New Covenant Ministry

I feel that a new generation is emerging among us, a generation that hears a new message. A message that has always been there but has only begun to arise and bear fruit.

It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized Gods grace in the truth Col 1:5. Ever since I opened my eyes to this message I have been dwelling in that love and peace and everything makes so much more sense, in life and in Gods words. See if you are like I was you are under spiritual bondage, always feeling this weight of guilt on your shoulders when you try to come before God in prayer. Your sin consciousness is declaring yourself unworthy and you run from him in shame. As Adam and Eve did when they realized they had done something wrong, they hid from God ashamed. For some reason you haven’t heard the good news, your sins are no more…past, present and future. It is time for you to be Jesus conscience. Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness, access, and confidence through faith in Him Ephesians 3:12. Present yourself boldly to God, in confidence because now you have access to behold Gods grace and voice your prayers to Him knowing that you will be heard because of your faith in Jesus Christ. In the old covenant, no one was to behold God or enter the “holy of holies” which was were God dwelled in the earthen tabernacle, only the high priest could enter but since Jesus sacrifice you are now worthy, you yourself are now the holy of holies. Don’t you know that you are Gods sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you 1 Corinthians 3:16.

I was once told, “Well I don’t pray because I feel like I’m always going to sin anyway so why even try. Its not right to God that I keep coming to him and asking forgiveness and forgiveness when its just going to keep happening.” You see before I knew the truth, before I knew about Gods grace I couldn’t answer that person in boldness. I stumbled and left her with a simple, “Well your never going to be perfect so why wait to be perfect”. See it is important to arm yourself with the word of God, knowing your scripture, The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times Psalm 12:6. His words are flawless. With His words Jesus was able to drive away satan when tempted Mt 4:1-11, King David saw that knowing the word of God was the key to purity Ps 119:9-11, Paul says the word of God is a sword in your amour against the devils schemes Ep 6:13-18.  See now knowing Gods grace, the word of God flows out like the language of tongues from my mouth but I still have a lot to learn. It doesn’t leave you confused, disappointed and unworthy but confident, excited, happy and loved. That’s what the message of truth will leave you with. Now you’re asking, ok what is this message of truth. The new covenant ministry, is this new message, the message of Jesus. It wasn’t always so that mans sin was forgiven past, present and future. In the old covenant, before Jesus sacrifice, man had to give a sin offering to God that would only last one year long. Now to know the new covenant you must first understand the old covenant. I wont go into deep detail only because there is just so much. So I’ll try to be somewhat short. In the old covenant there was the creation of the law (commandments). By the strength of the Lords hand, He brought Israel out of Egypt through Moses. Now if you read Exodus you will see how the Israelites continued to doubt God, continued to forget every miracle that was done by God for the people. He split open the ocean for them and closed it only on their enemies, they rejoiced and sang to the Lord, then three days later they complained to moses that they had nothing to drink. Yet God made the bitter water drinkable. Not long after that, I mean days later, they grumbled against Moses saying "If only we had died by the Lords hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!" Exodus 16:3.  So God rained bread from heaven. Then soon after that once again they complained there was nothing to drink saying "Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us...?" Doubt after doubt, complaint after complaint yet nothing but grace and grace from God. He made water come out from a rock at Horeb. After all this, they boast of themselves telling God, " We will do all that the Lord has spoken." You see going back when at Marah, where God made the bitter water drinkable, God first mentions the commands and statutes. He made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah and He tested them there Exodus 15:25. Could it have been a test the whole time? Did God want to see if they would lean on Him, depend on Him to be their God, to be their help? I believe so. Unfortunately they didn't see, they didn't lean on him enough to give it all to Him and stop from depending on themselves. I can only imagine the let down when God heard them boast in themselves after coming through for them time after time. So once at Mount Sinai, God brought forth the commands and statutes, to show his love for us. You see how could we ever be thankful of the Lord if we don't see His undeserving love. When we stop needing the Lord thats when we are lost. The Lord tells Moses, that they must make an earthen altar for the Lord and sacrifice on it their burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Once a year the high priest was to perform the purification rite with the blood of the sin offering for atonement. The high priest was appointed in service to God for the people to offer both gift and sacrifices for sins Heb 5:1. The priest would offer these sacrifices behind the second curtain in the room called “holy of holies” in the tabernacle. The Lord spoke with Moses saying, “He (High Priest) is to take some of the bulls blood and sprinkle it with his finger against the east side of the mercy seat then he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the mercy seat seven times. When he slaughters the male goat for the peoples sin offering and brings its blood inside the veil, he must do the same with its blood as he did with the bulls blood: he is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it Lev 16:14-15. The bull’s blood was a sin offering for the high priest and the goat was a sin offering for the people of Israel. Why was the sin offering done in the “holy of holies”? Well as mentioned earlier, that is where God dwelled, “Tell your brother Aaron (High Priest) the that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the veil in front of the mercy seat on the ark or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat Lev 16:2. (Picture provided above). So what was this mercy seat that God dwelled above? The mercy seat covered the ark of the covenant, you can read about the making and detail of the ark and the mercy seat in Exodus 37:1-9.The mercy seat had two cherubim of gold, one on each end of the mercy seat, the wings covered the mercy seat and they were facing each other (picture above). The faces of the cherubim were looking down toward the mercy seat. Inside the ark was the gold jar containing the manna (bread from heaven when man lost faith and complained there was nothing to eat), Aaron’s rod that budded (when Israel came against Moses and Aaron complaining against them, Aarons rod blossomed and produced almonds), and the tablets of the covenant (10 commandments). All these were a representation of mans sin. So to put it all together once the blood of the sin offering covered the mercy seat that the cherubim looked down at and God covered, God would make His approval of the sacrifice and forgive the people of their sins until the next year of offering.

