“Mercy is calling you, won’t you give heed? Must the dear Savior still tenderly plead? Risk not your soul, it is precious indeed; what would you give in exchange for your soul?”1
A FEW YEARS AGO Jennette and I were having a date night, and we had the opportunity to attend an event in downtown Atlanta at the infamous Fox Theatre. The event was a dressy occasion. People were wearing their fur coats, and a few men were dressed in tuxedos. I was feeling rather debonair at my selection to treat my wife to a nice night out and was looking forward to a great concert. If you’ve ever been to the Fox Theatre, you know you have to park and make your way into the box office and ticket area. At the time we had just released our second live worship record, and we were receiving some national and international recognition as a songwriter and worship leader. I could hear people whispering as we walked along, “That’s Ricardo Sanchez.” “Oh my gosh! That’s the worship leader Ricardo.” Admittedly, I began to walk with a new swagger, if you will. “Yeah, baby, you’re with the man tonight,” I began to whisper into Jennette’s ear. She would look at me and roll her eyes as if to say, “Really? You’re really going to call yourself the man?”
The night continued, and the concert was incredible. At intermission Jennette and I went to get some snacks, and several people stopped me to ask for my autograph. “Oh yeah! You are definitely with the man. How does it feel to be married to the man?” I continued to tease, but “the man” comments persisted to remain the central theme and joke for the evening.
After the show Jennette and I were walking on the sidewalk to head back to our car, and a group of people from across the street shouted, “Hi, Ricardo! We love your music!” “Wow, you must be the luckiest girl in the world to be married to ‘the man.’ Baby, God must love you,” I said with a smile and a wink.
Another group was walking, and I heard them shouting and running toward us, “Ricardo! Ricardo!” I could hear from behind. I turned around to see one of the girls grabbing her camera. I was now getting a little exhausted with all the fanfare, for lack of a better description, and the joke seemed to be wearing a little thin with Jennette. As the lady was getting closer to Jennette and me, she said, “Ricardo, will you take a picture?” As I was walking to join the group so they could have a picture of “the man,” I noticed the lady was handing ME the camera so I could take their picture! They didn’t want me to be in the picture; they just wanted me to take their picture. As I went to grab the camera, I caught Jennette looking at me with a smile as she whispered under her breath, “Baby, remember, you’re the man!” Needless to say, I stopped joking about being “the man.”
After eating my dose of humble pie, I was reminded that in life’s victories and in life’s defeats, at the end of the day, it has very little to do with me. It’s all about God! It’s easy to get things confused and think it has something to do with you or me when, in essence, it has nothing to do with us. It’s all about the beautiful exchange Jesus made for us on Calvary, when He took our ashes and made something beautiful by His blood.
Though some parts were in jest, I hope this story conveyed and illustrated the point that your purpose and your destiny in life are contingent upon one thing and one thing alone—the exchange Jesus Christ made for you at Calvary. He took everything we deserved to the point of death and in exchange established a covenant between man and God. I understand people need a point of contact and are able to connect with humanity and funny stories as examples, but we, as human vessels, are nothing more than that: simple vessels. Who we are and what we do is nothing without the exchange Jesus made for us.
Little did I know that when I cowrote and recorded the title cut for the album It’s Not Over that my family and I would actually get to live out the testimony of the song with Josiah. God had given me these lyrics months before Josiah’s accident. Now I know with all my heart that God foreseeably provided me with this song, knowing full well that I would be singing them over my son in his hospital bed. I truly believe this God-ordained song was given to me as a way to minister first to our spirits, my family’s and mine, before I would share it with others. The richness of the song cemented its way through our tragedy, through our victory.
