And thus we have come to the end of The Blood Series. However, if the Lord reveals something further to me I will definitely put it up. I hope this study has been a blessing to you all. Hope to hear any of your thoughts on this topic. We will begin another series soon. I would love to hear any topic suggestions you may have.

The Blood Series

7. It Grants Victory 2:

Knowledge is power but inaccurate knowledge is our destruction. I cannot emphasize the requirement of sound Biblical doctrine, one that is revealed by the Spirit of God. Man unfortunately can err and it would be foolish for anyone to trust every teaching or doctrine without taking it to the Lord in prayer.

           Last time we looked at how we are lead to believe that we have power over satan. As I said having the authority to cast out demons and unclean spirits does not mean that we have power over satan. I would love to teach on this, but today is not the day. The Blood of Christ would not have any power if Christ did not die on the cross. It was the death of Christ that gave the Blood its power. Now that we have come this far into the topic, we must now begin to relate the previous points together. We saw that the value of the Blood came from the sinless life of Christ, the cleansing power came by the Law of Substitution, Life giving power came by the very Breath of God (Word of God) and now we will see how Victory is by the Blood.

            When Jesus was instituting the Lord’s Supper, He said, “For this is My blood of the new covenant…” what does it mean? We will first look at what a Covenant means. In Law: it is a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action. In today’s vocabulary the word covenant is not used and so most do not know what it stands for. However, we do have something quite similar…a Testament. In Law a Testament, is the term used to provide legal instructions in which you say who should receive your property, possessions, etc., after you die and so you have a combined term known a ‘Will and Testament’. The Covenant mentioned in scripture is an everlasting one. If you combine the meaning of Testament and the meaning of a Covenant things begin to appear clearer.

                               The Old Testament is the will of God given as a promise under seal between God and Abraham. The seal was the sign of circumcision from man’s side Gen 17: 7-12 and what God did is outlined in Gen 15: 8-17. In like manner the New Testament is the will of God given as a promise under seal between God and man through Jesus. The seal is the Holy Spirit 2 Cor 1:22, Eph 1:13 and 4:30. I am not going into the detail of how a covenant works but rather I would like to explain how the Blood for Christ got the power to grant us victory by the death of Christ. The the key passage required to prove the point I am emphasizing is:

                            “For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.” Hebrews 9:16-17

Jesus during the Last Supper declared the New Testament to His disciples saying that His Body is given for them and that His Blood will be shed for them (LK 22:19-20).  The Apostle Paul received more detail account when Jesus revealed the Holy Communion to him. 

                          “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread… And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” 1Cor 11: 23-25

The New Testament is in the Blood of Christ! God explains His take on the First Covenant in Heb 8:8-12. The writer of Hebrews starts the verse saying that God  finding fault in this Covenant makes the proclamation. Paul expands on this fault in Rom 7: 8-11. The Law rather than bringing Life brought Death because man was not able to fulfill its requirement. The New Testament frees man from the requirements of the Law because Jesus fulfilled it. Therefore, the New Covenant brings Life! Hallelujah, Blessed be His Name. As we studied that Life is in the Blood that is why Jesus declares to Paul in 1 Cor 11:25 that the New Testament is in His Blood. The Life giving Covenant runs through the Blood of Christ, which speaks better things. I hope your able to catch the meaning. 

            The day Jesus died this Testament became active, thereby granting the Life giving Blood to redeem, cleanse everyone who come to the Feet of Christ and invites Him to be their Lord and Saviour. Thus the Blood received its power to do all these things and grant us victory over sin and the requirements of the Law. The final victory will come when death is destroyed as outlined in Rev 20: 14 and 1 Corinthians 15:26 (death is the last enemy, not satan). Hope you can see the glory of God in the power of the Blood of Christ and how by it we become empowered to overcome satan, by what Christ has achieved and is doing currently on our behalf in Heaven. Amen

The Blood Series

 6. It Grants Us Victory:

Today we will look at how the victory by the Blood has been wrongly understood.

Rev 12:11 states that, “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb…” The verse clearly says that the saints were able to overcome satan by the blood. There is a controversial doctrine being presented around where people are told that they can apply or plead the Blood on anything they wish, for example:

a) Applying the blood on a demon possessed or oppressed individual to deliver them.

b) Applying the blood on a person, or property as a means of protection.