God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood Romans 3:25. Today it is not the blood of animals that makes propitiation for our sins, but the holy blood of the Son of God. Propitiation in the original Greek text is “hilasterion,” which actually means “Mercy Seat.” So Christ is our Mercy Seat (Pastor Prince). God sees the blood of Jesus and accepts us, Amen! Here are a few verses from Hebrews Chapter 9 and 10 that really speak for themselves.

Now the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the holy of holies once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats an bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:11-14.

How much more is Jesus blood, from bulls and goats? Enough to cleanse us of our sins once and for all. In the sacrifices of bulls and goats it kept us in condemnation as written, But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year Hebrews 10:3 You see, Jesus did not go through the tabernacle here on earth before the Lord, He went straight to God Himself and claimed your righteousness, your pureness, your cleansed life forever and ever, with His blood. Forever and ever you ask? Well that’s not true, if you ask for forgiveness today and sin tomorrow, well then you have to ask for forgiveness again. The bible says ONCE AND FOR ALL.

He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself Hebrews 9:25-27.

So you keep thinking, well in order to be worthy we all must keep every single commandment or else we will no longer be acceptable to God and He will turn from us every time we sin. Ok well here’s another verse, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing Galatians 2:21. We have to stop downgrading Jesus blood.

Perfect Christian, you must be this, you must be that. Relax it is not by your works that keeps you righteous, it is by your faith in Jesus Christ. Simple as that. Look at Abraham, he lived hundreds of years before the law came and yet God called him righteous.

If Abraham was justified by works, then he has something to brag about-but not before God. For what does the Scripture say?  Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness Romans 4:2-4. I mean the man lied two times about his wife, telling the king that she was his sister in order to keep his life. God didn’t see that, He saw that Abraham believed in God, had faith in Him. Now right about now, you might be thinking that I am pro-sin, don’t care about the law. No that is not it. I am simply saying Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law Gal 3:13. He takes away the first to establish the second (old covenant & new covenant). By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all Hebrews 10:9-10. And also Jesus says, “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” Matthew 5:17.

But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him- if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith, and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard Colossians 1:22-23.

