Awake and Arise

For at least a year this phrase has come to me often…”Awake and Arise.”  I think of 9/11.  There was a brief period of awakening because of the alarm.  But then it seems people just went back to sleep, kind of like hitting the snooze button on the alarm, which I tend to do quite frequently.   God is looking for His people to awake and arise, not keep hitting the snooze button on the alarm and roll over and go back to sleep or just lay there in bed kind of half asleep, half awake. It is time for the people of God to awake and arise and to move forward into the fullness of the Spirit.  We are moving into a time when we will not be able to slumber and sleep any longer.  But now is the time to awake and arise in order to be prepared for what is coming.  It is important to awake and arise to move with God in what He has planned for the coming days.  It will be the best of times and the worst of times.  For those who are prepared and walking with God, I believe it will be the best of times. Now is the time to awake and arise into what God has for you.

Ephesians 5:13-19  But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. ¹⁴ Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. ¹⁵ See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, ¹⁶ Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

The Cleansing Blood

1 John 1:7….and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Yesterday, as I was singing the hymn “Nothing But The Blood,” I was reminded of an experience I had a number of years ago during a church service. In that church service we were singing about the cross and the blood.  As we did I saw a picture of myself under the cross and Jesus was on the cross.  Blood began to pour out of Him and down over me.  It was like I was standing under a faucet or a shower head and it was turned on full blast.  The blood just washed down over me. 

The chorus of that hymn says “Oh! Precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”  When the blood shower was finished, I was shining bright like snow with sun reflecting off of it.  It was so bright you could not really tell it was me.  It was like the glory of God shining forth from me as a result of that cleansing that only the blood of Jesus can bring. 

Nothing But The Blood

By Robert Lowry

Verse 1

“What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus; What can make me whole again?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Chorus

“Oh! Precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” 

Verse 2

“For my pardon this I see, Nothing but the blood of Jesus; For my cleansing this my plea, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Verse 3

“Nothing can for sin atone, Nothing but the blood of Jesus; naught of good that I have done, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Verse 4

“This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but he blood of Jesus; This is all my righteousness; Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”  

 

The Only Acceptable Sacrifice

The only sacrifice for sin that is acceptable to God is Jesus Christ.  All the sacrifices laid out in the Old Testament/Old Covenant looked forward to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. We can try to do enough good works as a sacrifice for sin, but that does not work.  It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood on the cross that we are set free from our sin. 

Cain tried to make a sacrifice to God from the sweat of his own brow, from the work of tilling the ground.  But that sacrifice was not acceptable to God.  Abel offered up the sacrifice of a lamb and its blood.  The sacrifice of the lamb looked forward to Jesus, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. 

Religion tries to do enough work by the sweat of the brow to make an acceptable sacrifice unto God for sin.  But that can never happen.  It is only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that can be an acceptable sacrifice.

Hebrews 10:3-10   But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. ⁴ For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. ⁵ Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: ⁶ In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

⁷ Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. ⁸ Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; ⁹ Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. ¹⁰ By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Genesis 4:3-5 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. ⁴ And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: ⁵ But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Hebrews 9:22 RSV  Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

True Freedom

Today, being Independence Day, I am thinking about freedom.  To me Independence Day is about celebrating the freedoms we have in the United States of America.  True freedom does not come from our government.  Nor does it come from being independent.  True freedom comes from absolute dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ.   Jesus came to set us free from every sin and bondage. 

Independence Day is the day the United States of America celebrates the declaration that this nation was separating itself from the oppressive rule of another nation.  Each one of us can have our own Independence Day.  The day we choose to separate ourselves from the oppressive rule of Satan and his demons and submit to the rule of Jesus Christ, in whom we find freedom, is our own individual Independence Day.

John 8:32 KJV And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:34-36 KJV Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. ³⁵ And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. ³⁶ If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

2 Corinthians 3:17 AMP  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

Galatians 5:1 RSV For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

James 1:25 NIV  But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.