Dr. Mark Rutland has told a story of an event during his teenage years, probably before he was really saved. He and some buddies (I have made up their names for the benefit of this story), were traveling on a Maryland turnpike. They stopped at a restaurant where they spotted another acquaintance, Eddie, sitting with his girlfriend. One of Rutland’s buddies who was drunk, call him Tony, sat in the booth with Eddie and his girlfriend. Tony started flirting with the girl. Eddie warned him several times to stop. Finally, when Tony kissed the girl, Eddie violently took Tony in hand and blasted him with his fists, sending Tony right through the plate glass window.
As the boys fled in their car, nursing bleeding Tony, Rutland said to him, “Didn’t you hear Eddie warn you?” Tony said, “Sure I heard him. I just underestimated the depth of the relationship!”
The Hebrews had become slaves in Egypt.
They had forgotten their covenant. However, God remembered the blood covenant. He remembered that He had promised to exchange natures with Abram and his descendants. He remembered His covenant to defeat their enemies and to make the Hebrews a blessing to all nations. As we discovered later, that meant bringing the ultimate Lamb of God, the ultimate blood covenant sacrifice through the Hebrew line, the Messiah Jesus.
It is important that we understand God in the way that Scripture describes Him. Man can, and has “created God in his own image” so many times. The Book of Exodus shows us that God is faithful to His family, to His people, and especially to His blood covenant.
Exodus 3:6-10 says,
6 “Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
7 And the LORD said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’”
Satan always resists God's Word and His will. Satan and Pharaoh have underestimated the relationship.
Exodus 5:22-23 says,
22 “So Moses returned to the LORD and said, 'Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?
23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.’”
Exodus 6:1-8 says,
1 “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’
2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the LORD.
3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty [most powerful El Shaddai], but by My name LORD [Jehovah] I was not known to them.
4 I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.
5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
6 Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
7 I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8 And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.”
When God said, “I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” I do not think He was simply saying that “I was their God,” but was saying “That is My Name. You see when I walked that blood covenant trench with Abram My name was changed to ‘The God of Abraham.’ When Abram took up his cross with circumcision, his name was changed to Abraham.”
God entered into a deep blood family relationship with Abram and his descendants, including those Hebrews who were slaves in Egypt, and you and me as well.
Notice that in Exodus chapter 3, quoted above, that God said that He was their blood kin, that He had seen their oppression and suffering, and that He had come down to deal with it.
You are His relative.
You can still be a slave even when you are related by blood to the Creator God, the One who became a slave for you, in your stead. Even though He was resurrected and gave you this new life, new life that is beyond the dominion of the slave-maker Satan, you can still be in bondage.
When you receive the New Birth, you are born into a new race that is not subject to Satan’s slavery; however, you may still be experiencing the left-over slavery from your past life. Nevertheless, because you are God’s close relative, His own, He comes to make you a free person, to deliver you from every bondage that the flesh, the world and Satan has put on you.
He calls Israel His first born. He tells Pharaoh that if he does not let His firstborn go, that He will kill Pharaoh's first born. Later He calls Israel His wife. He calls us His body, His bride, and His wife. He calls us children, He tells us He is our Father.
Know this; it does not matter how bad you have been or how good you have been, God wants to free you just because He is blood related to you.
Psalm 106:8 says,
8 “Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power known.”
Satan cannot keep the wife or the bride of God in prison. If you saw your blood relative in prison, and you had the power to release them, would you just stand by and watch them suffer? No!
What’s in a name?
A name certainly carries more meaning than most Western cultures have understood. Most often in Scripture and in Eastern cultures, a name means more than just an identification tag by which to call a person. A name means the very essence of the person, his/her very character and makeup.
God identifies Himself not only by His character, but also by His blood relations. When a woman marries, her name changes. When two people enter into a blood covenant, both their names change to reflect the other's character and name.
God said that His ultimate name is "I AM WHO I AM."
Exodus 3:13-15 says,
13 “Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?’