Somehow this doctrine has an uncanny resemblance to the way holy water is used. I have personally fallen under this teaching for a while and then the Lord taught me on it. In the Old Testament the blood of the sacrificed animals were considered sacred after the animal had been consecrated to be sacrificed. Now the blood was considered Holy (an antecedent to the Blood of Christ), this blood was applied only on specific places for ceremonial purposes. A deeper study will reveal that everything in these ceremonies had prophetic undertones. The blood was never used indiscriminately as and when and wherever the priest wished.  Each and every ceremony was done as per the dictates of God. Therefore, how we can use the shed Blood of Christ as a common thing today. The Blood has its place only in the plan and purpose of God which has already been accomplished on the cross of Calvary, when Jesus shed it for the sole purpose of redemption. Since, this work has been completed and no more sacrifices will be ever made, is it safe to say that the Blood is no longer in use. The answer should be simple as 1+1=2.

                        The verse in Rev 12:11 basically states that we can overcome satan by the Blood of Christ because of what it accomplished when it was shed. However, what we do have to use liberally is the word of our testimony. What does our faith entreat us to declare? The words of faith that spring forth from our hearts, based on what we believe Christ did for us when He purchased us, then cleansed us and elevated us to sit in the heavenly places in Christ; this is what enables the faithful to stand. We can overcome satan because Jesus overcame Him and in Him and through Him alone we have this victory. If I were to claim that I overcame satan by the Blood and by the word of my testimony, it is to elevate myself to a superhero status. Because I overcame satan!!! Let’s not kid ourselves. The Archangel Michael dared not bring a charge against satan but rather asked the Lord to rebuke him in Jude 1:9. The Bible never said to fight satan neither does it say to take authority over him. I understand the misconception with the verses where Jesus givies us power over serpents and scorpions, and the power to cast out unclean spirits. It is true that these powers have been given but casting out demons and unclean spirits does not mean that we have been granted power over satan. Only person who can defeat satan is God Himself, and it is this reason why the actual defeat and condemnation of satan does not occur until after the Millennial Reign of Christ way, way down in Rev 20:7-10. Again the problem is wrong teaching, causing confusion.

                I have heard so many prayers by men of God wherein they keep binding satan. No sooner the prayer is finished and the man goes home that the problems resurface. Guess the binding chains were pretty short or weak. Many are they who fall for this teaching and try to engage the forces of darkness without knowing what they are up against and this has caused many to fall…some even from the faith. Then what kind of victory is then portrayed in Rev 12:11, the answer is in the verse itself.

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

They overcame satan though they died! It is not a physical victory but a victory of their faith, which was strong enough to stand for the Lord even when faced with death. These faithful people are martyrs who were killed during the Tribulation Period. My dear brothers and sisters it is easy to stand before people and praying and claiming victory over satan and his forces. It is another thing to die for the Lord. Which do you consider to be true victory. Their victory was by the Blood of the Lamb and their Testimony of it, which they held on till the end.  All the Apostles died as martyrs except John. They who were once afraid for their lives were ready to give it up rather than deny the Lord. What made them stand? Our Lord as I mentioned in the last lesson intercedes on our behalf. It is He who enables us to stand. We cannot stand on our own. Our true convictions of what the Lord has done and spoken to us is the ultimate testimony. Do we believe or not is the question. None can and should claim that they can, for only the hour will sift the truly faithful from the not.  

The Blood Series

The topic today is a bit controversial because it is something we do not like to talk about simply because it is uncomfortable. We rather not bother with the elephant in the room. Somehow I feel it is necessary to address this issue and here it is out in the open.

5. It Judges

People often forget that the blood of Christ can judge us. Man is so comfortable with speaking about a loving and forgiving God that people fail to see what happens when the salvation of God is rejected. As believers we need to understand the penalty that is deemed worthy to those who sin (turn away / apostatize) after receiving the knowledge of truth. For such there remains no more chance of redemption since they did not regard the value of the Blood of the new covenant, which I briefly mentioned as the second unforgivable sin when we were talking about the value of the Blood.

                                         For a believer the Blood of Christ judges a little bit differently. In 1 Cor 11:27-30, believers are encouraged to take part in the Holy Communion keeping in mind it’s sanctity and reverence. The Bible clearly emphasizes what happens to those who do not. The Bible says that they bring about judgement upon themselves because they did not discern the Lord’s body.

