Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Blood in Spirit

On Wednesday, December 6th, after four days of severe bleeding (I will let you guess where I was loosing the blood) I went to a specialist who upon taking my blood pressure sent me by ambulance to the hospital. During my stay at the hospital I received 9 units of blood and I got used to seeing massive amounts of blood. Of course I began to think of the incredible blood transfusion I had received thirty-one years ago when I became born again. Although I was very ill and weak I asked the Lord to help me see things in the Spirit that He would help me share later, if He would let me live. Well here I am and here are some things I experienced.

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I can sometimes imagine the scarlet horror of seeing the Son of God covered and dripping in His own blood but my human eyes only see the unsettling vision of seeing someone who has lost great amounts of blood. Many surgeons in M.A.S.H. units have witnessed soldiers who have arrived in their tents with most of their blood outside their bodies. I have even seen massive amounts of blood due to an automobile accident. But the blood of God is substantively and qualitatively different than can be comprehended by any human eye.
Tangible yet intangible. Immutable yet mercurial. Seen yet invisible. Crimson yet transparent. Given in time yet timeless. Shed on earth yet applied in spirit. Sacrificed by the Son yet carried by the Spirit.
Think about it. Those who watched as Jesus drew His last breath and committed His Spirit to the Father, they saw His blood. They saw it on His face and hands, on His legs and in His hair, pouring from His side and flowing from His back, they saw pints and pints of blood that outlined the journey from Pilate’s whipping post, through the Via de la Rosa, up Golgotha’s hill, and colored the place beneath His cross. It was a drawn out butchery and they saw all that blood.
But today that very same blood cannot be seen, it is now spirit. Like boiling water changing to mist while retaining it’s same core essence, the blood of Jesus is now applied to a believing sinner’s heart as spirit by the Spirit. You may feel the need to remove your Spiritual shoes at this point, we are on holy ground. There is nothing that has the power of redemption but the blood of Jesus, and every sinner who in repentance places His God given faith in Jesus and His finished work is washed in that same blood. Not some other blood that wasn’t spilled at Calvary, no, it is the same blood in spirit form. And in a mystery of regeneration the Holy Spirit invisibly carries that same blood into the soul of any person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And only God can actually see the blood applied to the doorposts of our hearts, but the world can witness the transformation of our lives as the death angel is denied his prey and we have been made living, blood bought followers of the Passover Lamb.
The invisible blood has birthed visible worshippers to the glory of God. And now the scrolls of Revelation pull back the glorious curtain to give us a glimpse of the majesty on high.
Rev.1:5 - …Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
Rev.5:9 - And they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Rev.7:14 - …These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev.12:11 - And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…
So look and wonder, all the saints that have been washed in the blood of the Lamb are dressed in fine, white linen gowns of worship. The blood of the Lamb has changed the spotted robes of sin into the holy robes of His righteousness. So picture the throngs of worshippers, wave after wave, shouting the awesome praises of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as He sits regally upon the throne of the Risen Christ of God. But wait, look…
Rev.19:13 - And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood…
And the word for vesture is the same word used as Pilate’s men placed a purple robe upon Jesus in mock kingship. It is the same word used for the robe they cast lots for at Golgotha. But those robes were purple and perhaps the other drab in color. But this robe says it is dipped in blood. Now I believe personally that the only robe in heaven that will appear as red will be the robe of the Lamb, all others are white. He wears several garments but this one is dipped in blood. So throughout the expanse of heaven, with all the angels, and with all the white robed worshippers, the striking robe that stands out and which draws every eye, is the brilliant and majestic crimson gown of the Risen Lamb. And there is a hue around the throne of emerald green, but in the center shines that scarlet vesture, not just any color of scarlet, but the color of blood. John tells us that He appears as a Lamb that had been slain. That is right, a Lamb adorned by His own blood. And in heaven it is the perfect color of blood that drapes He who is our Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world. And throughout eternity as we worship our Risen Savior, as we gaze upon our Victorious Lord, we will always see that blood.
Yes, the blood of Jesus saturates His own vesture. And on that very vesture, perhaps written in gold, are the words in great capital letters,
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS
Go ahead and bow your head, it is scene we never deserved to see but have been granted eternal admission to, by God’s grace through…
The Blood of the Lamb
Halleluiah to the Lamb...Forever.

2 comments:

Baptist Girl said...

Hi Rick,
I'm sorry you went through that. Good post. Thank God He shed His blood for us so undeserving.

Cristina

Mike Ratliff said...

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
’Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears no other name but Thine.