Revelation goes beyond the mental, feeling or seeing realm and knows that God is.

It’s so important to know God through revelation and not just head knowledge or with your feelings, because what we think and feel change easily and this can deceive us. When this happens, if we don’t feel warm and joyful, we think God has left us. When we encounter a trial or tribulation, we wonder if God loves us. If God delays an answer to our prayer, we wonder where He is and why He’s not working.

John 14:17 (AMP) says, “The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.”

It’s impossible to know God except by revelation because He’s a Spirit and your mind cannot know Him. You can know about God with your mind, but what you know about Him spiritually is not something you can explain. You just know.

God has given all of us a measure of revelation, but not everyone understands it. That’s what makes sharing the Gospel difficult sometimes, but don’t ever get mad at someone because they don’t get it.  To people who have never had a revelation of who God is, you might as well be speaking a foreign language. In the meantime, try to meet them where they are without compromising who you are in Christ.

We need to be careful not to pressure people when we witness to them – or pressure ourselves to do it. It’s so important to be led by the Holy Spirit when we share the Gospel with people because He knows just what we need to say and what they are ready to hear. When God gives you an opportunity to share about Jesus, do it with a sweet, patient spirit, but the minute any tension rises, take a step back and get out of the situation.

Instead, pray for those people to have “a spirit of wisdom and revelation” because when God shows them the truth, it will be clear to them what they need. Then they will finally get it, and I love to watch what happens when they do.

Joyce Meyer said that people that he came to save, people who should have loved him, accepted him and received him, should have known who he was and why he was there, but they didn’t. And he chose to do it. There was pain in his body. There was rejection that was coming at his mind.  His soul was afflicted with the torment of the world of sin that was placed upon him. And in that moment he chose to do it. I keep saying that word because there are people right now who are hearing this who must make a choice. People say, “how do I do that?” you choose and then you say it: “I choose to forgive you.” someone says, “I can’t say it; I don’t feel that.” well, sometimes we brush our teeth when we don’t feel like it, we get up out of bed when we don’t feel like it.

Joyce Meyer says that we do a whole lot of things we don’t feel like because we know it’s the best thing for us. That’s the way forgiveness is. We know that if I keep bitterness or resentment in my life, it’s going to poison my future. The scripture talks of it like a cancer — bitterness, the root of bitterness, eats from the inside out. When people get into bitterness, they don’t just have an issue within themselves of that bitterness; it opens the door for a lot of other tragedy. When you do studies in alcoholism, in drug addiction, studies have been done in prostitution, and they found in almost… You get in a 90 percent range that people who have gone in those areas can be traced back to some offense where there was bitterness that then opened the door to the habits.

Joyce Meyer Ministries: You were talking about how this decision is not a feeling. And I like what the amplified bible says forgiveness is. It says, “drop it, leave it, and let it go.” when you forgive someone, a lot of times they couldn’t care less — they don’t even want your forgiveness. But when you forgive someone, you’re releasing yourself from the bitterness, the anguish, the agony of having to have that on your mind all the time. How awful it is to wake up every morning and your beginning thoughts of the day are what this person did to you and how angry you are, and what you’re going to do about it, and how you’re going to take care of this thing.

Joyce Meyer said I learned a long time ago that yes, I may be doing something for them by releasing them. I’m opening the door for god to be able to work in their life, if I will pray for them because maybe people who have been hurting someone else, maybe they don’t even know how to pray for themselves.  So when we pray for them, it opens the door for God to work in their life. But it also releases us and we can go ahead and enjoy our life while god is taking care of our enemies.

Pastor Billy Joe: When Jesus told that story about the unforgiving servant — he was forgiven so much and then he found one of his own servants and basically the comparison was like 15 cents to several million dollars, and he wouldn’t forgive him when he pleaded and begged for forgiveness. And when the king found out, he called him in and said, “I forgave you this great debt. Why didn’t you forgive this one of such a small miner?”  and he said, “deliver him to the tormentors.” I think there are a lot of people in bitterness and unforgiveness — they’ve been delivered to the tormentors. And that what you’re saying of being set free, being set free from torment is just a wonderful thing in life!

Joyce Meyer: The definition of forgiveness, it says that when someone hurts you, then you feel they owe you. They owe you. But to forgive is to cancel that debt. Just like god canceled our debts because of the blood sacrifice of Jesus, his willingness to suffer on our behalf, and god canceled our debts, we now have not only the ability but the privilege to cancel someone else’s debts to set them free so god can work in their life. You know, I was abused by my dad, and it was really bad for a lot of years. This wasn’t just like someone little time, one off thing that happened.

