Baptism of Jesus

What’s so special about the Baptism of Jesus?
By Abraham Israel

To understand fully about the baptism of Jesus, first we need to understand from the scripture, ‘what is mean by baptism during Jesus’ time of life in this earth?’ In those days before two thousand years ago, the Jews baptized people who wanted to convert in to Judaism. These converts were called proselyte’s. In other words gentile converts. And they had a separate place for them in the Jewish synagogues (Acts 6:5). These were the type of people Jesus referred when He spoke to the scribes and Pharisees saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” (Matt 23:15). From the above verse we know that the Pharisees [i.e. the most powerful party both in religion and politics during Jesus’ time] and scribes [i.e. copyist of the law who prided themselves on their knowledge of law and tradition of the elders (Matt 2:4; Mark 1:22)] were the sole leaders who had the religious authority to proclaim and convert new converts in to Judaistic religion.

[Note: Proselyte was a name given by the Jews to such as were converted from heathenism to the Jewish faith (Matt 23:15). There were two classes: “Proselytes of the gate,” who adopted the Jewish monotheism and Messianic hopes, but were not circumcised, and “Proselytes of righteousness,” who were full Jews. To the former belonged Cornelius and Lydia and many of the earliest and best members of the apostolic churches.]

When John the Baptist began to proclaim that all including the Jews need to get baptized in water in order to have a part in the kingdom of God which will have the Messiah as their king, immediately the Pharisees began to question John the Baptist and his disciples about his theology of purification by baptism of repentance for the remission [i.e. forgiveness for all the bad things done in our life] of sins and rejected it (John 3:25; Luke 7:30; 3:3). Baptism was the process through which these Jewish religious leaders purified their gentile converts to be added as a proselyte Jew. Thus the proclamation of John the Baptist was directly opposite to their religious tradition and theology. This was the reason they rejected his message. These religious Jews considered themselves the true children of Abraham which they claimed even while speaking to Jesus and this was also the reason John the Baptist rebuked those same religious leaders when they hypocritically tried to get baptized for publicity sake (John 8:37-41; Matt 3:7-9) because the people over which they exercised religious authority considered John the Baptist as a prophet (Luke 20:4-6; Mark 11:30-32; Matt 21:25-26), and before Jesus started His ministry, for a while the people even reasoned in their hearts whether John was their Messiah which he denied and pointed to Jesus to be their real Messiah (Luke 3:15-16). These religious Jews who considered themselves as the true children of Abraham which they themselves claimed in the natural, rejected the baptism of John in their heart because of their religious pride. When these same people tried to get baptized hypocritically to maintain their status quo as the religious leaders of Israel as John was considered a prophet by the Jewish people (Luke 7:28-30), John the Baptist rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees saying, “…..,Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I [i.e. John the Baptist] indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He [i.e. Jesus the Messiah] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and , gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt 3:7-12). To truly get baptized from John, one has to humble oneself to confess their sin to Him and thus accept their own inability to save themselves from the wrath of God and to enter in to the kingdom of the Messiah, no matter whether a person is a Jewish leader or a gentile. These Pharisees and Sadducees were not willing to humble themselves because of the religious pride in their heart.

This stern rebuke from John the Baptist infuriated the Pharisees and Sadducees. So they discussed among themselves about this matter and came to the conclusion that if John the Baptist was not the Messiah why is he baptizing people and adding people to be part of the kingdom of God. So they sent a group of priests and Levites who asked him, ‘Who are you?’ John confessed to them that he was not the Messiah. Immediately they questioned him the reason for his baptism (John 1:19-25). Exactly during this time Jesus was in the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (John 1:28; Mark 1:9,12; Matt 3:13; 4:1). So John told to them that he has already declared who the Messiah was, who will baptize them with the Holy Spirit, but they still do not know him and he confessed to them that he baptized people, ‘to reveal the Messiah to Israel and eventually has seen and testified that Jesus was the Son of God [i.e. the Messiah]’ (John 1:29-34). This was the ultimate purpose of John’s baptism (John 1:31). He said this to these group of people because these people who were sent from the Pharisees were not present forty days before when John testified about Jesus in the Jordan river (John 1:24-29). John himself said that his baptism was just a symbolism of what the Messiah will come and do in the realm of the Spirit [i.e. baptize people with the Spirit] (John 1:26; Luke 3:16).

The English word ‘baptized’ come from the Greek root word ‘baptizō’ pronounced [bäp-tē'-zō (Key)] which means ‘1) to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk) 2) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, bathe 3) to overwhelm’.

Already understanding the context of the baptism that John gave, we are coming to the main question, ‘What’s so special about the baptism of Jesus?’ The Apostle Matthew wrote clearly about the event of the baptism of John to Jesus saying, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”” (Matt 3:13-17).

Here we see Jesus humbling Himself as a man and taking the Baptism of John. This Baptism of Jesus is unlike other baptisms. This was a divine exchange. As Apostle Paul described in Philippians 2:5-8, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death [i.e. baptism was that point of humbling Himself to death, and thus became God’s voluntary perfect identificational substitute for every sinful human], even [up to] the death of the cross.” This baptism was the point Jesus Christ took the sin of the world and carried it to completion at the cross where all our sins were wiped off and cleansed (John 1:29, 36; Col 2:14-15). As a relative of Jesus, John the Baptist must have known the perfect life of Jesus and also both their parent must have told them about the special signs that had taken place at their birth (Luke 1:26-56). John the Baptist was shocked to see Jesus coming to take baptism from him because as we have seen this baptism was for all sinners who accepted their unworthiness to enter in to the kingdom who were willing to change their lifestyle with an attitude of repentance. John the Baptist as an earthly man with the fallen nature confessed his unworthiness to give baptism to Jesus who had no sin, as Apostle Paul also later confirmed this fact by saying “For He [i.e. God the Father] made Him [i.e. Jesus the Son] who knew no sin to be sin for us [i.e. humanity], that we [i.e. humans] might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor 5:21). For this reason the Bible compares John the Baptist with Elijah who had nature like ours (Malachi 4:5-6; Matt 17:10-13; James 5:17). Jesus answered to John and confirmed the divine exchange that would take place during the time of baptism by saying “….Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness….” (Matt 3:15). In other words Jesus was saying to John the Baptist, ‘Allow me to take baptism this one time from you [i.e. as the ordained prophet of the Highest (Luke 1:76)] so that I might become as a sin for every human, that everyone can become the righteousness of God in Me.’ From this we come to understand that our identity with Christ in His baptism gives us the rights to identify ourselves with His perfect righteousness because this was the point of time the divine exchange was done.