                                        The judgement pronounced here is temporal and not eternal. It is to serve as a warning or deterrent to others who might otherwise take the Holy Communion lightly. Believers need to understand the significance of the sacrifice made upon the cross and how the Lord instituted the Holy Communion as a memorial to His sacrifice, which was for our deliverance. If apostasy by a believer has no forgiveness because he/she has counted the Blood of Christ as a common thing and trampled it underfoot, imagine what happens to the people who take Communion without discerning the Body and Blood of Christ many times in their lives. Are we excused by any chance? Weakness of the body, sickness and even death is stated as being the punishments that befall such when judged by God.

                                       The Bible clearly states in Is 53: 4-6 and 1 Pt 2:24 that “By His stripes we have been healed,” yet there are so many who are sick in the church, WHY? In a lot of cases, believers die of sickness, which in turn causes a lot of people of the household of faith itself to question God. Not to forget the world also sees this as a chance to undermine the faith, by challenging the very word of God and those who follow it. The question that begs to be asked is whether this is because of not taking the communion in a worthy manner. Is our irreverence to the Body and Blood of Christ one of the causes of the biggest ill that plagues the church? Truth be told neither I nor any preacher, teacher or pastor can say that this is THE reason. I am by no means saying that there couldn't be other reasons…of course there can be. However, since we are on this topic it is a point that I personally would consider looking into, seeing the patterns within the Bible itself. There so many examples in the Old Testament where the people of God are punished for their sins. The sin of the sons of Korah, King David’s census, Moses’s sin etc.… are perfect examples. A lot of people deny that God judges His people today and the most common reason touted for people not being punished today is because we are in the period of Grace. The teaching gives the impression that there is no judgement for the believer and because of this teaching the possibility of the said sin is not considered, not even by a long shot. One New Testament example incident that I’d like to point out is the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, who died on the spot as punishment for lying to the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus also warns us about how much we need to be careful not to offend others esp. those who are small (children, new believers). The Apostle Paul also speaks about not causing other to stumble by what we eat, because their faith is weaker.

                                The word says that if we judge ourselves we would not be judged by God, meaning God does not want to judge us but He will if we won’t. So, if 1 Cor 11:29-30 is taken to be literal then then answer is YES, sickness and death from sickness may and can be a product of our own malpractice. The passage is a strict warning to every believer, to be careful when taking the Holy Communion. This judgement exists because we are not to be judged with the world, which will be sent to eternal hell fire after Judgement.

                               I believe the judgements mentioned in 1 Cor 11:27-28 are stages rather than singular events. First comes weakness, then comes sickness and if still one remains unrepentant; death. Each one paves the way for the next. The time taken from one to the other is uncertain but I believe in the filling up of the measure of sin, which is what brings about the edict of the judgement of God. For example: God speaks of the completion of the sin of the Amorites as a precursor to the deliverance of Israel from Egypt in Genesis 15:16. As we read we find that Israel was given the land because God wanted to dispossess the land from the Canaanites because of their sin. Mind you, I strongly believe that even if one reaches the final stage the moment repentance happens the power of God will restore that one. Why I say this...if God forgave Ahab when he repented and relented from punishing him in  1 Kings 21:28-29 or the City of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah how much more the one who has accepted Jesus as their personal Saviour.

                               People are not aware of this warning because they are not taught about it. If then the accountability squarely lies on the shoulders of those that teach the word of God. People tend to follow what everyone else is doing and in doing so the act without knowing its significance it then becomes something we do as a part of Church culture/ tradition. The only mention of this warning that I personally ever hear, is right before the actual Communion service itself and in so many times of hearing it we get used to it. Since this particular sin is not taught or expounded upon, no one recognizes or considers these punishments to be a result of partaking the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner.

                               On one hand the Bible says that we have been healed by the stripes of Jesus and on the other hand we see so many of our brothers and sisters’ sick, dying or are already dead. Wouldn't the sufferings (not death) of Christ then seem futile? Did He endure the Roman scourge for nothing? I believe everything that the Lord went through was for my good and well-being. Our irresponsibility and irreverence should not be used to tout our Lord as incapable of keeping us healthy, nor should it be used by scoffers and God haters to mock Him and question His sovereignty. It is therefore my prayer that all who read this will make sure that they take part in the Holy Communion in a worthy manner. We are created to be His praise and that is what we shall be. Amen.

The Blood Series

Not much is spoken about this quality of the blood, however, we could have come across the intercession of Christ a number of time.  Today we will look at how the intercession of Christ is related to the Blood as the fourth quality.


