You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you. Exodus 12:22-23.
But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. John 19:34.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
The path of life—it is not just a matter of receiving but also of giving.
Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8.
That is a path of life—all sufficiency in everything and an abundance for every good deed.
Freely you received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.
What have you freely received?
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:12.
But I want you to understand, what you freely have received was not freely obtained for you. It was legally obtained by a priceless sacrifice. I am talking about mercy.
Many people think of My mercy as the equivalent of pity and favor that make Me do things just because you have begged Me, pressured Me, or tried to please Me and did not sin for a few days. Others feel if they show Me how much they are suffering and how unhappy they are, I will feel sorry for them so waive My divine justice, relax it down, and act differently (unjustly) in your matter as you keep on in your sinful lifestyle. Others just feel they personally deserve it because they have not done any “big” sins and go to church. But any sin is huge in the presence of perfect love and purity.
I want you to understand that Jesus won mercy for you by taking all your sins and the just punishment due them into His own body, taking your sentence justly pronounced and immutable, for the foundation of My throne is justice. I am not one who takes bribes or plays favorites based on the whim of the moment. Justice must be done.
The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries round about. Psalm 97:1-3.
You can count on Me to keep My Word and the wages of sin is death. So how is it that your sins are forgiven, you are healed, and you find favor and grace? Legally by the Blood of Jesus. Someone who could pay what you could not, paid back what you owed and by His bloody scourges you were healed.
No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever, that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay . . . But God will redeem my soul from the power of hell for He will receive me. Psalm 49:7-9;15.
The just punishment has been paid and you are legally cleared and that is mercy you can count on. And that is what the Mercy Seat, the propitiatory, is all about. And the Blood of Jesus is on it in Heaven’s Holy of Holies speaking an eternal redemption.
And this payment is sure and has been made. I do not give and take away, what I give is to stay. You only have to receive it.
“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; when He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.” Numbers 23:19-20.
But a pardon must be received or you remain in your sins. And how do you receive it? You receive Jesus as your Lord and believe you have mercy because I raised Him from the dead for your justification.
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” John 8:24.
You must believe in the sacrifice that paid your debt and cleansed you in order you to enjoy it. There is a reason the Mercy Seat on which the High Priest sprinkled the Blood seven times was a cover on the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments. Mercy is on top of the Law, broken Law (sin is lawlessness), but it came with a cost. The Blood on the Mercy Seat gave Me the right to treat My people with mercy.
Breaking My Law of Life brings death. And you have all broken it, but the Blood on the Mercy Seat made all the difference, both in the Old Covenant and the New and Everlasting Covenant.
And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:27-28.
However, under the Old Covenant, it was only a payment of credit towards the real payment that would obtain an eternal mercy for you. As long as the Blood of Jesus is on the Mercy Seat it is eternally speaking mercy for you. You had a debt but it has been paid in full and no further payment is needed. The Blood is the evidence before Me. It speaks on your behalf before Me.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous (just) to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
Legally and righteously you are forgiven by the Blood shed for you. When you sin and repent, I must forgive you because Jesus has bought it for you. And Jesus as your High Priest of your confession (homologia, which means speaking in agreement with My Words) is ever reminding Me and interceding for you to the uttermost. And that was My Will that He do that, and My Will prospered in His hand. You do not beg Me for mercy for your sins, you come with a grateful heart on the new and living way of the Blood to My throne and receive it. I have extended mercy to you by the Blood, but it is up to you to receive it.
The world is still under the leasehold of Adam which he abdicated and gave to the devil. And he still has followers who stay under his jurisdiction, so there is still sin in the world, so how do you apply what I have given you freely in Christ and share it with others?
Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.
You do not come and beg for mercy, even when you sinned, you come with grateful, joyful confidence and receive that which has been legally made yours by the fountain of the water and the blood. And there is plenteous redemption here, enough for you and for others.
Of what am I speaking?
But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. John 19:34.
The heart of the One who loved you and released you from your sins by His blood and washes His body the Church with the water of the Word. Purified from sin and made perfect, spotless, blameless and beyond reproach by the fountain of the blood and born again, regenerated, filled with the Spirit and made a new creation by the water of the Word. And the source is His Heart which is one with My Heart. He is My Beloved Son that came forth to the earth from My bosom, from My heart, from whence also the Spirit proceeds for He knows the thoughts of My heart and shares them with you.
But the counsel of the LORD stands firm forever, the thoughts of His heart through all generations. Psalm 33:11.
And what is the desire of My heart? Why did I send Jesus? Why did He have to shed all His Blood to redeem you from your sins?
First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:1-6.
I desire that all be saved and come to know the truth. And I ask you to pray for that as My royal priesthood.
Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension. 1 Timothy 2:8.
Lift up your hands and pray without wrath or dissension. What am I talking about? Extending My mercy, the legal forgiveness by the Blood, over those whose hearts are hardened, over the lost, over all men, but especially over those who have wronged you and that you have wrath and dissension within your heart towards them, you may even want to see wrath fall on them. Will you refuse to extend, NOT your mercy, you cannot legally win salvation for anyone, but as My royal priesthood you can take up My Son’s precious Blood and extend it, pour it, flood, and cover the earth with it. There is enough mercy there on the Mercy Seat for you and all people, even those who are not seeking it.
