2005 Singles Edition

Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004 1 V I S I O N Swww.visionschristianmagazine.com

Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004 www.visionschristianmagazine.comV I S I O N S 2

FEAFEAFEAFEAFEATURESTURESTURESTURESTURES

7 7 7 7 7 My First LoveMy First LoveMy First LoveMy First LoveMy First Love

byL.C.Tardy

13 13 13 13 13 Please God Not AidsPlease God Not AidsPlease God Not AidsPlease God Not AidsPlease God Not Aids

by Loretta Parker Spivey

16 16 16 16 16 Special Section:Special Section:Special Section:Special Section:Special Section:The Blood CovenantThe Blood CovenantThe Blood CovenantThe Blood CovenantThe Blood Covenant

by Vincent Vallane

POEMSPOEMSPOEMSPOEMSPOEMS

12 12 12 12 12 “Christian Friendships”“Christian Friendships”“Christian Friendships”“Christian Friendships”“Christian Friendships”

by Joe Floyd

12 “The Invitation”12 “The Invitation”12 “The Invitation”12 “The Invitation”12 “The Invitation”

by Joe Floyd

A SOLDIER IN THEA SOLDIER IN THEA SOLDIER IN THEA SOLDIER IN THEA SOLDIER IN THEARMY OF THE LARMY OF THE LARMY OF THE LARMY OF THE LARMY OF THE LORDORDORDORDORD

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by Rickey Macklinby Rickey Macklinby Rickey Macklinby Rickey Macklinby Rickey Macklin

Contents

CourtCourtCourtCourtCourtship:ship:ship:ship:ship:Doing itDoing itDoing itDoing itDoing it

God’God’God’God’God’s Ws Ws Ws Ws Waaaaayyyyy

Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004Singles Edition 2004 3 V I S I O N Swww.visionschristianmagazine.comCopyright 2003-2004 Visions Christian Magazine, Inc

L.C. TL.C. TL.C. TL.C. TL.C. Tararararardy Publisherdy Publisherdy Publisherdy Publisherdy PublishersssssPrPrPrPrPresident/CEOesident/CEOesident/CEOesident/CEOesident/CEO

ExExExExExecutivecutivecutivecutivecutive Edite Edite Edite Edite EditorororororsssssPenelope White

WWWWWriterriterriterriterriters/Rs/Rs/Rs/Rs/Regular Contributegular Contributegular Contributegular Contributegular ContributorororororsssssJoe Floyd

Rickey MacklinL.C. Tardy

Vincent Vallane

Graphic DesignersGraphic DesignersGraphic DesignersGraphic DesignersGraphic DesignersChauntika Broggin

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Romans 10:9-10

9That if you confess with yourmouth, “Jesus is Lord,” andbelieve in your heart that Godraised him from the dead, youwill be saved. 10For it is withyour heart that you believe andare justified, and it is with yourmouth that you confess andare saved.


by Rickey Macklin

I

Psalms 127:1,21. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vainthat build it: except the Lord keep the city, thewatchman waketh but in vain.2. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late,to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth hisbeloved sleep.

t is so important that I start here because ifthe Lord is not the builder then the Lord isnot obligated to be the keeper. The bottomline is all the decisions that we make outside

of Christ are subject to be vanity. So, what am I sayingin essence? Get the blueprint from God before youcommence to build your relationships. For if youdon’t, you will begin to build a house and later discover

that you lack the resources to finish it. Have you evernoticed houses or churches that were in the processof construction years ago and are still in the processof construction? Jesus puts it this way, which of youwill begin to build a house without first sitting downand counting the cost?

“…if the Lord is not the builderthen the Lord is not obligated to be the keeper.”

In the eyes of Jesus, any person that does this islikened to a fool. So, how does this parable tie in toCourtship? It’s simple. Do it God’s way and you willreap God’s benefits. Follow me in this article veryprecisely as I mention a series of points that I believeare critical when considering courting.

One: Understanding The Purpose

In the last article I was privy to write in VisionMagazine, I wrote of purpose and its significance toour destiny. Well that hasn’t changed and the reasonwhy, especially when dealing with the area ofrelationships, is that the person you hook-up with canpotentially destroy your destiny. So, what is it that Iwant to speak of in regards to purpose here? For amoment let’s deal with the purpose of Courtship andDating. If you do a thorough research on the topic,you will discover that courtship outlines the biblicalmodel of how relationships should work. Dating onthe other hand outlines the world’s way. As a matterof fact, the concept of dating wasn’t even introducedon the scene until the early 1920’s. Prior to that,

relationships were arranged – often times based onfamily background and the hopes and ambitions ofthe parents. Dating implies that I’ll try this and I’ll trythat and perhaps I’ll try this again. It’s a system basedon trial and error.

I always compare this concept to a sciencelaboratory. In the lab, if the scientist mixes the wrongchemicals, he would probably produce an explosion.Within that explosion, someone could get hurt, end upscared for life or possibly even die. So it is when weas men float from one woman to the nextexperimenting, we too end up leaving a lot of hurt andscared sisters behind. Unfortunately, most of thepeople I talk to say, well if you don’t date then howwill you ever know who’s the one? My question tothem and you is, if you are of the same mind, since


Pastor leads crusade against youth violencePastor leads crusade against youth violencePastor leads crusade against youth violencePastor leads crusade against youth violencePastor leads crusade against youth violence

when did God start allowing us to make decisions basedupon intellectualism? It’s an earthly leaning on oneslimited intellect to choose a God-ordained mate thatmay potentially be with them for the rest of their lives.But I read in Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 that I am totrust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean to myown understanding but in all of my ways acknowledgeHim and allow Him to direct my path.

“My question to them and you is, if you are of thesame mind, since when did God start allowing us tomake decisions based upon intellectualism?”That’s why you know so many people that are in andout of relationships and in and out of marriages –because God wasn’t in the selection process. Listen,either you are going to do it God’s way or you’re not.There is enough you’ll have to deal with once therelationship starts so you may as well do it God’s wayfrom the beginning. Courtship is the process thatoutlines this. If you follow the path of dating, you willsoon become frustrated and discouraged because yourdecision will primarily be based on your likes anddislikes; your backgrounds and similarities; how wellyou get along and how attractive he or she is. Child ofGod, although all of these things are important, noneof them are as important than a word from God. Ifthe Lord gives you a word, it really doesn’t matterwhat or how the situation presently is – he’ll work itout. Sure, you can meet someone who has it all togethertoday but only God knows where he or she will be infive years.

Now let’s deal with courtship since I believewe have a grasp on dating. While dating happensnumerous times, courtship should really happen onlyonce leading to a life long covenant relationship. Aswith courtship, in what we called it in the olden days,I still believe that God ordained relationships arearranged. For Isaac, Abraham sent out his servant tobring Rebekah. If you noticed, there were threeinvolved in this process: One, Abraham – the father;two, Isaac – the son and three the servant – as theservant (Genesis 24). You haven’t caught it yet? Keepreading! Today, the Father {God} already knowswhat we need and what is needed to accomplish His

purpose. As with Isaac, we are His sons anddaughters. Oh, as for the servant, the Holy Ghostlives within us leading and guiding us to all truth.My God, a divine connection! Let me give you thisscripture it may help you a little.

Philippians 2:1313. For it is God which worketh in you both to

will and to do of his good pleasure.

You got it! When we become saturated and engulfedwith a passionate desire to please Him, our desirebecomes or shall I say is His desire. The Holy Spiritis in us creating a desire towards that which pleasesthe Father. And Daddy knows what’s best for us. Iheard Pastor Tony Evans say, “while we can choosesomeone that’s good for us only God knows what isbest for us.” So, in courtship when God brings thetwo of you together, it will not necessarily be fleshattracting flesh but purpose attracting purpose –everything else are fringe benefits. So, what’s thepurpose of this union? God has a mandate on earthwritten from heaven that only the two of you togethercan fulfill. In addition, even your offspring have beenwritten in God’s script to do a work in their generation.

Now, although I do not have enough space to expoundon the numerous other points, I will at least mentionsome of them.

Two: Understanding Your Purpose

I always say, as I learned from my Mentor DrMyles Munroe some 10 years ago, that wherepurpose is not known abuse is inevitable. So, beforeentering into courtship, do a little homework first. Ifpurpose is what’s going to attract purpose then I needto know what my purpose is. So, here you go – forthose of you who are eagerly in search of your wivesand for those that are eagerly waiting to be discoveredby your husbands…find out who you are and whyyou’re here first. Dig deep and find out the purposeof the male, the purpose of the female and God’soriginal intent for both. Then find out your ownindividual purpose. You may not like what I’m saying


but Adam’s time of meeting Eve was after God laidout Adam’s purpose. It is the discovering of it thatqualifies you for your mate.

Three: Fall In Love With Daddy-God First

Love Him with your whole heart, your wholesoul and your whole body. Because God is love, aswe fall head over hills in love with Him, He will teachus how to love, honor and respect each other. Thistype of love can only be manifested in those that arein Him. Outside of Him (unsaved), as much as he orshe says they love you, it’s not the God kind of love.The truth of the matter is any person you engageyourself in relationship with that’s not saved is inessence a monster. You say how? Because they arewithout Christ – meaning they have no head.

Four: Understanding Covenant

Since courtship is designed to lead to marriage,this is a perfect time to get your house in order. Workon your character and your integrity. Understand thesignificance of covenant keeping. In the Old Hebrew

text, almost every decision made was ratified by acovenant. With the animals cut in two and bloodeverywhere, the covenanter would walk through theblood declaring that if he didn’t keep his part of theagreement then let the same thing that happened to theanimals likewise happen to him. So, since courtship isdesigned to lead to marriage, make sure that you areready to make this kind of commitment.

These are just a few of the things that are essentialto courtship but trust me there’s so much more.However, let me leave you with this, courtship can beseen as embodying three phases. The first is friendship,the second is relationship and the third is engagement.You say, but how do I start? If you happen to meetsomeone and the both of you feel like there is a divineconnection, seek God for clarity. I would suggest thatthe both of you fast until you get a word or a true peacefrom God. Then as you begin your courtship, takeyour time and develop a real friendship first. It is uponthis friendship that you will build your relationship.Below is a simple abstinence contract the Lord gaveme . It’s posted on my website but I’ll give it to youhere. This will be helpful in assisting the two of youmaintain sexual purity in your relationship.

Abstinence Contract

I pledge, before God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost and God’s holy angels to live asanctified life and to walk upright before God and you. I also pledge to live in abstinence until we aremarried.

I further pledge to honor and respect you as a friend and a mate but more importantly as God’schosen heritage. I will not become a stumbling block or create an occasion for you to fall to sexual sins. I will commit rather to encouragement, prayer and if need be fasting on your behalf.

Together, we will walk upright before God and He shall give us the desires of our hearts.

Sign____________________________ (you) Sign____________________________ (your mate)

Date____________________________

Rickey E. Macklin (http://www.ambassador4christ.org/abstinence.htm) © 2004

I cannot go into the do’s and don’ts in this article but at least you have a foundation on which to start. If you arealready in a relationship, please think this process through and make sure that what you’re in measures up withthe true standard – the word of God.

Rickey E. Macklin is a Minister at the Jericho City of Praise, he teaches the class, “Dating For Him, and is Author of two books,

“Daddy’s Waiting on You, and “God’’s Whole Armor.”


