Devotions

The deeper the relationship, the more important your testimony becomes. What I mean by testimony here isn’t your conversion story; it’s the way you walk through life. 

If I was sharing the gospel with somebody at a gas station, I wouldn’t have time to go into how I live in a way that matches up with what God commands in the Bible, that I have integrity at work and in my home. The deeper the connection that you have with a person, though, the more important it is that Christ lives through your life rather than just your words. This becomes so important to remember when we’re gathering with friends and family who don’t know God but know us very well. They’ve had years to watch how we respond to little inconveniences like someone hitting our car with a shopping cart and big losses like a loved one suddenly dying.

How do we live in front of people whose perspective on God might be their view of us?

As a pastor, I've found that some people come to me and say, “I just tell my kids something about Jesus all the time, and they just don’t want to hear it.” The more I talk to them, though, the more I realize that they act pretty judgmental and harsh. I can’t really blame their kids for not wanting to hear about Jesus from them. 

When you engage and interact with people, let the life of Jesus come out. When you're ready to share the Word—God opens those opportunities—it will be so much more powerful. 

In our culture in America, people have heard and seen the religious people. What they need to see instead is an authentic godly life. The more that you can capture that new life that God gives his people, the more your words will have power when you begin to talk about salvation or knowing Christ.

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. …Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:9-11,21). 

^{John Bailey is the Vice President of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.}

Often Satan will attack you to stop a great work for God. He will put enemies in league together to hinder your labors. They will come against you in unison, trying to discount the minister in order to stop the ministry. 

Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The work was progressing wonderfully, with the walls going up steadily. Suddenly, Satan stirred up a hornet’s nest to hinder it all. Four prominent leaders joined in a plot against Nehemiah: “But they thought to do me harm” (Nehemiah 6:2, NKJV). 

These leaders set a trap four times. They called out to Nehemiah, “Come down off your wall. We want to have a conference with you. We insist you talk to us.” Four times, Nehemiah answered, “I’m not coming down off these walls! I have work to do here because God has ordained me to do it” (see Nehemiah 6:3).

Beloved, you cannot get involved in arguing with people just because they want to argue. It’s all meant to be a distraction. You must go on with God’s work.

The reason Satan comes against your prayer life, your consecration to God, and your walk with him isn’t just to bring you down. He also wants to ruin the ministry God has given you. He wants to destroy anything you are doing that brings glory to God!

These four VIPs started a rash of rumors against Nehemiah. They claimed, “You’re doing this for yourself, not for God!” One of them, Tobiah, sent slanderous letters to other leaders in Israel. All the slander, plotting and snares were designed to put fear into Nehemiah’s heart in hopes that he would get discouraged and run. Nehemiah sums up the scheme in verse 13: “For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid...that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me.”

None of those snares could stop God’s work. Scripture states, “So the wall was completed… When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God” (Nehemiah 6:15-16, NIV).

What does God expect of us once we are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus? Are we obligated in any way by this sprinkling? Yes, we certainly are! 

If we have been sprinkled with Jesus’s blood, we are first commanded to go in peace and not doubt anymore. When Moses sprinkled blood on the sinning Israelites, they never once doubted that they were pardoned and accepted by God. They trusted in that sprinkling. 

Today, the blood sprinkled on us is not that of bulls, goats, or sheep but of Christ, the Lamb of God. Yet we have more doubt, more fear than those Israelites. 

Martin Luther said it is blasphemy to take back to ourselves all the sins that were laid on Christ, and I agree with him. It is absolute sacrilege to go about in fear, guilt and condemnation. We are not to say, “The Bible says that by faith I am cleansed, justified, and protected from Satan’s power, yet I cannot believe such a glorious thing is possible.” 

Secondly, we are to praise God with a thankful heart, never doubting. We are commanded to thank God for the precious blood of Jesus with high praises. 

• “We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:11, NKJV).

• “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Psalm 32:11). 

• “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!” (Psalm 89:15).

• “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

Proclaim the victory of Jesus’s blood in your life and begin praising him now for the promise of that great day of redemption to come.

In the Old Testament, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year to make atonement, which means “reconciliation.” This act was meant to wipe away the people’s sins so they could be reconciled and have communion again with the heavenly Father. 

The priest carried into the Holy of Holies a handful of incense, a censer of burning coals from the altar, and a container of blood from a slain ox. Within the Holy of Holies was an ark that had the mercy seat on top of it where God “sat.” It was his very presence.

After cleansing himself in an elaborate ceremony, the priest went inside the Holy of Holies with great reverence and fear. He dropped the incense into the fire, causing an aroma and smoke to ascend. This represented the prayers of Christ interceding for his people. Then the priest dipped his finger into the blood and sprinkled it seven times on the mercy seat. 

“He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times” (Leviticus 16:14, NKJV).

When the blood was sprinkled on God’s seat, forgiveness of all sins was accomplished, and all past sins were covered. When the high priest came out, the people knew God had accepted the sacrifice, and their sins were pardoned. Israel never doubted it! 

Beloved, we too have a High Priest: Jesus, our Lord, our High Priest forever. Jesus took his own blood to the true mercy seat in God’s presence, the Holy of Holies, and presented it for the remission of all sins, of all believers, for all time. 

Scripture says of this act, “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12).

Jesus took his own blood into heaven for us, and it is not reserved there simply as a memorial. It is to be sprinkled on all who come to him by faith.

In Exodus 24, God made a covenant agreement with Israel. He promised throughout the entire Old Testament, “If you will obey my words, I will be a God to you and you will be my people” (Jeremiah 7:23, NKJV). After Moses read the law to the people, they answered, “We understand and we will obey.” 

This covenant had to be sealed—ratified and made valid—and that could happen only by sprinkling the blood upon it. Hebrews tells us that “[Moses] took the blood…and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people” (Hebrews 9:19).

The shed blood of the burnt offerings was contained in a basin. Moses took some of this blood and poured part of it by the altar; then he took a hyssop (plant), dipped it in the basin, and sprinkled some of the blood on the twelve pillars (representing the twelve tribes of Israel). Finally, Moses dipped the hyssop into the basin and sprinkled the blood on the people, which sealed the covenant. 

It is clear that the sprinkling of the blood gave the Israelites full access to God with joy. On this occasion, it had nothing to do with forgiveness of sin but rather with communion. They were now sanctified, cleansed, and fit to be in God’s presence. 

Moses and the seventy elders went up to the mountain to meet God, where the Lord appeared to them. These men saw a table spread before them, and scripture implies that with ease, comfort, and no fear of judgment, they sat in God’s presence and ate and drank with him: “But on the nobles of the children of Israel he did not lay his hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exodus 24:11).

This is simply amazing. These men could eat and drink in the very presence of God, whereas shortly before, they had feared for their lives. The blood had been sprinkled, and they understood the safety, power and security in that. They had no fear! 

Beloved, today we are in a new covenant with Jesus Christ, a covenant sealed by his own blood. When his precious blood is sprinkled on your soul, it is for the purpose of communion so that you can go boldly—with ease, without fear of judgment—into God’s presence. You are given access to him, with no sin condemning you, free to talk to God and enjoy his company.