So only the Bible says “[we were] … buried with Him in [His] baptism…” (Col 2:12). In other words the moment Jesus took that baptism He has already exchanged and have already taken your past, present and future sins upon Himself and has already given you His perfect sinless life to live victoriously in the sight of the Father God, so that from that point of time when ever Father God sees you, He only sees the perfect life of Jesus in you because of that divine exchange. This was confirmed by Jesus himself when He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he [i.e. John the Baptist]. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt 11:11-12). From the days of John the Baptist those who humbled themselves by confessing their sins and believing in the divine exchange of the Messiah, whom they believed will come and take upon Himself all their sins and thus with Messiah’s righteousness they qualified and have violently believed against the lying pride of self righteousness from Satan [which God hates] and took the kingdom of God by the force even up to the time of the Cross. So even today all “…the doctrine of baptisms” (Heb 6:2) points to this ultimate divine exchange that had happened at the baptism of Jesus and the resultant gift [i.e. the Holy Spirit] that we receive as the seal of the righteousness of our faith in it (Rom 4:11; Gal 3:14). This is the reason Apostle Paul made this wonderful statement when writing to Ephesians’ Believers saying, “There is one body [the universal Church] and one Spirit [the Holy Spirit], just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord [Jesus Christ], one faith [faith in His name (Acts 3:16) {the name Jesus (Matt 1:21)}], one baptism [the baptism of Jesus (Matt 20:22-23)]; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Eph 4:4-6), which describes the essence of a believer’s individual faith. A believer is thus baptized as a sign of recognition of His faith in the divine exchange that had happened two thousand years ago in the river of Jordan which culminated at the cross where Jesus said “…It is finished.” (John 19:30). Jesus spoke about this baptism that he took at the river Jordan saying, “….Are you able to drink the cup [Cross ref: Mark 14:36- the cup was the suffering of the cross by the shedding of His blood which was symbolized by wine in a cup (Mark 14:23-24; 8:34; 10:39; Luke 22:19)] that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with [Cross ref : Mark 1:9-11 – His baptism was a divine exchange of suffering unto death, not for His own sins or faults but for others]?” (Mark 10:38). Also in Luke 12:49-50 Jesus said about this baptism by saying, “I came to send fire [i.e. Holy Spirit and His character to burn all things that is not of God (Matt 3:11; Acts 2:2-4)] on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled [i.e. increased activity and intensity of fire that purges]! But I have a baptism [i.e. here he was speaking about the baptism of John that he has already taken] to be baptized with [i.e. here the words ‘to be baptized with’ means ‘to be immersed or sunk with like a vessel’ {when one is fully sunk or submerged under water, he will die without air to breathe. Thus Jesus was indicating the death at the cross}], and how distressed I am till it [i.e. baptism of John that gets culminated at the cross] is accomplished!” Thus as Jesus Himself confessed, the baptism of divine exchange that Jesus received from John the Baptist in the Jordan river ended only when He carried away the sin of the world to the cross, where He finally died and got fully sunk in to death voluntarily as a substitute sin offering for all our sin (Matt 3:13-17; John 1:29, 36; Matt 27:50). Because He bore and carried all our sin and sickness, He was able to fulfill what the Prophet Isaiah said prophetically, “Surely He has borne our griefs [sicknesses] and carried our sorrows [pains]; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted…and He bore the sin of many” (Is 53:4, 12). This was confirmed by Apostle Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew 8:16-17, “When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “ He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”” Because Jesus carried our weaknesses [infirmities], sicknesses, pains, sorrows, griefs by bearing the sin of us all, now we can be free and victorious from all these evil things, by exercising faith in what has happened as a divine exchange and a gift of God for us. Our faith will get strengthened more and more as we reaffirm and get renewed in our mind by keeping our focus on the divine exchange that has taken place at the baptism of Jesus, where God the Father took all of our sin [i.e. past, present and future] and laid on Jesus the iniquity [i.e. the evil oppression that is legally allowed by God because of our very nature of sin from our birth (Psalm 51:5)] of us all and has given to us the pure righteousness of Jesus [i.e. because Jesus never sinned even once, Satan and his demons have no legal rights to touch Him] “..as a breastplate..” to wage war against the enemy successfully (Isaiah 53:6,12; Matt 3:15; John 1:29; Isaiah 59:17; Eph 6:14).

Here we can notice a parallel to what has been done in Old Testament. We must understand that Old Testament is New Testament concealed and New Testament is Old Testament revealed. In the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement as the Bible says, “He [i.e. the High Priest] shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:7-10). These two goats after it is separated [i.e. one as a sin offering and the other as a scape goat], will fulfill the requirement that God has set forth to fulfill according to His ceremonial law once a year. As the Bible says, “Then he [i.e. the High Priest] shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.” (Leviticus 16:15-17). The Bible points out prophetically in Isaiah 53:14 that Jesus’ soul will be made as a sin offering by God the Father. As the Bible says in Leviticus 17:11, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ Hence the blood of Jesus was finally offered as a sin offering to God on the cross where this atonement for the soul of everyone of us has been fulfilled (John 19:30, 34; Col 1:20). Thus it is clear from the Scripture that without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb 9:22).

Then for the other scape goat, “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:21-22). All the gifts and offerings in the Old Testament was substituted by one “…sacrifice for sins forever…” in the New Testament which is Christ Himself (Heb 10:12). Christ’s baptism also indicates that Christ came as a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek, because God Himself testified Him as His Only Son (Matt 3:17; Heb 9:11-12; 7:3,15-16). Thus “….In the likeness of Melchizedek [i.e. God the Father]…another priest [i.e. Jesus Christ]… has come…according to the power of an endless life.” (Heb 7:15-16) and Jesus as the High Priest “…offered up Himself” as an offering for sin (Heb 7:27). So as the Priest Himself was considered as the scape goat, the Father God as the Heavenly High Priest “…has laid on Him [i.e. Jesus] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6), during the time of the baptism of Jesus. [Note: To know more about the mysterious kingly-priest Melchizedek, read the following article - Who is Melchizedek?] While John the Baptist immersed Jesus in to the water [i.e. which symbolically refers to death for soulish righteous-self (Rom 6:4; 1 Cor 15:29)], God placed the sin of many at this point of time upon Jesus to bear and instead exchanged the perfectness of Christ’s righteousness and began to impart it in to all those who believed Jesus (Heb 7:28; 2 Cor 5:21; Matt 11:11-12; Rom 4:5-6,11; Gal 3:8). So only as the scape goat was sent away bearing all the iniquities of the nation of Israel in to the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man in the Old Testament (Lev 16:21-22), Jesus was sent and driven by the Holy Spirit in to wilderness bearing all our iniquities and sins to be tempted by Satan in the Wilderness (Matt 4:1; Mark 1:12-13;Luke 4:1). If it is not for this divine exchange, Satan would have had no rights to tempt Jesus as He had done no sin at all (John 14:30). Hence it was a demonstration of the love of God that He has shown us to deliver us from all our evil conscience (Heb 9:13-14). So with confidence always say, “I am the righteousness of God [in Christ Jesus].” (2 Cor 5:21).