“My First Love”“My First Love”“My First Love”“My First Love”“My First Love”by L.C. Tardy

nations, and every high thing that exhaulted itself abovethe knowledge of God. I was starting to feel tempta-tion, and I began to pray and fast. So, I got on myknees with tears in my eyes, and ask the Lord to “Take

this thing fromme if it is not ofyou, O’God. Iasked the Lordto give me clar-ity on marriageand relationshipsand where Istood with Him.I ask Him toplant in my mindthe book of theBible that Ishould read. Isaid, “Please,Lord, I need toknow now, whatis going on in-side of me.” Onthis very samenight, the Lordspoke to myspirit, “Turn to 1C o r i n t h i a n sChapter 7. Thefunny thing is, Ihad been read-ing that chapterall along. ButGod was telling

me to read it again, and this time God gave me a deeperrevelation about marriage and relationships. The Lordhad the Apostle Paul, the writer of the book ofCorinthians, who spoke in Corinthians, chapter 7 tominister to my spirit. Paul was saying that he would

od is truly awesome! It is true when youask in Jesus Name, you shall receive. I hadbeen experiencing God’s miraculous powerin my life very strongly. Whatsoever I

asked in JesusName I re-ceived. I askthe Lord to giveme clarity onwhether or notHe was divinelyconnecting meand someonetogether formarriage. Ikept seeingsigns of it, andthis person wasalways in myspirit 24/7.When I desirednot to thinkabout him, hewas still on mymind. When Iwould see him,I wanted tobow in humbleadoration. Hewas truly a re-spected man ofGod. How-ever, I had toremind myselfthat Jesus is the only one that I adore that much! ThenI was not sure what God had spoken to his spirit. Ikept thinking: “Except the Lord build the house, it is ahouse built in vain.” Well, one night I was completelyexhausted from thinking and casting down all imagi-

G


Linda C. Tardy is a Freelance Writer/Author. She is the Publisher of this magazine, Visions Christian Magazine.

advise me to be celibate, “Not that married life is lessspiritual than celibate life, but his advice is the promo-tion of faithful and undistracted devotion to the Lord.”So what I gathered from this was that God do not wantus man nor woman to put anything or anybody aboveHIM, whether husband, wife, children, sister or brother.God is your “First Love,” and Husbandman.

I AM the true Vine andI AM the true Vine andI AM the true Vine andI AM the true Vine andI AM the true Vine andmmmmmy Fy Fy Fy Fy Father is the Husbandmanather is the Husbandmanather is the Husbandmanather is the Husbandmanather is the Husbandman

John 15:1

The revelation got even deeper. I read in 1 Corinthians7: 29-31 that it does not matter whether you have ahusband, wife, or even that you weep, because thefashion of this world passeth away. I had a clear un-derstanding as to why I was placed here on this earth,and it was not for marriage to another human being,but an undistracted devoted relationship of Praise &Worship with God. My purpose is to have a marriagecovenant with God, whether single or married. Alsomarriage is symbolic of the church: The Bible says inEphesians 5:22-23, Wives, submit yourselves unto yourown husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband isthe head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of thechurch: and he is the savior of the body. And Isaiah54:5 says, For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord ofhosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One ofIsrael; the God of the whole earth shall He be called.Then I went over to Revelations and read: And I Johnsaw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down fromGod out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned forher husband.

The Bible tells us that “An unmarried woman has moretime for God, and a married woman has more time forthe world and how she should please her husband, Iwould have you without carefulness.” Paul spoke this:“If you cannot contain then you should marry, for it isbetter to marry then to burn.1 Corinthians 6:13 Nowthe body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; andthe Lord for the body.”

The most awesome revelation that I received was dis-covering who I am in Christ and my purpose here onearth, which tells me where I stand with God and mar-riage.

In Matthew 22: 30,32, “When the Lord answered thedisciple and said, “For when they shall rise from thedead: they neither marry nor are given in marriage, butare as the angels which are in heaven.” The Lord saidthat He is not the God of the dead, but the God of theliving.

It is imperative that we understand that we are not madewhole by our husbands and wives, but by the bloodand by the eternal love of Christ. Until we are con-tented with being alone with God, we will never under-stand true love. Love is eternal not temporal, and Godis eternal, not temporal. He (God) has made every-thing beautiful in it’s time, also He had set the world intheir heart, so that no man can find out the work thatGod maketh from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes3:11(a)).


Spirit of Faith Christian CenterFaith PlazaDrs Mike and DeeDee Freeman2261 Oxon Run DriveTemple Hills, Maryland 20748(301) 630-3733www.spiritofffaith.org

Hope Christian Church4700 Boston WayLanham, Maryland

Jericho City of PraiseDr. Pastor Betty P. Peebles, Sr.8501 Bishop Peebles DriveLandover, Maryland 20785(301) 333-0500www.jerichocop.org

Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal ChurchReverend Dr. Grainger Browning, Sr. PastorReverend Dr. Jo Ann Browning, Co PastorThe Family of GodServing the Family of God7707 Allentown RoadFt Washington, Maryland(301) 248-8833www.eamefw.com

Ministry EvMinistry EvMinistry EvMinistry EvMinistry Eventententententsssss:::::

Friday Night - January 23rd 7:00 PM Sunday Night - February 29th 7:00 PMSpirit of Faith Singles Ministry (South Location) Jericho Singles MinistrySpeakers: Pastor Michael & Dee Dee Freeman Movie Night - “Passion” Min. Krystal Tibbs on (301) 630-3733 Dea. Rayetta Byrd on (301) 333-0500

Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church610 Rhode Island Ave., N.E. Washington, D.C.20002-1292Office: 202.529.4547Fax: 202.529.4495 • TDD [email protected]

First Baptist Church of GlenardenPastor John Jenkins3600 Brightseat RoadLandover , Maryland 20785(301) 773-3600

Singles MinistriesSingles MinistriesSingles MinistriesSingles MinistriesSingles Ministries


Seniors Pastors, Dr. Michael and Deloris Freeman of Spirit of Faith Christian Center’s (SOFCC) vision are tobuild people of purpose, power and praise in faith, the family and finance through fellowship. As the ministrygrew, Pastors Mike and DeeDee, as they are so lovingly known as, saw an immediate need to house a groupof individual that were not married, yet seeking GOD’s best.

In 1998, Minister Krystal Tibbs, a faithful partner who rose up from the broken singleto the Woman of God she was called to be, was appointed by Pastors as the Head ofthe Single’s Ministry of SOFCC. Min. Kris, with no staff, took on her assignment fromGOD with excitement. She composed a vision for the singles: Every single is completein spirit, soul, and body lacking no components, andin need of no external resources tomake him/her whole. The singles know who they are in Christ and their self-worth.There will be no compromise on the Body of Christ. Romans 12:1 “I beseech youtherefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,holy, acceptable unto GOD, which is your reasonable service.” She was so determinedwith the loving support of the Pastors and leadership of SOFCC to trust GOD. Shestood on GOD’s word. As a direct result of her faithfulness, the ministry has reaped thefruit of her labor. The Single’s Ministry has been blessed with thirteen anointed Minis-try of Helps staff to inlcude a Research Developer, a Marketing Expert, 2 Administra-tive Assistants and an Assist Department Head who all truly believe in 1 Corinthians 3:9

The SOFCC Single’s Ministry purpose is to enhance the spiritual growth of every male and female in theirsingle state in accordance to the vision of SOFCC. Every single is complete in Christ (Spirit, Soul, and Body),lacking no components, and in need of no external resources to make him/her whole.

As singles at SOFCC we receive the unadulterated, uncompromising word of GOD and have great fun. Eachyear under the grace of GOD, the Single’s plan and expedite activities and fun filled events include: Word BaseMeeting, Ski Adventures Crab Feast, GameNIght, Lunch/Dinner Cruises, Roller Skating,Bowling, and Jean Socials. Pastors Mike andDee Dee meet with us the first of the year to bringforth a word from God for us, answer questions,and encourage us to careth for the things of theLord. 1 Corinthians 7:32

Throughout the year we learn: 1) who we are ac-cording to the Word; a child of GOD-Roman8:16, joint heir with Christ-Roman 8:17, needsmet by Jesus-Philippians 4:19, more than con-querors-Roman 8:37, an imitator of Jesus-Ephesians 5:1 2) our purpose; careth for thethings of the LORD-1 Corinthians 7:32, dwell-ing in fullness of the GOD head...complete in him-Colossians 2:9-10 and 3) how to live in our single state; weare confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body...2 Corinthians 5:8 with understanding-Proverb 4:7 and full of joy 1 Peter 4:13.We have replaced the old man’s way with the new man’s way 2 Corinthians 5:17!

Satisfied, in God, Living Expectation-Single.

Spirit of Faith Christian Center’s (SOFCC) Single’s MinistryFaith Plaza-Drs Mike and DeeDee Freeman

2261 Oxon Run Drive, Temple Hills, Maryland 20748(301) 630-3733 www.spiritofffaith.org


poetry

Christian FriendshipsChristian FriendshipsChristian FriendshipsChristian FriendshipsChristian FriendshipsFriendships are based

On love and trustAnd Christian valuesAre a definite must.

God has promisedTo be there for you

And Christian friendsFeel the same way too.

Finding Christian friendsHas a certain perk

Sharing the Word of GodCan make a friendship work.

Having Christ in commonIs a good place to start

Then you grow with timeAnd test each other’s heart.

God brings friends togetherAnd he wishes you the very bestRemember your Christian valuesYour friendship will be blessed.

Joe Floyd

An InvitationAn InvitationAn InvitationAn InvitationAn Invitation

I’m going to be in church on SundayI thought maybe you’d like to come alongI’m sure that you would enjoy the service

Praising the Lord in word and song.

Just think how hard you worked this weekUnder pressure that stressed your mindCome with me and relieve the tensionLeaving the grief and troubles behind.

The time you spend with God in church

Could be a chance to open your eyesYou’ll hear the reading of the Holy Word

The Word is truth you’ll hear no lies.

You’ll learn the teachings of Jesus ChristAnd the meaning of the life he gave

You’ll know why all your sins are forgivenYour life is one he was sent to save.

At times I’ve seen your painful tearsYou appeared to be looking for helpCome and see what worked for meBecause I know just how you felt.

If you should have a troubled heartAnd you’re living a life in despair

Come and God’s love will set you freeCome walk with me in prayer.

Joe Floyd


Please, God—NotPlease, God—NotPlease, God—NotPlease, God—NotPlease, God—NotAidsAidsAidsAidsAidsAs told to Loretta Parker Spivey

hen I found out that my son had AIDS, Iscreamed. You could hear me all over theneighborhood. My son was socompassionate. He just held me and said,

“It’s gonna be OK, Mom.” He believed it would beOK because his will to live was incredible, and at thattime he really did not believe that he was going to die.

He lived 200 miles from me at the time, and I wantedhim to move home to live with us, so that I could carefor him properly. I had seen people live and die withAIDS, and I knew it would be a rough road. Ultimatelywe decided that it was best for him to stay where hewas. That meant that every weekend I hit the highwayto go see my baby. I say my baby because a mother’schild is always her baby, whether he is 3 years old or33 years old, as my son, Jarred*, was.

