In our back yard we have several young trees with an orange ribbon tied around them. I heard my husband the other day speaking with someone and he pointed to those trees and said they were ‘marked for death’.
When my husband said those words I looked around at the orange ribbons and realized we are all born ‘marked for death’. The devil has his ribbon tied around us at birth due to Adam’s Fall. We are not born the seed of Abraham until we are “Born Again” and marked for life and life more abundantly by the Blood of Jesus Christ.
That precious child we hold in our hands today is marked for death if not taught the ways of the Lord so that they may know Him when His Spirit comes knocking on their hearts door for the Salvation of their eternal soul.
To be sure, children do not go to hell. Please don’t think that’s what I’m saying. What I am saying is if they don’t accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they are in fact marked for death. Believe it or not, I too used to be one of those precious children (just as you were too, I’m sure), but for me it took a long and hard 40+ years before I knew the Lord and accepted Him as my Saviour.
Growing up I knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and if you would have asked, I would have told you I was a Christian because I sincerely thought I was. It wasn’t until I accepted Him as the Lord of my life and began to learn of Him, Who He is and what He has done for whosoever will believe, that I understood the difference between being spiritually alive unto God (Romans 6:11) and spiritually dead unto God.
Yes, He knew my name. Yes, He was there all along. If it wasn’t for His Grace, I would have died long ago and spent eternity in the devil’s hell. BUT, I didn’t know He was there. I didn’t see His nail scarred Hand guiding me through this wilderness. I didn’t know He was preparing my heart to accept Him. Ultimately, that night at the altar call, it was my choice. I walked away to previous nights from the drawing of the Holy Spirit at that pentecostal revival in small town Alabama…but then there was that 3rd night; that last night of the revival, that the mark of death was laid waste by the Spirit of God as I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord. The Holy Spirit witnessed to my spirit that I was a Child of God. No longer bound to sin but alive unto God through the Blood of Christ.
Jesus Christ came to die on Calvary’s Cross so that we may have life and life more abundantly; so that we too may prosper even as our soul prospers. Death has been overcome and nailed to Calvary’s Cross. Every demon in hell was there the day Christ broke the curse of sin and death as He said “It is Finished”.
“16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be Saved.
18 He that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
The reality is we are all born marked for death but there is One Who came so that we may live. No good works, sincerity or zealousness can do what Blood of Christ Jesus can do in the heart of man if we just accept the life He has freely given to whosoever will believe.
Have you believed? Today is the day of Salvation.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified…be determined to know nothing else among you.
-Donna Clark Warren
Living in The Spirit 