The Bible teaches us that in order to receive God’s blessings is necessary to ask: “ask and it will be given to you” (Luke 11:9, 10). The blessings that the Lord wants to grant His Church should be asked for in prayer so that the Lord grants them. As we ask, we exercise the faith by which we take possession of the promises of the Lord contained in the Scriptures (Heb. 11:1, 6). In the same way that the Lord Jesus taught us to ask for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), we should ask for the blessings Jesus conquered for His Church when He died for its redemption, that is, when He shed His unblemished blood at the Calvary. By the merits of Jesus alone we are justified and salved.

The blood of Jesus gives to each one of us the opportunity to have a new birth and a new life of sanctification. The Scriptures exhort the believers to operate their salvation with “fear and trembling”. The power of the blood of Jesus brings several blessings to the believer, such as:

Purification from sins (1 John 1:7). The same way we should confess our sins in order to be forgiven, we should believe that the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. Hence the obstacle to our fellowship with the Lord is removed.

Fellowship with God (Heb. 10:19-22). The Word reveals that the believers should enter with boldness into the presence of the holy God through the blood of Jesus. Therefore the servants of the Lord should plead to the Lord for Him to remove obstacles to fellowship in such a way that we are in complete fellowship with the Lord.

Victory over the Enemy (Rev. 12:11). The Church will conquer the Enemy “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of His testimony.” The Church exercises the faith in this promise in moments of struggles and the Lord manifests the power of the blood of Jesus in the life of His servants, granting the victory that they need, even in the beginning of each service or meeting. Thus there is no manifestation of false gifts in our midst.

Protection for our families (Ex. 12:23). Victory includes this protection, similarly to what the people of Israel had in Egypt. The Destroyer could not go into the houses of the Israelites and destroy the first born, for when he saw the blood he was forced to “pass over” these houses. For this reason, when we plead in prayer for the Lord to cover us with the blood of Jesus, we are protected against attacks of the Enemy in any situation.

Deliverance from vices and inappropriate behavior (1 Peter 1:18-19). The Word states that we are redeemed from our aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, with the blood of the Lord Jesus. So, when any believer reveals that he/she is still linked to any behavior that does not glorify the Lord, we can pray based on our faith in this Scripture that guarantees us victory in this struggle through the blood of Jesus.

The blood of Jesus is intimately connected to the operation of the Holy Spirit, who can only operate based upon the Work finished by the Lord Jesus at the cross of Calvary. The Lord said that if we did not drink His blood we would not have spiritual life. We understood that when the Holy Spirit works in us He transmits the eternal life that the Lord Jesus conquered for us as He poured out His blood for our salvation.

As Jesus’ blood circulated in His physical body giving life to each cell, the Holy Spirit operates in the Church in our days, visiting each member of the Body of Christ, transmitting eternal life to each one of us, applying the Word of God to our hearts. When we pray for the Lord to grant us a certain blessing we base our prayer not on our own merits, but in righteousness of the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God.

The blood of Jesus was poured out once at the cross of Calvary, but it is sprinkled continuously over God’s servants, who are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2).

Alleluia!

There are beautiful examples in the Scriptures of servants who depended upon the Lord, who did nothing without a clear direction from the Lord. The Lord took extreme pleasure in these servants, and testified of His pleasure. In relation to David, who consulted the Lord in everything, God said: “I have found David, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will!”

Moses was another example of a servant who did not make any relevant decision without consulting the Lord before. Regarding him, the Lord testified: With Moses, my servant, I will speak face to face.” No other prophet had such level of fellowship with the Lord.

In order to allow the Lord Jesus to rule over the Church, in the New Testament God decided to baptize His servants with the Holy Spirit – youth, adults, elders – in the latter days. As a consequence of this baptism, His servants would have visions, dreams and prophecies (Joel 2:28).

The gifts were also used to reveal the will of the Lord regarding His Work In the apostolic era. There are examples of this in the spiritual gifts through which the Lord revealed to Cornelius that he should call Peter at his house (Acts 10:3-6), directed Philip to preach to the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26, 28), revealed the hidden sin of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-4), ordained Ananias to visit Paul and pray for him (Acts 9:10-16), revealed to Peter not to hesitate, but to preach the gospel to the gentiles in the house of this centurion (Acts 10:9-16 and 19-20), revealed to Paul that he should not preach the gospel in Asia nor in Bithynia, but in Macedonia (Acts 16:6-10), revealed to the Church that the statutes of the Old Testaments should be observed by the gentiles who converted (Acts 15:28, 29), Paul was directed to go up to Jerusalem to submit his teachings to the apostles (Galatians 2:1-2), the Lord revealed that He had chosen Timothy for the Ministry of the Word (II Ti 4:14), etc.

If the Church nowadays wants to have similar experiences to the ones at the times of the apostles, it needs to understand that the Lord Jesus should become in practice – and not only in theory – the Head of the Church. In the written Word of God, we have the doctrine and the general orientations for the edification of the Church. But through the spiritual gifts, the Lord teaches His Church the specific applications of the doctrine and the orientations that are applicable to a church in particular with practical advice for the pastors and for the daily life of the Church. It is, therefore, through the spiritual gifts that the Lord Jesus reveals the details of His project of edification of the Church. Under the supervision of the pastors, the specific instructions transmitted through the spiritual gifts are tested (I Tes. 5:10-21) and the gifts are applied with wisdom (I Cor 14:20, 40).

If you want, you can NOW choose HEAVEN. But if you think that you can leave this subject for another time, the decision will already have been made for you: an eternity without God. If you die now, you will go there forever. If you do not die now, you will still be walking toward an eternity without God.

Certainly you want Heaven. To be sure that you are going to enjoy a place in Heaven, what you should do is this:

• 1st – Recognize that you are a sinner. God says: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23
• 2nd – Recognize that you cannot enter Heaven by your own efforts. Eph. 2:8-9
• 3rd – Believe that only Jesus Christ can take you to Heaven. Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am THE way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” Jesus did not say, “one of the ways,” but THE way.
• 4th – Accept Jesus Christ as your only Savior. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31

But some will say: “I am still young and I will leave this for later.” We would like to say two things: 1) You do not need to be old to be close to eternity; and 2) The prophecies of the BIBLE say that JESUS will come again – these prophecies are being fulfilled in our days. What will the condition of your life be on that day? Think about that, because the only way to reach the blessing of eternal life is JESUS. “Behold, I come quickly.” Rev. 22:7

But if you do not want to choose Heaven, know that you are walking toward an eternity without God, under the wrath of God. “He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:36b.