Joseph Prince - The Power of the Blood
You know how I know your family will be blessed? Because of the cross. The cross is an established fact in divine history, amen. As far as God is concerned, because of the cross, you will be blessed. «But I’m not perfect». You’ll be blessed because of the cross. «Pastor, I’m still not there altogether». You will be free. You will see the goodness of God in the land of the living because of the cross. Your whole family will be saved because of the cross. Now, if you do it, look at the cross of Jesus Christ, it talks about the entire family being saved. God’s heart is not just for you to be saved. Probably you have a husband that’s astray right now, wayward.
You are thinking, «But pastor, he received Christ, but now he’s just going crazy». Because of the cross, God will turn things around. If you don’t give up. If you don’t give up. «I have a son, a teenager. He used to love Jesus, you know, he would sing me Christmas songs, and he would just love, you know, he loved going to church. Love going to, we call it Rock Kids Sunday School and all that, but now his heart has changed. He’s gone on with bad friends and all that, bad company. Pastor, what shall I do»? I got a message for you. God’s mentioned you and your house. Are you listening? And I love the way in the book of Exodus, when God first introduced the Passover, God says, «At midnight», midnight is the darkest time.
One of the darkest time is midnight. God says, «At midnight,» the destroyer, «I will go through the land,» the destroyer, and God says, «When I see the blood on your door, I will pass over you». Show them that verse. «When I see the blood, I will pass over you». Say, «Pass over». See, God doesn’t see your good works and then pass over you. «When I see the blood». Blood always represents the life, Leviticus 17 says, «The life of the flesh is in the blood». The doctors to examine what kind of condition you are suffering from or whatever disease you have, you go for a blood test. The blood work will tell the doctor what disease you are suffering from. Your blood will speak about your life.
So God, long time ago, God says, «The life of the flesh is in the blood,» Leviticus 17, and here God says, «When I see the blood, I will pass over you». Not only that! God says, «And the plague,» the disease, «shall not be on you to destroy you». The plague will not be on you to destroy you. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Why is the cross such a powerful thing? Because at the cross, Jesus shed his blood. God says, «When I see the blood,» even though there’s an innocent lamb, there are guilty parties, there are people guilty of death, judgment of death in the house, but God says, «When I see the blood, I’ll pass over you. I won’t even allow the disease to come in to destroy you». Because of what? The blood. Who sees the blood? Is it for the world to see the blood, no. Is it for us to see the blood? Is the blood put inside the house, no. Is it for me to estimate the blood, no. It’s for God to see the blood.
When I see the blood, I just need to put faith that God sees the blood, and what better blood than the blood of Jesus? First thing we need to know about blood is that there’s a voice in the blood. Based on the law of first mention of Bible interpretation, the first time blood is mentioned was Cain murdering his brother, killing his brother Abel. When Abel died, God said to Cain, «What is this that you have done»? «The voice,» say, «The voice,» «The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground».
So the first mention of blood in the Bible tells us blood has a voice. Even today, DNA, forensic science tells you, it can actually indict a murderer that’s long gone, in maybe another country, just by your blood, amen. Blood has a voice, and then Hebrews 12 verse 24. Hallelujah, I love this verse. The blood of Jesus that speaks better things than the blood of Abel. Obviously the blood of Abel cries out from the ground. Even though Abel is dead, his blood is not. The blood cries out. Vengeance, vengeance on the perpetrator. Vengeance, vengeance. The blood of Jesus speaks better things. What does the blood of Jesus speak of? Forgiveness, forgiveness on all the perpetrators. Forgiveness on all those who are behind his death, and not only that, forgiveness on all who have sinned against my Father. Not just forgiveness, protection, protection. Protection is in the blood of Jesus.
