the curtain of his body
lately, in addition to monthly fellowship with our house church, we’ve been driving up to a worship gathering an hour & a half north of us on sunday nights, getting home at 11pm. it’s been a beautiful experience for our family. we’re just about the oldest & youngest people there, as it’s a community of primarily twenty-somethings (a ywam missional community), totally on fire for Jesus. it’s the first time my little girls have ever waved flags in church! but that experience has never failed to go deeper into our hearts, bearing gospel fruit.
the first worship set is usually a time to enter into His presence, then the Word is preached with power! in the second/final worship set we’re proclaiming in faith what was just preached, & true transformation (not just encounter) happens. on a recent sunday night, the guest speaker preached on the power of the blood of Jesus, and prayed in closing that we’d all have a revelation of the blood of Jesus. then followed that final worship set, a medley of :
i love your presence —>
if you want it, come & get it —> (a cover of a david gray song, lyrics cleverly changed)
come on in to the throne of grace, He made a way through His blood & His body
(here’s a similar set by upperroom)
monday mornings during the school year we have a prolonged devotional time, & the kids & i always share if the Lord did anything in our hearts the night before. that monday heron, my oldest, shared that the Lord had told her on the way home, “it doesn’t honor Me to keep feeling guilty after you’ve been forgiven.” this was stunningly profound—truly the wisdom of the Spirit, and quite biblical! a revelation of the blood.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” —Romans 8:1 NRSV
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body…” —Hebrews 10:19-20 NIV
“…let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” —Hebrews 10:22 NLT
maybe some of you have a perpetually guilty conscience like i’ve had for most of my Christian life. one of my children has really struggled with this, too! the other day my husband josh shared this secret with him : the devil speaks in condemning generalities, through a vague & constant sense of guilt & dirtiness. the Holy Spirit speaks specifically but lovingly, bringing up some clear sin that can immediately be cleansed.
i hadn’t learned this secret myself until a few years ago! i was reading a book by norman grubb, missionary to the belgian congo & former president of WEC International, and finally, after 40+ years of living with a guilty conscience, i saw the light of Scripture, and was set free!
“There is a world of difference between the nagging, corroding condemnations of the devil, and the clear convictions of the Spirit. The devil speaks in generalities, seeking to smear us by a general sense of failure, uncleanness, confusion, heaviness of spirit. The answer to that is there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. The Spirit speaks specifically, and His voice, although rebuking us, is sweet and clean and true and acceptable. He points out some exact and immediate action by which we have given temporary entrance to sin. Satan points downward to despair, but the Spirit points upwards to cleansing…Sometimes we may wonder just what is the meaning of that phrase, “the cleansing blood” . Why is the blood called precious? And why is it the glory of the saints through eternity? Moses had the priceless privilege of being the first in human history to reveal the blood to the world. To him was given the wonderful symbolic sacrifice of the Passover, with its constantly quoted word, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you…” —Norman Grubb, “The Liberating Secret” (longer excerpt here)
it is vital that we, as mothers, have a revelation of the power of the blood of Jesus in our own lives! the Lord will reveal this directly to the hearts of some of our children, like heron, but many (like my son!) will rely on their parents to share this liberating secret with them. the moment my husband shared this with my son, great chains were lifted off of him! he could walk in freedom, his back immediately straightened, countenance transformed. he’d searched his own heart & knew there was no hidden, unconfessed sin. it was the devil’s loathsome burden he’d been carrying for the past year!
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” —John 8:36 ESV
the first and most important act of faith, what makes us believers, is to believe that if you've repented of your sin in a moment of salvation, you are now clean before the Lord through the blood of Christ. this is foundational faith. while faith in the cleansing blood of Christ was a particular, one-time, crisis moment in each of our lives, it's also continual! from the point of your salvation, the moment you repent of any sin, you are instantly cleansed by that same precious blood. the Lord doesn’t want you to keep feeling bad about it! it’s faith in the instantaneous cleansing of the blood of Jesus that allows us to walk in purity & fellowship with the Father at all times, and it truly changes everything!
the moment the Holy Spirit brings something specific up to you, you may simply repent (say you're sorry), renounce (turn away from), and release! because of the blood Christ shed for you on the cross, when you believe that He took all of your pain, punishment, sin, guilt and shame upon himself, you are instantly cleansed. instantly! the veil is torn between you and the Father and you may now boldly enter into His presence.
and now i pass this prayer along to you, that you may have a revelation of the blood of Jesus, to cleanse you from a guilty conscience! may you come boldly into the presence of your Father, full fellowship restored, and may you boldly declare the riches of His grace to your children!
(wallpaper is trefle by etoffe in vermillion)
