I want to lay the foundation of this message with the Bible scriptures. God’s word to us- that we can re-establish a relationship with Him. All saved Heaven- bound people are referred to as Abraham’s descendants. God began to reveal His salvation plan for mankind by cutting a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. Abraham and Saria were the beginning of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was the human being God worked through to build the Nation Israel so that in time, God would send His Son, born through the lineage of Abraham, into the world through the nation of Israel.
[Genesis 15: 4, 18] NIV Bible. ” And behold the word of the Lord came to him, [Abram] saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one that will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now towards the Heavens, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Then He said to him,” I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
And He [God] said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old ram, a turtle dove and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each peace opposite each other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun had gone down, a deep sleep fell upon; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram; “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them four hundred years. [Egypt].
And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet completed.
And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying; To your descendants, I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates… cont…
[Genesis 17: 1,5] When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me blameless. And I will make my covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”
Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him saying: As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. So no longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. [ End of scriptures].
THE MEANING OF THE BLOOD COVENANT FOR US TODAY.
In ancient times the blood covenant was common among almost all the people of the middle east. It was a way of establishing a binding contract between two men. What we call the old and new testaments could easily be called old and new covenants. The typical blood covenant contained 9 parts, or steps.
These steps are as follows.
[1] The two people exchange coats or robes. To a Hebrew, the coat or robe represented the person himself; so when he offered the other person his robe, he was offering himself; even his very life itself.
[2] They take off their belt and offer it to the other person. The belt also called the girdle, was used to hold your sward, your knife, and your fighting instruments. In this way, you were saying to the other person that you were offering him your protection. If someone attacks you they also have me to deal with. Your battles are my battles.
[3] “Cut the covenant”. In this part an animal is killed and cut down in the middle and the two halves are laid opposite each other. The two parties to the covenant pass between the two halves of the animal and are saying, “May God do to me and more if I break this covenant. This is a blood covenant, and cannot be broken.
[4] Raise their right arms and cut the palms of their hands and clasp each others hand and mingle your blood. This is saying to the other person, “We are becoming one with each other. To intermingle the blood is to intermingle the very life of both people.
[5] Exchange names. Each one takes part of the other’s name and incorporates it into their own name. This where Abram became Abraham.
[6] [Make a scar or some identifying mark]. The scar was the outward evidence of the covenant that others could see and know that a covenant was made. Sometimes they would rub the cut into the hand to make the scar, then anyone who wanted to fight you would know that not only would they have to fight you but another as well.
[7] [Terms of the covenant]. Both parties to the covenant stand before a witness and list all their assets and liabilities because each one takes all of these upon himself. You are saying, “everything I have is yours and everything you have is mine. If something happens to you, your covenant partner will see to it that your wife and children are taken care of.
[8] [Eat the memorial meal]. A loaf of bread is broken in half. Each feeds his half to the other saying, “This is my body and I am now giving it to you. Then they take wine as a symbol of his blood and say, “This is my blood which is now your blood.”
[1 corinthians 11:23,26] NIV Bible. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, That the Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, this is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. ‘ In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. ‘For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lords death until He come’s
[9] [Plant the memorial tree]. The two then plant a tree as a memorial to the covenant and sprinkled it with the blood of the animal that was killed for the covenant offering. The cross that Jesus died on was the memorial tree that the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on and it still is a memorial to His covenant with us to this very day. This is our covenant with the God of this universe. The cross that represented death, God turned it around to represent life by the blood of His Son purchasing it. HE WILL LIVE UP TO HIS END AND HE EXPECTS US TO LIVE UP TO OURS
There are a lot of covenants written in the Bible and there is not a lot of great detail about them because everyone was is familiar with the procedure and the writer assumes that we know what was done.
The Bible has 2 covenants. The old and the new testament. The old covenant was made with Abram and we have a record of it in Genesis. In verse one we read; ” AFTER THESE THINGS THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO ABRAM IN AVISION, ” DO NOT FEAR ABRAM, I AM A SHIELD TO YOU; YOUR REWARD SHALL BE VERY GREAT; Here we see God offering His robe and belt. He offers to be his shield and his rewards. He cuts the covenant in Genesis [15:7,21] This covenant study was done by Paul Ziegler by permission.
[John 15:5] NLV Bible, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. those who remain in me and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
In this covenant that you will enter into by receiving Jesus as savior by faith, Jesus has all the power and no fault or weakness. So he will exchange all of our weakness for His strength. He will exchange our sin for His holiness as we confess it and renounce it to Him, He then delivers us of that particular sin. In this way, Jesus is able to live His life in you and build His virtues in your very Spirit getting you ready for Heaven while He has a intimate relationship with you. He is giving us His life by living in us and taking our burdens as we believe Him and obey Him. This is how we can know Him without even seeing Him yet.
After we are saved, Jesus’ blood erases all the sin that we ever did all our lives up to that point, but even being saved we still sin, but with Jesus now living in us, we hate the sin that we once enjoyed. And because we hate it we should want to get rid of it. The reason you hate the sin that you once enjoyed is because Jesus in you hates it and wants to kick it out of your life and deliver you of the satanic destruction it causes. In short, He wants His temple clean which is your body so it is suitable for Jesus and His Father and the Holy Spirit to reside in.
