The Blood Covenant: Heaven’s Protection, Part 1 — From Strangers to Kingdom Citizens

The blood covenant is a two-sided agreement: God gives us everything He has, and we answer by giving Him ourselves, our faith, our obedience and our praise. In this message, Dr. William P. Hohman opens a new teaching on heaven’s protection by showing how the covenant moves believers from strangers and foreigners to fellow citizens of God’s kingdom, and why that move always calls for our participation. It continues the series from The Blood Covenant #23: The Redeemer Who Teaches You to Profit — Only Our Best Will Do.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on June 15, 2021. It runs about 86 minutes and closes with communion and prayer. Pastor Hohman begins by reminding the church that the whole Bible is about covenant: God starts with covenant, ends with covenant, and even the Old and New Testaments are really the old covenant and the new covenant.

He announces that the messages for the next several weeks will carry one title, heaven’s protection. Before he explains how that protection works, he lays the foundation: covenant always means participation. Jesus, he notes, could not do mighty works in some towns because of their unbelief. He was capable, but the people did not give Him the opportunity.

Created by God or Born of God

Pastor Hohman starts with a distinction many people miss. Just because we are born into this world does not mean we are a child of God. Everyone is created by God and carries His image and likeness, so we can never talk down to anyone. But being created by Him is not the same as being born of Him. Jesus made this plain when He told certain religious rulers that their father was the devil (John 8:44).

That is why he rejects what he calls inclusionism, the teaching that everyone is saved and there is no hell. God gave everything over to Adam, Adam yielded his authority to Satan, and the whole world became a corrupted system. Jesus found a way in by covenant, through Abraham, and was born into that corruption to redeem us.

The result is a transfer of kingdoms. God delivers us from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). Pastor Hohman recaps the earlier messages: the covenant already redeemed us from poverty, sickness and spiritual death. Now he turns to our part in it.

His anchor text is Ephesians 2:19: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Saying we are no longer strangers implies that once we were. Something has taken place. Every born-again believer has been made a saint, holy to God, and a citizen of heaven.

Citizenship changes how we face fear. Pastor Hohman teaches that the Hebrew word for fear speaks of an ever-present attendant, and fear does try to stay with us. But because we are citizens of heaven, we do not have to let it in. Fear involves torment, and perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

Why People Cut a Blood Covenant

To help a Western audience grasp covenant, Pastor Hohman retells the story of Stanley and Livingstone. Stanley, a reporter from the United States, spent more than a year searching the Congo region for Livingstone, a medical missionary no one had heard from in years. Stanley learned that Livingstone had survived by cutting covenants with the tribes around him.

The word for covenant, he explains, means to cut until blood flows; partners let their blood mingle, and he says the handshake began as a covenant gesture. Much of the Western world has lost this, yet the whole Bible is written on covenant. He lists three reasons a covenant was made.

The protection covenant was usually sought by the weaker party. A small tribe living beside a strong one would cut covenant with it, and from then on, everything one had belonged to the other. If you steal from my covenant partner, Pastor Hohman says, you are really stealing from me. That, he teaches, is how it is with us and God.

The love covenant is pictured in Jonathan and David. After Jonathan died in battle and David became king, David asked whether anyone was left of Jonathan’s house to whom he could show kindness (2 Samuel 9:1–7). He found Mephibosheth, a crippled man, restored all his family’s property, gave him servants and seated him at the king’s table for life. In the same way, everything Adam had originally is restored to those who accept Christ’s covenant.

Faith That Acts on the Covenant

Next Pastor Hohman turns to James 2:18–22. He points out that James was the half-brother of Jesus, raised in the same home. James answers those who boast of faith without works: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Even the demons believe and tremble. Believing alone, he says, is something Satan can claim too.

James then asks whether Abraham was not justified by works when he offered Isaac on the altar. Pastor Hohman links this to an earlier message. Because God had given the earth to man, He legally needed a man’s permission to send His Son. When Abraham was willing to offer the son he loved on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:1–12), God received that permission, and Jesus came in the fullness of time.

The same test comes to us. Some people receive a job, a healing or a restored marriage and then disappear. God wants to bless, he says, but the blessing must not take His place. That is why Paul urges believers to present their bodies a living sacrifice and to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:1–2).

Faith and works operate together, and by works faith is made perfect, or matured. As James concludes, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). Jesus finished the work, but we still reach out and take it. Pastor Hohman’s example is Naaman, the Syrian commander told to dip seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 5:10–14). He was angry at first, but once he obeyed the simple instruction, he was healed.

