Q: How would a Christian’s life change if they understood the power of the cross?
A: The power of the cross is what the Christian life is all about! Because the cross of Jesus is the throne of the universe. It’s the only place where we’re safe from the devil and the power of the devil. So the cross is not just a past experience for us believers, we carry it with us. If you look at Romans 6:1-14, it talks about death to self, death to the world, death to sin, death to the things of the world. That’s what the cross is about. We identify with the Lord on that cross. He took our sin, He died once. We identify with His death and we say no to the world as a result. Because the Bible says we are dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God, so the Christian life begins when we accept Jesus as Savior. At that moment, we are free from the penalty of sin because of the work of Calvary on the cross. But then, we have to follow the Lord. And in following the Lord, and walking with the Lord, eventually we will be free from the power of sin as we live the Christian life. What is the Christian life? The Christian life is very simple, given to us in Matthew 16 and Luke 14. The Lord said, “if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, carry his cross and follow Me.” That’s the Christian life. The Christian life is not about me, it’s about Jesus in me. It’s about surrender. The outline of the Christian life is not ‘try harder,” it is “yield.” That’s the cross. That’s what is meant by the cross. When we embrace the cross of Jesus, we embrace its shame – meaning persecution and offense. We embrace its weakness, coming to the end of ourselves and saying, “Lord, I trust You.” And we also embrace death. That message today is hardly preached – dying to self, to the things of the world – but that’s what the early fathers talked about, that’s what the early church talked about, the cross.
Q: Most people relate the blood of Jesus to salvation, but how is it so much more than that?
A: Oh, it’s very much more than that. Because we apply it. In Job, it declares how Job offered a sacrifice daily on behalf of his children, he was applying the blood over them. And when the devil went before the presence of God, he said, “Well, You have built a hedge around him. I cannot touch him.” Well how did Job build the hedge? By applying the blood! And if you read the Scripture it’s quite clear, that the devil says to God, “You have protected him, you have protected the work of his hands, and all that he has.” Meaning that he was applying blood on that. There’s great power in the application of the blood. I’ve experienced the great power of the blood for protection. We remind the devil of his defeat when we say the blood of Jesus. And demons flee in fear when we say the blood of Jesus. We believe there’s power in the name of Jesus, but there’s also power in the blood. When we declare its power, demons remember their defeat and flee! That’s why it’s important.
Q: In The Blood, you reveal the importance God places on Blood Covenants. Tell us about that.
A: Well, without the shedding of blood there is no covenant. Every covenant is sealed with blood. Think about it, every covenant God made: Adam, Noah, Abram, Isaac, Jacob. There had to be a shedding of blood for the covenant to happen. Remember what happened with Adam? The Lord killed the animal and gave him a covenant. So, God is the one who slew the first sacrifice and the last sacrifice.
The blood of the first lamb covered Adam, but the blood of the last lamb covers us. Hallelujah. And Adam told his son, that’s why his son brought the blood of an animal to God. And later, Noah understood the power of that to know, I’m coming out of that ark, I’m going to apply the blood to break the curse on the planet. And then comes Abram, into the Promised Land, and if you read clearly, the first thing he did, he built an altar. He applied blood. Isaac, the minute he received the promise, he applied blood. Jacob, he comes back from the house of Laban, builds an altar. They understood. There is no access, no blessing, and no covenant without the blood. Period. So God made a covenant with us by the blood of His Son.
Q: How does the blood of Jesus help us enter into God’s presence?
A: It gives us access, it says so in the book of Hebrews. We have a much better way right now through the blood, not the blood of animals. Look, in the Old Testament, the high priest could not enter into the Holy of Holies without the blood or he would have died. But we are very clearly told that the blood of animals cannot remove sin. There is a remembrance every year, of sin. Because those animals could not remove the sin of humanity. Now, why did God require the blood of animals? Well, it’s a very wonderful answer. The blood of Jesus was shed before the foundation of the world. It says so in Revelation. That He was crucified before the foundation of the world, it’s there in Revelations 13 clearly. But where was He crucified? In the heart of God. Because when God spoke it, Jesus was crucified in His heart, in the heart of the Father. So when God required the blood of animals, He didn’t see the blood of those animals. He saw the blood of His Son already shed in His own heart, and He accepted the Jewish people. And the only people who could approach God were the Jewish people. God is holy. You can’t, as a sinner, approach God who is holy, because light expels darkness. Light judges darkness. A sinner who is walking in darkness, he can’t walk into the presence of God and be accepted, he would be instantly judged. God’s holiness judges the sinner. God doesn’t have to say it, the light itself expels him. It’s like you’re walking into a room and someone says, turn on the lights. The lights of the building expel the darkness out. Well God is light. So, God’s holiness demands that the sinner be judged and God said to the Jewish people, someone has to die for you to come into My presence. There has to be death. The wages of sin is death. So if any sinner dared to enter into God’s presence without the blood, he would be eliminated in a second by the light that God is. Because He is light. But God said too, someone has to die, so He gave them the covenant that an animal had to be killed in the place of the man who would walk into the presence of God, the high priest. So he offered the blood and shed the blood for Israel and for himself as high priest, and took it into God’s presence. And think about this, that blood was applied on the mercy seat, which is the covenant of the ark. And no one could wash it off for all those years. What is so remarkable is, in the outdoor court, the sun was shining out there, so they could see what they’re doing. In the Holy Place, the lampstand was shining, so they could see what they’re doing. But in the Holy of Holies, there was no candlestick, no light, no windows, four skins that covered the Holy of Holies and the Holy place. So how did the High priest see where he was? There was no light in there. It was the ark, the glory of God shone through the blood of the ark that caused the High priest to see what he was doing so he wouldn’t bump into anything. Think about it, out there, in the outer court, the sun was out there, the sun you look at it every day. In the Holy Place there was a nice lampstand, they could see. But how about the Holy of Holies? No windows, no nothing, just thick skin covering that thing. It was the ark that shone, through the blood there is light. That’s why it’s important to understand the power of the blood.