So we keep covenant with God by monitoring ourselves, [judging ourselves]. [1 Corinthians 11:31] “But if we judge ourselves truly we would not be judged”. Jesus has taken us like two people engaged to be married. The couple begins to build and plan their lives together even before they get married. At any given time one of the two can cancel the engagement. They are not married yet. Jesus will not cancel the engagement but the bride to be can, by walking away from the covenant with Jesus by holding on to unconfessed sin. Sin is from Satan’s camp and part of our old carnal nature. Jesus will have nothing to do with it. But if we will confess it to Him, we then have access to His blood to cleanse it from us and then keep right standing with God and hold up our end of the covenant.
In short, sin means missing the mark or target. Sin to the lord is anything of this Earth that you put above Him. Jesus loves us and knows our weaknesses and will help us. That is one of the purposes He came to Earth for.
He does not want to hurt you but longs with all of his heart to have a relationship with you. In this covenant written above, Jesus makes your battles His battles, your problems His problems, your struggles His struggles. As you hand your struggle to Him by verbally telling Him and looking to Him and His word, He will deliver you. This is called faith. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly”
God will set you above others because you belong to Him.
[My Testimony] Some years ago my son was having a transfer of command ceremony in Fort Drum New York. He wanted me there and it was a last minute notice for me. I had to try to get time off at work for it but they were not able to because that time slot was already taken. So I had to work Friday night and drive to the airport Saturday morning. It was a 3 1/2 hour trip. I was really cutting it close. I did my home work ahead of time and called the airport to get the location of the parking lot of United airlines. I got there and I found the lot but there was no spots to park, so I prayed to God that He would open a place for me. As I kept driving around, only one showed up out of all the spots taken. I was excited.
So I rushed to the United terminal with what looked like a half our to spare. They told me I was to late. They need the last half hour to board the people and luggage. It was the best I could do. So I asked the guy, “now what can we do”? I prayed right away. I said God I need your help, this was the best I could do to get here. would you please give me a flight out of here? I thank you. So the United employee said, “let me look”. So he surched the computer for about 15 minutes while I sat silent.
He said, “there is something here, it’s very strange. I never saw anything like this before. He kept saying it. He said, ” there is a flight leaving in two and a half hours. I can get you on it but you will be the only passenger on the flight. I said I will take that! This was a Boeing 737 passenger jet all to myself. WOW! WHAT A GOD.! I sat at the terminal and boarded my flight. I was met by three stewardesses. They said this was a surprise to them. They have never seen a single passenger on a passenger jet before.
The co-pilot came back to meet me. He said,” I had to meet you. I have never seen a single passenger on one of these jets for as long as he had been flying. Can I get some pictures of you? I want them for my records. So we had a great time He took selfies of both of us and I took pictures of him and the stewardesses. I told him that I was a helicopter enthusiast. I love these machines. He asked me, ” do you want to see the cockpit of the jet? I said OH YA! This co-pilot used to fly fighter jets in Desert Storm.
I went up to the front and sat in the captains chair while my tour guide co-pilot showed me the flight controls and explained them to me. Everything is done by computers and screens. The cock-pit looked like a giant video game. So we were having a great time. I met the captain and we took more pictures. God had taken a stressful situation and gave me an answer.
This Boeing 737 was held back for repair and was being flown back to O-HARE airport to start taking passengers again. God knows the future and made that possible for me and it gave Him glory because I tell this story to you that you can believe also. It did not cost me any extra money. I want to give credit to all the United people I met. They were all great and I could tell they all loved their jobs.
God did this for me because I am in covenant with Him. Everyone can be. God is no respecter of persons.
To get started, ask Jesus into your heart and to be the Lord of your life. To forgive you of your sins and deliver you of all of them. If you have gotten to the end of yourself and are sick of your life and sick of this world, you are in a very good place. You should be seeing youR need for the savior. God wants you in a place like this if you can’t just accept him without going through suffering. To the people who think they have it all together and can solve their own problem’s something in life will be bigger than you are someday and Jesus will be the answer. Why wait for that?
All of us are born in sin! all of us need Jesus! All of us can only be cleansed by Jesus. All of us cannot get to Heaven without Jesus. Why suffer any more and give Satan one more of your days. Everyday that you don’t belong to Christ, you are serving Satan, your own fallen flesh nature. disconnected from God.
THERE IS NO NEED TO BE AFRAID OF JESUS, HE ALREADY KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF. HE WANTS YOU VERY VERY MUCH. EVERYDAY YOU REJECT HIM HURTS HIS HEART THE SAME AS REJECTION FROM OTHERS HURTS OUR HEART. HIS LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL FOR YOU BUT HE MUST JUDGE SIN. SO HE DESIRES TO DELIVER YOU AND ME FROM IT SO YOU WILL NOT BE CONDEMNEDITH IT. YOU ARE HEAVEN BOUND!
Thank you for reading the blog.