According to Joyce Meyer that it was just a lot, a lot, a lot. Of course, I had all the bitterness, the hatred, the resentment and so on and so forth, and God began to deal with me about those things. One of the things that he showed me is found in Matthew 18 where you were just talking about the 15 cents versus the millions of dollars. When the servant who had been forgiven… I’d been forgiven my sins by god… But when that servant who had been forgiven then tried to collect a debt that someone owed him… The thing that was so freeing to me, pastor, was that it says right there in Matthew 18: he could not pay. He could not pay. And when I was reading that, it was just like… “my father can’t pay me back.” how could he give me back my childhood? How could he give me back the self-respect that he took? The innocence that he took? He has no ability to take away the shame that he gave me. But God promises us in his word that we will be delivered from the shame of our youth — in Isaiah 54, I believe it is.

Pastor Billy Joe: God will restore!

Joyce Meyer: God will restore you. And in Isaiah 61, something that I have based a lot of my life on: “for your former trouble, I will give you a two-fold recompense. I will give you a double reward.” so I always say, “you can get double for your trouble if you’ll put your trust in god and stop trying to collect from people who cannot pay you.”

Pastor Billy Joe: A choice to be made.

Joyce Meyer: Choice to be made. And I believe that people today can make it. Why don’t you pray for our viewing audience that needs to forgive.

Pastor Billy Joe: I pray for the power of the spirit of god to come in you now. That you would hear god’s spirit saying to you, “I have forgiven you. Now it’s time to forgive others.” if you’ve never received forgiveness, that’s a beginning point, to say, “Lord, I receive your forgiveness today. I receive your love. Jesus, you are my lord.” you just pray those words. Now whoever comes to your mind that you need to forgive, you whisper their name out just declaring, “father, in the name of Jesus, I forgive…” and you call their name. Call it out right there. It may be a company, it may be a group at the church, it may be some governmental agency, it may be a family member, a schoolmate, whoever. The holy spirit is the one who will bring up on the screen of your mind and your heart those whom you have harbored bitterness, resentment or offense inside of you. And right now he’s going to bring out many people; don’t just stop with one if something else comes. We’re not trying to put anything on you that is not there. We’re just saying you listen to the spirit of God.

Joyce Meyer said that if a thought comes to your mind, you declare it, “is forgive in Jesus’ name.” now I pray for the spirit of forgiveness to envelope your life. As you receive forgiveness, you give forgiveness — you receive, you give. This is the law of sowing and reaping. Those that sow in mercy are going to reap mercy. And today is the day for you to plant seeds of mercy in the lives of others so that you reap mercy. Jesus said, “if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive you.” now that’s an awesome thing, that today, Joyce, we’re talking about a heaven or hell issue. People say, “well, if I feel like it.” no. If you don’t forgive, this is one issue where a person is not forgiven. And without forgiveness, how can a person enter heaven?

Joyce Meyer said that then maybe we would say “well, God, I was believing for you to promote me, so is there a reason why you haven’t? Is there something I need to learn?” but we never get to what we’re supposed to learn because we’re too busy being concerned about what somebody else has that we wanted. Now we’re mad at them, we’re mad at the boss, and we’re just mad and life stinks but we’re going to church Sunday and we’re gonna get some more Joyce Meyer tapes. (laughing) do you ever have a day where you’re just having the lousiest day and you’re just stinkin’ hard to get along with all day and everything aggravates you and irritates you and for the life of you, you can’t figure out what it is? (yes!) You know what I’ve learned? If you get really honest with god, he will show you what it is.

Joyce Meyer ministries says it may have been something that you disobeyed him about yesterday that you knew down here that god was telling you to do something but you quickly reasoned out why surely that wasn’t God, so you went ahead and did what you felt like anyway but now you’re trying to live your nice little life but you have this thing aggravating you down here, so because you have something aggravating you in your spirit, now every time you open your mouth, it comes out.