I know it’s dark just before dawn
This might be the hardest season you’ve experienced
I know it hurts
It won’t be too long
You’re closer than you think you are
You’re closer than you’ve been before
Something is moving, turning around
Seasons are changing, everything is different now
Here comes the sun, piercing the clouds
You’re closer than you think you are
You’re closer than you’ve been before
It’s not over, it’s not finished
It’s not ending, it’s only the beginning
When God is in it
All things are new.2
Walking through this situation with Josiah has solidified our foundation, even as parents, and has reinforced our motives to be very intentional in how we “do life” and how we raise our sons. It has made me quite reflective on my life as a believer in Jesus Christ. My wife and I have always been very deliberate in the way we have raised our boys—to be men of God, to be men of God’s Word, and to be men true to their word. Nevertheless, since Josiah’s accident, we purposefully wanted them, as well as ourselves, to know and understand their covenant with God, their relationship with God, and our foundation as children of God.
God’s Word, an Eastern book in our Western culture, gives us many word pictures or analogies about our relationship with God:
• He is the Shepherd—we are the sheep.
• He is the Father—we are the children.
• He is the Potter—we are the clay.
• He is the Head—we are the body.
• He is the Commander—we are the army.
• He is the Master—we are the servants.
Each of these images provides us with clear directives on how to live out our covenant relationship. Yes, it is God’s responsibility to provide for our needs, to teach and guide us, to help us move forward and prevail, and to establish our portion. And in that we must trust and believe.
Society today has a hard time understanding the true weight of a biblical covenant because in today’s climate contracts, promises, and covenants are easily broken, annulled, and voided all the time. Our present age is one of shattered promises and broken relationships. This age has lost sight of the fundamental pledge “till death do us part.” A covenant is an endless and binding partnership between two or more parties. Our covenant with God provides a commitment to a relationship that allows His purpose for us to be fulfilled. In the book The Covenants, Kevin Conner and Ken Malmin define covenant this way:
The word “covenant” is a word that has lost its meaning and significance in present day. In Bible times, the word “covenant” involved promise, commitment, faithfulness and loyalty even unto death. A covenant was sacred and was not lightly entered into by the parties involved. In Bible times, a person was only as good as their covenant word. In a society where national agreements, business contracts, and marriage covenants are under stress and attack, where people are “covenant-breakers” (Romans 1:31), it brings great joy and comfort to know that God is a covenant making and covenant keeping God.3
Therefore, every one of us who has experienced the amazing and saving grace of God has entered into a covenant agreement with Him—the new and everlasting covenant. This is not just some abstract promise of everlasting life, but it is a personal and very real covenant. Our covenant with God is His plan for our blessing; it’s our inheritance. However, for us to possess this, we must understand fully our responsibility and our agreement to God, our part of the covenant.
Before the Fall God expressed His purpose for mankind in Genesis 1 and 2 as being made in God’s image, being fruitful and multiplying, having dominion, and so on. When Adam and Eve broke their part of the covenant with God in Genesis 3, God’s redemptive purpose for the human race was propitiated. After this point we see God establish a series of redemptive covenants with us as humans—with Noah (Gen. 6–9), with Abraham (Gen. 12–22), with Moses on Sinai (Exod. 19–40), with Phineas (Num. 25:10–13), with Israel (Deut. 27–33), with David (2 Sam. 7; Ps. 89; Ps. 132), and finally, with His new covenant in Jesus Christ (Jer. 31:31–34; Matt. 26; Heb. 8). What amazing and overwhelming promises!
The first time that the Bible actually uses the word covenant is in Genesis 6:18. God created a covenant with Noah that has affected our world ever since—it really has messed up science today! I think that the very meaning of Noah’s name, which is “rest,” really solidifies God’s prophetic purpose for a man He knew would obey and trust Him. The people of that day had strayed so much in sin and away from God’s plan that He literally had to start over. And it was in Genesis 9:8–11 that God gives a covenantal blessing and a way for us to remember His promise—the rainbow:
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
—NIV
Yet the Bible shows us that it was God’s sovereign plan to establish His covenant through Abraham—or Abram, as he was originally named. God’s promises to Abraham can be summed up in Genesis 12:2–3, which is a sevenfold structure:
1. I will make you a great nation.
2. I will bless you.
3. I will make your name great.
4. You will be a blessing.
5. I will bless those who bless you.
6. Whoever curses you, I will curse.
7. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
The Abrahamic covenant really solidifies our human intent, restores mankind’s original blessing, and extends us as seeds of “our father Abraham,” the first man to be called a Hebrew. God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:7 that He is “establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants” (THE MESSAGE).