The writer of the Book of Hebrews describes about this event of the day of atonement (Lev 16:34; 23:26-32) by saying, “But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.” (Heb 9:7-10). The time of reformation was when Jesus took the baptism of John to be as a scape goat and was sacrificed as a sin offering for our sins on the cross by which the way in to the Holiest of All [i.e. the original heavenly tabernacle where God the Father resides (Heb 9:23-24; 12:22)] was made manifest forever because Christ as our High priest has already entered in to it with His own blood once for all having obtained eternal redemption [i.e. freedom to live free from the evil oppression of Satan and his demons](Heb 9:11-12; 10:12). With the boldness that comes as a result of being covered with the blood of Jesus through faith, we can boldly enter in to the Real Heavenly Tabernacle to converse with God the Father any time in the spiritual realm (Heb 10:19). This is why Jesus taught the disciples to address their prayers directly to the Father who resides in the Holy Of Holies in the Heavenly Tabernacle (Matt 6:9; John 16:23,26-28). God the Father loves you and sees you as He sees Jesus in His perfection, if only you will believe Jesus came from God as the sinless only begotten Son of God (John 16:27; 3:16;1 John 4:15). Up to that point of time no man had the audacity to call God as his Father which is considered as blasphemy in the Jewish religion because they considered it as equating one’s self to God (John 5:18). The natural physical body of Jesus is equated to the veil that covered the Holy of Holies (Heb 10:20). This is the reason the moment Jesus’ Body died the veil was rent, symbolizing that Jesus has entered in to the Heavenly Tabernacle of God representing all of us humans (Matt 27:50-51; Luke 23:44-46; John 19:28-30). Now that the veil which prevented a human person from conversing with God directly has been removed, hence the writer of the Book of Hebrews is exhorting us by saying “ let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [by faith in the blood of Jesus (Heb 9:14) that frees you] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [water is represented by the word [rhema] of God (Eph 5:26; 6:17; John 15:3,7; 6:63; 13:10)]. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb 10:22-25). What a wonderful position we are placed and positioned, where we can connect to God any moment of time we like because of Jesus representing us as our High Priest in the Heavenly Temple where God the Father resides (Heb 10:21; 8;1). Praise the Lord!

The Hebrew word for the English word Atonement is Kaphar [pronounced kä·far' (Key)] which means ‘1) to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch a) (Qal) to coat or cover with pitch b) (Piel) 1) to cover over, pacify, propitiate 2) to cover over, atone for sin, make atonement for 3) to cover over, atone for sin and persons by legal rites c) (Pual) 1) to be covered over 2) to make atonement for d) (Hithpael) to be covered.’ The other English words which are mostly used in various translations are atonement 71, purge 7, reconciliation 4, reconcile 3, forgive 3, purge away 2, pacify 2, atonement…made 2, merciful 2, cleansed 1, disannulled 1, appease 1, put off 1, pardon 1, pitch 1. The main theme that runs through the Day of Atonement is the sin offering and scape goat. The sin offering was actually fulfilled on the Cross, this sin offering was mainly done for bringing together both the sinful man and the Holy God together. Through the sacrificial sinless blood of Jesus, God and man were brought forth together again to have peace and harmony. The blood of Jesus which was shed for the forgiveness of sin has totally cleansed the sinful nature of those who have believed in it, this iniquity which is the sin nature present in man had always separated God and man in the past, this had been removed through the sin offering of Jesus Christ according to God (Isaiah 59:1-2). The Apostle Paul describes this event as “….having made peace [i.e. atonement -> to make peace, reconcile, and establish harmony between God and Man] through the blood of His cross, by him [i.e. Jesus] to reconcile all things unto himself…” (Col 1:20). Here in the preceding verse we see God initiated this sacrifice to bring people who were lost in sin to Himself through Jesus by the blood of the cross. In other words Jesus made atonement through the blood of the cross by sacrificing himself as the one eternal sin offering (Heb 7:27). This blood of Christ will cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living, knowing this fact will give you the faith that God has once for all forgiven all your sins. Hence you will automatically draw near to God and will fellowship with Him without any condemnation (Heb 9:14; Eph 4:32; Rom 8:1).