4. It Speaks:

As mentioned earlier the blood contains the life of the flesh. Life as mentioned in the Bible speaks that it is ‘breath’ Gen 6:17 and 7:15 and 22. There are many passages that mention about how the blood speaks to God. The very first mention is in Gen 4:10, when God asks Cain about the whereabouts of his brother Able. In relation to this verse the Bible speaks about the Blood of Christ speaking better things than that of Able’s in Heb 12:24. The blood of Able cried for vengeance while the Blood of Christ prayed for forgiveness, just as Jesus’s last prayer upon the Cross Lk 23:34, when He prayed to the Father asking Him to forgive those who took part in His crucifixion. This prayer comes out of the love that God in Christ had as part of His divine nature. Jesus intercedes on behalf of those taking part in His death, how much more for those who are His?

                  In Lev 16:12-13, there is an important detailed instruction that the High Priest must follow on the Day of Atonement. Before presenting the blood of the sacrificial animal, the High Priest must take the coal from the Brazen Altar; he must then put it into a pan and then put two hands full of incense into it. The smoke that arises must then be introduced into the Holy of Holies along with the blood of sprinkling. The smoke would provide a covering for the High Priest. It was a veil within the veil. The Temple veil separated God and man physically.  If the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies without the incense the Bible says that he would die instantly. This incense and blood is significant of the blood that would speak behalf of us. It prophetically signified the intercession of Christ in heaven after His ascension.

                 Heb 7:25, speaks of this heavenly ministry towards the saints, where He is interceding for them. The cloud of incense separated the sins of man from the wrath of God, so that God did not see us as sinners but rather He would see the Lord's intercession on our behalf. It is here where the Blood of Christ speaks of better things than that of Able’s. When we sin, we stand accused by satan seeking God’ punishment upon us. The Blood of Christ frees us from the condemnation of sin since the price (death) has already been paid. The Blood of Christ veto’s all of satan’s accusations before God. This however, does not give us the right to misuse God's grace. We must value what He has done for us and continues to do for us. He will continue to do so till we are with Him forever. Amen

Greetings To All My Readers

Greetings to all my brothers and sisters in Christ.Thank you for joining me in this study, and the journey has only just begun. By the grace of God we are going well and going strong. Readership has been steady and I am deeply encouraged. I hope this study has been dealt well so far because there's lots more to go through. Hope to hear your thoughts and how this study has blessed you so far. I am also looking forward to interacting with you regularly, so please do drop in your comments. Also I have a 'Ask a Question' tab at the top, please feel free to ask your doubts either on this study or on any matters pertaining to the word of God. If this blog is a blessing please refer it to your friends. Let's encourage each other and grow together. God Bless

Blood Series

So far we have studied the life carrying and cleansing power of the blood. Today we will look at the 3rd quality of the Blood.


3. It Has Great Value
The Bible states that man was ‘bought’ at a price as seen in Acts 20:28, 1Cor 6:20, 7:23, 1Pt 1:18-19, 2Pt 2:1 and Rev 5:9. These verses specifically speak of the Blood of Christ being used to get back mankind.          

                    Why did He need to pay a price to get mankind back? When man sinned, he became its prisoner. The Bible states that sin became our master! Rom 6:16-17, 20. Sin being our master, mankind was obligated to obey it without actually being aware of it. Sin became interwoven into our flesh Eph 2:2-3. The verse says that we were by nature the children of wrath. Rom 8:3 shows the term ‘sinful flesh’. Flesh and sin became synonymous, on the day man sinned by disobeying God. There was a union that took place. Death became the product of this unholy union Rom 5:14. Until then death was not part of creation. This is why the Bible says that the wages/penalty of sin is death Rom 6:23. A slave can only be freed if someone gives the price of that slave to the master. Likewise, sin became our master; the only way to free us was by paying the price for our freedom. So what was the price? The answer lies in Rom 6:23 itself. The wages of sin is Death. The price is Death. If man was to be free then someone would have to take his place at death. This is called the Law Of Substitution, which was seen in the offering made during the Sin, Peace and the Burnt Offering in the book of Leviticus, where the person offering the animal would lay his hand on the its head before sacrificing it Lev 1:4, 3:2, 4:4, 16:1. It was considered that the sins of the man were transferred to the animal that would die in his place as a price for sins committed. This is where the term scapegoat originates, in ceremonies on the Day of Atonement, where one of the goat is sent away into the wilderness as a sign of sin being separated from the sinner.

