W4D4 Know Your Weapons 2

READ THE WORD

Revelation 12:11b

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, (the Devil) who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Ephesians 1:7

In him we have redemption (freedom from the slavery to sin of our past life) through his blood, the forgiveness of sins

Colossians 1:20

By making peace (between us and God) through his blood, shed on the cross.

1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

REFLECT ON WHAT IT MEANS

It is always a tragedy to hear about mass shootings on the news, especially at a school where young people are involved. One teenage girl who lived through one of these terrible events told how she managed to survive. She said that as the gunman was spraying bullets into the hall, her friend next to her was hit and killed. Instinctively, she dropped to the ground next to her friend. The gunman walked through the hall and past both her friend’s body and herself, but he totally ignored her. When he left she got up and only then realised she was covered in her friend’s blood. “I guess he thought I was dead, too,” she said, “when he saw me covered in blood. In a very real way my friend saved my life that day. Her blood covered me and caused the gunman to ignore me, since he must have reckoned I was already dead.”

This is a powerful and heart-rending story but it describes really well what Jesus has done for us when he died on the cross.

Our enemy, the Devil demands blood. He points out our sin and wanderings away from God. He points out to God that these things rightly deserve eternal punishment and separation from God. Like an aggressive prosecution lawyer in a courtroom our enemy, the Devil, accuses us and then demands punishment. That’s why he is called the accuser in our Bible reading today. He keeps on accusing us to God, day and night - there is no let up! He is so ruthless he demands the ultimate punishment - death. Blood is what he demands and blood is what he gets - but not our blood. Instead, he gets the blood of Jesus who didn’t deserve this punishment as he never sinned.

That’s why Jesus died on a cross for our sins, to give up his life and his blood in our place. Just like the girl who survived the mass shooting, when the Devil sees the blood of Jesus applied to our lives, he passes us by, he counts us as already dead, he thinks he has already defeated us and won.

Our Bible reading tells us that we defeat our enemy, the Devil, the Accuser, through the blood of Jesus. How do we make sure Jesus blood is working for us? By applying it; it has to be on our lives. We do that by “the word of our testimony.”

This is weapon no. 2 and it combines with weapon no1 from yesterday to make the most powerful weapon in our struggle to live right by God’s ways.

In other words we speak out to God, to ourselves, to the spiritual world including the enemy.

Some of best things to speak out are straight from the Bible - there are lots of verses that talk about how Jesus' blood protects us and save us.

A few of these are in today’s reading to help you get started. Becasue of what Jesus did to us, we ....

• have forgiveness of sins

• are made pure again

• can have peace with God

You will learn more about this in Life Class this week and on the Encounter weekend ahead.

RELATE IT TO YOUR LIFE

How much do I feel accused in life? In other words guilty, ashamed, anxious, full of regret about something in my past? Recognise those things now and then apply the blood of Jesus. You can speak out one of the verses above and also confess any sin or wrongdoing on our part. The Bible is clear, you will be forgiven, that’s the power of Jesus blood and the enemy will no longer be able to accuse you.

RESPOND WITH A DECLARATION

“By the blood of Jesus I am forgiven and made right with God.”