The goats, bulls, heifers and all the gifts and sacrifices in the Old Testament symbolizes the one perfect offering of Jesus Crist in the New Testament (Heb 9:12-13; 10:1-4, 8-10, 12). The symbolic act of placing the sin of every one of us upon the scape goat’s head by the High Priest, through laying his hands on the head of the goat and confessing the sins of the people over it is represented by the baptism of Jesus where the hand of the Lord represented by the Spirit of God was placed upon Him (Ezekiel 1:3; 3:14; 37:1; Luke 1:66). Then God placed the sin of the world upon Him by confessing over Jesus from Heaven by saying ‘this is My Son who is the one perfect Specimen of sacrifice for eternity, with which I am well pleased’ (Matt 3:16-17; 4:1-2; Lev 16:21-22). The Hebrew word for the English word ‘scapegoat’ is ‘`aza’zel’ [pronounced az·ä·zāl' (Key) {masculine noun}] which means ‘1) entire removal, scapegoat a) refers to the goat used for sacrifice for the sins of the people b) meaning dubious’. Knowing this act of transferring of sins over the scape goat through the laying on of the priest hand over it and confessing our sins will free us from the condemnation of the enemies accusation, when we sin by the weakness of the flesh. This is the reason Apostle Peter spoke about this baptism in 1 Peter 3:21 saying, “There is also an antitype [i.e. original fulfillment of Old Testament scape goat] which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,….” In other words Apostle Peter was saying, ‘You can have a good conscience [i.e. a conscience which cannot be condemned by the enemy of our souls {i.e. Satan and his evil demons} because of the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus] toward God because of knowing and applying by renewing your mind through the doctrine of baptism in your daily life, hence thwarting the continuous accusation of the enemy. Baptism does not mean that you are removed from the evil soulish nature which inclines towards sin.’ (Eph 4:23; Heb 6:2). Nearly the same way Apostle Paul too described about this baptism by saying in Rom 6:3-4, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Here Apostle Paul is not talking about the water baptism that every believer takes but is talking about the doctrine of the baptism of Jesus that happened at the river Jordan as a lifestyle to be lived. You may ask me, how do you know that? Because in the context of this baptism Paul was telling later in the same chapter 6 in verses 17-19, “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” In other words Paul was saying, ‘Because you have believed the doctrine of the baptism of Jesus [i.e. “…buried with Him through {His} baptism in to death…” (Rom 6:4)] and the cross of Jesus [i.e. ‘knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him…’ (Rom 6:6)] you have been set free from the legal penalties for walking in the soulish nature and its impulsive activities though the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus which got culminated at the cross. I am speaking to you like this because you still have the soulish sinful nature which inclines you to sin always, which will bring the accusation of Satan once you sin. So don’t give in to the soulish desire to sin but rather fight against it through the perfect righteousness that you received through believing the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus which will set you apart and position you from soulish wickedness for God’s purpose to be fulfilled through your life.’ As we know more about this divine exchange and its implication toward freedom from sin through our perfect righteousness we received from Jesus, the more we will be able to walk in the liberty of the Spirit (Luke 4:18; 2 Cor 3:17; Gal 5:1). As the Bible says, “[this] …righteousness [is] in the [presence & person of the] Holy Spirit.” (Rom 14:17) who resides in us as a gift from Jesus, who is building us together with Himself to be a dwelling place of God in the Spirit for eternity (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 2:22; 1 John 3:24). All believers will have the person of the Holy Spirit within them at least in ‘salvation-measure which is a fountain-measure (John 4:14)’ [if not in river measure which is the baptismal measure of the Spirit (John 7:37-39). If a person is not a born again believer, he will not have the Holy Spirit with in Him and he does not belong to Christ (John 3:3-8; Rom 8:9). It is the promise of God that the Spirit of God will never ever leave a believer nor forsake him for eternity because of what Jesus has achieved for the believer (Heb 13:5-6)]. This is what Paul described as the “….walk in the newness of life.” (Rom 6:4).

The bottom line is, Jesus has put away your sin [i.e. past, present and future] by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb 2:26) and has entered the Holy places in heaven to appear in the presence of God for you (Heb 9:24). He is representing you before God the Father. Because you are in Jesus [i.e. through His baptism and that you have died when He died at the cross], your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3) because of this divine-exchange, as a result God the Father sees you as he sees Jesus in His perfection. This is the reason the writer of the Book of Hebrews says, “….by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Heb 10:14). In other words the more you understand and believe the divine exchange of righteousness that you have received through the baptism of Jesus and are cleansed by the blood of the cross, the more you will experientially see the perfection of Christ manifest in your daily life. You are positioned in Christ perfectly, you only need to release that perfect position of Christ in your spirit to influence your soul by your obedience to God’s voice experientially. This is what is described in the scripture as “….being sanctified…”, in other words you are growing from one level of glory to another level of glory (2 Cor 3:18; Heb 10:14). The good news is because Christ was offered once two thousand years ago to bear the sins of many [including all your past, present and future sins], you do not have to bear the sinful lifestyle and its cursed consequences of separation from God’s presence in your daily lives. You do not have to make powerless choices because of sinful bondages which are the lie of the devil. Because of what Christ has achieved for you through His Baptism and the Cross, you are free to live the victorious life through the power of the Holy Ghost that lives in you (John 8:36; 1 John 4:4). So you do not have to live a sin-infested life style of sin by making wrong choices daily. Instead you can choose to live sin-free by making Holy Ghost empowered godly choices, which will make you live the kingdom life in abundance. When you sin, all you need to do is to confess [i.e. agree with] to God that you have sinned [Note: To know more about confession read this article, 'Is confession a fad or a fact?'] and then renew you mind with faith in the doctrine of Jesus’ Baptism and the Cross. Then you speak against the devils and demons that oppress you and they will flee from you because of your position in Christ. Be a warrior!!! You are a success story in Christ Jesus in the kingdom of God!!!

 

Teaching about Baptisms

The Doctrine of Baptisms
By Abraham Israel

The word ‘doctine’ means teaching. The writer of the Book of Hebrews talks about “the teaching of baptisms” (Heb 6:2) as one of the principles to go on to perfection in the spiritual life of a believer. Note the word ‘baptisms’ which is pluralistic in nature, thus indicating more than one baptism to be present in the scripture as a doctrine to be learned . In this article we will find out the various types of baptism, all of which points to “…one baptism;” (Eph 4:5), which is ‘the baptism of Jesus’ that centrally connects all other baptisms. Baptism mainly points to the purification from sins that one will experience through knowing it and living by faith in it. The result will be a good conscience that we will be able to experience in our daily lives.

 

(a) John’s Baptism

In those days the Jews baptized the Gentile convert for purification to become a proselyte Jew (John 3:25), but John insisted that whether a Jew or a Gentile, everybody need to be baptized (Luke 3:3, 7, . This was the reason they were questioning him about his authority to baptize people (John 1:19, 24-25). In the early chapters of the four Gospels and in Acts 1:5; Acts 11:16; Acts 19:4, it [the word ‘baptizo’-“to baptize”] is used of the rite performed by John the Baptist who called upon the people to repent that they might receive remission of sins. Those who obeyed came “confessing their sins,” thus acknowledging their unfitness to be in the Messiah’s coming kingdom. Many lived by faith in the doctrine of John’s baptism (Acts 19:1-7; Matt 3:5-12). John also had disciples and taught them about praying and things about God and his ways (Matt 11:2; Luke 11:1).And some of the disciples who followed Jesus were formerly John’s disciples, when John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Son of God [Messiah the Christ] and the Lamb of God, they started following Jesus (John 1:34-42). John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, which is the first step to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 3:3; Matt 3:6; 11:12). It was God’s will for every one to get baptized by John and those who rejected John’s Baptism also rejected Jesus Christ (Luke 7:29-30).