We didn’t have the luxury of easing into the illness theway some families do. First, they hear the words HIVpositive and that it could literally be years before thedisease turns into full-blown AIDS. Jarred was sick,went to the hospital, was tested, and was diagnosedwith AIDS. It all happened very fast.

One moment I had a typical mother’s concern thather son wasn’t feeling well, and within weeks I wasvisiting him at a residential-care facility for people withHIV/AIDS. I remember when I first heard that hewas in the hospital with pneumonia. I was at work,and, I guess, way in the back of my mind I knew. Ibroke into a cold sweat and said, “Oh, my God, pleasedon’t let my child be sick.” I recalled a beesting thatdidn’t properly heal and started putting some otherthings together in my head. “O Lord, please don’t letmy child have AIDS.”.

Not long after, I was screaming and cryinguncontrollably—my son had AIDS.

Looking back, I can see how the Lord was preparingme. He taught me compassion and acceptance. Iremember, two years before Jarred was diagnosed,my friend calling me one night, tired and stressed, totell me her son had AIDS. All she wanted to do wasto get out of the house, but she couldn’t leave her sonand she couldn’t take him with her, not because hewas too sick, but because of people’s reactions. Iinvited her to our home. She hesitated because peoplereacted so negatively to him in social situations thatshe had really stopped taking him out because of thehurt that both would experience as a result of the fearsand ignorance of people (Christian people, I mightadd).

She and her son came over and just enjoyed beingout and accepted. I knew I couldn’t get AIDS frombeing kind, compassionate, and supportive. I wasnever fearful that I could get AIDS from casual contact.

That experience and similar ones helped me to developa sense of compassion. And God helped me to love

W


my son unconditionally. You see, he was a homosexual;he was openly gay. I knew that, and although I did notapprove of his lifestyle, he was my child, and I lovedhim unconditionally. I say to parents that it is soimportant to love your children unconditionally.Accepting salvation is a choice. We cannot choosesalvation for our children; they must choose it forthemselves, and no matter what their choice, we mustlove them. Maybe we can love them right into the armsof Christ.

We must love them in the good times and in the badtimes. AIDS caused my son to lose a tremendousamount of weight and experience severe dementia,which is a broad term for a syndrome characterizedby a general decline in higher brain functioning, suchas reasoning, with a pattern of eventual decline in abilityto perform even basic activities of daily living, such astoileting and eating. Dementia is also characterized bymemory loss, wandering, and significantly decreasedjudgment.

At one point, his behavior became so erratic andtroublesome that the residential facility where he livedsaid that they just couldn’t handle him and that wewould have to place him elsewhere. I convinced themto let him stay. There was nowhere else for him to go.I did attempt to keep him at home. It was very difficult.My husband and I worked full-time jobs, and Jarredrequired much more care and attention than we wereable to provide. At the residential facility he was loved,supported, and very well cared for.

Believe me, he had everything he needed and wanted.I treated him as if every day might be his last. I neverwanted him to want for anything. From flowers tosocks to CD players to whatever he needed to makehim more comfortable, I got it for him.

I was happy to meet his material needs whenever Icould, but it was his emotional and spiritual needs thatI was most interested in. One night he admitted thathe was afraid: afraid of his future, and afraid to die. Atthat moment God gave me supernatural strength to be

calm as I talked to my child about his impending death.I told Jarred, “You don’t have to be afraid. God is sofaithful. You have given your heart and life to Jesus.You don’t have to be afraid. You will go to sleep, andwhen you wake up you will see the face of Jesus.”We talked and prayed. Later he told me that he hadindeed given his heart to Jesus and was lookingforward to going to heaven. Three days after that, heslipped into a coma and died peacefully. Peoplereminded me of what a blessing it was that he diedpeacefully, but I still couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t believe that he was dead. Others were indisbelief as well. People who die of AIDS usually suffera lot and ultimately die slowly and painfully. I took hisdeath very hard. He was my son, and even though hewas grown, it just isn’t natural for parents to outlive theirchildren.

After his death I was a total wreck. I was so despondentthat counselors called me to offer their services. I couldn’tconcentrate on anything; I really couldn’t think—it justconsumed me. Years later, not a day goes by that I don’tthink about him. It has taken me almost until now to getto the point where I am not screaming and crying. I stillmiss him, but it’s different now.

Now my focus is on Christ and helping others. Now Ican see that I am a better person because of thatexperience. I am much more compassionate. I understandmore about unconditional love and the ministry of JesusChrist. He was willing to reach out and touch the“untouchables.” I really learned how to pray and dependon God for physical and emotional strength. Throughoutthe whole ordeal I never once got sick. I was exhaustedat times, but God kept me well enough to be there formy son. Most of all, I really want to go to heaven. I havea longing for it. I want to help as many people as I can,especially those impacted by AIDS. I want to live my lifeon this earth in such a way that I will be able see myJesus and my son Jarred in heaven.

*All names have been changed.

LORETTA PARKER SPIVEY is the music and book review maven for Message Magazine. She is working on her second book, EternityInterrupted, which addresses the grief associated with the death of a loved one. She writes from Windsor, Connecticut.


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THE BLOOD COVENANTTHE BLOOD COVENANT


WThe Pt.1: Tracing the History of theCovenant

hen you understand the covenantrelationship, then you understand why Jesuscame to this earth and the meaning of thescripture that tells us that He died that we

might have life and that we might have it moreabundantly. Through His death, the Lord Jesus broughtabout the New Covenant of His blood. That is whatthis is about. Most who go to church and even havebeen saved for some time have no idea what the bloodcovenant is all about or what Jesus accomplished forus at Calvary that we call the finished works of Calvaryas captured by the words of Christ Himself when Heexclaimed on the cross, “ It is finished.”

Let us begin with these verses: Psalm 25:14 “Thesecret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and hewill show them his covenant.” Psalm 89:34 “My cov-enant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is goneout of my lips.” What does the scripture mean by theword covenant? The first place the word covenant ismentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 6:18. “But withthee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt comeinto the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thysons\’ wives with thee.” The first use of covenant hasto do with God dealing with Noah and the saving ofhis family from the judgment that was to come uponthe world.

The law of first reference says that whatever themeaning of a word or the way it is first used in theBible, is the meaning of the word whenever it is usedlater in the Bible. Here the word covenant is used inreference to an Ark that would become the Ark ofsafety and deliverance for Noah and his family. Gen-esis 6:14 “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; roomsshalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within andwithout with pitch.” It says that the Ark was pitchedwithin and without with a black pitch. In this versethere are two different Hebrew words used for pitch.The first word for pitch means to cover and is a wordfor atone and is translated in different places as ap-pease, make atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, bemerciful, pacify, pardon, to pitch, purge, make recon-ciliation. The last word for pitch in this verse is in ref-

erence to a black tar like substance that will seal wood.So the scripture could read; And Noah did atone theboat with pitch. So the Ark is a type of protection andatonement. Noah built a boat to the saving of his house-hold, which is the covenant that God made with him.So the theme of the covenant is about God protectinga people. God raising up a people, protecting thatpeople and developing a personal relationship withthose people.

The Hebrew word for covenant, ‘beriyth, ber-eeth’is found 280 times in the Old Testament and means acompact (because it was made by passing betweenpieces of flesh: It is translated as confederacy, cov-enant, or league). Ex: When God made covenant withAbram in Genesis 15:9-10,17-18a. “And he said untohim, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a shegoat of three years old, and a ram of three years old,and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he tookunto him all these, and divided them in the midst, andlaid each piece one against another: but the birds di-vided he not... And it came to pass, that, when the sunwent down, and it was dark, behold a smoking fur-nace, and a burning lamp that passed between thosepieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenantwith Abram...” The root word means to eat and alsoto cut. So a covenant, in Old Testament times, involvedthe eating of a sacrificial meal and the cutting of theflesh of an animal and so also refers to the shedding ofblood. The English word covenant is used 272 timesin the Old Testament. The word ‘beriyth, ber-eeth’ issometimes translated as ‘league’, which appears 19times in the Old Testament, but some of those aretranslated from the Hebrew word chabar, khaw-bar\’meaning to join or have fellowship with. The wordcovenant seems to come form an ancient Semitic wordfrom the Middle East area where the Arab and No-mad people became blood brothers by cutting theirwrists or palm of their hand, the blood of which raninto a cup and then it was mixed with wine and drank,signifying they were blood brothers by covenant. Thisintroduced people into a tribe and also to the protec-tion of the god that clan or tribe was under. This ideaof blood being related to covenant is found through-out the world in various world religions. Dr. Livingstonwas in Africa and a man named Stanley went on a


search to find him. Stanley wanted to know how toget into Africa and travel and be protected. He wastold that he had to cut the covenant with a chieftain.He did. The chieftain had a man representing him andStanley had a man representing him. They cut a slit intheir wrist and drink from the cup their blood wascaught in. Then they put gunpowder over the woundso that it would heal and then they had to exchangegifts. Now Stanley had ulcers so he carried a goatwith him to drink the milk. The chief wanted the goatand Stanley was hesitant to do it and then he was toldthat if he didn’t give up the goat the chief might kill himbecause they had made covenant and what was hisnow belonged to the chief. So, he gave his goat to thechief and asked what he would get in return. The Chiefgave him a big stick with copper on top of it. Stanleythought that he just gave up his goat for some dumb

stick. But what Stanley didn’t realize was that that stickrepresented the chief. So when Stanley’s man wouldhold this staff up when they went to different Africantribes, they all honored Stanley and it opened the doorto him because he had made covenant with one of thegreat chieftains in Africa. Also they spoke a blessingover a person for obeying the covenant and a curse ifthey disobeyed it, just as in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 49:16 “Behold, I have graven thee upon thepalms of my hands; thy walls are continually beforeme.” We know that through the crucifixion of Christwe enter into a covenant relationship with Him andJesus bears the scars, the mark of the covenant in hishands. I believe that he does not bear physical scars,but literal holes in his hands and feet where the nailswere driven and there are numerous reasons for thisincluding the scripture in John 20:27 “Reach hither thyfinger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand,and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but be-lieving.” Jesus blood ran from his body and so therewas no clotting of blood and no closing of the wound

when He was buried. Then that body rose from thedead and has no blood according to scripture. I be-lieve it is as it was in that respect. Also, because a manof God was taken to heaven said when he fell at hisfeet the first thing he saw was the holes left by the nailsand it impressed upon him the great price that He paidfor our salvation. But in the ancient time they cut thewrist or palm of the hand to cut covenant. Isaiah 62:8“The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by thearm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy cornto be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of thestranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thouhast laboured.” Many times in the covenant, they wouldmake an oath by raising their right arm. It was a signof oath or covenant. This oath was the sealing of thecovenant. This has carried over even to our court sys-tems today, in raising the right hand to make an oath

to speak the truth. Abraham did this in Genesis 15.He raises his right hand and made an oath to the Lord.

So as the first use of covenant in the Bible was inrelationship to Noah building an ark to save his house-hold, the theme of the Bible is God saving a people,delivering a people, protecting that people and even-tually replacing it with the New Covenant to save allmen of all races that would believe in Christ and theprice He paid to make covenant with all men whowould receive it. Anytime the word ‘beriyth, ber-eeth’is used it implies a cutting of some kind and the shed-ding of blood. Our Bible is made in two parts, the OldTestament or Old Covenant and New Testament orNew Covenant.