But instead of facing the truth, getting forgiveness and being set free, now it’s everybody else’s fault. Joyce Meyer online said that it’s the old people driving in the traffic who shouldn’t have a driver’s license anyway and it’s your co-worker who got the job you were believing for. (laughing) I wonder how many times we go through a day getting mad at everybody else and we end up with a big mess in our spirit that ends up keeping us awake at night and we don’t even understand what’s going on and it’s all because we don’t take time to settle down long enough to say: god, what is my problem? (applause) I’m preaching good. You’d better clap. (laughing) alright, let’s get around to this story before it’s time to close and I still haven’t told it. (laughing) I’m gonna read a little here and will make a few comments as I go. Luke 15:11: and he said, there was a certain man who had two sons. (vs. 12)

According to Joyce Meyer ministries that the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the part of the property that falls to me. And he divided his estate between them. (vs. 13) not many days after that, the younger son gathered up all that he had and journeyed into a distant country, and there he wasted his fortune in reckless and loose from restraint living. (vs. 14) and when he had spent all that he had, a mighty famine came upon that country and he began to fall behind and be in want. (vs. 15) so he went and forced himself upon one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed hogs. (vs. 16) and he would gladly have fed on and filled his belly with the carob pods that the hogs were eating but they could not satisfy his hunger and nobody gave him anything better. (vs. 17) and then when he came to himself… I love that! He came to himself.  He woke up. How many hired servants of my father have enough food and even food to spare but here I am perishing and dying of hunger! (vs. 18) I know what I’ll do.

I will get up and go to my father and I will say to him, father,

I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. (vs. 19) I am

Joyce Meyer online said that no longer worthy to be called your son; just make me like one of your hired servants. There’s a great lesson here that I can’t get into but just to mention in verse 12, the younger son started out saying “father, give me the part of the inheritance that belongs to me.” give me, give me, give me. After a little time in the hog pen, now he’s changed his mind and his prayer is “father, make me what you want me to be.” we have to transition from give me what I want to make me what you want me to be. Sometimes it takes a few trips to the hog pen of life but that’s another message. (laughing) verse 20: so he got up and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness; ran and embraced him and kissed him fervently. (vs. 21) and the son said, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am not worthy to be called your son [I no longer deserve to be recognized as your son]!

Mark: There’s really so much in the bible about the importance of just the blood. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, much is made of the blood. You can see in the New Testament that when Jesus shed his blood, Hebrews 9:12 says that he took his blood into the heavenly holy of holies and he obtained eternal redemption for us, so everything Jesus did, he did it for us and it’s set to the credit of our account that it belongs to us. So, with his blood, he purchased our eternal redemption. With his blood. It makes it powerful. The blood is powerful in heaven and the blood is powerful in the earth, the blood is powerful against the devil. The blood is powerful to give us access to the holy of holies and the very presence of god.

Joyce: One of the things I like to think about concerning the blood of Jesus that kind of helps bring it to a practical level for me is that the bible says the life is in the blood. We know that once a person loses their blood, they lose their life. They can’t stay alive anymore. The bible also teaches us that only life will swallow up death, that death is swallowed up in life, so I like to think about the fact that if the life is in the blood, which it says even in the old testament, that when Jesus poured his blood out and we put our faith in that blood, that’s like putting our faith in a life that is now strong enough to swallow up anything that resembles or partakes of death in our life.  That’s not just like laying down and dying but its disease, misery, depression, all these different things the enemy uses to try to make us miserable. The fact is the devil is afraid of the blood. He might not be afraid of me or you but he is afraid of the blood.

Mark: And Revelation 12:11 says that they overcame satan through the blood of the lamb and through the word of their testimony, so the blood of Jesus has power to stop the devil. When we as believers learn how to plead the blood or to apply the blood of Jesus by faith, then that stops the devil and the Holy Spirit is constantly reminding us to use our authority and to apply that blood by faith over our families, over our minds, over our future, over our possessions, over our children. The blood of Jesus has so many applications because it contains everything that’s in Christ and everything God has done for us in him.

Announcer coming up today on “enjoying everyday life.”

Pastor Mark Hankins: When we as believers learn how to plead the blood or to apply the blood of Jesus by faith, then that stops the devil and the Holy Spirit is constantly reminding us to use our authority and to apply that blood by faith. (music)

Joyce: Thank you for joining me today for another session of “enjoying everyday life.” I want to remind you again that as a Christian, you are armed and dangerous. For two weeks, my guests and I have taught you about the authority of a Christian and the power in the word of God and the name of Jesus. Today I’m gonna teach you why the blood of Jesus is so precious and how it applies to your life even 2,000 years after Jesus shed his blood for you. Joining me to discuss the power in the blood of Jesus is my special guest, pastor mark Hankins.

Narrator: Mark Hankins and his wife Trina answered the call of god on their lives over 30 years ago to enter full-time ministry.

Pastor Mark Hankins: Jesus is alive and he is Lord and you are in him and he is in you! Many of his nine books have been translated into several languages. Mark teaches people who they are and what they have through the Holy Spirit in Christ.