(b) John Baptizes Jesus

John always pointed people to messiah who will come and baptize them with the Spirit (Matt 3:11). John also baptized Jesus to make Him be known to Israel as the perfect Lamb of God (Matt 3:15). It was at this point of time when Jesus became a sin for us when the God the Father placed on him the sin of the world and as he voluntarily gave himself for our cause, a divine exchange took place there (2 Cor 5:21; Isaiah 53:6; Matt 3:15, 17; John3:17). From there he carried our sins to the cross of Calvary (John 1: 29, 36; Isaiah 53:4 “Sorrows – effects or results of sin”; Matt 8:16-17; 16:21; Mark 10:38, 45; John 18:11). And even Jesus acknowledged that He was distressed until the baptism is fully accomplished on the cross for us and through His resurrection (Luke 12:50; Rom 6:3-6).

After Jesus was tempted in every way by Satan, coming out from the wilderness, Jesus was declared as the “lamb of God” (John 1:35-36), by John the Baptist. A perfect lamb will always be tested before it is announced as with out blemish. When Jesus was tested by God, He stood perfect in all the temptations till Satan had no more way to tempt Jesus and he left, showing that he cannot find even an iota of any imperfection (Matt 4:1, 11). John himself said, the reason he baptized people with water is to reveal Jesus the Messiah [Christ] as the Son of God and the Lamb of God to Israel. This he said when he was giving baptism beyond the Jordan at Bethany and not at the Jordan where Jesus was Baptized (John 1:29-34; Matt 3:13). Immediately after Jesus was Baptized He was led by the Spirit in to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Mark 1:12), and this clearly shows that John the Baptist declared Jesus as the Lamb of God not immediately after He baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, but only after He returned from the wilderness forty days later victoriously as the Lamb of God (Matt 4:1).

He declared Jesus as the Son of God because John heard the voice of God from heaven and saw the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus like a dove when He was baptized by him and when He came out of the wilderness after 40 days, still the Spirit of God remained upon Him testifying that He was the perfect lamb of God and John declared the Truth that he saw before his very eyes (John 1:33; Luke 4:14).

(c) The Spirit of God baptizes the believer in to that one body [universal body of Christ] when they are born again (1 Cor 12:13; 1 Peter 3:21; Col 2:12; Rom 6:4-5; 1 Tim 1:19 (c.f. Heb 10:14-18)).

(d) The believers will baptize a new believer in to the body of Christ.

 

 

This type of ‘baptism of identification with Christ’ started right after the baptism of Jesus which He received from John the Baptist. John the Apostle wrote about this in his Gospel where he says, “And they [i.e. the Jews] came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”….. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.” (John 3:26; 4:1-3; Matt 11:12).

It is done as a confessional testimony before every one that they [the new believer] have received Christ as his/her personal savior (Mark 16:6; Acts 2:38). This is the “baptism” enjoined by Christ, Matt 28:19, a “baptism” to be undergone by believers, thus witnessing to their identification with Him in death, burial and resurrection, e.g., Acts 19:5; Rom 6:3,4; 1 Cor 1:13-17; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:27; Col 2:12. The phrase in Matt 28:19, “baptizing them into the Name” (RV; cp. Acts 8:16, RV), would indicate that the “baptized” person was closely bound to, or became the property of, the one into whose name he was “baptized.”

 

(e) Jesus baptizes the believer’s with the Holy Spirit

The Greek word for baptism is ‘baptizo’ which means ‘to get immersed or overwhelmed’. Jesus baptizes the believers with the Holy Spirit just as John the Baptist announced. This happened on the day of Pentecost after the ascension of Jesus and it has been happening ever since that day, and the outward sign or manifestation [of the inward work] is speaking in new tongues (Matt 3:11; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5,8; 2:1-4; 19:2-6).

 

 

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Greetings to you in Jesus Wonderful Name! I personally invite you to join our free weekly newsletters. These news letters are very anointed and are full of apostolic revelations. The topics range from anointing, doctrinal foundations, end time, faith, God-kind of character, healing and deliverance, kingdom of God, prayer, question and answer, revelatory meat, the apostolic church, word inspirationals and much more. These apostolic articles when applied in your life will begin to edify you spiritually, empowering you to live in Christ-likeness and evangelize others, thus fullfilling the command of Christ as an apostolic end time warrior of God’s army. This will also fill you with the knowledge of God which will make grace [i.e. anointing of God] and peace [i.e. prosperity of God] to be multiplied in your life (2 Peter 1:2). May God Bless you and make you a blessing to many more people in the coming days!

Blessings,

Abraham Israel

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Contact Me & Prayer Request

Warm greetings to you all in Jesus glorious Name! Let me intoduce myself to you. I am Abraham Israel. I have done my degree in electrical and electronics engineering. After I finished my degree, God has confirmed my calling to be a teacher, preacher and an apostle.

Read in details my full tesimony and our statement of faith by clicking the following links,

1) My Testimony

2) Our Statement of Faith

I am passionate to see the lives of the people of God get transformed, to impart them with a burden to reach souls [i.e. evangelize] and get them empowered to rise up in the apostolic anointing to affect this generation with the power of God displayed through their lives. If you have been blessed with this ministry and want me to come and minister to you in your churches, speak with your local pastor and please do contact me. I will confirm my availability prayerfully.

Blessings,

Abraham Israel

Prayer Request

If you have any kind of prayer request and believe that the prayer of agreement actually opens the door for God to act on behalf of His saints (Matt 18:19), send me your request. I promise you that God will never fail you because His word is unfailing word. The other reason you can expect the prayer request to be answered is because ‘God hears and will always answer the prayer of faith’ (James 5:16-17).

For further Information & Prayer, contact the following address:

Ps. Abraham Israel,

Household of Faith Church and World Outreach,

#6, ‘Paradise Apartments’, 1197, 1st stage,

6th Cross, H.B.R Layout,Bangalore-560043,

India.

Ph: +91 (0) 9448988727

E-mail: abrahamisraeli@yahoo.com

Favourite E-books & Links

Online Bible Tools

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Online Audio Bible

Hear the Bible read online in various versions like CEV, ESV, KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, TNIV and more.