Eternal life is offered to everyone (John 3:14–16), yet it calls for corresponding action. Romans 10:5–10 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Pastor Hohman stresses that this confession is public: when he did it, friends avoided him at first but later came asking what had happened.

The Redemption Center Exchange

To explain the word redeem, Pastor Hohman recalls the green stamps his mother used to collect. Shoppers pasted the stamps into books and carried them to a local store to trade them for goods. The sign on the store read Redemption Center. That, he says, is the gospel: Christ redeemed us out of the corruption of this world, and now there is an ongoing exchange between us and God.

When God asks for something, then, it is never to take from us. What we ask for is a pittance compared to what He wants to give. He shares that he and his wife Pam twice gave away everything they owned and have always been blessed with greater.

He also tells of his daughter Jennifer, who struggled severely with dyslexia in second grade. He and Pam sought the Lord and prayed with her Christian teacher, and by year’s end she had caught up. He testifies that she was healed, not merely coping, and now teaches in the ministry’s own school.

In covenant, he says, both parties give one hundred percent. All my strength is yours and all your strength is mine. God is not a taskmaster. He is compassionate and wants better for us than we want for ourselves, so He asks us to let go of the walls we built to feel safe in this world. Jesus was anointed to bring liberty (Luke 4:18).

The exchange reaches every area of life. For health, Proverbs 4:20–23 says to incline your ear to God’s sayings, for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Incline, he notes, means an uphill grade: it takes effort. When symptoms persist, keep declaring Psalm 103:2–5 until the Word drops from your mind into your heart as revelation. This is why we labor to enter His rest (Hebrews 4:11) and why John prayed that we would prosper in all things and be in health as our soul prospers (3 John 2–4).

For finances, the tithe and offering are part of the exchange (Malachi 3:10–11). Pastor Hohman teaches that money given in obedience changes jurisdictions: it moves from the world’s system into heaven’s, and God backs it. Living to please people instead, Paul warns, means we are no longer serving Christ (Galatians 1:10). Proverbs 11:24–25 adds that one who scatters yet increases more, and the generous soul will be made rich.

J.C. Penney, he says, began tithing, saw his stores multiply, and eventually gave ninety percent of his increase while living on ten. Giving to the poor, he adds, is lending to the Lord, who repays (Proverbs 19:17).

Heaven’s Protection and the Power of Praise

Now Pastor Hohman returns to the protection covenant. When two parties are in covenant, all the military defense of one is at the disposal of the other. That is why Livingstone survived, and it is why David, the covenant man, could declare that the Lord alone is his refuge and place of safety, who covers him with His feathers and shelters him under His wings (Psalm 91:2–4).

The psalm also states our part: if you make the Lord your refuge and the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you and He will order His angels to protect you (Psalm 91:9–11). We will still face trouble in this world, but Jesus has overcome it (John 16:33). His counsel: keep obeying until God shows up.

How do we employ heaven’s army? In finances, we give. In healing, we call for the elders to anoint us with oil and pray the prayer of faith (James 5:14–15). For protection, he goes to Matthew 21:14–16. After Jesus healed the blind and lame in the temple, children cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The chief priests were indignant, and Jesus answered from the Psalms.

Hosanna, Pastor Hohman explains, means save us. The source Jesus quotes is Psalm 8:1–2: “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.” He teaches that the Hebrew word for strength, oz, carries the ideas of force, security and praise, and that the Greek word Jesus uses speaks of praising loudly and with strength.

Ordained, he adds, means appointed, settled and established. God has set up praise as the place where His strength comes to us, and it is for the weakest. You do not need a doctorate or even the ability to read. He points to the Lord who rides on the heavens by His name YAH (Psalm 68:4) and to the God who rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

Picture someone lost in the woods with wolves following, who suddenly runs into a field full of people dancing with tambourines. The wolves no longer matter. Praise, he says, silences the accusing voices in the same way.

He also cites psychologist Henry H. Goddard’s ergograph readings, which as he reads them showed tired children’s energy rising with praise and dropping with criticism. So praise when you wake, during the day and when the sun goes down.

The Garment of Praise and Communion

Pastor Hohman returns to Jesus’ first sermon and the passage it quotes, Isaiah 61:1–3. The Lord anointed Him to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and open the prison to those who are bound. Many people, he notes, are imprisoned in their own minds. The passage promises beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”

A garment, he observes, is something you must put on yourself. If you walked out in Friday’s rain without a raincoat, you got drenched. In the same way, God offers praise as a covering. He wants us to live in this world without being bound by its corruption. Exchange your energy for praise, and He gives you His strength and silences the avenger on your account.

