BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

hit me. It was like someone slapped me: New Testament means New Covenant! It's a will. It's the last will and testament of The LORD Jesus Christ! According to the dictionary, a will is "a written instrument legally executed by which a person makes disposition of his or her estate to take e ect after death." Jesus Christ is the only Man ever to leave a will, then get raised from the dead to probate His own will and cause it to come to pass! That revelation changed my life. Once I caught hold of it, I began reading the Bible di erently. I started seeing covenant all through it. I saw it in 2 Peter 1:3-4, for example. It says that God by His "divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises." These days, when I read those verses, I realize they're talking about exceeding great and precious covenant promises! Most Christians read those verses without ever having covenant cross their minds. They don't think of God's promises in covenant terms because they've never heard covenant preached—and that's tragic. Why? Because to live the victorious, abundant life Jesus has provided, we must be Blood covenant-minded all the time. I recognized this in a great way when I met Bishop David Oyedepo. He lives in Africa, where the culture is steeped in covenant. He's also one of the most covenant-minded men I've ever known. He stays before God until he receives an assignment and then—because he knows his covenant—he just goes and does what God told him to do, no matter what it is or how impossible it might seem. The fi rst time I went to Nigeria to visit him, he showed me around his ministry complex. "Brother Copeland, what you see here is Phase 1," he said. "It cost $250 million U.S. dollars and was built debt free with no American money—only faith in God. Phase 2 will cost another $250 million. The money to build it is already in the bank." Then he told me how he learned to believe God for fi nances. He said when he fi rst began learning about faith, although he quickly learned to believe for healing, he struggled to do the same concerning prosperity. "It's when I got Mama Gloria's book God's Will Is Prosperity, that I saw it," he said. "Prosperity is a covenant! "Once I saw that—no problem. When I read, 'Seek ye fi rst the kingdom of God... and all these things shall be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33), that's all I need because it is blood-backed. God said it in His Covenant, so there's no doubt it's coming to pass." The Pattern for All Blood Covenants for All Time Bishop Oyedepo's faith reminds me of the kind of faith Abraham had in the Bible. Romans 4:11 calls him "the father of all them that believe," and his covenant with God set the pattern for all Blood covenants for all time. Genesis 17 tells us how it was established. When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, 6 : B V O V 2 Jesus came as our Covenant Representative so that we could be raised again with Him to new life. (2 Cor. 5:14–15) 3 Jesus is no longer the only begotten Son of God; He is the Firstborn of many. (Rom. 8:29) 4 Under the New Covenant, you became Jesus' joint heir, so everything that belongs to Him is yours. (Rom. 8:17) POINTS TO GET YOU THERE: 1 To live the victorious life, you must practice being covenant-minded all the time. (Eph. 2:11–12) 5 When you're standing by faith on your Blood covenant with God, you are standing on high ground. (Eph. 6:14) When you plead the blood, you're throwing your covenant with God in the face of the devil and everything he represents.

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