Dear Friend of the Persecuted Church—

A couple of months ago, I wrote to you about one of the Bible’s most exciting verses, Revelation 12:11: “And they [the saints] overcame him [the accuser of the brethren] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

As I was thinking about that verse, I began to realize just how much those three overcoming elements mean in the context of the persecuted church—and just how much they should mean to us, those praying for suffering saints.  I would like to take the next couple of weeks to prayerfully examine each one, so that in our prayers we may be overcomers as well.

The Blood of the Lamb

Nothing in the Christian life is worth anything at all, unless it is based on the blood of the Lamb.  That blood is the foundation of salvation, of service, and indeed, of suffering.   And it is the beginning of overcoming!

When a person in a closed country makes a commitment to the blood of Christ, it is truly life-changing in every form of the word.  They make their choice knowing that they are sacrificing the temporal for the eternal.  They know the power of the blood, because that power distinctly separates them from the cultures that they live in.

The Tie that Binds

Ephesians 2:13 tells us, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”  The blood binds us together as believers.  In the spiritual sense, as the next verse tells us, it breaks down the “walls of partition” between us, making us one Body.  As believers, every one of us is united in the Lamb’s Book of Life

In the temporal sense, the blood of Christ unites us in the eyes of the world.  We all wear the label that says, “Redeemed by the Blood.”  Though the world may count it as foolishness, it cannot miss our common focus on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

The Meritorious Cause 

In his Commentaries, Matthew Henry says, “The servants of God overcame Satan, By the blood of the Lamb, as the meritorious cause.  Christ by dying destroyed him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil.”  As the blood of Christ redeems the believer, it becomes more than the source of salvation; it becomes a reason to live this temporal life.  Because of the blood, we have something that makes life worth it! 

As the meritorious cause, the blood of Christ is worth organizing our lives around.  It is meritorious to the point of being worth dying for.  And being worth dying for, it is worth our sacrifice in life.

The first step to overcoming is the blood of our Savior.  Please pray that this blood would be a covering for our persecuted brothers and sisters, that they would live their lives for the meritorious cause, in view of the eternal hope that is theirs.

Yours for the Body of Christ,

Gabriel J. Waddell
Executive Director

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