Make a choice – life or death to your Covenant

By entering into Covenants people had always been finding their pathway into peace and prosperity on the earth (Genesis 8:22). This was how God ordained from the foundation of the earth; that the nations, communities, businesses and peoples will live in peace and prosperity together with one another.

On the earth today many are still entering into all kinds of security, economic, financial, social and cultural agreements with one another on a daily basis. But it’s not all of them who do really understand what they are doing as they do this. Majority do see such agreements as mere paper works, which counts for nothing. They are putting their signatures on these covenant agreements, without a heart of devotion and commitment to follow through with it.

This has seriously affected the way that many Christians today do see their Covenant with the Most High God. A lot of unholy things from the secular world has crept into the Body of Christ, thereby defiling God’s people as they gather in His presence. The people of God had become vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy, because of unholy things of the world in their midst. Especially as COVID-19 continues on its course, the Church must be on the alert.

Many have been approaching God’s presence with the same attitude, which they are used of showing from the heart, with regards to their covenant agreements with men. They are dealing with the decision to follow Jesus, as they would normally had treated their words casually with the world. And because they do it with impunity towards the people of the world, they think they can do the same thing in their relationship with God, and still get away scot-free.

Despite all the good intents and endeavors of people to foster a prosperous world, we do know from the Scriptures that true prosperity does come from God Almighty alone. We however do have the responsibility to live by the terms of our Covenant with God, and not deviate away from it. He is sovereign. God will do what He said He will do for us, as long as we are applying our faith to His promises until they are fulfilled.

And if we’re going to have peace and prosperity in everything that we are doing, we’d better be doing them in the very way that He created the earth to function with them.

They are trying to change God’s word to fit into their own way of life. Covenants are not meant to fit into our own way of living. We are indeed the ones who do have to alter our own way of living, to fit into the words of the Covenant itself. At the moment when you received Jesus into your life, God took your promise to live for Him alone, just as serious as He is committed to blessing you.

That promise before God is what makes the Christian life binding on us. We can’t be bending or breaking the words of our Covenant, and still expect to reap the benefits from it. God cannot be mocked. It’s what you are sowing into the relationship with Him, that you’re going to reap the harvest of in it. If you’re sowing life, you will reap life. If you’re sowing death, you will reap death. This is really a matter of our own choices – life or death.

As Moses once advised the Israelites in the wilderness just before his death:

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” 

Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV

Salt seasoning will give perpetual life to your Covenant

Be seasoned with salt, so as to be able to speak life into your future

A salt Covenant is a perpetual unbreakable agreement between two or more people. The Covenant becomes perpetuated with the evidence of the salt mixing ceremony involved from its very inception. The mixing of the two bags of salt from both parties involved into one single bag of salt, signifies the perpetuity of the Covenant itself. It symbolizes the impossibility of separating the parties from the Covenant agreement itself eternally.

Just as each side to the Covenant agreement cannot retrieve his own bag of salt back, it’s impossible to change or alter the oath of the Covenant also. Times and seasons do often change, but a Covenant is unchangeable. Neither can it be altered or changed to fit into the changing times and seasons that we live in. Any addition to the original Covenant can never change or alter the original Covenant itself.

Unilaterally changing or altering the words of a Covenant, does has the tendency of invoking the curse under it. Those who are altering their way of living the Christian life to satisfy the world around them, are in fact invoking the curse from their Covenant with God upon themselves.

As the Bible says:

“Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?”‭‭

Hebrews‬ ‭10:29‬ ‭NKJV‬

Those who do such things are trampling Jesus and His words under their foot. They are counting the Blood of the Covenant as a common thing, because of their refusal to cherish it at heart by honoring it. Even though they are confessing to be Christians with their mouth (Isaiah 6:9-10), but their heart refuses to honor His word by obeying it. This is how His Blood has become a common thing in their lives. They have made the Blood of Jesus ineffective, to cleanse them, protect them and sanctify them. These are those who are insulting the Spirit of grace over their lives. They are dependent on their own self help or efforts to succeed in life, instead of on God to save them.

It’s a shameful thing to alter or change the words of the oath in our Covenants with God or with people. It is another way of saying that you are not faithful, committed or trustworthy to walk in the Covenant. And the wrath of God is what such a person should expect.

In our world today with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the daily death tolls that we are seeing are the results of the seeds, which had been sowed before by people. The harvest of the rebellion and disobedience towards God is being reaped before our very eyes. God has nothing to do with it. People brought it upon themselves, by altering and changing their own words on oath before the Lord. When we are changing or altering spiritual laws, in order to satisfy our own feelings or fleshy desires, we should expect consequences for doing such things.

That was why King Abijah of Judah once said to King Jeroboam of the northern Kingdom of Israel, as he tried to go into war against him:

“Should you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the dominion over Israel to David forever, to him and his sons, by a covenant of salt?”‭‭

II Chronicles‬ ‭13:5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

King Abijah was invoking the salt Covenant between God and David, to have his descendants sit on the throne of Israel for ever here. A perpetual Covenant which has Jesus, the Son of Man sitting on that throne of Israel as the King today. Abijah was reminding Jeroboam of the danger of going against that Covenant with David. And as Abijah was reminding him of it, he was perpetuating the salt in the Covenant with his words.