14 And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’
15 Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’”
That has so many meanings I would not dare to try to explain it. However, I do believe that one of its meanings is that God is saying, “I AM what you need Me to be.”
In Exodus chapter 7 when Aaron and Moses confronted Pharaoh and his magicians, it seemed as though at first they had equal powers. Aaron threw his rod on the ground and it became a serpent, similar to the practice run that God had with Moses in chapter 4. Then Pharaoh’s magicians threw down their rods and they also became serpents. Look at what happened. Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. God was in the process of disgracing the Egyptian gods. This was a show of power. No person or “god” has resurrection power save Jesus.
Exodus 4:1-5 says,
1 “Then Moses answered and said, ‘But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’’
2 So the LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ He said, ‘A rod.’
3 And He said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’ So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail’ (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand),
5 that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.’”
The greatest “I AM need” that we have is that of resurrection.
We live in a world and on a planet that is racked with sin and death. We have been raised above that. Jesus gave us the command to overcome all the death that we confront in our realm of influence with His resurrection power.
John 11:25 says,
25 “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.’”
His Name is Resurrection and Life. You are His relative. You have inherited His name.
Revelation 22:4 says,
4 “They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.”
You have resurrection life in you. Not only will He deliver from “Egyptian slavery,” but also the resurrection life in you will convert those former bondages into blessings. God does not waste our afflictions. He converts them from junk to jewels.
Does your life seem like it is living death? Perhaps God is using the death and resurrection process to free you.
What is in your hand? It is the resurrected Word of God that is near you, even in your mouth (Romans chapter 10).
Here is a simple way to remember this idea without a lot of trouble
In Exodus chapter 4, Moses was not sure he had the power to do the task that God had given to him. God told him to throw down the rod that was in his hand. When he did, it turned into a serpent. Then God told him to pick it up again and it turned back into a rod.
This is the entire message in a nutshell.
The Rod is the Word. This is indicated in Scripture. The Word is also Jesus who became sin for us on the Cross (the serpent). When Moses picked up the evil serpent, it turned back into the Word or a blessing. Jesus absorbed the evil out of the serpent and made it a blessing through the resurrection. He became your sin, died and was resurrected. He then gave you His resurrected nature, which gives you the power to turn whatever "death" is in your life into a blessing!
Because of the Cross of Jesus, we can be sure that whatever evil we touch will turn into a blessing. Mark 16:18 says (paraphrased), “and you shall pick up serpents (evil) and they will not hurt you but will turn you into a healer.”
So many times when we see “death” of some kind in our lives, we don't understand that we have the resurrection power living in us, we have HIS name, Resurrection, to turn that “death” to life and blessing.
When you go through death and resurrection, you are an overcomer. Overcome means to win a battle by overpowering the opponent. It means to make the victory final and complete, the supremacy or superiority in battle or war, success in any contest of struggling in involving the defeat of an opponent or the overcoming of obstacles.
Our victory is Christ’s victory over Satan, Revelation 12:11, and when we overcome him in our lives, he goes into bondage. We become free and he becomes a prisoner. This represents the two sides of the covenant, the Year of Jubilee for you and the Day of Vengeance for Satan (Isaiah 61).
Job was an overcomer.
God said that his captivity was turned, or the demons that held him in bondage were now in bondage instead.
Job 42:10 (KJV) says,
10 “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.”
Light swallows darkness, life swallows death.
Aaron’s snake swallows Pharaoh’s snake, truth swallows the lie, deceit and guile are swallowed by truth and reality. The only way to be free of Satan’s slavery is by “dying,” as we will see when the Hebrews went through the Red Sea. When they went through the Sea, Pharaoh was drowned. That was overcoming through death. When Jesus went through the Cross, Satan was defeated. He was defeated in the reality that when Jesus was raised from the dead, He was a new species of being no longer under the dominion of Satan. Death makes us free from Satan because we have resurrection and he does not!