Because Abraham was a Semite, a descendent of Noah’s son Shem, all Jews trace their ancestry to him as the father of the Hebrew nation. (See Genesis 11:10–32; 14:13.) Peter reminds the Jewish believers in Acts 3:25 that they are heirs of the covenant God made with Abraham. But it is Paul who tells the Gentile believers that all Christians find their origin in Abraham: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed” (Gal. 3:29). Therefore, the biblical phrase “our father Abraham” (John 8:53; Acts 7:2) expresses the family relationship that every person of faith has with “the man of faith.” (See Galatians 3:9.) What a promise; what a heritage; what a responsibility!
Not long ago America became intrigued with family trees or genealogy. Movies and documentaries such as Roots triggered such an interest with people. It seems to have started a craze in America for people to begin tracing family, ethnic, and national ties. This is all well and good, but at the same time, many Christians have little to no knowledge of their biblical roots and thus their covenant commitment.
In order to understand our commitment as believers, it is important to fully grasp the magnitude of covenant or the exchange God made with Abraham. This intense process of what both parties go through truly demonstrates and exemplifies how permanent and binding a covenant was and is. It also expounds upon how God anticipates His relationship with us to be. In a covenant the weaker or less endowed party actually assumes and receives the benefits of the greater, wealthier party. The covenant was for life and was a binding act between two individuals. A biblical blood covenant could never be broken.
The covenant is the reason and the hope you and I hold when we face an “it’s not over” moment in life. Covenant was to give man a hold upon God as the covenant-keeping God, to link him to God Himself in expectation and hope. Thus covenant is the basis from which we must act and react. Being so engrained in us, our covenant with God must completely determine the position from which we make all of our decisions. In order to totally get the full picture of what God was saying when He established His covenant, we must understand the nine-step process involved in the biblical covenant. This is how serious God is about His promises, His covenant. As you read the nine steps below, truly absorb the weight of God’s promises in light of the exchange made between God and Abraham’s seed, or you and me.
STEP 1: THE EXCHANGE OF ROBES OR GARMENTS
During Hebrew times the robes or garments people wore were symbolic of a person’s status in life. Kings or priests wore royal garments, symbolizing their authority and their kingship—as seen in Esther 6:6–9 when Haman makes a fateful request to wear the Persian king’s robe and parade through the street. By symbolically exchanging robes, a person initiated the act of saying, “Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine. Everything I have access to, you have access to.” It can be viewed as taking off the “old self” and putting on a “new self. This new relationship heralds an end of independent living for both parties involved since they are now called to live for each other. There is to be a surrender of self-interest for the covenant partners.
First Samuel 18:3–4 is a prime example of this exchange of robes between David and Jonathan. This powerful exchange, initiated by Jonathan, appears to involve a pledge of loyalty and friendship. At the very least Jonathan accepts David as his equal:
And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
—NIV
While David, the simple shepherd boy, puts on the prince’s robe and garment, Jonathan, King Saul’s son, acts in a way of honor, equality, and vulnerability as he stands humbly in, quite possibly, his undergarments. Jonathan demonstrates his commitment to this solemn covenant by giving David his royal robe. Wearing the robe of the prince or possibly the future king was not only an immense honor but was completely prophetic in this exchange.
Jonathan’s figurative act formally eliminated David’s status as a shepherd and placed him side by side as an equal. His disrobing was a conscious display of vulnerability and utter risk in saying, “My life for your life.” As this practice was completely understood in biblical times, in a symbolic sense and in the context of covenant, David is “putting on” Jonathan. David is taking on the identity of his covenant partner Jonathan. In essence the two have become one. Amazingly enough this shows that Jonathan is willingly giving up his right to be king!