Today, it seems like blood is no more mentioned. The blood of Jesus is no more emphasized the way it should. I learned this many, many years ago, that there’s protection. «When I see the blood,» God says, «I will not allow the plague to come in. I will not allow the destroyer to come in,» another verse, «and I will not allow the plague to destroy you». Why is it that when you cover someone with the blood of Jesus, even if the person is not a believer or the family is not, why is it that there is such power? Because the blood speaks to the enemy. «The plague shall not be on you to destroy you,» amen. Can I have a good amen? When Jessica was born, I think she was about four or five years old. At that time we moved somewhat during that time, quite a few times, and one of the places we stayed, we rented a place. It was out there near the forest and all that. It was a simple house, but we are grateful to have it, and, you know, we lived down there for a while, in between the place that we would be getting.
So, Jessica was about four years old at the time. So she has a room to herself, and I remember one day when I went to her room, I heard sounds of buzzing. Like flies, you know. So I thought it was just flies outside. I went back again another time, it was buzzing. Then I realized there were flies, not flies, there were bees trying to get into her room, and another time when the door was slightly ajar, all right, the bees came in, and she was at that time in school, and I began to realize, she was in kindergarten at that time, and I realized all of a sudden, «Oh my goodness,» you know, «It’s an infestation». I do not know how, you know, and we got the people to come to, you know, the pest control and all that, but still, the buzzing went on. We do not know where it came from. Probably a roof somewhere.
So I went to her window where most of the sound came from. I literally did this. I took the oil, but I also said this, «I cover this place with the blood of Jesus,» and I drew a line. I drew a line. I said, «I cover this place with the blood of Jesus». Now that’s like, «When I see the blood», the blood shall be a sign on the houses, right? «When I see the blood, I’ll pass over you. I won’t allow the destroyer to come in». In another place, he says that, okay. So I plead the blood of Jesus over her room and I just went on doing my business. The next day, I heard her screaming, «Daddy, daddy, daddy, mommy, mommy».
So we rushed up there, see what happened, and she was pointing to us. She didn’t know what I did. Even Wendy didn’t know what I did. I did it on my own. She pointed to the balcony area where I drew the line, and literally, people, God as my witness, one after another were bees, dead bees. It’s almost like a line. They cannot cross the blood line. Literally cannot cross the blood line. There’s something about the blood of Jesus. Number one, we know it remits our sins, but number two, because of the blood, «When I see the blood, I will not allow the plague to destroy you,» and there’s a plague that’s in the world today. There’s a plague in the world today. Rahab in the city of Jericho would suffer the same fate as Jericho in a matter of days, but because she had faith in God, and not only faith in God, her faith was demonstrated like this.
«'And spare my father, my mother, '» she said to them, «'Spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have and deliver our lives from death.'» Deliver our lives from death. Not only is she interested in being delivered from death, she wants her father, mother, sisters, brothers, all that she have to be saved. What about you? God’s heart is for you and your families to be saved. Are you listening? And even in the book of Acts 16, Paul jumped up after God sent an earthquake to open up the prison doors, and the keeper of the prison was about to kill himself, because if all the prisoners escaped, all right, he’ll be sentenced to death because of it happened on his watch. He was about to kill himself and Paul shouted, «Stop! We are all here! Do yourself no harm»! And he said, «What must I do to be saved»?
Paul says, «Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,» watch this, «and you shall be saved and your house». God’s heart is always for the entire house. God told them on the night of the Passover, take a lamb for the house. Look at it, show them again, «A lamb for a household,» verse 3, the last part. He said, «a lamb for a household». I love verse 4, it says, «If the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it». It’s always the house is too small for the lamb. No matter how big the family is, 50 people, yet the house is. it’s never the lamb is too small for the house. It’s always the house is too small for the lamb. What lamb do you think God is talking about that the house is always smaller than the lamb? It’s never the lamb is smaller.
God’s provision is always greater than the sin. Grace greater than all our sins. Hallelujah. So she said this, «'Save my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, '» drop down. «So the men answered her, 'Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly, '» hesed, «'and truly, '» emet, «'with you.'» Now, why is this important? Because in the Hebrew, the way it is said is «hezed ve’emet». Now this is very important, because if you read the New Testament that the believers, the Jewish believers today in Israel, they read from, in John chapter 1, it says, «The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ».
