Access to the blood

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Question:I hear Message folk mentioning that they have access to the blood through the Word of the Hour. What would you say, and what scriptures would you use to support your response?

Answer

Here is what the Bible states:

Confession is a requirement

Cleansing from all unrighteousness and continued fellowship with God comes from confession, and not from following the message of William Branham.

1 John 1:9 states:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

It is available to all under the new covenant

Continuing access to the blood that flowed for sin’s atonement is a blessing for all Christians as outlined in 1 John 2:1–2:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

The old covenant had an earthly sanctuary and a human priesthood but the sanctuary of the new covenant is heaven itself, and the Great Priest who ministers there is no other than the Son of God. This is “the chief point” of all that the writer of the book of Hebrews has said:

Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.

And our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, made his blood available to all believers "once and for all" as indicated in Hebrews 9:

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.  He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.  The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Thus the blood of Christ is available to all believers... all who trust in Christ for their salvation and not only those that follow the message of William Branham.

The blood is available to all who walk in the light

1 John 1:7 states:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

This passage reveals three things that are bound together in the Word of God and that cannot be separated. These are:

1. Walking in the light.
2. Fellowship one with another.
3. Cleansing by the blood of Jesus.

I have dealt with scores of people who claimed the cleansing and protection of the blood, but who did not lead the kind of life that entitled them to receive it. According to this verse, the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing us is a consequence that follows after we have met a condition introduced by the word if: “If we are walking in the light.” Then two results follow: First, we have fellowship one with another and, second, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Certain logical conclusions follow: If we are not walking in fellowship with our fellow believers, that is evidence that we are not walking in the light. And if we are not walking in the light, again, logically, it follows that we cannot claim the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. So we come to this conclusion: If we are out of fellowship, we are out of the light. And if we are out of the light, the blood no longer cleanses us. The blood of Jesus cleanses only in the light. Unfortunately, many Christians deceive themselves about their right of access to the blood. They keep quoting the latter part of 1 John 1:7, but in many cases they have never fulfilled the condition preceded by “if ”: walking in the light as He is in the light. Thus, the evidence that we are walking in the light is that we are in fellowship one with another: Out of fellowship, out of the light. Out of the light, no longer under the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Fellowship is two-directional. First, with God and, second, with our fellow believers. This makes fellowship with God, and with one another, of unique significance in our lives. The closer our fellowship, the brighter the light. As we mature in Christ, we come to a place where there are no longer any shadows, no dark corners, nothing swept under the rug, nothing covered up. That is a very frightening place for the natural man! It is a place of transparency. But that is the only place where the blood of Jesus completely fulfills its function of cleansing. To claim the cleansing of the blood of Jesus without fulfilling these prior conditions is to make the blood cheap, and the blood of Jesus is not cheap. It is the most precious thing in the universe. My dear brother or sister, you have no alternative but to come to the light. What does it mean to come to the light? Confess your sins, first to God and then to any person against whom you have sinned. Bring everything out into the open. Is that a difficult thing for people to do? The answer is yes! The light seems so bright. We tend to recoil from it, saying: I could never bring that terrible thing out into the open—that awful memory, that guilty secret, that enslaving habit—I could not expose it to the light. The natural man shrinks from it. But the wonderful secret is this: When your sin is exposed to the light, the blood of Jesus washes it away and everything is clean. God actually says this in Jeremiah 31:34: “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” God does not have a bad memory, but He does have a supernatural “eraser” that blots out the memory of sin once it has been forgiven. On the other hand, if you do not bring your sin into the light, your sin remains. Consider once again this tremendous principle: The blood of Jesus cleanses only in the light. Suppose that we have met the conditions: We are walking in the light, and we are in fellowship with our fellow believers. Then we have the right to make this testimony: The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is cleansing me, now and continually, from all sin. It is very important to see that this is a continuing present tense. The blood cleanses continually as we walk continually in the light. They are two ongoing operations. Continuing to walk in the light, we continue to receive the cleansing of the blood. This is the total cleansing work of the blood.

Derek Prince, War in Heaven: God’s Epic Battle with Evil (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen, 2003).

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