However, the new covenant found in Jesus Christ is the greatest act in the exchange of robes. We can observe that Jesus exchanged His divine robe for the likeness of a man:
Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
—PHILIPPIANS 2:6–8, NIV
Jesus fulfilled His destiny as a man by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross, thus becoming our substitute for sin. This is the new covenant in His blood. Isn’t it great that now when God the Father looks at us, He sees us in the righteousness of His Son! I love the words of Martin Luther in “All Praise to Thee, Eternal Lord”:
All praise to Thee, Eternal Lord,
Clothed in a garb of flesh and blood;
Choosing a manger for Thy throne,
While worlds on worlds are Thine alone.4
The military belt was the chief ornament of a soldier and was highly prized in all ancient countries and civilizations. This step represented a partner’s willingness to give support and provide strength. Even in European history it was also a rich present from one chieftain to another as it was the symbol of the clan or name of the man and their vow as an ally. The belt was the piece of the wardrobe that held the armor, the swords, and the weapons. By exchanging belts, a person was declaring a responsibility to protect and cover their covenant partner and vice versa—literally saying, “If anybody attacks you, they are attacking me.”
Jonathan gave his belt to David as the highest pledge of his esteem and perpetual friendship. (See 1 Samuel 18:4.) This symbolized that if anybody would attack David, they would literally be attacking Jonathan and the entire army he represented. As seen above, David and Jonathan exchanged armor, swords, and bows that were all held together by the belt. Because the belt held a soldier’s weapons, it was considered a valuable and desirable part of a soldier’s military uniform, and to put on a military belt directly portrayed that men were preparing for battle.
This is not just biblical; it was a sign of the times. From Troy when King Priam gives his belt and sword to Hector before battle, to Robin Hood when Walter Loxley gives his sword wrapped in its satchel to Robin Longstride, this exemplified tokens of the highest respect and of commitment. However, these were mere tokens of commitment and respect, but God as our covenant partner has committed to fight our battles and be our defender. Deuteronomy 20:4 says, “The LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory” (NIV).
David had such a keen sense of trust in the Lord. He understood and respected covenant. He knew that if God had anointed him to be the king of Israel, then he would be the king of Israel. David also knew he had a mighty “Covenant Defender” in whom he would place his very life. For example, David had many enemies who pursued him, and David always acknowledges God as his Covenant Defender:
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield and sword of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.
—PSALM 18:32–35, NIV
What is even more amazing is that the new covenant is not conditional to the other person. God is faithful, even when we are unfaithful. With the omnipotent God as our covenant partner, we have access to His inexhaustible strength. Paul explains this exchange in Philippians 4:11–13:
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
—NIV
However, I think the words to old hymn “Help Us, O Jesus, Thou Mighty Defender” by J. H. Schroder sum it up best:
Help us, O Jesus, Thou mighty Defender,
Help when the forces of evil appear;
Help us to battle and never surrender,
Help us to conquer, and drive away fear;
Satan is cunning, the prince of deceivers,
Bringing disaster to many believers.
Help us, O Jesus, in hours of temptation,
When both our faith and our courage are weak;
Teach us to look to the sign of salvation,
And near Thy cross a new armor to seek;
Then we shall conquer, if Thou wilt befriend us,
Thou wilt prevail and our faith will defend us.
Help us, O Jesus, when death shall spread terror,
And our poor eyes are too feeble to see;
Cleanse us and purge us from sin and from error;
That we may blindly in faith cling to Thee;
Help us, O Jesus, we conquer in dying,
Unto the last on Thy mercy relying.5
The exchange of names is just as one would think it to be. Each covenant partner would take on the meaning and backing of each other’s name. But along with the name came the power to use the name. Name exchanges encompass everything that the partner’s name represents. Therefore we have access to it. This means that the partners must identify with one another and are expected to think, talk, and act alike.