In the Hebrew, it reads like this. «The Torah was given by Moses, but hesed,» grace, «hesed ve,» means and, «hesed ve’emet came by Jesus Christ». So here we have hesed ve’emet. «The Lord, we will deal with you in grace and truth,» and so she lowered them down, drop down. «She let them down by a rope through the window». Now they came through the door. The door faces the city, but she let them down the window because the window is on the outside. You know, the window is actually facing the wall, I mean it’s on the wall, and it’s way… what a drop, you know. It’s quite a long drop because it’s going out of the city. Now here is a beautiful lesson for us to learn. The New Testament mentions Rahab three times.
One in the ancestry of Jesus Christ, Matthew 1, and then we have Rahab as an example of faith in Hebrews 11, and then a picture of faith and works in James, but in Hebrews, it talks about her receiving the spies that is through the door. We are all justified by faith, there’s the door, but then the Bible says in James now, justification by works in front of men. Before God, we are never justified by works, but before man, men only judge you by your works, and her works were sin when she let down the spies through the window. Not send them back through the door, back into the wicked city of Jericho. She let them through the window. The window always speaks of perspective, outlook. When you look out the window, what do you see? You look away from the city. When you look at the window, you look away, your back is turned to the city.
The city, how to live in the world, but not of the world. Heaven, heavenly outlook. When she looked out the window, she saw the Ark of the Covenant. She saw the 12 tribes camp out there. She saw Joshua and all the prophets and she saw the priests. She saw the glory cloud, the pillar of cloud. She saw God’s presence, Shekinah glory, but down here, moral morass, terrible darkness. There, such brightness and glory, and I’m telling you, Church, this speaks of the two comings, two advents of our Lord. Number one, when the Lord first came to earth, he came lowly, sitting on the donkey, meek and lowly. He lived as a carpenter, amen. Though he was born into the stock of the royal family. His ancestry go all the way to Solomon and David, yet he came humble. That’s the first coming of our Lord. Maybe his very humility caused them not to see the triumphant King.
So Israel rejected him, amen. He died for our sins on the cross. By the foreknowledge of God, it was meant for him to die for our sins, so he died. That’s the first coming of the Lord. That’s the door, but remember she hid the spies in her roof when the soldiers came? So it seems like in the first coming of Jesus, it seems like Jesus didn’t conquer the earth. He came first to conquer our hearts, and he conquered it by love. He won us by love, amen. So he didn’t come to establish his kingdom straight away. It didn’t happen in the first coming, but in the first coming, you find that, just like the two spies, they were hiding from the people of the world, and there are countries where Christians meet in secret. They don’t tell the location of where they meet.
There are people who dare not say they are Christians in some countries in the world. It seems like we are still in the world where, you know, we don’t see Christianity in the mainstream. We don’t see Jesus’s name being proclaimed except in blasphemy. We see, it seems as if the world is triumphing, but no, this is only the picture of the two spies hiding, but there’s another coming. The spies will come in again, and this time when they come in, they come in triumphant. No more hiding. They come into the Ark of the Covenant. This is Jesus, his presence. They come in with Joshua, whose name in Hebrew means Jesus, and then they come with trumpet. The trumpet will sound, amen, and when Jesus comes again, this time, he’s not going to come sitting on a donkey. He comes on a white horse, the Bible tells us, and the same head that wore the crown of thorns for our sins, amen, will be wearing a royal diadem, crown with many crowns.
Go, hallelujah, and across him is written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, written, and some people who love tattoos and all, they say that, «Yeah, it was tattooed on his thigh». It doesn’t say tattooed on his thigh, it says it was written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That’s not a subject I’m talking about. I’m talking about the fact he’s coming back in glory! In power! And there is something about this earth, people, that prayer changes things. You have to pray, amen. You know, it’s like I have a message where, you know, it’s on YouTube in one of the most watched videos about why pray? If God is all-knowing, why pray? I’m not going to take time for that, okay. Just know that it’s a fallen earth we’re living in, amen.