If this is surprising to you, let Me remind you of something. You can make a difference in others’ lives and, indeed, in the destiny of a whole city by extending My Mercy to them.
I told Abraham there was a great outcry about the sins of Sodom and their sins were very grave. Being a just God I would have to do justice for the sins of the city of Sodom by letting divine justice fall on that city. Remember that the foundation of My throne is righteousness and justice and that “fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries round about.” Psalm 97:1-3. But I had given Abraham the office of a prophet, Genesis 20:7, and he understood My heart and interceded on behalf of the city of Sodom. And he interceded legally based on justice for the righteous. “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” Genesis 18:25. I accepted his intercession, in fact, I requested it by sharing My confidence with him due to his faith in My Word, his great reverence for Me and commitment to teaching his children and his household to keep My teachings and ways by doing righteousness and justice. Genesis 18:19. He stopped his intercession, however, by extending My mercy to shield Sodom from My divine justice falling to evict them off the earth for their perverted lifestyles with asking to shield the city if I found ten righteous people therein. But, alas, there was only one there. But for one he could have saved the city, but he did extend My mercy far enough for that.
Death and life are in the power of your tongue.
And think about the day of atonement that I instituted with Moses for the legal extension of mercy to the nation by the blood on the Mercy Seat. The High Priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of the sacrifice for the sins of the nation during the year. And once he put that blood on the Mercy Seat, and came out of the Holy of Holies alive, the nation was shielded from divine justice for sins committed therein in that year. The blood had been accepted as propitiation for the nation even though every person it covered may not have repented of their sin. It was the work of the High Priest and the unblemished sacrifice that saved the nation. When I see the blood, I have the destroyer, the divine justice, pass over.
And remember Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, going up to the Temple at the our of prayer? A beggar lay there seeking alms who had never been able to walk. He cried out to Peter and John for an alms. He was not asking healing and he did not even believe he could have it. But Peter and John had something he did not. They had been born again and they had faith in the Name of Jesus. And they extended the mercy they had and released him from his restricted lifestyle. He was healed by their faith, not his own. By their faith in the Name and by their sharing what they had.
There may be hard-hearted sinners that you know, but Jesus paid the ransom for all, and I have told you to pray for all people to be saved and come to know the truth. People may look as hopeless as that crippled beggar by the gate, but there was healing mercy there for him and another’s faith in that extended it to him and healed him.
Someone may have gone astray or perhaps never was on the path of life, but there is mercy and you can cover the world with it. You can offer spiritual sacrifice.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is chief and choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5.
Come and use the Blood on the Mercy Seat, it is at your disposal to use for mankind as one of My royal priesthood. A legal work has been done by Me and My Son to reverse the curse and the sentence of death, and you can take that and change others. You are the one to do that. Receive mercy for yourself, be filled with it, and then turn and extend it to give it to people who need it. Freely give what you have freely received.
Mercy is at your disposal to use for others as well as yourself. You are wise to win souls for Me. That is My heart’s desire, that all be saved and come to know the truth of My mercy. Be a receiver but be a giver as well. I am depending on you.
Don’t recoil from the person who has hurt you, reach out your hand now and extend My Mercy, extend My saving work to them. And then you are working for Me and I will reward you. If you resist to give mercy, it stops Me from letting it flow to you. The standard you use is measured back to you. As you judge others so I must judge you. But there is far more here, this extends not only to the one next to you but those in a city far from you. This goes to government officials, cities and nations that you can, from your watchtower of prayer, extend My Mercy to.
Therefore, He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25.
You too are going confidently in to My throne of grace and Jesus as your High Priest of your confession is going right in with you and there you can RECEIVE MERCY for yourself and for all to whom you wish to extend it for Me and find grace (My divine life which is in My Word) to give you just the help you need right when you need it.
You are the one to extend My mercy, for Jesus gave His life as a ransom for ALL, to those who are not seeking it on their own.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36.
Many people go to hell because no one took the time to intercede for them, to extend My legal mercy to them. I think now you will understand this passage:
So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” John 20:19-23.
As My royal priesthood I have put the blood, just as I did with Aaron and his sons, in your hands to offer for the people that I can extend My mercy to them, to the nations and to the world that I so love that I gave you My only begotten Son so that all who believe shall not perish but have eternal life.
“Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.” Psalm 2:8.
I love you. I have given you a tremendous responsibility to join with Jesus in His prayers of intercession as your High Priest offering His eternal blood once for all upon the Mercy Seat in Heaven. He is the High Priest, however, of YOUR confession. I watch over My Word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:12. And you are keepers of the Word that I have put in your mouth by Covenant. Isaiah 59:21. You are to agree with Him and extend that Mercy that He won for every soul into the earth. COVER THE EARTH WITH THE BLOOD so I can show mercy. I have given you the nations as your inheritance. Bring them home with you. I am counting on you. Your prayers matter. All the world is waiting on them.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10.
*If you look at the picture that accompanies this Life Lesson you will see your “SWP’ “Spirit-Word Prayers” and also S is for Spirit, W for Word, and P is for priests, pouring My Blood of the Mercy Seat over the entire world. Cover the world with the Blood so I can legally show Mercy to all the nations, like the High Priest on the day of atonement of Old, do it new with your great High Priest today offering spiritual sacrifice.
“Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.” Psalm 2:8.