Tip :

You can always go to the ‘Heavenly presence music’ section to play some soft soothing instrumental music and at the same time listen to the Online Audio Bible from the Bible Gateway and Blue Letter Bible Sites. This combination of hearing the word of God and the ‘Heavenly Presence Music’ as background is awesome!!! Enjoy!!

Blue Letter Bible – Daily Bible Reading Program

Bible Gateway – Audio Bibles

Online Dictionary

Dictionary – Contemporary word meaning with Audio Pronunciation

Read full text E-books online of Andrew Murray , D. L. Moody, F. B. Meyer, A. B. Simpson, A. J. Gordon, E. M. Bounds and much more.

The Story of Sadhu Sundar Singh

Sadhu Sundar Singh: The Lover of the Cross

The Visions of Sadhu Sundar Singh of India

At The Master’s Feet

Absolute Surrender – Andrew Murray

Prepare the Way of the LORD – David Bevan

Stewardship: “Through the Needle’s Eye” – David Servant

The Price of God’s Miracle Working Power – A A Allen

Waiting for Your Ministry – Grantley Morris [online book]

Streams of Truth -Steve Bell’s

Great Healing Revivalists-How God’s Power Came

Aspects Of Smith Wiggleswort’s Life

Ever Increasing Faith – By Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth’s Sermons

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Sound Creations,Inc. – Healing Scriptures on MP3

Healing Scriptures – Audio Teaching – (AWM)

Mp3 Sermons – Smith Wigglesworth

Informative Christian Sites

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Chariama Magazine

Christian Worldview Network

Heavenly Presence Music

I beleive that Godly anointed music will always bring the beautiful heavenly presence of God along with it. I am calling it as ‘Heavenly presence music’ because it cannot be manufactured or brought in to manifestation using just human genius. It’s very source of origin is not of earth, but in heaven [i.e. from the heart of God]. When Elijah wanted to flow in the familiar anointing of God, he simply called a professional travelling musician to play the beautiful presence music. Immediately the heavenly presence came upon him (2 Kings 3:15). These anointed presence music will also deliver your soul from all oppression and depression of all devil and demons. This is what happened to King Saul when he heard the heavenly presence music played by David (1 Samuel 16:23). Hearing such heavenly presence music will refresh you and make you well. Be blessed!

Soul Keeper Radio

Andre Lefebvre Music

Secret Place Ministries

Soaking with a purpose

Raining Presence – Alberto & Kimberly Rivera

Journals of the Heart

Soaking

Worship Ministries International

Internet Radio – BHM

Indieheaven

Don Potter Music

Temple Builders – Prophetic Music

Confession

Is Confession a fad or a fact?
By Abraham Israel

The Bible speaks about confession in various places and we will see one after another to fully understand the full potential of living a life of confession which will unleash the potential which we have in Christ within us to the outside world. Most of us who want the power of Christ to flow through us want to know the secret to live such lives. Even people who lived during the time of the great miracle ministry of Jesus, wanted to know the secret to live such lives. The people who saw Jesus perform signs on those who were diseased, and the multiplication of five loaves and two fishes to feed the multitudes asked Him, “…..“What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:28-29). Here most of these people were Jews, so naturally they thought that they should live according to some rules and regulation for a certain period of time, so that when God sees it, He will be pleased and will use them to do the mighty works of God like Jesus. This is the religious cluttered mind-set that thinks that they can please God by keeping the rules and regulation of the perfect law of God. But Jesus pointed to them that they cannot work but God will start to work in them and through them, once they start to believe in Him [i.e. pointing to Himself] whom He [i.e. Father God] sent. When people were eager to do the works of God, Jesus pointed to himself as the work of God through whom all the works of God are going to come to all humanity. In other words Jesus pointed that there is no more works of God but only one work of God [i.e. pointing to himself as the perfect work of the Father] through whom all the works will be done through as many as of those who will believe Him from that time onwards (Mark 9:38-39; 16:19-20).

Here a question may come to us, what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

To that the Bible says in Rom 10:6-13, “But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.””.

Here we see two things that the scripture points out,

1) First to get saved one has to first confess with his mouth, Jesus as the Lord of his life. In that Instant he confesses Jesus as the Lord of his life, his dead spirit inside him will be born anew by the pouring out of the Spirit of the Lord in him by Jesus Christ from heaven (Titus 3:5-6; John 3:3,5-8; Ezek 36:25-27). This is the greatest miracle of all miracles because from that moment of time we are saved forever by the Lord Jesus from all wickedness and evil of this world. As a result of this event Jesus’ eternal heavenly God’s life is infused in to us (1 John 5:11-13). From that point you will be able to believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is alive and real because you will feel a God-connection inside you from that point of time onwards (1 John 4:14-15).

2) Then once a person becomes a believer the next verse in Rom 10:10 points out the secret to live a life of victory for the believer by saying “…with the heart one believes unto righteousness”. The believer has to keep on believing the promises of God from that point of time in order to be right with God because God will notice the thoughts and intents of the heart of every believer and will reward him according to it (Prov 12:5; 1 Samuel 16:7; Ps 44:21; 58:11; 94:11; Matt 9:3-4; 12:25). Then the believer will come to know of the deceitfulness of His own soulish heart and will start to seek for the precious thoughts of the Lord in heaven, this is where the relationship of a believer gets cemented with the love of God ( Jer 17:9-10; 13:10; 16:12, 17; Prov 17:20; Eccl 9:3-10; Ps 139:17-18; 1 Cor 2:10-16; Rom 8:37-39; 2 Cor 5:13-15). This is the place where God will be pleased with the believer’s faith. This Rom 10:10 does not stop there but continues with the expression of the believer’s faith through one’s mouth saying, “…with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” What does it mean? You can have faith in God and God will also recognize and will reward it (Rom 14:22-23), but unless you speak out with your mouth what you believe in your heart, you will not experience salvation (Rev 12:10-12).

Here the word used in Greek for salvation is soteria [pronounced - sō-tā-rē'-ä] which means deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation a) deliverance from the molestation of enemies b) in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the souls safety or salvation 1) of Messianic salvation 2) salvation as the present possession of all true Christians 3) future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God. This deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation by the power of God from enemies of God [i.e. Satan and his evil demonic cohorts] will manifest in the natural physical realm only when a person starts to confess with His mouth what He believes in his heart to be true of his life by what Jesus Christ has achieved for him personally through His birth, death and resurrection. The bottom line is, even though a believer believes in the promises of God in his heart, only when he starts to confess it with his mouth, he will be able to experience the power of God to be active in his life’s journey with God. This reminds us of the importance of the confession of the promises of God in a believer’s Christian life.