God exemplifies this in each of His covenantal exchanges, but the primary exchange is when Abram became Abraham and Jehovah God became the God of Abraham (one of the many names of God). Genesis 17 displays that God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and his wife Sarai’s name to Sarah. The new name, Abraham, means “father of many,” but there was a deeper meaning than that in the change. The letter H, which was added to Abram’s name and to Sarai’s name, was from the Lord’s own name Jehovah. This was a sign that Abraham and Sarah were to be God’s children, to obey Him, and as much as humanly possible, to be like Him. Thus, in response to Abraham’s faith in this covenant, he was credited for his righteousness.
The closest thing we have in today’s society would be the power of attorney. As believers in Jesus Christ, our new covenant is with God our father. The name of Jesus is powerful, and we have access to use the authority of His name: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13, KJV). The greatest resolve for me comes when Jesus claimed in John 15:16: “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (KJV). What power!
STEP 4: THE “CUTTING” OF THE COVENANT
In Hebrew “to make a covenant” literally means “to cut a covenant” (karat berit). Biblical covenants were sanctified by cutting animals into two halves. The shedding of blood dramatically ratified and sealed the covenant. (See Genesis 15:9; Jeremiah 34:18–20.) If one attempted to break the covenant, the blood served as a powerful visual lesson that one’s own blood would be shed. In brief, it was a solemn oath to be kept on pain of death. It was thus inviolable and irrevocable.
In the Bible there is no covenant that was ever made without the shedding of blood. The “cutting” of the covenant was, in fact, the ceremonial act of the covenant and was demonstrated by cutting an animal in two halves. This style was quite different from the sacrificial cutting of an animal. The animal was laid in two halves with the blood making a pool in the center. The covenant parties would then stand in between the halves with their backs to each other and walk in a figure eight until they would both meet back again in the center. This time, however, they would be facing each other. Eight was and is the unending number—symbolizing the unbroken covenant and eternity.
The covenant parties were bound to each other for eternity, and therefore, a covenant was not taken lightly. The “cutting” of the covenant and walking in between the dead halves of the animal represented the dying of oneself. Additionally, the act of the cutting and the blood flowing represented the giving of one’s life for the other—the ultimate act of sacrifice. At this time the covenant partners would vow to each other and exchange words: “I choose this day to die to myself and live to bless you, my covenant partner. I will make my decisions and order my life with you in mind from this day forward; seeking always what is best for you ahead of myself.”6 The other covenant partner would then reply in a similar exchange of words. Together, they would look down at the blood right where they stood and say, “May God do this to me and more if aught but death part you and me.”
The Old Testament gives us many examples of what happened to those who broke covenant—death! Joshua 7:1–26 tells how Achan and his entire family were put to death because they took forbidden things from Jericho. However, the entire nation of Israel was cleansed because of the blood of Achan. Similarly, 2 Samuel 21 tells of how Saul broke a covenant agreement with the Gibeonites and seven of Saul’s descendants were killed as a result. Harsh, maybe, but Hebrews 9:22 reminds us that God’s remedy for broken covenant and sin is: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (NIV).
This powerful ceremony was the very act of the covenant that states to the other party: “You are my first priority.” When we came into relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we actually entered into a blood covenant with Him: “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). In that moment a divine exchange took place. God released the holy blood of Christ to make atonement for our sins: “Whom God set forth as propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” (Rom. 3:25). When Jesus cut covenant with us, we received all of His assets and He took all our liabilities. Praise God that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse us all from our iniquities, inabilities, and inadequacies. What a deal!
STEP 5: MINGLING OF THEIR BLOOD
Following the cutting of the animals, each person involved in the covenant would make a small cut on their wrist and then clasp their hands together so that the blood would intermingle with each other. Blood symbolizes life, and by the mingling of the blood, the two were carrying out the symbolic act that their lives would be intertwined for all eternity.