He then explains that the early church called communion the love feast, a day of eating, testimony and praise. God is enthroned in the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3), and when we draw near to God, He draws near to us (James 4:8).

After Jesus broke the bread and shared the cup, Pastor Hohman notes, He led His disciples in songs of praise (Matthew 26:26–30). Communion signifies not only what Jesus did but what we are to be doing. He closes by praying for unity in marriages, for healing, for open doors and for debts to be paid off, and urges anyone whose dreams seem gone not to grow weary in doing good, because in due season we will reap (Galatians 6:9).

Living the Blood Covenant This Week

Here are the practical steps drawn from this blood covenant message:

• Know which family you belong to. Being created by God is not the same as being His child. Make sure you have confessed Jesus as Lord, and do it openly.
• Add action to your faith. Like Naaman, do the simple thing God has told you, even when it seems too easy or too small.
• Do not let the blessing replace the Blesser. When God answers a prayer, keep coming back to Him rather than drifting away.
• Incline your ear to the Word. Keep confessing what God says about your health until it becomes revelation in your heart.
• Give in obedience. Tithe, and give offerings joyfully as He directs, so your giving moves under heaven’s jurisdiction.
• Put on the garment of praise. Praise in the morning, at midday and at night, whatever you feel, and let His strength replace yours.

Think on whatever is true, pure, lovely and of good report (Philippians 4:8), and let His peace guard your heart.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 The whole Bible is about covenant
• 1:12 Created by God versus a child of God
• 3:29 From darkness into the kingdom of His Son
• 4:36 Heaven’s protection and Ephesians 2:19
• 8:58 Stanley and Livingstone
• 11:20 Three reasons to cut a covenant
• 13:20 David and Mephibosheth
• 14:25 James 2: faith and works
• 16:29 Abraham offers Isaac
• 20:23 Naaman dips in the Jordan
• 23:29 Confess with your mouth: Romans 10
• 26:17 The redemption center
• 29:24 Jennifer’s healing testimony
• 33:27 Health: incline your ear, Proverbs 4
• 39:50 Tithes, offerings and jurisdiction
• 45:45 The generous soul: Proverbs 11
• 49:02 Heaven’s army: Psalm 91
• 53:20 Out of the mouth of babes: Matthew 21
• 57:52 Strength and praise in Psalm 8
• 1:02:04 The pack of wolves illustration
• 1:05:09 Praise and energy levels
• 1:07:40 Isaiah 61: the garment of praise
• 1:11:35 Communion as the love feast
• 1:22:20 Prayer for marriages, healing and provision

Blood Covenant Series

This message is part of a long teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: The Blood Covenant
• Previous: The Blood Covenant #23: The Redeemer Who Teaches You to Profit — Only Our Best Will Do
• You are here: The Blood Covenant: Heaven’s Protection, Part 1 — From Strangers to Kingdom Citizens
• Next: The Blood Covenant: Heaven’s Protection, Part 2 — The Blessing of Judah

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I buy a healing by giving an offering?

No. Pastor Hohman says plainly that you cannot buy a healing from God. Giving is part of the covenant exchange, but healing comes through Jesus’ finished work received by faith. What God looks for is obedience to whatever He has asked of you, whether that is an act like Naaman’s dip in the Jordan, calling for the elders to pray, or continuing to declare His Word over your body.

Does this mean every believer should give away everything they own?

No. Pastor Hohman tells how he and Pam gave away everything twice, but he warns the church not to repeat it because he did. It took months of prayer before they both agreed it was God. His advice is to know the voice of God, pray, talk with your spouse and with your pastor, and make sure you are hearing the Lord before acting.

Why does praise matter so much for protection?

Because Psalm 8:2 says God ordained strength out of the mouths of babes to silence the enemy and the avenger. Pastor Hohman teaches that strength and praise share one Hebrew word, so when we give God our energy in praise, He gives us His strength. It does not require scholarship, only willingness, which is why he urges people to praise at home as well as at church.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Ephesians 2:19 — fellow citizens with the saints
• Colossians 1:13 — out of the dominion of darkness
• 2 Samuel 9:1–7 — kindness to Mephibosheth
• James 2:18–22 and James 2:26 — faith without works is dead
• Romans 10:5–10 — confess with your mouth
• Proverbs 4:20–23 — health to all their flesh
• Psalm 91:9–11 — angels charged to keep you
• Psalm 8:1–2 — ordained strength
• Isaiah 61:1–3 — the garment of praise

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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