Going against a Covenant is what normally brings the curse upon families, towns, cities and the nations. That’s why it’s important to know what type of Covenant, the people before you had entered into over your nation, cities and towns. As a child of God you do have the authority to either judge it, or bring it into conformity with the New Covenant by the Blood of Jesus Christ.

The salt Covenant ceremony normally begins with the two people or parties who were entering into the Covenant, coming together to exchange the oath with one another. But the exchange of the oath does not make their Covenant itself legitimate. It is what they do after the exchange of oath that does matter much more. It is those corresponding actions that binds them to their oath. It is what gives life to their oath (James 2:17).

The two sides would mix their two bags of salt into one clean bag. The mixture of the two bags of salt into one signifies, their singleness of heart in commitment to the Covenant. Salt was commonly used across the western world in those days for several things. It was used to heal wounds, flavor foods, as medicine for the body, farming and much more. Salt is a symbol of perpetual life to the Covenant. Just as each side cannot get its own bag back again, the two are now indivisible and as one eternally united together.

In ancient Africa before the trans Saharan and the trans Atlantic trade routes brought salt into Africa, it was common for the local tribes to mix dusts of ashes instead of salt, during a Covenant initiation ceremony. The dust of ashes symbolizes perpetual death and enmity towards whosoever breaks the Covenant. It’s the symbol of the curse that goes with disobedience to the oath of the Covenant.

And oftentimes when this happened inter tribal wars are triggered off. This may result in one tribe capturing the other tribe into slavery. Slavery began as a result of people breaking Covenants with one another in Africa. The tribe which violated the Covenant becomes an enemy to the other tribes in the area. And they are the ones who were normally targeted during those raids for slaves. This was because the attacking tribes did know that, those other tribes that were being invaded had no one to defend them, since they were not in Covenant with anyone. They could plunder them and get away with their spoils.

It’s still a dangerous thing to break Covenants with men and with God today. The person who does such a thing lives the rest of his life, suffering under the curse that goes with breaking it. This is why a marriage divorce invokes the curse upon those who are initiating it. It brings so much pain and suffering into their lives.

As the Scripture says:

“For the Lord God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one’s garment with violence,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously.”

Malachi 2:16 NKJV

Salt is what gives life and strength to the Covenant. Each party to the Covenant is able to see into their future relationship, with the mixing of the salt. It does not only bring them life; but it brings prosperity to each party in the Covenant.

As Jesus once said:

“For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”‭‭

Mark‬ ‭9:49-50‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

According to Jesus if a Covenant is devoid of salt or its value, it’s of no good. As Jesus said: “.. how will you season it?” A Covenant without the evidence of salt in it is just like a check for millions of dollars, without the signatories on it. It’s useless to everyone and to the bank also.

Jesus was making apparent reference here to the New Covenant, which He was about to initiate by giving His life on the cross as the sacrifice for it. He gave His life that our lives may have salt in it. You are now the salt of the earth.

But He is here not only telling us to believe in the New Covenant. He was indeed also challenging us to season our Covenant with salt, so that we may be able to enjoy the peace in it with prosperity as well.

According to the gospel of Matthew Jesus said the same words in this way:

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Salt is useless without the flavor in it. And a Covenant that is not seasoned with life and prosperity, is as good as a junk. If you’re not ready to be speaking life to your Covenant with God and with men, you can as well just consider it dead. It will not perpetuate life to the parties involved. It will eventually bring death to those who are involved.

This is how married couples often destroy their marriages. When they are not able to speak life and prosperity into their homes, they are in fact destroying the very foundation of it. When you are lacking salt in the marriage covenant with your spouse, you are making it lifeless. It will bring you poverty instead of prosperity. It is what brings sicknesses and illnesses, instead of healing and good strong health. It will bring death instead of life. That’s why you have to keep speaking life to season the prosperity of your Covenant. It’s like adding fertilizer to the seeds that you had planted to reap a greater harvest from the land.

It’s with your mouth that you will make your home prosperous. And with your mouth you will bring poverty to your marriage (Proverbs 18:21). And the Christians who do like to go around gossiping about their marital lives, with friends and relatives instead of with God, Who alone is the eternal Witness of their oath exchange with one another, are in deed removing the salt from their marital lives. They will reap what they are sowing with their mouth.

Salt symbolizes life in itself. And the key to life is calling those things that are not as though they are. You don’t have to see life before speaking it. It’s with your words that the spiritual salt will manifest what you are saying.

Salt is what gives life to the Covenant of two people together. They don’t need to see anything before they call it in accordance to their Covenant agreement with one another. They just need to believe it with their hearts. And believing with your heart in the Covenant, does not means that your head will agree with it:

“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Romans 10:10 NKJV

Believing with the heart of commitment is what makes Covenants to works. You are believing in what is written, and not what you are seeing around you. Heart faith will bring it out of the mouth in confession, so as to manifest what’s being said about the Covenant. This is how faith works also in your Covenant of healing, good health, prosperity and peace with God.