The real covenant story began in Genesis. The OldCovenant was made by God with Abraham and car-ried till the death and resurrection of Jesus, which in-stituted the New Covenant of His blood. The wordtestament is an English word for a will, as we speak ofa last will and testament concerning someone who hasdied. Hebrews tells us that a will or testament is not in

“...the theme of the Bible is God saving a people, delivering a people, protectingthat people and eventually replacing it with the New Covenant to save all men ofall races that would believe in Christ and the price He paid to make covenant


force until the testator dies (Hebrews 9:17). It is a willwith promises and provisions, that if we will obey wewill be in covenant with God. Christ is the mediator ofthe New Covenant. This is the foundation to under-stand the covenant and that when you enter into arelationship with God, everything He has belongs toyou and everything that you have now belongs to Him.You take His name and His nature and He removesyour sins. I call it the Divine Exchange. What you havefor what He has. What you are for what He is. It’syour life for His life, not the harlot version of Chris-tianity today where God gives you everything with nostrings attached and you owe Him nothing in return.

The first reference of the cutting of animal skins isnot with Abraham or even Noah, but in the Garden ofEden after Adam and Even fell by sin. God then killedtwo animals and used the skins to cover Adam andEve. Later it became the slaying of animals for He-brews 9:22 says, without the shedding of blood thereis no remission (of sin). All covenants have severalfeatures. First there are the terms of agreement. Thisis what I am expecting out of you and what I am ex-pecting you to do. The terms of agreement in Genesisfor the covenant was that all Jewish males born fromAbraham onward were to be circumcised on the 8thday. The reason God picked the 8th day for circumci-sion was never understood until modern medical sci-ence showed that on the 8th day the baby has more ofthe blood clotting substance, (vitamin K), that an anyother time in their life. That way the child healed muchfaster with less bleeding. Also it is interesting to notethat the number 8 is used in the Bible to represent newbeginnings.

The circumcision of the male child was a verifica-tion and testimony that you were in agreement withGod and were in covenant with Him. That circumci-sion was the mark of the covenant. In the New Testa-ment the agreement is by circumcision of the heartand our agreeing to obey Him. The mark of circumci-sion in the New Testament is that of a change of heartand agreeing with the Word of God by repentance ofsin. Secondly, in all covenants there was the swearingof an oath and sealing of the blood. In the Old Testa-ment it was done through animal sacrifices and in theNew Testament through the blood of Jesus that was

shed for all men at Calvary. In the Old Testament,men brought a bull or goat or ram to offer on the altaras a sign of repentance of sin. Christ paid the price forour entering into covenant with God and we merelyaccept His sacrifice by faith and the covenant is sealedwith His blood instead of the blood of animals.

In all covenants there are the blessing of keepingcovenant and the curse for breaking covenant. That isspelled out in Deuteronomy chapters 27 & 28. Therewas the blessing of the law for keeping it and the curseof the law for disobeying the terms of the covenant. Inthe New Testament we have been redeemed from thecurse of the law, Christ being made a curse for us. Butthat doesn’t mean that there is not a qualification anddemand for our obedience. We are redeemed fromthe curse of sin and the punishment for that sin whenwe repent of sin. But God still requires obedience tothe repentant sinner, which brings God’s blessings uponthat life. If we disobey we are chastised or punishedby God for disobedience. If we walk in obedience tothe Lord, then we have the promises of the covenant.As, John 14:14 “If ye shall ask any thing in my name,I will do it.” Yet the requirement and condition is givenin verse 15, that we keep his commandments. So allcovenants have an agreement, a sealing of blood oran oath and a blessing and curse. That is the samewhether in the Old or New Testament.

The first reference of the word covenant is Gen-esis 6:18 when God made a covenant with Noah andhis family that if they would build an Ark, He wouldspare them and then through them repopulated theearth. “But with thee will I establish my covenant; andthou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, andthy wife, and thy sons\’ wives with thee.” Genesis 9:15was another covenant God made with Noah as rep-resenting all mankind, that He would never again de-stroy the earth with water and the sign of the covenantwas the rainbow. “And I will remember my covenant,which is between me and you and every living crea-ture of all flesh; and the waters shall no more becomea flood to destroy all flesh.” We see a half circle; halfrainbow on earth and the other part of it is round aboutthe throne in heaven (Revelation 4:3). “And he thatsat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone:and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in


sight like unto an emerald.” If you put the two togetherthey would form a complete circle, as there is a circlein circumcision. God put half the bow on earth andhalf of the bow in heaven. It doesn’t matter that thereis a scientific explanation that it is caused by the bend-ing of light rays by the water in the air. There had neverbeen a rainbow or rain prior to this time. So here Godmade a change in nature and science and caused thisto be so that we have a visible sign and reminder of hispromise and covenant with man.

Then God made a covenant with Abraham to makea great nation of him. Genesis 17:1-2, 5-6. “And whenAbram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD ap-peared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Al-mighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.And I will make my covenant between me and thee,and will multiply thee exceedingly... Neither shall thyname any more be called Abram, but thy name shallbe Abraham; for a father of many nations have I madethee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I willmake nations of thee, and kings shall come out ofthee.” So God promised to make Abraham great, hisname great and his seed great. In Noah’s covenantthe sign of the covenant was the rainbow (Genesis9:13). “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall befor a token of a covenant between me and the earth.”For Abraham, the sign or token of the covenant wascircumcision (Genesis 17:11-12). “And ye shall cir-cumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be atoken of the covenant betwixt me and you. And hethat is eight days old shall be circumcised among you,every man child in your generations, he that is born inthe house, or bought with money of any stranger, whichis not of thy seed.” God was so serious of this that hesaid if the child was not circumcised on the 8th day,then the soul of that child would be cut off from amongthe people.

In Exodus, Moses was told to go down to Egyptto tell Pharaoh to let His people go and Moses tookhis wife and two sons and their came the time whereGod sought to kill Moses and his two sons. Mosesthen did something that upset his wife greatly. He im-mediately had her circumcise his two sons, which hadnot been circumcised and she called him a bloody man.Exodus 4:24-26 “And it came to pass by the way in

the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to killhim. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut offthe foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said,Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let himgo: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, becauseof the circumcision.”

God would not let Moses go gown to Egypt with-out putting his sons under the covenant. When Joshuawas about to lead the children of Israel into the prom-ised land, there were a lot of men born in the wilder-ness that were not circumcised and Joshua had themall circumcised and then they had to wait to recoverbefore beginning the trip. In each case, God demandedthat all males be circumcised before they entered intobattle because He could not protect them and fulfillthe promises of his covenant if they were uncircum-cised going into battle. Because circumcision was ademand or condition and sign of the covenant withGod, it became so important to the Jewish peoplethat in the day of the early church many thought thatwithout circumcision one couldn’t become a Christianand be a follower of Jesus. They believed this sostrongly because their law said the soul that was notcircumcised would be cut off from among the people.When a Jewish man would go into his wife to have achild, the seed of sperm has to pass through the markof the covenant before entering the woman’s body. Itmeant that the seed was marked for the covenant andthat is why the male circumcision was so important inthe time of the Bible as a mark and sign of their cov-enant with God.

Remember the story of Mr. Stanley. In marriage,the covenant is the same. Whatever is your wife’s be-comes yours and what is yours becomes hers. Thatwhich you own or that which you owe become com-mon ownership and responsibility in the marriage cov-enant. All covenants have that exchange of posses-sion and responsibility. Again, showing the power ofthe covenant. When God was going to destroy Sodomand Gomorrah, Abraham’s nephew Lot was living inthe city. So, God first went to Abraham with his planto destroy the city and would not destroy the city with-out first telling Abraham because of their covenant andAbraham could negotiate with God because he hadfamily relatives in the city. In Genesis 22:1-2 God


asked Abraham to go offer his son upon an altar. “Andit came to pass after these things, that God did temptAbraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said,Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son,thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get theeinto the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burntoffering upon one of the mountains which I will tellthee of.” Abraham didn’t answer and say, but if I offermy son and he dies, how will your word to me then befulfilled? Abraham understood the covenant he hadand that if God wanted something from him, then hewas obligated to give it to God, but also, if he neededsomething from God, then God would give it to him.This is the real understanding of the covenant that wehave missed and lost today. We have this concept ofGod, at least as I grew up in the A/G, where He couldmake demands of us, but we are not allowed to make

demands of Him. He is God and we are but servantsand that is true. But that is not the covenant relation-ship we have been given through the blood of Jesus, ifwe truly enter into that covenant with Him. If we arewalking in the covenant and being obedient of God’sdemands of us, then if we have need of anything, wehave a right to ask it and He said He will do it. If I amin true covenant with God, if I believe it and walk in it,then all I have belongs to Him and all He has belongsto me. That is where the promise of Philippians 4:19comes in. “My God shall supply all your need ac-cording to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” It isn’tgood for anyone who claims to be a Christian, butthose who walk in the covenant. My need becomesHis, but only when His needs become mine. WhenHe needs me to witness to someone, I do it. When heneeds me to help someone, give to someone, what-ever He asks me to do that I do it. As we obey Himand do what He asks of us, then we walk in covenantand the blessing and favor of God will come to us.

We see that the covenant and blessing is passed

on from Abraham to Isaac, then to Jacob. Then in thetime of Moses the Hebrew people are in Egypt. Theyhave become slaves and are building these treasurecities for Pharaoh. Exodus 2:24 “And God heard theirgroaning, and God remembered his covenant withAbraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” As the peoplecried out to Him, He remembered His covenant withthem. It doesn’t mean that He had forgotten His cov-enant with the people, but when they began to cryout, then His covenant came in remembrance to Him,that He had promised Abraham that after 400 yearsHe would bring them out of Egypt (Genesis 15:13-14). “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety thatthy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them fourhundred years; And also that nation, whom they shallserve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out

with great substance.” And God did all He promisedAbraham He would do. Then they got into the wilder-ness and started worshipping this cow and the Lordtold Moses that He would kill them and start overwith Moses and rise up a new nation from him (Exo-dus 32:7-14). As Abraham understood that as He wasrequired to give God anything He asked for, the Lordwas also required to meet His needs and grant Hisrequests, Moses understood that God will becomeangry with His people for their disobedience, but Godis still faithful to His covenant if He is reminded of itand will never break it and He will be faithful in takingcare of His people.

Again and again in the Old Testament we see theprophets prayed in the name of Abraham, Isaac andJacob. That was to remind God that they were of theseed of Abraham, whom God had made covenant with.In Luke we were told the woman with a spirit of infir-mity was a daughter of Abraham meaning that she cameunder God’s covenant (Luke 13:16). So when Mosessaid remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Exodus

“Psalm 89:34 “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone outof my lips.”


32:13, he was praying a covenant prayer to remindGod of His covenant with His people. “RememberAbraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thouswarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I willmultiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all thisland that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed,and they shall inherit it for ever.”

In the time of King David, God made a covenantwith Him for a throne and a king to rule from Jerusa-lem. Abraham had a covenant concerning the land ofIsrael. Moses had a covenant concerning the nation ofIsrael and David had a covenant concerning the city ofJerusalem as the capitol of Israel. The covenant withDavid had to do with his being kind and his descen-dants ruling from Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 7:12-14 “Andwhen thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thyfathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shallproceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his king-dom. He shall build an house for my name, and I willstablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” Psalm 89:4“Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thythrone to all generations.” Also Psalm 132:11-12.

King Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin was the firstkind of Israel, then God raised up David out of theprophetic tribe of Judah. David ruled for 40 years andgave the throne to Solomon who ruled for 40 years,who passed the throne to Rehoboam. Rehoboam madesome foolish decisions, which were from the Lord, sothat He could split the kingdom between the Northand South. From that time, David had a descendentthat sat upon the throne in Israel, though only over onetribe. David had been a man after God’s own heart,but he made a serious error in the matter of adulterywith Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriahthe Hittite. The prophet Nathan then came to Davidand he was told his judgment in 2 Samuel 12:9-11.“Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment ofthe LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriahthe Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to bethy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the chil-dren of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall neverdepart from thine house; because thou hast despisedme, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to bethy wife. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise upevil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take

thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thyneighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight ofthis sun.” David had a son named Adonijah, a sonnamed Amnon, and a son named Absolom. The firstson of Bathsheba died because of his sin and then thesecond was Solomon. But because this sword did notdepart from David’s house, he outlived four of his sons.But we can still see the power of the covenant withDavid, whom God made a covenant with concerninghis throne. 1 Kings 15:4 “Nevertheless for David\’ssake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusa-lem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusa-lem.” 86 years after David died. So even though thisdescendant of David didn’t do what was right, Godleft him in power in Jerusalem to fulfill his covenantwith David. This also is stated concerning several otherdescendants of David. 2 Kings 8:18-19 “And hewalked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did thehouse of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife:and he did evil in the sight of the LORD. Yet the LORDwould not destroy Judah for David his servant\’s sake,as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to hischildren.” Jehoram came to power 156 years afterDavid. 2 Kings 8:16 “And in the fifth year of Joram theson of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then kingof Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judahbegan to reign.” Ahab’s wife was Jezebel, one of themost wicked women in the Bible and it was her daugh-ter that was married to Jehoram. They were wickedand didn’t do what was right in God’s sight, but Goddidn’t do remove him because of His promise and cov-enant He made with David.

Psalm 89:34 “My covenant will I not break, noralter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Isaiah 45:23a“I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of mymouth in righteousness, and shall not return.” WhenGod says something, it is settled and He will fulfill it.When God swears by Himself He is saying I guaranteethat I will keep my word and if I break my word, I willdestroy my throne in the heavens. That is the power ofGod’s Word. That is why we were given Numbers23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither theson of man, that he should repent: hath he said, andshall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he notmake it good?” Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that


goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto mevoid, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and itshall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” 2Corinthians 1:20 “For all the promises of God in himare yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God byus.” Jeremiah 1:12 “For I will hasten my word to per-form it.”

And so God allowed these wicked men to reignon the throne because of His promise and covenant toDavid, which He would not break. In 2 Kings 20 kingHezekiah, 313 years after David had died, needs amiracle of healing, the Assyrians are invading the city.2 Kings 20:5-6 “Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the cap-tain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God ofDavid thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seenthy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thoushalt go up unto the house of the LORD. And I willadd unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver theeand this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; andI will defend this city for mine own sake, and for myservant David\’s sake.” This is the third example thatspecifically names David and God’s faithfulness of Hispromise. God was still remembering David, 313 yearsafter his death. That was the power of the covenantand word of God and why His covenant is unchange-able. Psalm 119:89 “For ever, O LORD, thy word issettled in heaven.” Psalm 105:8 “He hath rememberedhis covenant for ever, the word which he commandedto a thousand generations.” In his anger, God couldhave gotten rid of those wicked kings. He didn’t jus-tify their sins but said the only reason you have notbeen removed from the throne is that I am remember-ing your father David and the covenant I have madewith him.

Remember that in the first context and use of theword covenant in scripture, it had to do with Noahand his building an ark. It was God telling Noah thatHe would save Noah and his family if he would beobedient and build the ark. God’s will is to save. Jesuscame to seek and to save the lost. His will is to saveyou and your house. We do our best to train up ourchildren in the fear and admonition of the Lord, yetmany of them leave the Lord and walk out in sin andrebellion. This is where, if we are walking in covenant,we can stand for them, that God would save them.

Many sitting in church have come to Jesus to be theirsavior, but they have not made Him Lord in your life.They have come to Him for fire insurance and that isthe extent of their understanding. When you make HimLord, it means that you belong to Him, that He is yourowner and He is the Lord over your life. Then youdon’t make decisions without consulting Him; you don’tdo things contrary to the Word of God. You walk incovenant with Him. Then God works on your behalfin ways He cannot in the lives of those who do nothave a covenant with Him. There are others, who domore than just believe God for salvation and actuallydo things ‘for’ God. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into thekingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of myFather which is in heaven. Many will say to me in thatday, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy namedone many wonderful works? And then will I professunto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye thatwork iniquity.” The Greek word for knew, means tohave an intimate relationship with. God wants us tohave an intimate relationship with Him. To understandthat is to understand the covenant that He wants tomake and has provided to make with us through Hisblood. The theme of scripture in relationship to cov-enant is that God wants to save you and your family.

In the time of Abraham, God birthed the nationthrough Isaac and then Jacob who became Israel andhis sons became the nation of Israel, God’s covenantpeople. Then through His covenant people, God re-vealed His prophets, His covenant and raised up apeople through which the Messiah would come intothe world and bring redemption through the NewCovenant of His blood. The Old Testament predictedthat God would write His word upon their hearts andestablish a New Covenant with His people and thisHe did through Christ.

In Hebrew, the word for covenant means to cutand implies a cutting of flesh. In the Old Testament itwas the slaying of animals. The whole understandingof the covenant is tied to understanding the role ofblood, for there can be no covenant without the shed-ding of blood. World religions have some form of of-fering of blood. Even Satanism uses blood in sacri-


fices, sometimes animal and sometimes-human bloodbecause they believe that in sacrificing blood there ispower.

Most alleged haunted houses have demons con-nected to them. Though men believe that the souls ofpeople haunt them, we know that is not true, for thesouls of men who have died do not remain on the sur-face of the earth to roam about. But demons like tohang around areas where blood has been shed, whetherthrough human sacrifices of false religions or frommurder. They hang around areas where blood is shed.We know that the life of the flesh is in the blood fromLeviticus 17:11 and the word for life means soul. Thesoul of he flesh is in the blood. We know that whenCain killed Abel, scripture says that his blood beganto cry out from the ground. So, blood has some kindof voice.

The spirit world is given a certain amount of au-thority or it can be restrained through blood. Thisworks in both kingdoms, that of God and that of dark-ness. You might ask, ‘what do you mean by that?’ InExodus 12 at the time of the Passover, when the bloodof the lamb was placed on the doorposts of the He-brew, the death angel was restrained and unable toenter into the Hebrews house. Blood can restrain theenemy. In Revelation 12:11 it tells us the same things,that we can overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb.So blood affects the spirit realm. In the Old Testa-ment they could lay an animal on an alter and shed theblood of that animal and that blood didn’t bring for-giveness, but atoned for their sins. It covered their sins.But the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sins. Theblood of Jesus justifies us. So we see that many timesin false religions they use blood. It is a coping of whatGod intended for His people to understand in rela-tionship to the covenant of the blood of the Lord JesusChrist. False religions, witchcraft, Satanism always usesome form of blood because they believe that bloodhas power to it and they gain power by shedding blood.

In the Old Testament it was always the blood ofanimals that was sacrificed. The blood of a bull, goat,ram, lamb or even a turtle dove. When we come tothe New Covenant and understand the mystery of theblood of Jesus Christ, we understand the New Cov-enant was ratified and sealed by the blood of Jesus.

However in some religions as Muslims, there is noconcept of sin or of the shedding of blood. Now whenGod created Adam, He breathed into Adam. Scrip-ture says that when Jesus breathed the breath of lifeinto the dirt that became Adam, he became a livingsoul. Scripture tells us that the life of the flesh is in theblood. The soul is in the blood. The name Adam meansGod’s blood and Adam was the created son of God.Jesus was called the second Adam, because He wasthe second man Adam to come into the world with thepure blood of God. We know that Jesus having not anearthly father and that the blood comes from the fa-ther, received his blood from God the Holy Spirit whoimpregnated Mary with the seed of God. And we knowthat without the shedding of blood there is no remis-sion of sin. When Adam sinned, something happenedto his blood and he died. Had he not sinned, he wouldhave lived forever. Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as byone man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;and so death passed upon all men, for that all havesinned:” So, through Adam’s sin and death, that sinfulnature and death was passed on to all. That seed ofAdam, now a fallen seed, was and is still passed onfrom father to son or daughter. This is the very reasonand purpose for the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. ThatHe might not be of the fallen seed and corrupted bloodof Adam, but the second Adam, having the pure bloodof God. God dropped the seed of the Word of Godinto Mary. That seed is a life force. As man has aseed, the Word of God is called seed and they bothcome from the same Greek word. The seed of God’sWord has a life force within itself and is able to repro-duce life. And we are born again of the incorruptibleseed of the Word of God. 1Peter 1:23 “Born again,not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by theword of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” WhenGod dropped His seed into the virgin Mary, she con-ceived not only in the physical part of her body, butblood began to form in the body of Jesus. We alsoknow that the blood type comes from the father’s seedand not the mother and so the blood that was in Jesus,as the blood that was in Adam, was pure blood thatcame from the father in heaven. I think the blood ofAdam and Jesus were the same. They both were pureand originated from God. Why in the crucifixion, did


the blood of Jesus have to come out of His body? Hisblood was unique in that Jesus knew no sin for Hewas sinless and His blood pure. But He that knew nosin; took our sins upon Himself, that we who are sin-ners, might become the righteousness of God, throughChrist. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him tobe sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be madethe righteousness of God in him.”

Next we will look into mystery of the blood, themystery of the marks on the body of Christ and theNew Covenant that we might understand our rela-tionship to Jesus and our covenant to Him.

Part 2 - The Mystery of the Blood CovenantThe blood of Jesus was unique and incorruptible

because it came from God and Jesus was sinless. Alsowe must consider the question that some have asked,“If Jesus truly was the Son of God, then why wouldGod want to crucify His own son?” the only reasonfor the crucifixion has to do with blood and the shed-ding of blood for atonement according to Hebrew9:22. So the blood of Jesus had to be shed and flowfrom His body for Him to be the final Passover sacri-fice. The blood of all the animals being sacrificed atthe temple had to flood out of the animal for the sacri-fice to be proper and effective. Also, we must under-stand that his hands, feet and side carry the marks ofthe cross. The nail prints from his hands and feet, liter-ally left holes, not just scars, and also their is hole leftby the spear in his side. John 20:27 “Then saith he toThomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands;and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side:and be not faithless, but believing.” So Jesus is amarked man, marked for all eternity. One man whosetestimony I have heard that was taken to heaven statedthat he could see light through the holes in the feet ofJesus when he fell down before Him. Large holes leftby hugh nails. Adam was a marked man in that Godtook a rib from his side to make a wife for him.Abraham and his descendants were marked in theirflesh by circumcision. This is one of the ways that theJewish people will recognize Jesus when He returns,by the marks of the crucifixion that He carries. That iswhy none will be able to say that He wasn’t crucifiedfor our sins.