(i) The first type of confession is to one’s self and to others. The apostolic way of activating the power of God in a believer’s life is through this type of confession. That is why Paul said in His epistles to Corinthians, “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” (2 Cor 4:13-15). Here we notice how Paul was activating the grace of God to abound in people’s life for the glory of God. He spoke the word of God and as they believed it and had the same spirit of faith, he expected them to speak the same word of faith, and as a result when they spoke the same word of faith as Paul himself, it caused the grace [empowerment, activation of the power of God, strength of God, divine character, favor] of God to be received in greater measure in the lives of the believer’s. In other words without speaking forth the promises of God with the spirit of faith, one cannot experience the empowerment of God in one’s life. If we ask to whom we are speaking it to? We are speaking it to ourselves and to others which will activate the grace of God in us and others by strengthening our soul and others by faith. For example in the New Testament Apostle Paul spoke to himself and to others by saying, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13) which activated the grace of God mightily in His life. King David was a sort of apostolic man in the Old Testament who did the same thing by “… strengthening himself in the Lord his God.” (1 Sam 30:6) while he was going through one of the toughest trial of his life. David was a man who always confessed the promises of God and as a result experienced the mighty grace and the power of God in his life (Ps 39:3; 40:3,9-10,16; 44:8; 45:1; 27:1). This is also confirmed by Apostle Paul in Philemon 6 where he said “that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” In other words he is saying, only when you confess and acknowledge the good things which is in you in Christ Jesus, only then your faith will become effective [i.e. to release the grace of God in to your life and other’s lives (Eph 2:8; Rom 5:2)]. So only we need to make it our habit and discipline ourselves to confess who we are in Christ Jesus.

You are what God says you are, so confess the following good things which are in you in Christ Jesus. Make your faith to be effective by accepting, admitting, recognizing and confessing the truth of the existence of His grace in you.

I AM – A Child of God (Romans 8:16)

I AM – Redeemed from the Hand of the Enemy (Psalm 107:2)

I AM – Forgiven (Colossians 1:13,14)

I AM – Saved by Grace through Faith (Ephesians 2:8)

I AM – Justified (Romans 5:1)

I AM – Sanctified (I Corinthians 6:11)

I AM – A New Creature (II Corinthians 5:17)

I AM – Partaker of His Divine Nature (II Peter 1:4)

I AM – Redeemed from the Curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13)

I AM – Delivered from the Powers of Darkness (Colossians 1:13)

I AM – Led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14)

I AM – Free From All Bondage (John 8:36)

I AM – Kept in Safety Wherever I Go (Psalm 91:11)

I AM – Getting All My Needs Met by Jesus (Philippians 4:19)

I AM – Casting All My Cares on Jesus (I Peter 5:7)

I AM – Strong in the Lord and in the Power of His Might (Ephesians 6:10)

I AM – Doing All Things through Christ Who Strengthens Me (Philippians 4:13)

I AM – An Heir of God and a Joint Heir with Jesus (Romans 8:17)

I AM – Heir to the Blessings of Abraham (Galatians 3:13, 14)

I AM – Observing and Doing the Lord’s Commandments (Deuteronomy 28:I2)

I AM – Blessed Coming in and Blessed Going out (Deuteronomy 28:6)

I AM – An Heir of Eternal Life (I John 5:11, 12)

I AM – Blessed with All Spiritual Blessings (Ephesians 1:3)

I AM – Healed by His Stripes (I Peter 2:24)

I AM – Exercising My Authority over the Enemy (Luke 10:19)

I AM – Above Only and Not Beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13)

I AM – More than a Conqueror (Romans 8:37)

I AM – Establishing God’s Word Here on Earth (Matthew 16:19)

I AM – An Overcomer by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of My Testimony (Revelation 12:11)

I AM – Daily overcoming the Devil (I John 4:4)

I AM – Not Moved by What I See (II Corinthians 4:18)

I AM – Walking by Faith and Not by Sight (II Corinthians 5:7)

I AM – Casting Down Vain Imaginations (II Corinthians 10:4, 5)

I AM – Bringing Every Thought into Captivity (II Corinthians 10:5)

I AM – Being Transformed by Renewing My Mind (Romans 12:1, 2)

I AM – Reigning in Life Through Christ Jesus (Romans 5:17)

I AM – The Righteousness of God in Christ (II Corinthians 5:21)

I AM – An Imitator of Jesus (Ephesians 5:1)

I AM – The Light of the World (Matthew 5:14)

I AM – Blessing the Lord at All Times and Continually Praising the Lord with My Mouth (Psalm 34:1)

[the preceding I am excerpts taken from savedhealed.com]

(ii) The second type of confession is to the Lord where we agree with the law of the Lord and say to Him that we have sinned, when we do sin in our lives (1 John 1:9; 2:1-2; Ps 32:1-6; 38:18; 51:1-10). Jesus Himself will act on our behalf by supporting and advocating on our behalf to the Father God, so that God the Father can continue to show his favor on us from whom all good things proceed (James 1:17). Jesus Christ is the Apostle and the High Priest of our confession as the Bible says in Heb 3:1. Here the Bible is connecting the apostolic office of Jesus Christ with His office of High Priesthood because once we confess our sins to Him, immediately He as our apostle in heaven will release the grace of God [i.e. apostolic breakthrough anointing] to overcome that particular situation that is affecting us (Heb 10:23). Confessing to Jesus Christ our High Priest who is in heaven is equal to us approaching the throne of grace in the holy of holies in the Old Testament tabernacle, where the earthly High Priest entered in once a year with the blood of goats and bulls to make atonement for the nation of Israel and bring the favor of God back in to their lives (Heb 4:14-16; 9:7). Once we receive His grace, through it we can drive out all the devil’s demonic schemes, oppositions and completely immobilize his advancing strategies. This confession is very important for the grace of God and the undeserved favor of God to continue unhindered in our lives. As this sort of relationship with Jesus continues, we as the priest of God should offer sacrifices to Him by praising and thanking Jesus continually which will make Jesus to be delighted and be more active in our lives (Heb 9:7). Because He will take those incense prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God the Father who will in turn cause His favor to super abound in our lives and through us to others (Heb 13:15-16; 1 Peter 2:5,9; Rev 1:6, 5:8-10, 8:3-6). We prepare the incense as the priest of God through our thanksgiving, praises and prayers by working along with Jesus through the confession of our mouth. Tomorrow’s destiny of the world is in the hands of today’s body of intercessory priest and believer’s of God in the Church of Jesus Christ in this earth because God acts by our prayer.

