Scripture reading: Matthew 27:27-37
The next weapon I am going to deal with is the weapon called the BLOOD. I will tell you the truth and confess to you that I did not know that the Blood was a weapon. I knew the song, “The Blood that cleanses me from day to day shall never lose its power,” but I did not know that I had the greatest weapon in the arsenal of God. In order to operate the Blood weapon effectively, you must have this thing built in you. You have to take the Blood passages from the Bible and you have to read them. You have to memorize them; get them in your heart; get them in your mind. You have to get them so that they will come forth unconsciously and fight for you.
When I was a young Christian, I used to fast and pray. Sometimes twenty-one days; sometimes ten days or two weeks; one time it was forty days. I was just fasting—continuously fasting. I had to fast, because I had lust, and desires, and evil things that I hated in my body! I do not think you have those things in you and that is probably why you do not fast, but the things that I hated were the things that I had in me. A young man asked me one day, “Do you mean, Brother Ces, that I am going to have to be fighting lust all through my life?” I said, “No. I got rid of lust when I was a young man and you can get rid of it in your youth, too.” What does the Bible say about youthful lusts? “Flee!” That means you must run, for “flee” means to “run away from.” It says, “Flee also youthful lusts” (II Timothy 2:22), and “…abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (I Peter 2:11). Youthful lusts destroy the power of God in your ministry and in your life. I do not know if you know that, but I got rid of it when I was young; God trained me; I did not go to Bible school. That is why I want to train you and set you up now for the biggest battle of your life.
Jesus came to me one day and said to me, “Come with Me. I want to show you Calvary.” I want you to hear what I am saying. Jesus wanted to show me Calvary. He took me from the time they gave Him the first blow (when the centurion slapped Him on His face with the back of his hand) to the crucifixion. After the centurion’s blow, they beat Him with the cat-o’-nine tails. That thing strips your back. That was how the first Blood was drawn. Then they took thorns and twisted them into a crown. I do not know what you call it, but they are thorns that grow on a long string and you can wind the string into a crown. Some people call it “crown of thorns,” some call it “Jerusalem thorn,” or something similar. So, they made a crown of thorns and put it on His head. A man took a rod, hit Him on the head (Matthew 27:29-30), and it fastened down like a pincushion—right through the flesh of the scalp.
I am telling you what He showed me. You need to be able to read the account of Jesus’ crucifixion and understand how the Blood was shed. You need to get it embedded into your mind and into your heart. Christ said that when we come to communion, we are to remember Him and this Blood (I Corinthians 11:24-26). Remember! Remember! These are God-created barriers of memory in your soul. Remember! We are psychological creatures and there is no need to try to get away from that and there are certain things that have to be done to us in our minds in order to get us to be ready to move in God.
The Blood came through the skin at the base of the head. That is the first vision He gave me. He then showed me all the abuse. He showed me how they abused Him on the way with the cross and how He fell beneath the cross. He told me that the worst thing that hurt Him was when one man spat in His face and He could not even wipe the saliva because His hands were bound. Again, another time, one raised a hand and cried, “Crucify him! Crucify Him!” and the hand that was raised was a hand that He had healed.
I am just telling you how I learned the Blood. He showed me all this concerning the time when He went to Calvary and how He was hung on the tree. Brethren, after that got into my mind and I read through the account in the Bible, it became a permanent foundation in my heart.
You need a permanent foundation of the Blood in you! Do you know why? The Blood is your life! The Blood is your life! God said that we in the last days are going to fight the last fight. He said that you are going to fight. Did you hear that? The last fight—which God is ordaining a church to fight—He said that it is “…by the Blood” that you are going to overcome the enemy! And it is not just the Blood alone, but He said, “…and by the word of their (your) testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
(Excerpt from The Omega Message, January 1997, pg. 13-15)
Thought for today: Read about the Blood of Jesus Christ in the Word and meditate on it until it becomes a permanent foundation in your heart. Only then you can face the greatest battle of mankind that is right ahead of us and be an overcomer.