You don’t need to see your marriage bed full with roses, before you begin to call it what the Covenant with your spouse says it is. Your faith calls what is not real to the physical eyes, what the salt Covenant calls it. You don’t need to wait until you are seeing what you desire, before you start calling it what the Covenant says it is.

Faith in the Covenant is what positions you to speak life to it. As Paul said:

“Your strong faith in the Lord is like a breath of new life.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭3:8‬ ‭CEV‬‬

The breath of new life to the Covenant as the two bags of salt are mixed, is the sign of a great future to both sides of the Covenant. You will reap what you are sowing with your mouth into your home.

The cut and the flow of blood..

By the Blood of the New Covenant

The mixture of the salt is not the end of the ceremony itself. Both parties in ancient Greece would now have to cut the Covenant deal itself. This was done by using a sharp object to cut their hands, until blood drips from it into a cup or container. They would now mix their blood together as one. This was to signify that they both now do have the same blood flowing in each of them.

This is why the shedding of the Blood of Jesus is so significant to your faith in Him. He did it, so that you won’t have to do it. All that we are called to do is to partake in the Holy Communion as often as possible (Matthew 26:27-29). When we do this we are keeping God in remembrance of what Jesus did for us.

According to Greek tradition anyone who attacks one party in the Covenant became the enemy of the other party. It’s just like if the devil attacks you, the hosts of heaven will be assigned against him. And oftentimes in ancient Greece when the cut was made, they would use some of the mixed salt for healing, on the wounds where the cuts for the blood flow had been made. Each side would then rub the wounds on one another’s wound, to signify the healing from the suffering together in the Covenant.

The cut for the flow of blood signifies that they both are prepared to go through sufferings in the Covenant together. And that they would both heal together from such sufferings. The suffering of one becomes the suffering of the other side.

But the healing process will always leave a scar with it, for anyone to see and know that you’re in Covenant with somebody else. They may not know the person that you are in Covenant with; but the scar would cause people to respect you, in dread of who you may indeed be. They would be cautious in dealing with you, because they don’t know who you were in Covenant with.

Today the wedding bands on the hands of the married couples, are meant to command the same type of respect from the world.

In ancient West Africa the scar on the physical body was sometimes regarded, as a promise to pay debts that’s owed. If anyone can be identified with the same type of scar, that person becomes also indebted, just like you until the debt is fully paid off. The scar identifies them together as debtors.

And if you do have a good credit with the seller in the market place, the scar can also open the door of prosperity into your life. The scar from the wound of the blood flow attaches people with one another perpetually.

These scars had often been regarded across Africa as tribal marks. It was a bad thing for anyone not to have such a mark on the body, because it meant that the person is not in Covenant with anyone. And often such a mark less or scar-less person becomes vulnerable to being captured into slavery, without any hope of redemption at all.

No one would ever touch a person with marks on the body to capture into slavery, because they do know that it would trigger off an inter-tribal war with the other tribes that is identified with the same mark or scar.

The scar as the Covenant signs

Joined eternally together in suffering and happiness

That’s why it’s hard to understand people who will put tattoos on their bodies, without a real flow of blood from their physical bodies. It’s like a lifeless sign of Covenant with death. They are speaking death to themselves, because there was no blood flow involved with it. They may be doing it for fun, but believe it when I tell you that; there is no fun in playing on the devil’s turf. Death is not fun at all. It comes as a result of the curse.

The Bible says:

“You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD.”‭‭

Leviticus‬ ‭19:28‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The giving of signs to the Covenant was always pointed out by God in the Covenant with many people in the scriptures. It was not only common among ancient people, but the Bible points clearly to it, so that we don’t take them for granted. These are signs for the angels to always look out for in our lives.

They may attract demonic attacks also, if people had entered into covenants with the devil. Be very careful about your association with the people of the world. Some of them do have covenants with the devil, that may negatively affect your relationship with them.

That’s why the Bible says:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”‭‭

2 Corinthians‬ ‭6:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In other words don’t enter into covenants with the unbelievers. When God entered into a Covenant with Noah, He gave him the sign of the rainbow in the sky (Genesis 9:12-17). He did the same thing with Abraham by giving him circumcision as a sign (Genesis 17:10-14).

But for us in the New Covenant we do have the Circumcision of the heart, as the sign for the angels of God in identifying us. The devil knows you when he sees you with the sign in your heart and not on the body:

“No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2:29‬ ‭NIV‬

You are a spiritual Jew through the circumcision of your heart by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit convinced you of your sins and you repented of them. Then you were circumcised at heart (John 16:8).

What are you speaking to your Covenant about – life or death? You can design your destiny in life with your mouth. Salt will perpetuate life to your Covenant, as your words becomes more and more seasoned with grace to bless it. Open your mouth wide and let God speak life through your mouth.

The coronavirus pandemic is still very much around. Speak life and not death, so that the angel of destruction will not be able to locate you, or locate your home or your community. Stay in the blessing by speaking life today.

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