(iii) The third type of confession is more like a ‘command to the spiritual realm of Satan and his demonic cohorts’. This we do based on the authority that we possess through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus himself challenged the believer’s in Mark 16:17 by saying, “….these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons…..”. Here the word ‘cast out’ in the original Greek means ‘to send out forcefully with the idea and belief of violence, to drive out (cast out), to expel a person from a society, to compel one to depart, to draw out with force, tear out, to reject with contempt, to cast off or away’. This does imply a violent attack that the believer does by the command of his mouth in Jesus Name. This includes driving a demon out of a demon possessed person and also the demonic oppression [i.e. in the area of both soulish and physical realm of every believer] that comes against a believer. And also Jesus has said in Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give you the authority [ exousia.gr ] to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power [ dunamis.gr ] of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Here we see that Jesus Himself has personally entrusted His power [here the word used for power is not ‘dunamis’ which means ‘ability, strength, fire power…’ but ‘exousia’ which means ‘authority, complete governmental control, to rule over…’] over the evil world of demons and devils to the believers and has guaranteed that He will make sure that nothing by any means will hurt you when you exercise the authority He has given you personally to exercise it. The whole of heaven and God’s angels will defend the authority of Jesus when you exercise it believing His word (Phil 2:9-11; Eph 1:18-23). So do not believe what people say about commanding to the devil, but know absolutely because you are a child of God, all the evil spirits [i.e. Satan and all his demons] are under your authority already. Some people say that the Bible does not say that authority has been given for the believer to speak against Satan and his demons in to thin air. To that the Bible says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). The Bible also warns the believer to “….. submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) and to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9). Here the word resist in Greek is ‘anthistēmi’ [pronounced än-thē'-stā-mē (Key)’] which means ‘to set one’s self against, to withstand, resist, oppose, to set against’ in both the above verses. My question to you is? If Satan is the prince of the power of air [with all his demons under him acting under his command through the air] and if he and his demonic cohorts are walking to and fro in the air, How do you resist him and see him flee if the confession of command is not given out in to the thick or thin air? For example in the natural, if an air missile is going to strike you through the thin air, will you as a commander in-charge fire your missile in to sea or in to the air? The Bible says, “We walk by [spiritual] faith, not by [physical] sight” (2 Cor 5:7). According to this above verse we resist Satan and speak against him and his demons even if we don’t see them with our natural eyes. In other words whether we see those demons and devils present in the air or not, we believe the Bible and speak against them in to the air when we feel oppressed by their activity of stealing, killing, and destroying our blessed abundant life which Christ has given to us (John 10:10).

Satan and his demonic subordinates do not know your thoughts because as the Bible says only your spirit man and God only knows all your thoughts (1 Cor 2:11; Ps 94:11). So you cannot resist the devil by thinking against them but by only speaking against them with the authority that Jesus has already given to you. Satan and his demons will all come to know that you are resisting them, only when you start to speak against them with your mouth. So only the Bible clearly says in Rev 12:10-11, “Then [when? The moment Christ said “It is finished” (John 19:30;12:31-33)] I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come [to the hearts of all believer’s in Christ (2 Cor 6:2; Luke 17:21; Eph 3:16-17, 20)], for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down [from representing or guarding every man on earth before God (Job 1:6-7,12; 2:1-3; Zech 3:1-5; Matt 18:10)]. And they [i.e. believers in Christ] overcame him [i.e. Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” From the preceding verse we see that only by confessing to God about the sin that you have done, you are submitting to God your petition for the need for being covered with Christ’s Blood and automatically the blood of Jesus will cleanse you and restore your connection with God immediately (James 4:7; 1 John 1:9,7), the moment you do that you are equipped enough to speak against Satan and his demons by the word of your testimony and cast them out. This type of submitting to God and resisting the devil can be equated to dying to self life [i.e. described in the preceding verse as “they did not love their life to death”] because you are acknowledging to God your inability to protect yourself, and the need for the blood of Christ to cover you for protection from all evil and condemnation.

The Old Testament scriptures too agree with this view point of speaking against the devil and his demonic weapons of destruction. The Bible says in Isaiah 54:17,“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment, You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me…”. A question may arise and you may ask how do you know that it is spoken against Satan and his demonic cohorts. To that you must turn to preceding verse in Isaiah 54:16 and should see in context, that God is referring to Satan in a veiled way saying “….I have created the spoiler [destroyer] to destroy [Cross ref: Exo 12:12,13,23; Heb 11:28 Note: God was not killing the first born but allowed the destroyer who was using the plague or death virus to kill all the first born of the Egyptians. God covered the Israelites but allowed the destroyer to kill the Egyptians firstborn to make a difference between His blood bought people and the Egyptians who had no faith in the blood].” This verse in Isaiah 54:17 implies that you should Make sure you use your heritage as the servant of the Lord, standing in the righteousness of the Lord and condemning [i.e. speak against verbally] every demonic tongue [i.e. demons rarely speak audibly, but mostly will enforce deceptive, wicked and perverse thoughts in to your mind constantly] that is rising against you in judgment. This can only negate the enemy’s strategy that you will be facing in your life.

Again in Jeremiah 10:11, God is encouraging the believer to say and declare against the so called demonic gods, that they will perish from the earth in the coming days and instead the glory of the real creator God will arise forth because He owns it and sustains it as described in the succeeding verses 12 and 13 and preceding verse 10.

All these clear exposition of the scripture points to one thing, the believer should confess and speak against all satanic forces to get delivered from all their evil demonic attacks. Jesus will not rebuke from heaven because He has already given His authority in to the believer’s hands and have entrusted them to fight against His enemies and our enemies [i.e. Satan and his demons]. If the believer does not boldly do such things, he will be oppressed all his life. That why Jesus said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36). In other words Jesus was saying, ‘Because you believe in Me, I have already set you free forever and have given you authority over all satanic devils and demons, it is up to you to use the authority I have given you personally.’ Are you ready? You are asking me for what? To use the authority that Jesus has given you. Jesus is waiting and watching with expectation to see you use it, which will bring Him the glory that He only deserves!! Praise the Lord!