Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood…"
We looked at the bleeding Savior who chose to bleed for the sake of mankind and today we will look at the bleeding believer.
John 15:7, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you". One of the most tragic thing that can happen to humans is to have a cut, a wound and bleed to death.
There is something about the blood circulating in human system that has to be protected by all means. We give out blood for the saving of other patients lives. The bible indicates clearly that the life of the flesh is in the blood and the life of the gospel is in the blood, and the life of every believer is in the blood and so we need to take the blood issue seriously.
If you go back to John 15:5, "I am the Vine and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing". If the blood is to continue to circulate for us to stay alive and well, we have to be connected to the source of life which is Jesus Christ. John 14:6, "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". The only way we can get to the Father is by being connected to the Son. I think many of us struggle to distinguish between who the Vine is and who the branches are. I’m not surprised for I have seen people reverse the order and they acted as though they were the Vine and Jesus was the branch. By this I mean that everything someone did, they thought they were doing the Lord a favor when in the actual sense, He is doing us a favor.
Listen to this, the bleeding believer is one who decides to be disconnected from the true Vine. For example, if you cut someone’s hand, that hand will die and rot but the entire body will still live though in pain. John 15:4, "… As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the Vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me". You detach yourself from the Lord you will bleed to death meaning spiritually die. If you detach a hand from the body yes it will still look like it still has life and kicking but give it some time while it’s loosing blood and you will see it die. We must stay abiding in the Vine every day. No moving forward without abiding on the Vine. To be honest, it’s not easy staying attached to the Vine. You cannot have the fruit of the Spirit recorded in the bible (love, patience, kindness, meekness, long suffering etc.) without being connected to the Vine. Don’t you understand that Christ in you the hope of glory? without Him we can do absolutely nothing.
The bleeding believer cannot retain anything for they are bleeding daily. You pour strength into them, tomorrow they are weak again; you encourage them today, tomorrow you find them discouraged; you tell them you love them, they don’t feel loved enough; you speak destiny in their lives, they see themselves as failures, why? because everything you pour into their lives bleeds out. In as much as someone might encourage and strengthen you as long as you are bleeding, you will never retain for long. If you are the one to lift up a bleeding believer, if you see them the next day and the day after come to you with the same issue, they must be bleeding.
With God where there is a problem, He has provided a way out. Ask yourself the first question, are you detaching yourself from the True Vine? you could be attached to a vine but not the true one and in the process of being detached from the wrong one, you will bleed. The good news is, you can be grafted onto the True Vine. Ask yourself why you cannot hold that which is poured into you, is it because of sin?, wounded by someone?, offended, broken?. Bind up the bleeding wounds, purpose in your heart to stop the bleeding by abiding in Him. Phil 2:12, "…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling". No one can work your salvation for you. You have to do it yourself, you have to desire to live and do everything by all means to stop yourself from bleeding to death and let someone come and help you bind up the wounds. Remember the woman with the issue of blood, she was bleeding too and she purposed in her heart to work out her own salvation by looking for and to Jesus, speaking to herself these words "If I may but touch the hem of His garment, I know I will be made whole". And the moment she touched His garment, she was grafted to the True Vine and her bleeding stopped. God will send people to pour more into you but make sure you are abiding in Him the True Vine.
I will stop here for the day, one last piece on part three tomorrow, Blessings Ev
He Has Magnified His Word 