When you are overcome by temptation, you become a slave. However when you stand with God in His presence and on His Word, you complete and validate the overcoming of the satanic beings in your realm of influence. You make them slaves and you put them into their ultimate slavery.
2 Peter 2:19 says,
19 “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.”
What is your part in becoming free?
As you most probably have noticed, not everyone who is blood related to Jesus is free from slavery and bondage. God is not standing by allowing you to stay in prison. He is giving you the keys to get out. It is all in the relationship. Therefore if you maintain the relationship in reality, you will be set free in reality. As we will see in later chapters, God was freeing the Hebrews to go into the Wilderness to worship Him and to confirm the blood covenant sacrifice. He was not setting them free in order to have them run amuck and have them live their lives independent of Him. You will notice in later chapters that part of the blood covenant Passover ceremony was the baking of unleavened bread, indicating the absence of sin, and they were to rise and not wait, to leave Egypt in order to go worship the LORD.
Now that we know that you and God are related, that He hears your cry and feels your pain, that it is His mission to free you from slavery and bondage, that He exchanged His life for yours, that through the blood covenant, the Cross and resurrection He made you a being that is above the world and Satan, that you are no longer subject to being their slave, you need to ask what is your part to make this covenant work.
Jesus said that you would be free if you maintained the relationship. In other words, if you would abide in His Word, you would be His disciple. People who live in the Word, who obey the Word, who allow themselves to be disciplined by Jesus the Word, cannot stay in slavery very long.
Look at what the Scriptures say about your part in obtaining this freedom.
2 Peter 1:2-3 (Amplified Bible) says,
2 “May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).”
John 8:31-37 says,
31 “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’
33 They answered Him, 'We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free’?’
34 Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.’”
It is all about the relationship. Freedom comes to us through the blood covenant, through what Jesus did for us. Freedom is the beginning phase of His work in us, His mission towards us. He makes us free people because of the family relationship, the name, as we have discussed.
However, an individual can appropriate as much or as little of that name, that freedom as he/she desires. It is all about the relationship. Jesus said in John 15 that if we abide in His word, and abide in Him by constant obedience to Him, that we would be fruitful branches. This is real. We can truly be connected, but it takes relationship skills on our part. When you keep the relationship strong, you keep His Name strong in you, and the blood covenant becomes manifested not just legally, but experientially. John 15 makes it very clear, that our responsibility is simply to maintain the relationship with Jesus, and then His resurrection power would do the rest. His "vine sap" would flow into you, His branch, and you would be whole. Jesus described relationship like that of a child, who not only passionately needed the parent relationship to stay strong, but also knew his place, putting respect and obedience first.
God said that He exalted His Word above His name. Actually, His Word is His Name. Living in His Word, living in the truth with Him, in daily and hourly contact with Him and His Word, will increase His influence in our lives and will consistently decrease the enemy's influence. Being a Word conscious person will change us from a death minded person, (carnal) to a life minded person (spiritual) (Romans 8).
Psalm 138:2 says,
2 “I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.”
Relationship Disciplines and Skills.
The following are seven important relationship disciplines and skills that we can practice to keep in close intimacy with the Lord. We covered this in previous chapters and we have it in Appendix A, however here we are amplifying them with more detail. For a complete teaching on this subject you may study The Flowing River lesson available at www.isob-bible.org/flowingriver.htm.
1. It is your choice. Make a firm decision to pursue the relationship. Offer yourself completely to God. Read Romans 12:1-2. This is our blood covenant response to a mighty blood covenant offered to us by God. Take up your cross, or in other words, your “burnt offering.”
2. We need first to take time to talk to God. Our first line of talking should be our true gut level honesty. It should be at the Cross, dumping our sins, carnality, and all our feelings and emotions on Him. In the last chapter we looked at several different types of slavery. You can only be free if you admit your bondage and call it your enemy. Only truth can make you free.