Joyce: Mark, thank you for being with us today.

Mark: Glad to be back.

Joyce: God put it on my heart a while back that I needed to teach a new series on the authority of the believer. I know for me, I was a Christian for a long time before I realized that I had any real authority. I thought I had to just put up with whatever came by in life. I felt like we needed to get back to some of the basics on the power that’s in the word, the power that’s in the name, the power that’s in the blood of Jesus, so today we’re gonna talk about why the blood of Jesus is so important as a central theme of our Christianity. Tell us about it.

Joyce: The blood is powerful but it’s when we put our faith in that shed blood that it becomes really powerful. So for me to apply the blood of Jesus by faith over my children, that’s like a covering over their lives that when the devil sees that covering, then he has to back off.

Mark: all the way from exodus chapter 3 where Moses comes to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt and he says “you take the blood and apply it over the doorposts of your house,” so the blood has to be applied. In the Old Testament, it was literally applied even over the doorposts of their house so the destruction could not get into their house but it had to be applied. In the New Testament, that blood is applied by faith and faith — I like to say it this way: there is no such thing as ignorant faith, so faith begins when you know what the blood of Jesus has done for you.  And there’s no such thing as silent faith. The moment you know what the blood has done for you, then you lift your voice in faith with great expectation, with great confidence that Jesus has already taken care of it and the enemy is stopped.

Joyce: The bible says that we’ve been purchased with a price, with a preciousness and that price we have been purchased with is that pure, sinless, innocent blood of Jesus Christ. So when you think about that god let his son go through that terrible death on the cross because he loved you so much that he was willing to pay that price, you have been purchased with a preciousness so the bible says you’re not your own. You’ve been bought with a price so we belong to god.

Mark Hankins: We belong to him and so we can tell the devil “no trespassing! We belong to Jesus!” the blood of Jesus contains the measure of god’s love for us. The blood of Jesus contains the measure of the standing that Jesus has produced for us with god. A few years ago, i got a larger life insurance policy and they said “we’re not gonna give you a life insurance policy this large without taking your blood” so they took my blood out of this arm and they kept taking blood, then they sent my blood off to a laboratory, put it under a high-powered microscope because they want to find out what’s in my blood because my blood will tell a lot about me. I was surprised because after a few days they actually sent me a printout of everything that was in my blood to determine how healthy I was, and I thought: that’s amazing! Before they would give me the life insurance policy, they had to examine my blood, then they sent me a printout of all the ingredients that were in my blood. And I thought that’s amazing because after Jesus died and rose from the dead, god took his blood to the heavenly laboratory, put it under a high-powered microscope and then he gave us a printout of everything that’s in that blood. That means there’s righteousness in that blood, there’s peace in that blood, there’s joy in that blood. There’s more than just forgiveness. Everything Christ has done is in his blood and we’ve got the printout. So faith just simply examines the scriptures, finds out what God says is in the blood, and then pleads or applies that blood to our own lives.

Joyce: We might say that this wonderful book full of god’s word is our life insurance policy because Jesus said “my words, they are spirit and they are life.” so when we apply the blood and I think that term “plead the blood” is perhaps more of an older pentecostal term that a lot of people watching today might not really connect with, so I want to make sure they understand that we apply that blood by faith, once again using that example of how the Israelite were told by God to apply the blood to the sides and the top of the doors and that when the angel of death came by everybody else’s firstborn was gonna get killed but he said, “i will pass over you.

Mark: When I see the blood –

Joyce: When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” but that blood had to be applied.  Even when you think about the old covenant and all the blood sacrifices, the animal sacrifices, but now we have one final sacrifice good for all times that by his blood we’ve been forever and completely cleansed and by that blood we can enter in boldly – boldly before the throne of god and let him know what we need, repent of our sins and have great fellowship and communion with him. It’s just almost too good to believe, isn’t it?

Mark: Jesus did the hard part. All you and I do is simply believe and apply by faith. Actually my momma used to do this all the time. My momma would always say, “I plead the blood of Jesus. I plead the blood of Jesus.” one time I brought home a girlfriend from high school. My momma didn’t really think she was for me; she was a little too sassy, I guess. Momma said, “I plead the blood of Jesus!”  then she said, “now mark, you may get what you want but you may not want what you get.” so, she said “I plead the blood of Jesus” even against my own desires as a young man. So when she said “I plead the blood,” I thought: what is she doing? The word “plead” is really a legal term that simply means that the Holy Spirit is your advocate, he’s your lawyer, so the Holy Spirit will teach you and show you how to plead because we know all of us are guilty.