We know that when the animal sacrifices werebrought to the temple and the blood was shed, sinswere covered. Now lets talk about the New Cov-enant through the blood of Jesus. First, Jesus was bornof the virgin Mary to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14.Why? So, that the blood in His body would be pureand sinless in nature. At age 12 he was confoundingthe scribes and doctors of the law, so He obviouslyspent time learning the scriptures and had great wis-dom even at that early age. But at age 30, the age thata man was allowed to enter into the priesthood, Jesuswent into public ministry. Jesus was introduced by hiscousin John the Baptist at the Jordan River as the“Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the Word.”So, Jesus is introduced as the Lamb. When you talkabout a lamb in Jewish thinking, you are talking aboutPassover. That was the time when all the lambs wereoffered and sacrificed. He is introduced as the Lambof God and as the one who would take away the sinsof the world.

Several things happened at the time of Jesus suf-fering and crucifixion. The first thing that happens ac-cording to Matthew is what is called the Last Supperbetween Jesus and His disciples. They have the Pass-over Meal that He would share with His disciples. Inthe Jewish Passover, there are four cups used in thePassover Meal. The third cup is called the cup of re-demption. Apparently, this is the cup Jesus is liftingwhen He makes the statement of Matthew 26:27-29.“And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it tothem, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood ofthe new testament, which is shed for many for the re-mission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drinkhenceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day whenI drink it new with you in my Father\’s kingdom.” WhatHe is referring to when He speaks of drinking of thiscup with His disciples in His Father’s kingdom is mostlikely what is known as the Marriage Supper of theLamb which is a tremendous time of celebration andworship while partaking of this great feast in heaven.

Revelation 19:7-9. “Let us be glad and rejoice,and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lambis come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And toher was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness


of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed arethey which are called unto the marriage supper of theLamb...” The fourth cup used in the Passover Meal iscalled the cup of rejoicing, which is the wedding cup.That is the particular cup Jesus was probably refer-ring to partaking of with His bride in Heaven. We aretold that as oft as we drink of this cup of the Com-munion of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, wedo so in remembrance of Him and His death for usuntil he comes (1 Corinthians 11:25-26). After thatmoment was sealed with the drinking of the cup - whichalso is pictured in the Jewish wedding, for after theman is engaged and he sits down, they drink from acup together showing that they are engaged. So thatcup is more than a cup of redemption, but also whenwe drink from it, we are showing our fellowship withHim and that we are espoused to Him.

John 6:53-56 “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of theSon of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life inyou. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drinkindeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,dwelleth in me, and I in him.” He was talking aboutthis supper. When Abraham met Melchizadek, whowas the first king and priest of the Most High God,king of Salem, which later became Jerusalem, he of-fered the wine and the bread to Abraham. So it was atype of the Passover Supper and the CommunionSupper that was to come.

Second: Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of sil-ver, Matthew 26:14-15. Why did Judas pick 30 piecesof silver? Yes it was a fulfillment of prophecy ofZechariah 11:12. More than that, a female slave couldbe redeemed back to the owner for 30 pieces of sil-ver. The word church comes from the Greek ekklesia,ek-klay-see\’-ah, which is a feminine word. We are

considered the bride of Christ on earth. At the mar-riage supper of the Lamb, we are His bride. Ekklesiameans called out ones and the 30 pieces of silver rep-resents our being purchased back to God even thoughit was the blood of Christ that paid the price we havehere in figure or type. Judas, realizing what he haddone, took the money back to the temple but thePriests couldn’t put it back into the treasury so theybought a field called the potters field were strangerswere to be buried (Matthew 27:3-5) which was a ful-fillment of Jeremiah chapter 18 & 19 and Zechariahchapter 11.

Now, when Jesus partook of this meal and drinkwith His disciples, it was like the sealing of an engage-ment. It says, and then they sang a hymn (Matthew26:30). During Passover season, the Jews sing songscalled the Hallel songs, which are the Psalms which

begin with “Praise Ye the Lord.” Praise Ye the Lord isHallelujah. One of the Psalms that would be sung atPassover is the Psalm that says, “This is the day thatthe Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it”(Psalm 118:24). Imagine Jesus getting ready to sufferand be whipped by the Romans, getting ready to becrucified and die for man and He is singing with Hisdisciples, “This is the Day that the Lord hath made.”That is amazing. All the patterns of what the Jews didat the Passover fit into the crucifixion story of the LordJesus Christ. Following this they go out in Matthew26:36-39 to a place Jesus went often for prayer, theGarden of Gethsemane. There is a lot of tradition aboutthe Garden of Gethsemane, which is located at thebase of the Mount of Olives and is on the edge of thedeep Kidron Valley that is in front of the Eastern Gateon the East side of the wall of Jerusalem. They are inthis Garden praying, which is full of Olive Trees andthen He goes into what is called agony, where Hissweat becomes as great drops of blood. Here some-thing interesting happens. In John 14:30, Jesus had

“When the load of the sins of the world were put upon Jesus, it was such a greatload and heaven burden put upon Him with such agony that He was close todeath.”


said; “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for theprince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”Hebrews 5:5-7 (Vs.7) “Who in the days of his flesh,when he had offered up prayers and supplications withstrong crying and tears unto him that was able to savehim from death, and was heard in that he feared.” Jesushad prayed for the Father to save Him from death andit says He was heard. Yet we know that He came todie on the cross and so this is not the death this mustbe referring too, but from a premature death, beforeHe could get to the cross. Here in the Garden ofGethsemane is where Jesus took upon Himself thesins of the world, as when the priest laid his handsupon the goat sacrifice and transferred the sins of thepeople to the goat and then send it off into the wilder-ness, and in such agony that He was nigh unto death.When the load of the sins of the world were put uponJesus, it was such a great load and heaven burden putupon Him with such agony that He was close to death.The angel of the Lord came to strengthen Him so thatHe could endure unto the cross. Here in the Garden,as Jesus prayed three times, “O my Father, if it bepossible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless notas I will, but as thou wilt” (Mathew 26:39). Jesusprayed this prayer three times over a period of threehours. He was in a period of heavy intercession. Alsoit is interesting and significant to note that Jesus was ina Garden of trees when He took upon Himself thesins of the world because the first man Adam was inthe Garden of Eden among the trees of the Gardenwhen the serpent came and caused them to sin andthe fall of man took place. The first man Adam expe-rienced sin in the Garden and the last man Adam, Christexperiences the sins of the world being placed uponHim in a garden. I personally believe they were in thesame geographical area. Also it is significant that theirwere olive trees. To get the oil from the olive they areput under great pressure and crushed and Jesus wasbeing crushed under the weight of the sins of man.

After this prayer meeting in which the disciples allwent to sleep, a band of Roman soldiers come intothe Garden, led by Judas to capture Jesus. Why wasthere a band of Roman soldiers, hundreds of men com-ing to take one man? Some who have researched thissay that it was about 600 men. In John 18, they come

into the Garden and Jesus asked them who they werelooking for (John 18:4). In Verse 5 they said, Jesus ofNazareth and Jesus replied, “I Am He.” At that pointwe are told in verse 6, they fell backward to the ground.It must be noted that the ‘He’ is in italics, meaning thatit is not in the direct translation in the original. Theitalics are words added by the translators to give whatthey thought was the proper meaning to the words,but the literal translation is, “I AM”. It was used herein the same way as in the Septuagint where God saidin Exodus 3:14, “I AM THAT I AM.” Jesus didn’tsay, “I am he” but “I AM” and at that proclamationthe entire band of Roman soldiers fell over backward.He just showed to them all that they didn’t have thepower to take Him captive, much less to take His life,but that He was going to lay down His life. Remem-ber what Jesus told Peter after he tried to start fightingto keep Jesus from being taken by using his swordagainst the servant of the high priest, cutting off hisear. Matthew 26:53-54 “Thinkest thou that I cannotnow pray to my Father, and he shall presently give memore than twelve legions of angels? But how then shallthe scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Hecould stop them from taking Him, He had the power,but He chose to lay down his life. A legion was 6000,so this is 72000 angels. But Jesus said, “I have thepower to lay down my life and I have the power totake it up again” (John 10:18). When they all fell overbackward, it was a sign to them of His power andthat He truly did have power over them as He wouldtell Pilate that He could have no power over Him if itwere not given to Him of the Heavenly Father (John19:11).

The other part is to understand that before Christgoes to the crucifixion He goes to what is called thewhipping post. Most churches don’t talk about thistoday but it is most likely because they don’t believethat healing is for today, it happened back in the OldTestament and in the New Testament times, butstopped with the Apostles. They say the gifts of theHoly Spirit were just for the starting of the church andgetting it established in the beginning.

Jesus went to a post only a couple feet high thatprotruded out of the ground, to which they tied thehands of the person being whipped to a ring. They


stretched the person out and took a cat of nine tails,which was a short handled whip with leather, some-times having bits of glass or bone or shrapnel on theend of the tails of the whip. Then they beat Him 39times with it, leaving 39x9 or 351 stripes upon thebody of Jesus. Isaiah 53:5 says; “with his stripes weare healed” and 1 Peter 2:24 says; “by whose stripesye were healed.” Those verses refer to this beating atthe whipping post that Jesus suffered for us. In theOld Covenant, God made a covenant with Israel andsaid; “I am the LORD that healeth thee” or Yehovah,yeh-ho-vaw\’ rapha\’, raw-faw\’ (Exodus 15:26). Thiswas demonstrated when God told Moses to make aserpent of brass and put it on a pole and those wholooked upon it lived (Numbers 21:9). John 3:14 “asMoses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even somust the Son of man be lifted up:” You might ask, whydidn’t Moses put a lamb on the pole because Jesuswas called the Lamb of God that takes away the sinsof the world. A serpent represents sin or Satan andhere Jesus is being put into an analogy or representa-tion of a serpent. When Jesus was hanging on the crossHe was carrying the sins of the people and dying fortheir sins. He had taken our sins upon Himself and sothat is a picture of the price for our sins being paid byChrist who had taken our sin and became sin and thesin sacrifice for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Nevertheless,healing was a part of the Old Testament covenant andyet today many don’t want to believe that God can orstill heals His people. And men who pray for the sickand see them healed are not the healers. They mayhave the gift of healing given by the Holy Spirit, a giftof faith or working of miracles, but it has nothing to dowith them. God has a covenant of healing and evenhad a covenant name that revealed Him as the healerof His people. What about Mark 16:18? “They shalltake up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, itshall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick,and they shall recover.” Healing is a part of the cov-enant. Many don’t preach and teach it because it takesprayer and faith to believe God and it is a lot easier forthem to explain it away than to explain why they prayfor people and they don’t get healed after telling themthat it is a covenant promise of the New Covenant. Ihave been healed many times in my life, instantly, but

there also have been times when I had to go throughthe normal process of natural healing that is built withinthe body’s immune system. Matthew 8:17 “That it mightbe fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet,saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sick-nesses.” Our sicknesses were dealt with at the whip-ping post and our sins were dealt with at the cross.The timing of the crucifixion was set at the time of thePassover, when the lambs were offered as sacrificesfor their sins. At the time of Jesus death, He was onthe cross from 9am until 3pm and scriptures tells usthat the lambs were killed in the evening time between3pm and 6pm. Josephus tells us that most were slaugh-tered between 3pm and 5pm. It is at the time of theevening sacrifice when Jesus died for our sins. Whenthe priest finished the last sacrifice, he held up his handsand said, “It is finished.” And Jesus, with his handsoutstretched on the cross, cried, “It is finished.” Jesusshed blood seven times on seven different parts of Hisbody, fulfilling the type and shadow of the red heifer inNumbers chapter 19. The priest caught the blood ofthe Red Heifer and sprinkled it 7 times toward thedoor of the tabernacle. Jesus blood was shed and spilton his right foot, his left foot, his right hand, his lefthand, his side by the Roman spear, his forehead bythe crown of thorns, on his back by the cat of 9 tails.The number of 7 is also the number of completion andthe priests sprinkling of the blood 7 times spoke of aperfect sacrifice and access to the Father through theshed blood.

