6:5-8 NLT
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.
The reason why SELF-improvement is only a temporary fix is that it does not deal with the real issue of a SINFUL and CORRUPT nature that simply can not be fixed it must die for the NEW MAN created in Christ Jesus to come alive.
EPHESIANS 4:22-24 NKJV
22 That you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
In other words, you will never have total victory in your life until you identify with the Cross of Christ.
The Apostle Paul boasted in the power of the Cross and noticed what he said in GALATIANS 2:20 NKJV “I have been crucified with Christ.” (He did not say I have been IMPROVED with Christ that would mean that God simply cleaned him up. NO Paul’s flesh died when he was water baptised.
The precious Blood of our Lord not only serves as atonement (covering) for our sins but it also totally devastates the demonic realm. Like most things in the Spirit, faith is the active ingredient in claiming the Blood or using it as a weapon.
You see blood is precious to man because it is precious to God. God shows very early in the Word the importance of blood to Him and all mankind. GENESIS 3:21 NKJV. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. To obtain skins there had to be shedding of blood. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves but fig leaves will never do. Only blood can provide a covering for mankind. Only blood will cover our sins.
In GENESIS 4 God respected Abel’s sacrifice of a lamb but He rejected Cain’s sacrifice of fruits and vegetables. God showed that a blood sacrifice was the only type of sacrifice acceptable to Him.
Cain misunderstood as many Christians continue to misunderstand the importance of the Blood. They do not preach the Gospel that demands identification with the Cross but only belief in Jesus.
When Moses led the people of God out of Egypt God again demonstrated the power of the blood. This time God showed us that the blood protects us even from death.
In EXODUS 12:7, 13 God instructed Moses to have the people kill a perfect lamb one for each household of fifteen people and to sprinkle its blood on the doorposts and lintel. When the Angel of Death passed by it did not enter any household with the blood sprinkled on it for God did not allow it to enter.
Death is an enemy. The Bible says that Jesus will sit at the right hand of the Father until all of His enemies are put under His feet 1 CORINTHIANS 15:25-26 NKJV
Life defeats death. The Bible says that the life is in the blood not the heart, kidneys or brains. The life of Jesus is in His Blood. It is the life in the blood that turns back death.
Only God’s perfect Passover Lamb Jesus Christ will do. It is His Blood that protects us from death and gives us everlasting life. His Blood compels death to pass over. No fig leaves or fruit and any otherworldly substitute will provide a covering including no good works or deeds just faith, the grace of God and the blood of Jesus.
It is the Blood of Jesus that atones for the soul.
LEVITICUS 17:11 NKJV For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
Man is a SPIRIT that lives in a BODY and possesses a SOUL which is your (mind, will and emotions). For most Christians today, the suffering they are enduring is in the body or soul. Physical illness and mental or emotional illness. For a Christian demonisation only occurs in the SOUL and BODY area because the SPIRIT belongs to God.
Let me deal with SOUL SICKNESS because it’s here that many people are struggling in. Mental or emotional sickness. The MIND is your THINKING and the EMOTIONS is your FEELING. When SIN enters the mind or the emotions it causes defilement and damage.
One could call it SOUL SICKNESS and it’s really no different to the BODY becoming sick because a bacteria or virus has infected and entered the body. Perhaps the biggest infectors of the MIND and EMOTIONS are…
1. UNFORGIVENESS
2. BITTERNESS
3. ANGER
4. FEAR
There are others but in my experience of ministry these seem to be the top 4 trigger points for SOUL SICKNESS. These 4 aberrations must be dealt with before FREEDOM comes.
Now the Bible tells us that Jesus ministered to all kinds of people suffering with all kinds of sicknesses and demonic oppressions.
MARK 1:33-34 NKJV “And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons.”
MARK 6:13 NKJV “And they (disciples) cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them”. Remember 1 JOHN 1:7 NKJV “The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
We are living POST CROSS. The Blood of Jesus has already been shed for our forgiveness therefore there is power in the Blood of Jesus today to cleanse you from all sin, sickness and demonisation and this applies to the BODY and to the SOUL.
1. UNFORGIVENSS – Is a trap that keeps you in a state of vengeance that in the end only damages yourself. MATTHEW 6:15 NLT But if you refuse to forgive others your Father will not forgive your sins.
2. BITTERNESS – Is the poison that filters through your body causing you to become bitter and to poison others. HEBREWS 12:15 NLT Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
3. ANGER – Is a natural reaction to an injustice but if allowed to fester will rob you of all personal peace. EPHESIANS 4:27 NLT For anger gives a foothold to the devil.
4. FEAR – Is the great immobiliser that keeps you in an anxious state that if left unchecked will lead to depression. 1 JOHN 4:18 NKJV …because fear involves torment.
Demonic spirits thrive on people who are vulnerable and to those who give him legal access to demonise them. Unforgiveness, Bitterness, Anger and Fear give the devil legal access to cause trouble within your life.
A lot of damage is done in people’s personal health and well being including marriages, families and friendships when these aberrations are allowed to remain dominate.
2 CORINTHIANS 7:1 NKJV “Therefore, having these promises, beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
This means that we are the ones who have deal with the issues of our heart and bring them to the Lord and have them ‘cleansed’. that’s the why the altar is such a powerful place for sins to be erased and what cleanses them?
1 JOHN 1:7 NLT “But if we are living in the light as God is in the light then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
But these SOUL SICKNESSES such as Unforgiveness, Bitterness, Anger and Fear are generally trapped in our conscious mind because of trauma, hurt, disappointment etc. If these are allowed to fester they will begin to dominate our reactions and even magnify them to boiling point at times.
HEBREWS 9:11-14 NKJV “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
HEBREWS 9:14 NLT “Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.”
Critical to be cleansed is that you are RENEWED and it’s this area of RENEWING OF THE SOUL that I want to deal with next Sunday. Demons must be cast out but the Flesh must be crucified through identification with the Cross and the then renewing of the mind.
The altar is open to be purified by the Blood of Jesus today.