                 God accomplished this task of freeing mankind from the power of death by the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Jesus became the sacrificial lamb of old, to justify those who came to Him and touched Him. When did I touch Him? The day Christ took up the flesh Jn 1:14 i.e.to be born in the flesh was the day all of mankind touched Him or rather He touched us. We could never have known God unless He revealed Himself to us, that we know God because He knew us Gal 4:9 and loved us before we loved Him 1Jn 4:19. Jesus touched us and took our sins upon Himself, because we were ignorant of Him, His ways and His love for us. The sacrificial animal if given a choice would never die in our place but the Lord was ready to die for those who did not even know Him or ever heard of Him. Jesus taking our place died the death that we were to die, thereby paying the ransom price to purchase all under the power of death because of sin Mat 20:28, Mk 10:45 and 1Tim 2:6. Thus, today we are the purchase of God; bought by the precious Blood of Christ.

                How did the Blood of Christ gain such a value that it alone was sufficient to redeem all of mankind with one just act? I’ll explain this like a mathematical formula: If sin=death then conversely holiness=life. Therefore to counter death one must be holy in the flesh, which has been known to sin. It is here where people get confused. How did Jesus take our sins upon Himself? As we talked about it earlier in the Law of Substitution, the laying on of the hand transferred the sin upon the sacrificial animal thereby freeing the man. Likewise, Jesus lived a holy life without spot or blemish and the sin of man was transferred upon Him by God into His flesh Rom 8:3, thereby condemning it in the flesh, and sacrificed it upon the cross. Jesus became sin in the flesh 2Cor 5:21….like a container into which the sin of mankind was trapped or put into, and then destroyed by death. Thereby, removing sin from this world and destroying its power over creation. This accomplishment is seen in 1Cor 15:56-7.   When did the sin of the world come upon Jesus? It came upon Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, the weight of the sin was the reason why blood poured out of Him like sweat. It is this pain that caused Him to pray to the Father about passing the cup of suffering. Take a moment to take in how it must have felt to take the pain for something you did not do.       

                Therefore, anyone rejecting Christ after having received Him will become guilty of the Blood. This is as serious as Blaspheming the Holy Spirit. This is another sin that does not have forgiveness as stated in Heb10:26-31. To forgive these would be to crucify Christ a second time and that is blasphemous of the grace of God. The Blood of Christ is not to be taken lightly for it this Blood that was used to pay the ransom for the freedom of every human born from the time of Adam’s fall. I have personally known of people who became believers only to go back to their old faith within a few years of coming to the Lord. The reason given for this drastic turnaround has been blamed on the believers themselves who did not portray Christ. This too is another sad example of a sin that God does not tolerate as cited in  Mat 18:6-7 /MK 9:42/ Lk 17:1-2. Either way the turning back from the faith still does not have a valid reason, simply because the person has as the verse in Heb 10 states “…having received the knowledge of the truth…”

               To a born again believer the Blood of Christ is what he or she is worth and that in itself should pick us up from every pit (depression, lack of self-esteem, rejection etc.) that we may fall into. It is this vey Blood that today gives me my worth regardless what I may be valued in this world. If this was applied to the parable of the pearl of great price or the field of great treasure mentioned in Mt 13: 44-45, the merchant and the man who sells all to buy what was of value would be God Himself, who so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son... Jn 3:16. My worth is set by God not by man. Praise His Great Name. Amen.

The Blood Series

Picking up from where we left off; here is the second quality of the Blood as we study the scriptures.

2. It Cleans:

With the entry on sin into this world through the disobedience of man, sin permeated throughout this world taking grip of all things living. It brought with it the penalty of sin, which is death Rom 6:23. 

So what is the importance of Blood throughout scripture? In Heb 9:22 we see that Blood cleanses sin and that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. This means that forgiveness of sins is by the shedding of blood. This is the one of the reasons why Jesus had come in the flesh to die. Then one might ask why kill animals if Jesus would in the end come to die on the cross. Why subject such cruelty to animals (in today's scenario) and financial strain upon the people of Israel to provide themselves with the sacrificial animal during the feasts and the daily offerings in the Temple.