Jesus died at 3pm in the afternoon, scripture say-ing that He gave up the ghost, voluntarily, and then hewent and preached to the captive spirits in prison inAbraham’s bosom. Ephesians 4:9 “Now that he as-cended, what is it but that he also descended first intothe lower parts of the earth?” Jesus spirit did not gointo heaven, but into the place where all the spirits ofthe just men of the Old Testament were awaiting thedeath of their Messiah, spoke of in the story of therich man and Lazarus, that some wrongly call a par-able. Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonas was three daysand three nights in the whale\’s belly; so shall the Sonof man be three days and three nights in the heart ofthe earth.” Jesus went to Paradise, Abraham’s bo-som, a place in the heart of the earth. Then after He


arose from the dead, Jesus took all those to heavenwith him where now all the dead saints of the Old andNew Testament await the return of Jesus and the res-urrection. Before that, scripture tells us that many ofthe Old Testament saints rose from the dead whenJesus was raised from the dead and they walked thestreets of Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53).

Yet the New Covenant was not complete withJesus’ resurrection from the dead. Hebrews tells usthat Jesus entered into the Holy Place not made withhands, in Heaven, and by his own blood obtained eter-nal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:11-12). Sin did notoriginate in the Garden of Eden with Adam, but origi-nated in Heaven with Lucifer, the anointed Cherubwho became Satan after trying to overthrow God(Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 27 & 28). So the Heavenly templewas corrupted with sin and the Word of God tells us

that it was necessary that the things in heaven had tobe purified, but not with the blood of animals, but abetter sacrifice, that of the blood of Jesus (Hebrews9:21-24). Somewhere from the time that Jesus metMary at the tomb and told her “Touch me not; for Iam not yet ascended to my Father:” (John 20:17) andwhen he later met the disciples behind locked doors,He went into Heaven to obtain eternal redemption forus and also with His blood sprinkle the heavenly altarand all the heavenly pieces of furniture. Once a yearon the Day of Atonement, all the vessels of the taber-nacle were sprinkled with blood. It was a part of theatoning process that they had to go through to guar-antee that the covenant with God to cover their sinswould be renewed for another year. But Jesus, onceand for all, by going into the heavenly temple with Hisown blood, bought our eternal redemption. Now, allwho are redeemed and die, no longer go down intothe lower parts of the earth, to that place where Jesustold the repentant thief he would see him, in Paradise,but into Heaven itself to await the resurrection. From

Paradise, the Old Testament saints could literally lookinto hell. But now we go to Paradise in the third heaven.Now, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we don’t haveto go to a high priest, or wait to the Day of Atonementonce a year to offer a lamb for our sins, but can re-ceive remission of our sins by confession and repen-tance of our sins (1 John 1:9). “If we confess our sins,he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and tocleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The whole process of Moses building the Ark ofthe Covenant and all the other vessels of the taber-nacle ministry were that men might be able to approachGod and enable God to remit the sins of the people,once a year on Yom Kippur. With the death, burialand resurrection of Jesus Christ, all men, all over theworld, can go not through a man or a priest or a con-fessional, but personally, directly to the Lord Jesus

Christ and confess that they are a sinner and in needHis forgiveness, cleansing and salvation and they canknow that they are redeemed and that is the beginningof a covenant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christwho is the mediator or a better covenant establishedon better promises (Hebrews 8:6). The Old Covenanthad one High priest; the New Covenant has one highpriest. The Old Covenant had a priesthood and theNew Covenant has a priesthood, because we whobelieve are called a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9).The Old Covenant was an Aaronic priesthood throughAaron and the New Covenant is a Melchizedek priest-hood, because Melchizedek was both a king and apriest. Jesus is our High Priest but also the King ofKings and we are a kingdom of priests unto our God(Revelation 1:6, 5:10; 17:14, 19:16). Once a year theHigh Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, Christentered once and for all under the New Covenant.Under the Old Covenant the sins were remitted orcovered for the nation of Israel, under the New Cov-enant the sins of the world are forgiven, for all who

“When you enter into covenant with God, you become a marked person forGod.”


come before God in repentance. In the Old Covenantthe mark of the covenant was the circumcision of theflesh; in the New Covenant the mark is the circumci-sion of the heart. In the Old Covenant there was acovenant of healing, in the New Covenant there is alsoa covenant of healing. No wonder the Bible tells usthat we have a better covenant established upon bet-ter promises. Therefore, when you repent of your sinsand ask the Lord Jesus to come into your life as Lordand Savior, and you need to ask Him to become bothto you, not just savior of your sins, you then will enterinto a covenant relationship in which He becomes yourLord and all the He has becomes yours and all thatyou have becomes His. He will write your name in theLamb’s book of life, He will give you eternal life, Hewill give you access to Heaven and take you to theMarriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven, He will re-ward you for your faithfulness and obedience to Himand in return you give Him your life. You give Himyour body, your mind and your spirit. You love Himwith all you are, body, soul and spirit. You confessthat you are not your own, but you are bought with aprice and all you have now belongs to Him (1Corinthians 6:20). Then God will begin to lead you,guide you, direct your life and show you how to live.The more you learn about the promises of God andthe New Testament, the more you will understand whata great covenant keeping God He is.

When you enter into covenant with God, you be-come a marked person for God. Just like a marriageis based upon conditions or expectations or basic un-derstanding of each others rolls, likewise there areconditions of our walking in covenant relationship withChrist. We have to abide in Him; He has to abide inus. We have to obey Him and do what He tells us. Wehave to pray in His name. There are certain things wedo that cause this covenant to be operative and in forceand work in our life on a daily basis and not just some-thing on a piece of paper we call the Bible. With this inmind, when you enter this covenant relationship, youbecome marked in the covenant. Covenant people aresupernaturally blessed and promised supernaturalpower. Covenant people are promised supernaturalprotection. Covenant people are promised supernatu-ral provision.

Covenant people are supernaturally blessed. WhenJacob left home, he went to Syria with nothing, worked20 years for Laban, got his wages changed 10 times,but after 20 years when he came out, he had suchgreat possessions that when he met Esau, he offeredsome of what he had to Esau who didn’t want to takeit, because he had more than enough. Jacob went intoEgypt as a slave and ends up second in command inEgypt and is so blessed that he brought all the goaland silver into Egypt in the time of famine and his fam-ily were given the best land of Egypt. Daniel goes intocaptivity as a 17-year-old lad and ends up as third incommand. Those who walked in covenant with Godwere supernaturally blessed. Many times a boss or abusiness is blessed because of a believer there. It isno different that when the Ark of the Covenant was inthe house of a man called Obededom. Everything hedid and everything he touched was blessed.

Covenant people are also given supernaturalpower. Samson had supernatural power based on hisNazarite vow and covenant with God. The church isgiven supernatural power according to Acts 1:8 to dothe works of God. Covenant people have supernatu-ral protection. When king Abimelech tried to marrySarah, God smote the women of his house and theywere barren and God spoke to him in a dream to nottouch Sarah or he would be a dead man. When theytried to throw the 3 Hebrew children into the fieryfurnace, they didn’t burn. When they threw Danielinto the lion’s den, they didn’t eat him. The only timeIsrael lost a battle was when the broke covenant. Theylost the first battle at AI, after the great victory at Jeri-cho because Achan kept gold and silver and aBabylonian garment when God told them to keepnothing from the city, but destroy all. God said it wouldbring a curse upon them and it did when Achan brokethe covenant God made with them. Another examplewas when they went to fight in battle in the time of thepriests Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, who wereboth killed and the Ark of the Covenant was taken inbattle in (1 Samuel 4) and Eli upon hearing the news,fell over backward and broke his neck. This was infulfillment of the prophecy of 1 Samuel 2:34 whenGod told Eli his two sons would die in one day. Ourprotection of the covenant is based upon our abiding


in Him and obeying Him. Matthew 28:20 “Teachingthem to observe all things whatsoever I have com-manded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even untothe end of the world.”

When they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff inNazareth they couldn’t do it, the Devil tried to drownHim in a boat, they tried to stone Jesus one day at thetemple, but none worked because He walked in cov-enant with God and even though He came to die, hishour had not yet come. Everyone has an hour of test-ing and everyone has an hour to die and leave thisworld. But if you walk in covenant with God, Satanwill not be able to do anything to you unless God per-mits him to do so as we see He did with Job. Thisdoesn’t mean that you won’t have problems or trialsbecause anytime you are dealing with people; you willhave trouble and problems, delays, hindrance, atti-tudes. Ninety percent of your problems come throughpeople who are not living right, who have the wrongattitudes, etc. But God has promised to guide,strengthen and protect His people. And though manyare the affliction of the righteous, the Lord delivereththem out of them all (Psalm 34:19) if you are walkingin covenant with Him.

God has also promised a covenant of supernatu-ral provision for those in covenant with Him. In Exo-dus 12:37 there were 600,000 men who came out ofEgypt not counting women and children and many fig-ure there were about 3 million souls who came out ofEgypt. The first miracle was Psalm 105:37 “He broughtthem forth also with silver and gold: and there was notone feeble person among their tribes.” The reason forthis was the eating of the Passover lamb where theyentered into covenant with God and He healed them.The second miracle was that of the crossing of theRed Sea. How long did it take Israel to cross the RedSea? It took them a day and a night. How can 3 mil-lion people cross in that period of time? God said Hemade a path through the sea. You normally think of apath as wide enough for a couple people to walk. Ifthey did that, the line would have been 800 miles longand would have taken 35 days, 24 hours a day tocross the Red Sea. According to calculation, the paththat God made had to have been approximately 5 mileswide with people 5000 abreast in order for them to

cross it in a day and a night. It’s amazing that Godcalls a 5-mile wide opening in a sea, a path. It’s likenothing to Him. Then the next miracle was the feedingof the multitude. It is estimated that feeding 3 millionpeople would require 4000 tons of food per day. Ifbread was transported from Egypt to the desert inrailroad cars every morning, it would have taken twofreight trains each a mile long every morning loadedwith bread just to feed the people. At today’s prices,this could cost up to 12 million dollars per day. Yet,God rained down angel’s food every morning excepton the Sabbath. The people asked, “Can God furnisha table in the wilderness?” Yes, He can. The next greatmiracle was the need for water to drink, as well as forwashing pots and pans, clothing and for bathing.Enough water needed to provide for these 3 millionpeople it would take a train of railroad tankers stretch-ing from Virginia to California to provide the neces-sary water for the needs of this caravan. That’s notlike we do things today in America where we use acouple thousand gallons of water per person permonth. God knew exactly where the water was un-derground and brought them to the right spot in Num-bers 20:11. Can God bring streams in the desert? Yes,God can. But that’s not all. We are talking about Godmaking supernatural provision for His covenant people.When the Hebrews desired meat instead of manna,God said, “Is the LORD\’S hand waxed short?”(Numbers 11:23) and then He sent a wind that broughtquail into the desert. They gathered day and night andthe one with the least gathered 10 homers (Vs.32).“And the people stood up all that day, and all thatnight, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails:he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and theyspread them all abroad for themselves round aboutthe camp.” The quail were about 2 feet deep. Onehomer is about ten bushels and 10 homers was about105 bushels. That would amount to about 6,700 quailseach. Numbers 11:20 said it was enough for them toeat every meal for a month. “But even a whole month,until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsomeunto you: because that ye have despised the LORDwhich is among you, and have wept before him, say-ing, Why came we forth out of Egypt?” Multiply thatby 3 million people. God did say the quail would be


coming out their noses. He does have a since of hu-mor, actually that was sarcasm to me. Can God pro-vide meat in the desert? Yes, God can. Part of God’scovenant is one of supernatural provision.