We are so stuck on preaching the law, its no wonder the younger generation have left the church. I am speaking with my own testimony. I always heard the word of God and went to church before joining the Army but it wasn’t until recently that I have come to live for God. One day my husband and I went to a new church after just moving to Barstow, maybe a year ago. I was so excited about it, I was just eager to hear about the Lord and happy also that my husband finally wanted to go to church with me. Now before I say this, understand, that I understand that it isn’t about the people in the church but going for fellowship and learning Gods word. I found myself, however starting off smiling but ended confused and ashamed leaving there empty. The fingers were constantly being shaken at the congregation only telling us how much we were wrong, wrong, wrong. I couldn’t help but to feel let down on the inside. My Spirit was thirsty for the good news. I wanted to hear about Jesus and his love for me, for us. One of my teachers and beloved Pastor, Joseph Prince explained it all in a sermon saying that, a father’s approval empowers you to reign in life. Remember as a child, when you did something that you thought was awesome, you were so proud of yourself. What did you do? You went to show your father right? Look dad look what I did, or look what I can do. That approval meant, means everything to you. I remember my father told me once, that as long as I tried he was proud of me. I don’t know if he remembers but I think I had a few bad grades and my dad saw that I was really trying but I just had a hard time comprehending certain subjects in school. He must have hurt for me but with that reassurance that he would always and forever be proud of me even though I didn’t have straight A’s, with that I could rest in his love knowing that if I fell he would be right there telling me it was ok. There was no burden laid upon me. Understand this though, that did not make me want to go out and fail every class or get into trouble, that only empowered me to be confident in myself, my worth and to do my best with no stress. Just like sin, when you know how much your father God loves you unconditionally and you rest on that, it doesn’t make you want to go out and sin more but to live for God more. Before I heard this message, I still lived of this world, watching television shows that were filthy, music with cussing and rarely picked up the Bible. It wasn’t until I started to hear about Gods love for me, Jesus sacrifice for me, my sins forgiven that I stopped all those things unconsciously. I didn’t even realize but I started living a life of a new person, a worthy person, forgiven. When I was still in high school I remember Jesus telling me two things, now this is the only time in my life that Jesus has ever spoken to me, and really these two messages were all I needed. First, as I was sitting there packing on my makeup (remember I was in high school), He told me "I love you." The most beautiful I love you I ever heard, then a few days after He told me that "everything would always be ok." I understand now why He told me those two things in that order. If He were to have told me everything would always be ok first, I probably wouldn't have held on to that all these years like I have if I hadn't known why it would always be ok. Why? Because He loves me. He loves us all, and that message is written up and down the Bible. You may not know Him well but He knows you and it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, He is never going to leave you but you must lean on Him. Going back to Pastor Prince sermon here is another example of the empowerment of the father’s approval and love. When Jesus came up from the water, after being baptized by John, the heavens opened up and God said, “This is my beloved Son” yet Jesus had not yet done one single miracle. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, what was the devils common theme? He left out one word, “Beloved”. “If you are the Son of God”, he would say. Why do you think he did this? He didn’t want to remind Jesus that He is Gods beloved. You see, temptations cannot succeed when we have a sense that we are Gods beloved.

There is an example of the differences of the two covenants in Galatians Chapter 4, Sarah and Hagar. Now if you do not remember, Abraham was married to Sarah. Sarah could not for a time bare a child so she told Abraham to sleep with Hagar their slave, in order to have a child.

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. But the one by the slave was born according to the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things are illustrations, for the women represent the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai (law came from) and bears children into slavery-this is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children… Throw out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never inherit with the son of the free woman Galatians 4:21-30.

Jesus speaks of sin saying, “ Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you really will be free” John 8:36. We believers in Christ are not slaves of sin but free through Christ Jesus. This also brings me to another subject. Why do you dwell on the sins of others in your family, making them your own? Is this not spiritual bondage? You know right after Jesus had said this in John Chapter 8, “A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever”, Jesus healed a man blind from birth. This man others accused as being born out of sin, yet Jesus shows His grace towards him seeing no sin but healing the man of blindness. Stop holding yourself back from your miracle today, and know that you are no longer under the old covenant law, you are worthy and He is willing.

Under the law, if someone had a skin disease, he would have to go to the priest to pronounce him unclean. He must also cry out “unclean, unclean” and live alone in a place outside the camp, or city. In Mark 1:40, Jesus knowing the law better than anyone see’s a man with a serious skin disease come to Him, and on his knees begged Him saying: “ If You are willing, You can make me clean.” For the man to come out into the village, that was against the law on its own but Jesus moved with compassion, reached out His hand and touched him and said, “I am willing” Mark 1:40-45. This man more than likely has not been touched in many years by another person, separated from his family to live alone. I could just imagine the look on Jesus face, so kind and loving not refraining Himself to what the law has cast out.

The gospel is filled with verses that will help you to understand the difference of old vs the new covenant, law vs grace. For if that first covenant had been faultless, no opportunity would have been sought for a second one Hebrews 8:7.

The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus Galatians 3:24.

He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter(law), but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life 2 Corinthians 3:6.

Now don’t think that God just let the sin of man go freely. Someone had to pay a price. Our God is of love and justice. The law was made for man and only man could be punished for it. Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirits law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sins domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the laws requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Romans 8:1-4

I will leave you with one more verse and then I will have to end this seeing how I can get carried away sometimes but I intend on continuing this message soon. You could always look up Joseph Prince- Forgiven righteously through Jesus our Mercy Seat or read about the new covenant ministry in the New Testament.

Ephesians 2:11

So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh-called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” done by hand in the flesh. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, with no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh, He did away with the law of the commandments in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it. When Christ came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of Gods household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. 

God Bless,
Marisa Stoffel