1 Corinthians says that we now keep the Passover by unadulterated honesty and truth. The Hebrews needed to pack their bags and rush out of Egypt, which is to say that we need to turn our back on the things of this world.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 (Amplified Bible) says,
7 “Purge (clean out) the old leaven that you may be fresh (new) dough, still uncontaminated [as you are], for Christ, our Passover [Lamb], has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of vice and malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened [bread] of purity (nobility, honor) and sincerity and [unadulterated] truth.”
We need to apply the Passover blood just as the Hebrews did.
In this time of truth, make sure you forgive as well as be forgiven. You will never be free without forgiveness going in both directions!
3. We need to take time to listen. We need to be in daily Bible studies and/or readings. Teaching audiotapes and CDs from trusted ministers can be very valuable. One of my favorites is Dr. Mark Rutland. We need to surround our minds and hearts with hearing the Word in as many ways as possible. When I first met Jesus, I would spend five or so hours a day in the Word. It had a profound impact on my life and delivered me from so many bondages, impossible circumstances, and demons that they are too numerous to list. I did not know what the bondages were or that I was even in bondage. As I would soak in the Word, obey Him, and consistently turn from sin as He would show me, the chains would fall off by the multitudes.
The Word is supernatural. It is alive and active. It is a seed that will bear fruit for you and for God’s glory. The more time you spend in the Word the more prosperous your soul will be, and that will bring every type of prosperity!
Times of worship through thanksgiving, praise and music is important as the Holy Spirit loves to make Himself real during these times.
4. Then you again need to take time to speak. However this time you need to speak His Word, the Word upon which you have been meditating. When you meditate upon the Word and then speak it out, it is powerful. You hear it, God hears it, and Satan hears it. When Satan hears it, he does not see you, he sees only Jesus, the Word, who conquered him.
Jesus is the High Priest over our confessions. When the Word of God is confessed and prayed over a person or a situation, it is powerful! Jesus created everything by His Word. Jesus IS the Word. Jesus gave us the authority to use the Word as if it were He saying it!
John 1:1-3 says,
1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.”
When the Passover was administered to Israel in Exodus 12, the Israelites were told to put the blood of an innocent lamb over their doors and the death angel (demon) would “pass over” and not hurt them. Jesus is the Lamb of God, and we can put His blood over our doors and over the doors of our loved ones and those that we pray for. How?
The words of our mouth will apply the blood. Notice in Exodus 12 that as long as the lamb's blood stayed in the basin, it did no good. But when they took the hyssop, dipped it in the blood and applied to their door, then God and the devil could see it. The hyssop was a common weed, which did not seem to have much value. The words of our mouth do not seem to have much value, but when we dip them into the Word of God (Who is Jesus Himself) and apply them as blood, God sees it and the devil sees it!
Jesus takes our confession and makes it powerful.
Hebrews 3:1 says,
1 “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.”
When we speak God’s Word, Jesus takes it to the Father and asks Him to perform it.
John 16:23 says,
23 “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.”
Then, we can enter into rest and let the Word do the work.
Hebrews 4:1 says,
1 “Therefore, a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have come short of it.”
His work was finished from the foundation of the earth, therefore we can believe.
Hebrews 4:3 (KJV) says,
3 “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
Hebrews 4:12 says,
12 “For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Angels go to work when they hear God’s Word.
Psalm 103:20 says,
20 “Bless the LORD, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.”
Demons flee!
Psalm 149:5-9 says,
5 “Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples (representing our spiritual enemies),
8 to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron,
9 to execute on them the written judgment – this honor have all His saints. Praise the LORD!”
5. Obey God. Ask God to give you something simple, something small every day that you may obey. This is a big thing! John 14:21-23.
6. Communion. Take communion on a regular basis. Many people take it daily.
7. Stay in fellowship. It is important to be in fellowship with strong Bible-believing, Spirit-filled believers, for refreshing and encouragement.
Keep your relationship alive and well, especially when you do not feel like it.
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