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 2:5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
As My royal priesthood washed in the eternal blood of Jesus and anointed and appointed with His anointing, you too are priests forever according to the order of Melchizedek. It is time you took your place with Jesus your High Priest in the Holy of holies at My throne of grace praying effective New Covenant prayers to accomplish My Will, win Souls, and take territory for My Kingdom on earth. It is time to wake up to righteousness.
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. James 5:16.
Consider this again, for often you pass over things all too quickly in My Word without giving the seed of the Word a chance to plant and grow in you to harvest. Jesus has released you from you sins by His Blood and made you a kingdom, priests unto Me, your God and Father. Revelation 1:5-6. The sacred mandate for priests is to offer sacrifice to atone for the people and the nation, to be an intercessor before Me for the people and to bring My favor on them, to bless the people, to teach and equip the people in the Word, to sing praise and thanksgiving, and minster unto the Me in My house.
You are now to offer spiritual sacrifice. Not the physical ones with the blood of goats, bulls and lambs as was done by the priests of the Old Covenant, but New Covenant offerings, which are the fulfillment of the old sacrifices of the law by the sacrifice of Jesus once for all in an eternal redemption that spans all time for all men. You are in a whole new realm that transcends time and space. You have come to the heavenly Zion and the church of the Firstborn.
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 2:5.
What are spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Me through Jesus Christ?
From the beginning I showed you the Lamb. He was My solution to sin since the foundation of the world.
Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 1 Peter 1:18-21.
When Adam and Eve had sinned and stripped themselves of glory, they covered themselves with fig leaves. But there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood, and for them it had to be an eternal life for the life they lost.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’ Leviticus 17:11.
As a foreshadow of the seed of the woman to come, I sacrificed a lamb and clothed them in lambskins, which is a fine soft leather made from the hide of a lamb. This was the first time blood was shed on the earth. And it was shadow of the atonement by the blood of a lamb.
Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. The LORD God made garments of leather (hide, skin) for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Genesis 3:20.
Abel understood this and offered the blood of a lamb to Me as a sacrifice and it pleased Me as an acceptable sacrifice. Genesis 4:4. Noah offered the burnt offering upon the altar he built when the flood had subsided and he and his family came out of the ark. Genesis 9:20-21. And I found the aroma sweet and blessed Noah and his sons. It spoke to Me of the fragrance of My Son.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2.
Abraham knew that a lamb was the burnt offering for sin—when I taught Abraham the Gospel ahead of time by a virtual reality lesson, Galatians 3:8, and asked Abraham to sacrifice his only beloved son across the hill from Calvary on Mt. Moriah (HaMaqom – the Place, that is, the mountain that was to be the site of the Temple of Solomon), when Isaac asked where the sacrifice was for the burnt offering, Abraham told Isaac that I Myself would provide the Lamb for the burnt offering. Genesis 22:8. And Jesus said Abraham saw His day and rejoiced. John 8:56. Yes, the true Lamb who was coming into the world saved Abraham’s son and all humans from Adam to the last one to be born. That was My glorious plan and you are part of it.
Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. Genesis 22:8.
John 1:29: The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Revelation 5:12: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
Revelation 12:11: And they overcame him (that great dragon, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, Revelation 12:9) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony.
Why a lamb? And why the blood? I revealed the Passover Lamb to Moses for the redemption and deliverance of My covenant people from slavery in Egypt. I instructed Moses to have each household of the Israelites sacrifice an unblemished lamb and then apply the blood of the lamb to the lintels and doorposts of their homes. Exodus 12:1-7. This blood on their homes shielded them from the punishment for sin when My wrath fell upon Egypt for all the crimes and abuse, shielded them from plagues, and shielded them from the destroyer (Satan and his demons). Exodus 12:12-13; Exodus 12:22-23.
Ephesians 1:7-8: In Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.