When Israel came out of Egyptian bondage, theycame out as ex-slaves. Scripture doesn’t tell us wherethey got them, but after they crossed the Red Sea,they fought Amalek with swords. Surely, Pharaohdidn’t give these slaves swords, especially when heplanned to bring them back. If this is so, as most think,then the question is where did they get them? You don’tgive slaves weapons so they can cause an uprisingand fight. Josephus said “On the next day (the dayafter Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the Red Sea)Moses gathered together the weapons of the Egyp-tians which were brought to the camp of the Hebrewsby the current of the sea and the force of the winds

resisting it.” He deducted that this happened by divineprovidence. “So that they might not be destitute ofweapons. So when He ordered the Hebrews to armthemselves with them, He led them to Mount Sinai inorder to offer sacrifice to God and to render oblationfor the salvation of the multitude as he was charged todo so before Him.” In other words, when God sentPharaoh’s army into the sea and drowned them, theirweapons floated on the water and washed upon thebanks on the Israeli side. In 2 Kings 6:6 God causedan axe head to float, so surely He can cause the Egyp-tian weapons to float. According to the bible, God is aGod of supernatural provision and God delights inshowing His covenant people what He is able to do.

The reason people have difficulty believing Godfor supernatural provision is because they have a guiltcomplex or feeling they have not been totally obedientto Him in all areas of their life. If the Holy Spirit im-presses upon you to do something and you don’t doit; that is disobedience. But when you know that youhave done everything you know to do and have been

obedient to the Lord, then it never fails. WheneverGod tells you to do something, He will supernaturallyprovide for you so that you can do it, if necessary.And many times, what God will ask His people to dois physically impossible for them to do without God’ssupernatural provision.

3 John 2 “Beloved, I wish above all things thatthou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soulprospereth.” According to Malachi 3:16 there is aspecial book of remembrance in Heaven. Now weknow there is a book of life in heaven and books thatcontain the deeds of all men because it says the booksare opened and men are judged out of the books forwhat they have done (Revelation 20:12). But there isalso a book of remembrance. Why is there a book ofremembrance? In Acts 10, when Cornelius is praying,the angel tells him that his prayers and alms had come

up to God as a memorial. How do they come up be-fore God? These things, whatever we have done arewritten down. Nehemiah is dealing with the rebuildingof the temple, the fact that some of the priests hadintermarried with heathen women and having to dealwith the attitudes of the people but he wants to makesure he is doing what is right before God and havingHis favor. Nehemiah 13:22 “And I commanded theLevites that they should cleanse themselves, and thatthey should come and keep the gates, to sanctify thesabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerningthis also, and spare me according to the greatness ofthy mercy.” Psalm 105:8 “He hath remembered hiscovenant...”

According to Malachi there is a book of remem-brance. What is God remembering? According to Acts10 we know He remembers your prayers and yourgiving. The Word memorial means to keep the memoryof something alive. God remembered Hannah, Godremembered Noah, God remembered Abraham, Godremembered His covenant with Abraham, God re-

“God’s covenant involves supernatural blessing, supernatural power, supernaturalprotection and supernatural provision.”


membered Rachel. It is not an issue of God forgettingyou, but that there is a special book of remembranceand certain prayers you pray and certain deeds youdo, especially acts of giving are recorded in this book.Therefore, when you understood the covenant rela-tionship you have with God and you come to a crisissituation, an emergency, then you ask God to remem-ber your faithfulness to Him and remember you andyour need. Then it will come up before God as a me-morial or moment of remembrance and God will moveon your behalf. God’s supernatural ability to providefor you is a part of the covenant. Philippians 4:19 “Butmy God shall supply all your need according to hisriches in glory by Christ Jesus.” John 14:13-14 “Andwhatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shallask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Matthew 6:8“Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Fatherknoweth what things ye have need of, before ye askhim.” All these verses have to do with provision intime of need.

God’s covenant involves supernatural blessing,supernatural power, supernatural protection and su-pernatural provision. For those who come under anattack by people, like relatives who don’t understandyou or workers who attack and mock you because ofyour faith, you need to understand that those who comeagainst God’s covenant people will eventually find theirheads removed and find themselves without protec-tion. One example is King Saul. He became jealousof David and tried to kill him on several occasions andthen in 1 Samuel 22 Saul had a man kill 85 priests ofthe Lord and right after that in 1 Samuel 24 David cutoff the skirt of Saul which signified cutting off of hisauthority. In 1 Samuel 26 David took Saul’s spearfrom him, which signified that God had just completelyremoved the protective hedge from Saul and he wasshortly thereafter killed in battle on Mt. Gilboa withthe Philistines (1 Samuel 31) because he has no hedgeor protection in time of battle because he had comeagainst the priesthood of the Lord and one of God’schoice young servants.

Pharaoh began to take the lives of the firstbornmale children of the Hebrews out of fear of that theHebrew children would become too numerous and

fight and overthrow Egypt. So the hedge came downin Pharaoh’s house and he lost his own son when thedeath angel passed by and Pharaoh, who had thesemale babies thrown into the Nile, was himself drownedin the Red Sea. Scripture says he that lives by thesword will die by the sword. And part of God’s cov-enant with Abraham and his descendants was thosewho curse them would be cursed and those whoblessed them would be blessed. At one time Egyptwas blessed because of Joseph and God’s people,but then because they turned against them, they weredestroyed. Also, we see many times God returned thewickedness of men upon their own heads, as withHaman in the time of Queen Ester when he tried tohave Mordecai hung on the gallows. Entire empireshave faced destruction because they came against theHebrew people, God’s covenant people.

In Indonesia a Muslim was trying to burn a Chris-tian church. He poured gasoline on the floor of thechurch and was trying to light it with matches and hecouldn’t do it. Then when he got to the last match, hesuddenly jumped up and started running through thevillage screaming. When they caught him and askedwhat was wrong, he said, “The angel of God is chas-ing me.” He said, “When I tried to light the last matchthe angel of God came up to me and said, this is theproperty of the people of the most high God, it is holyand you are not going to burn it.” This Muslim be-came a believer and started preaching the gospel onthe tops of houses. You cannot attack the people ofGod and get by with it for God will eventually rise upand defend His people. Much of the attacks of Mus-lims against Christians today are not true Christianswho are in covenant with God, but harlot Christians,mostly Roman Catholics. In Maryland some years agothere was a tent used for Gospel meetings and wasbeing used to start a church. There was a group ofseven young men who decided to burn down the tent.One who was part of the group said he would haveno part in it because they were good people who hadthe tent. The six who burned it down all died youngwith terrible deaths. The seventh who didn’t partake,lived and told of it. When Christ spoke to Paul on theroad to Damascus, He said; “I am Jesus whom thoupersecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks”


(Acts 9:5). God was telling Saul there is more here thanyou can see or understand and you can’t fight me andwin.

The covenant ratified by the blood of Jesus is a wholelot more than just being saved and going to heaven. It’s awhole lot more than having your sins forgiven, even if thatwas all you received from it, that would be enough andstill the greatest gift in the world. But it is more. It is acovenant of blessing and provision, of power and abilityto function in life and do His will. Ephesians 6:12 “For wewrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princi-palities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark-ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in highplaces.” We go to battle with the covenant. If we getinvolved in battle with and in our flesh and try to reasonand force something we cause more problems than wewould have had if we just stayed out of it and left thebattle to the Lord for He said, “The battle is the Lord’s”(2 Samuel 17:47). If I’m in covenant with him, it is likemarriage. If I go through something and I am married,she becomes a part in it and vice-versa because you arein covenant together. The battles you go through, evenbattles you have nothing to do with, you need to turnover to God and let Him fight for you. Then when God isfighting a battle, you are to stand up for what is right andtruth. That is a part of the covenant relationship. You speakfor Him when you need to speak but shut up when youdon’t need to speak.

There are three weapons for battle. The blood, thename and the Word! The blood of Jesus is given to us todeal with sin. Almost always when the blood is men-tioned in the New Testament it is about cleansing, re-demption and forgiveness of sin. Then we have the nameof Jesus, He said, “In my name you shall...” The signsand wonders that are performed by any believer comethrough the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus deals withdemons, sickness and disease. Anytime you see the nameof Jesus in the New Testament it is dealing with demons,with oppression, depression, sickness, disease, etc. Theman in Acts 3, the Paraplegic was healed by faith in thename of Jesus. So the Name of Jesus is used in dealing

with demons, the devil, sickness and disease. The Wordof God is used in Luke 4 and Matthew 4 not only fordoctrine, instruction, reproof and exhortation, but used indealing with temptation and overcoming the attacks ofthe enemy. So we have three spiritual weapons. The bloodto deal with sin, the name of Jesus to deal with demons,sickness and disease and the Word of God that dealswith every practical aspect of our life with overcomingany attack against us. We grow in grace and in the knowl-edge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through theWord.

In this covenant, when Jesus died on the cross, it wasa lot more than just to forgive your sin and write yourname in the Lamb’s book of life. God wants you to havelife and to have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Hewants you to live your life to the fullest and to prosperand be in health even as your soul prospers (3John2). Hewants to establish His covenant with you. Deuteronomy8:18 “But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for itis he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he mayestablish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers,as it is this day.” God gives wealth to some of His people,whom He can trust, to establish His covenant and sothey will use that money for His purposes. It is not a sin tohave wealth and be a Christian. It is a sin to put your faithin wealth and to hoard wealth and to mistreat others anddo evil to get wealth and to love money. God goes to warand fights for His covenant people. You can be like Jacob,going to Syria with nothing and coming out rich. As yougrow in grace and knowledge and understand the cov-enant you have with God and you walk in obedience toGod, then the covenant becomes active and God beginsto move on your behalf in every area of your life, includ-ing natural provision or finances. Psalm 37:25 “I havebeen young, and now am old; yet have I not seen therighteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

When you go to the Lord’s Table and partake of thefruit of the vine and the bread to remember His death tillHe comes and remember what He has done for you,you will become aware of how much He has done foryou and the difference He has made in your life.

Vilbert Vallane can be reached at [email protected]

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2005 Singles Edition

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