                      In the Old Testament, animals were used for various ceremonial offerings that were instituted as a bridge between God and man relationally. Sin made man an enemy of God Rom 5:10! Animal sacrifice was used as a temporary solution for sin. Why? because it could not take away sins completely as seen in Heb 10:11. It is my  scripturally construed reasoning  that the blood of the sacrifices used to cover sins rather than cleanse them. You know like sweeping things under a rug so that it is not seen. We can see this in Rom 4:7, which actually is a quote from one of the Psalms of David (Ps 32:1). Another similar quotation can be found in Ps 85:2. The Hebrew word for ‘cover’ here is Kasah, which means to conceal or hide. I therefore believe that it is safe to say that the blood of the animal sacrifices concealed our sins from God. There is a big difference between covering and remission of sins. One hides it from sight while the other completely does away with it, leaving no remainder of sin. This is why the Bible states in Heb 10:1-4 that a remainder of sin remained after an animal sacrifice was made.

                    Sin remained because the blood of animals only covered it, and so with sin still intact within humanity, the Bible points to the need of a more perfect sacrifice to do away with sin once and for all. This perfect sacrifice was Jesus, who offered up Himself for the redemption of mankind.

                    I would like to ponder on a question at this time. Does sin exist anymore, since we are talking about the cleansing power of the Blood of Jesus. What do you think?

                 

                  

                      

The Blood Series

This is a study that has long been pending, and for reasons unknown I never really got around to doing it. The Lord reminded me of this a few weeks ago and so I set to work and I believe I should have studied this much earlier. The Blood of Christ is foundational to the Christian faith, for it is on which the New Testament stands.  Majority of us know that the Blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, but most do not know how it all works. What was the function of the Blood, in its role for the redemption of man? To understand the dynamics we need to look at the qualities the Blood possessed and what functional role it played in God's plan. The Blood of Christ is pivotal to the Christian faith for it is the wellspring of eternal life. The first few parts of this series will deal with the qualities of the Blood then later we will discuss its function.

The Qualities of the Blood

1. It Carries Life:

 In Lev 17:11-14 God says to Moses that the life of the flesh is in the blood; therefore it must not be consumed. Anyone who consumes blood is to be cut off (killed) from Israel. It is from this law that we today do not eat blood, as instructed by the Apostles in Acts 15:29 when they debated on what part of the Mosaic Law should the new Gentile believers follow or should not follow.

How did the blood come to carry the life of the animal or why is the blood the carrier of life?

 To answer this question we must go to the origin of life as recorded in the Book of Genesis. Let`s look at Gen 1:20-21. God first ordered the waters to bring forth life in it and then the air to bring forth the birds and finally the ground to bring forth life in verse 24 of the same chapter. Nothing specific has been said further regarding life except that those which were brought forth were made according to species and kinds. However when we read Gen 6:17 and 7:15 and 22, we see the term Breath of Life being used to denote living creatures. So, as per the Bible all living creatures possess the breath of life! We are most often told that only man possessed the breath of life. However, there is a huge difference in the breath that the beasts possess from us. The difference between the two breaths is that man received his breath by God blowing directly into man after forming him in His image/likeness. Animal never received their breaths from the very mouth of God. This is what differentiates us from animals. Thus we possess a soul while they do not.

                      So far we have seen that all flesh has the breath of life, we have also seen that the life of the flesh is in the blood. This leads me to believe that there is something within the blood that enables it to be the carrier of life. I believe it is the oxygen carrying capacity of blood that makes it the carrier of life, and that it was designed in such a way so as to facilitate it to carry life.

               To further reinforce this let’s look at the word Adam. In Hebrew, the word Adam is represented in 3 different forms as opposed to the single one seen in the English language. The word Adam has always been used to identify a man; however there are three versions of it. The question one needs to ask is why God gave the name ADAM. Looking through the Bible we come across names aplenty but none are without meaning or significance. The word Adam has the following meanings depending on usage:

1. Man, Mankind (aw-dawm’-H120)

2.  Red (aw-dawm’-H121)

Both the above meaning are derived from the root word (aw-dam-H119) meaning to be red or dyed red! The name itself suggests that the dust the God used to make man was not red but made red by the addition of a secret ingredient -Blood. We all know that all of God’s creation is purposeful. Therefore it is evident that the blood was added to serve its ultimate purpose. I believe its function to exist in creation was to pave the way for the sacrifice that Jesus would ultimately make. Such is the planning of God. He sees the end and so calls the beginning in accordance Isaiah 46:10. Imagine we are in the hands of such a great God. My life cannot go wrong so long as I stay with Him. Hallelujah.

Times and Seasons: a walk through the life of Moses