And as they ate its flesh they were healed, none were feeble or stumbled among them when they left Egypt. Psalm 105:37. And they did not leave empty handed, I made sure they had the riches of the Egyptians given to them before they left. Exodus 3: 21-22; Exodus 12:35-36; Genesis 15:13-14. The wealth of the wicked is stored for the righteous. Proverbs 13:22. And all this came to them from the sacrifice of the lamb. And the shadow was only a creature but Jesus, your Lamb, is the Creator.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8: “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
And upon being redeemed from slavery in Egypt, as the Israelites traveled with Me as My people through the desert on their way to the promised land, after giving them the Ten Commandments, I gave them the way to be forgiven and acceptable in My sight and to avoid My just wrath due for sin when they had unintentionally transgressed. And these sacrifices all are shadows, signs and symbols of the real sacrifice that would fulfill them all. Jesus. And on the Cross Jesus qualified all mankind, gentile, Jew and believer (for all those types were present at the crucifixion) for the sacrifice as unintentional sinners.
Luke 23:33-34: When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Revelation 7:14: They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 5:9: Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.The Blood of the Lamb spiritually applied over you, your family, city, state, and nation provides threefold protection.
Exodus 12:22: 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.
(1) From the wrath of divine justice executed as punishment for sin. Exodus 12:12-13; Romans 5:9; Proverbs 20:30.
Romans 5:9: Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
(2) From all plagues and disease, Exodus 12:13, 1 John 1:7, 1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 8:17.
Exodus 12:13: The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
(3) From the destroyer (the devil and his demons who come to steal, kill and destroy, John 10:10). Exodus 12:23; Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 12:11.
Exodus 12: 23 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.
The Blood of Jesus is an eternal redemption that continues to intercede for forgiveness, mercy and grace for all mankind from beginning to the end of time.
Hebrews 12:24: And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Matthew 26:27-28: 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.”
The Blood of Jesus opens the new and living Way to My throne and ushers you into My presence.
Hebrews 10:19-25: Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
The High Priest at the time of Moses would make atonement for the sins of the people by taking the blood of the sacrificial bull, goat or lamb and entering the Holy of Holies and sprinkling it seven times on and before the Mercy Seat (propitiatory). Leviticus 16:14-15.
Hebrews 9:11-12: When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
The Blood of Jesus pays the ransom and reconciles you with Me so that you have peace with Me.
Colossians 1:19-20: For it was the Father’s good pleasure to make all fullness dwell in Christ and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the Blood of His Cross.
The Blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin.
1 John 1:7: If we walk in the Light (He is the Light of the World and no follower of His will ever walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life. John 8:12) as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
So how do you atone today before Me as My royal priesthood with the sprinkled Blood of Jesus? You make spiritual sacrifice with the Blood of Jesus when you plead (like a court case, the Blood is the law on which you plead (base) your case for freedom from sin and condemnation), spiritually pour, spiritually sprinkle, the Blood of Jesus over those who are lost and watch it speak for them before Me louder than any other voice.
And the word used in Greek for the scripture that the Blood of Jesus speaks louder than that of Abel’s blood is “laleó,” which means to talk and to speak but it is a word that actually means “talkative.” His Blood just will not keep silent, on the mercy seat in Heaven, it continually speaks before Me of redemption, salvation, reconciliation, mercy, forgiveness and of the Sacrifice of My Beloved Son; and continually cleanses those walking in His light from all sin. 1 John 1:7. Your Great High Priest Jesus, who is the High Priest of your confession (homologia: agreeing with Him by speaking the same Word) and ever lives to make intercession for you before Me. Hebrews 7:24-25.
Hebrews 9:22: And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
For this Life Lesson I will finish here but tomorrow we shall begin to see the parallel to your prayers of spiritual sacrifice and the five sacrifices I instituted in the Tabernacle of Moses. Jesus fulfills all five of them and you can offer all five spiritually and in the communion meal of the New Covenant which makes the Passover remembrance, as realized in Jesus, an eternal memorial.
I love you. Have you started taking you sacred assignment as one of My royal priests more seriously? Have you been offering spiritual sacrifice? In the next Life Lesson we will go deeper still.
Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips. Hosea 14:2.
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. Hebrews 13:15.