So our connection, the way God influences the earth, is to have people who are covenant people praying and God comes in on legal ground. So we have to pray. Sometimes we get very, you know, what do you call it? Mundane, and just taking things for granted about our protection. So back to this again. «And she let them down,» because she dwelt on the wall. You see, she lives on the wall. All right, let’s skip verse 16, because it’s just telling them to stay at the mountain there. «The man said to her, 'We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. Unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home.'»
In other words, bring them into the… when we come in to judge the land, when we come in, all right, make sure your family is all behind the blood, why? Scarlet rope. Scarlet is red. Red rope, hallelujah! And you know what? The word «line,» the line of scarlet cord. The word «line» in the Hebrew is the word «tikvah,» and the word «tikvah» is not just rope. It is the word «hope» And that’s why Israel’s national anthem, ours is Majula, theirs is Hatikvah. You can ask any Jewish person to say Hatikvah. «Ha» is definite article, the. Hatikvah, the hope. But «tikvah» is also rope. You can call this the rope of hope, and it’s red. It is red. Red, the blood of Jesus, hallelujah. We remember another instance, the night of the Passover, I just alluded to just now. I alluded to that.
When God says, «Put the blood on the doorpost,» making the cross. In Egypt, it was the door. Here is the window. The red rope. Picture the blood of Jesus. And the men said to her, «When we come into the land, you bind this line. You make sure that we can see it». The red rope, amen. The blood is on her house. How do you get your father, mother, brother, sisters all saved? Amen, pray the blood covers them. Speak the blood over them, amen, and they will be saved. It’s not automatic. They need to believe, yes. They need to come behind the blood, but they will be saved. So the blood wasn’t at the door facing the condemned city. The blood was in the window facing the people of God. It’s for God’s view.
When Joshua was ready, Joshua says to the men, «Are you ready»? You know, they conquered Jericho without firing a shot. On the very day itself, seven times they went around the city, on the seventh day, Joshua shouted, «Shout! For the Lord has given us the city,» and the Bible says… and not only that, the next line says, «And spare Rahab,» Joshua said, «and her household». So they shouted, and the Bible says the walls came down. Today, when you visit Jericho, the walls are fallen, and the walls fell towards the people of God. It was very high elevation. So making a ramp for them to run up. Amazing, isn’t it? It fell not inwards, outwards.
Now you can say that the scarlet rope helped the people to identify her house, but if the walls fell, her house fall, right? The amazing thing, God is involved. The walls fell. One part of the wall that I have seen in a sepia photo, all right, an old photo of Jericho, one part of the wall stood firm. Guess whose? Rahab’s wall. Rahab’s house stood firm. The rest all fell. Hers stood firm. I’m telling you, when everything else is crumbling, and everything that can be shaken will be shaken, if you build your house on the Word of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, you remain unshaken. A thousand shall fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes you will behold and see the reward of the wicked, because you have made the Lord who is the Most High, even my refuge, the Most High, your habitation, there shall no evil befall you, nor any plague come near your dwelling. He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways, amen.
Let me close with this. Was it just mere salvation for Rahab and the family, and all finally, they joined the family of Israel. They are Gentiles, right? They have to learn how to worship God’s way. They have to learn how to live God’s lifestyle, amen, among the people, all right. Is it just when God saves you, when God manifests his grace to you, is it just to merely cause you to be saved? No, friend. This prostitute of Jericho, more than one time when the Bible introduces her, it says, «Rahab the harlot».
She became the great, great grandmother of David the king, and the ancestral mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s why her name is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, amen. I don’t care how old your children are. I don’t care If your husband or your wife has gone astray, God wants your entire family saved. Not only for eternity, but for time. I’ve given you one weapon, the blood of Jesus, and I pray for you that the blood of Jesus that speaks better things will cover your entire family. Your wife, your husband, your children. That you and your household will enjoy the free favors of God.