Q: Your ministry has been marked by incredible miracles throughout the years. What is one testimony that stands out to you?
A: The first dynamic miracle I saw in my own meeting was a lady in Montreal, Canada at a Full Gospel Business Men’s breakfast. This woman was bent over sideways like an arch, her head was down to her hip. She had a brace that held her, that was also like an arch. She was screaming in the back and I did not know why. The Lord straightened her body, but the brace was holding it down. When they took the brace off, her body just stood straight up! She came down, crying and screaming, and she took hold of my tie and my jacket and she said, “This is not for real, I’m in a dream. This can’t be real, this is a dream. I’m not healed.” She wouldn’t believe it, even though she was. I said, “Go back there, there’s a mirror.” And we heard this scream, and she came out and the people were shouting and rejoicing and her son was crying. So, once she saw herself straight, she believed.
But the next one, there’s a lot of great ones, Francis Scott was her name. Francis Scott was a woman in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, she was crippled in one leg and her bones in that leg were like rubber. And she wore a big, massive brace that tied around her waist and was connected to a shoe on her foot. As I was preaching, she came up and interrupted the service and she said, “Young man. you talked about Jesus healing the sick. I need a miracle.” And she sat on my chair with her leg stuck up. I wasn’t happy with her because she interrupted my message. And so, the pastor and his assistant stood in front of her to block her vision because she was distracting me. But it didn’t work, so I walked back and told them to sit down. I asked the woman, “What do you want?” She pounded on her leg and said, “My leg, my leg!” So I told her to take the brace off. But I didn’t realize that for her to take the brace off she’d have to take her pants down. So a group of women came up, and some men gave them their jackets, and they surrounded her while she took the brace off. And when her foot touched the floor, you could not have believed the scream of joy that came out of her because the bones that were like rubber came together!
I’ve seen so many miracles that I could write a whole book. In Spanish Ontario, a North American Indian man came up to me as I was preaching on Psalm 103. He said, “You’re telling all of us that your Jesus heals, I’m a cripple,” and he was, he was twenty-eight years old, came up with his crutches, braces, the works, He said, “My wife is dying with cancer, my little girl has a skin condition where she bleeds all the time,” and he pulls up the sleeve of his girl and you saw blood everywhere. He said, “Prove it now that blood heals.” I got on my knees, I called those preachers and all the priests and they got on their knees. I said, “Dear Jesus, I’m not preaching my Gospel, I’m preaching Yours. I’m not preaching my message, I’m preaching Yours. You prove it.” And all we heard was a big thump, like a crashing sound. We looked up and that man, his wife, and their daughter were on the floor in a pile. He jumped up like a spring off the floor, threw his crutches away, tore his braces off both legs, and ran all over the place. And then he came up screaming and crying, and he pulled up the daughter’s sleeve, There was not one thing there! I have the newspaper in my house on that, the front page article of that man’s miracle to this day.
Q: Why do you believe that some people see miracles happen and others don’t? Is it possible for every believer to walk in that power?
A: Because they don’t believe the covenant! I was once told, “believers are healed because of God’s covenant with us, but the sinner because of His mercy.” We have a covenant, a healing covenant, with God. People are just not believing in the covenant. If you walk in covenant, it’s just as easy to get healed as saved – it’s the same covenant.
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He gave them what? The covenant of salvation, when they came out. He said apply the blood on your homes, and they were delivered! That’s the salvation of Israel, Exodus, Passover. But then before they went into the Promised Land, He made another covenant with them of healing, in Exodus 15. So they came out with a covenant to be saved from Egypt, and the bondage of Egypt when they applied the blood on the Lintel and the Sideposts. But then God gave them another covenant before they entered into the Promised Land. He said If you would walk in my statutes, and so on, I’m the God that healeth thee. And that’s why they were healed. It’s the covenant!