God’s covenants are everlasting. Just as God made promises to Abraham, so too did Abraham have obligations to God:
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. . . . My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
—GENESIS 17:10–14, KJV
The cut on the back of the right wrist was a deep cut, enough so as to form a scar. This scar would then serve as a permanent reminder of the covenant between the two parties, which became a visible reminder of the terms and rights as a covenant partner. Additionally, the scar became a visible sign to whom the person was connected. At Calvary Jesus endured the scars of the nails through His wrists as a symbol of the covenant He made for you and me through the New Testament.
There is a story of an African missionary by the name of Dr. David Livingstone who traveled and ministered throughout the rural and remote parts of the African jungle. Many of the rural tribes had never encountered or previously seen a white man, which added an additional intrigue as well as a threat to his life. The tribal leaders of the African jungle understood the meaning and depth of covenants and practiced them very closely. Dr. Livingstone cut covenants with more than fifty different tribal leaders. When he would enter a new tribe, he would hold up his wrist as a sign of his covenants. The tribes immediately understood that if they harmed this man, they would be hunted and killed by the other tribes he was in covenant with.7
While still standing in the midst of the blood, the covenant partners would verbally communicate and pledge full release and access to each other’s property, money, assets, and so forth. Not only would this exchange entitle them to each other’s benefits, but it also held them responsible for each other’s liabilities as well.
The Hebrew’s original oath with God is known as the Shema, which literally means “hear.” The Shema is from the Moses text that simply stated: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Mark 12:29). This was not a prayer but a confession of faith or a creed. During the time of Christ, Jesus taught that the greatest commandment was indeed the Shema, but He further explained that we “shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
Many people today claim the covenant meal is Communion, but it has much deeper roots than today’s simple wafer and grape juice that we regularly participate in. Following the above steps, the covenant partners would wash their feet and share a ceremonial meal—different cultures had different types of meals, but the symbolism was the same. Most often the meal involved the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine. Once again the symbolism is rich in that the breaking of bread was equivalent to the cutting of the flesh for one another. However, today we have an obligation to our commemoration during the Lord’s Supper or Communion. We have the privilege of receiving a covenant reminder of God’s exchange with us.
The last step of the covenant was the planting of a small tree in the spot where the covenant was cut or made. A tree in all cultures represents life. This act of planting marked the covenant as it would grow and bear fruit as it matured due to its deep roots and a firm foundation. For us as believers, we see the new covenant no differently. Following the Communion meal with His disciples, Jesus went and hung on a tree for all who would merely believe in Him—the ultimate representation of covenant.
Interestingly enough, the term friend in the Bible was not used flippantly. Friend was used only after a covenant had been made with that person. Friend was a serious word that carried the responsibility of covenant. After God made a covenant with Abraham, He called him a “friend of God” (James 2:23). It wasn’t until the end of the Last Supper right before the crucifixion that Jesus called His disciples friends: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15, NIV).
As a covenant partner, now a “friend of God,” you are able to exchange all of your mess for all of God’s promises and benefits. Read the following scriptures in light of the covenant God has made with his children:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.
—JOHN 14:12–16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
—JOHN 15:16
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
—JOHN 16:33
And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
—JOHN 17:19
Just as the covenants of old were everlasting, so too is our personal covenant with Jesus Christ. It is a covenant meant to bring us into our eternal destiny. This covenant provides tremendous promises that do give us a hope for our eternal future. But what about this life?
Not only does God have a plan for each of His children to fulfill in this lifetime, but also He longs to give us a future and a hope Therefore He is longing to make a covenant with each of us in order to facilitate that destiny. We must discover God’s covenant design for our personal lives. In order to accomplish this, we have to listen, search for Him with all of our hearts, and obey His commandments. You will find Him! In truly understanding this, you must also understand . . . it’s really never over!
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
—JEREMIAH 29:11–13