The Blood, the Water, and the Spirit Explained

In this episode I want to walk you through what I believe is one of the most under-taught passages in scripture, 1 John 5:6-8. The verse says, "This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not only by water but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness on the earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree as one."

When the Lord brought me around to the revelation in this passage, I about lost it. Most Christians I meet have no idea they even have weapons. They camp at Ephesians 6, grab the sword of the Spirit, and become the devil's punching bag. They put on the armor and stand there while the enemy lands punch after punch. Listen, what army has ever won a war by doing nothing but developing their armor? You need weapons. And 2 Corinthians 10:4 says the weapons of our warfare are plural. The blood, the water, and the Spirit are three of them.

The Greek word for "witness" here is martyreo. It is where we get our English word "martyr." These three are witnesses in the same sense the apostles were witnesses, the ones who touched, held, interacted with, and projected from Jesus Christ. And the text says they bear witness "on the earth," meaning they have been deposited in the earth to be actively at work. We do not have to go up to the mercy seat to find the blood. There is a residue of His blood active in the earth right now bearing witness to His testimony. Same with the water. Same with the Spirit.

John writes in verse 5, "Who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Then he stacks the three. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. Most believers rely on one and skip the other two. The cord falls apart.

Look at the cross. John 19 tells us that when Jesus said, "It is finished," He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. There is the first one. Then the soldier pierced His side and immediately blood and water came out. There are the other two. At Calvary, having finished the work, Jesus projected from Himself the three witnesses that would remain in the earth to testify to Him. The Spirit. The water. The blood.

Let me start with the one most believers already have a little revelation of. The wages of sin is death. Sin entered, death entered, and God's system from the beginning has been that the shedding of blood pays for sin because Leviticus 17:11 says "the life of the flesh is in the blood." Life is the only thing that can answer death. Jesus had perfect life, so His blood is the perfect atonement.

When you plead the blood of Jesus over something, you are calling on a supernatural element God deposited in the earth to conform an atmosphere to the testimony of Jesus Christ. I have told people whose family members were practicing witchcraft in the next room to go in when nobody was home, pour oil of anointing on the tarot cards, the crystal balls, the Ouija boards, and plead the blood of Jesus over it. Every time, the occult stuff stopped working. Plead the blood over your bank account if your finances are under demonic assignment. Plead it over your marriage, your house, your car, your job, the place where you minister deliverance. Revelation 12:11 says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

This is where almost nobody is teaching. The body of Christ has not understood the power of the living water. Years ago, back in 2006 or 2007, God gave me a dream of two Jedi fighting in space. The evil one broke every weapon the good one had. The good Jedi began to pray in tongues. And in the distance, a planet-sized iron monster with razor teeth came alive, turned to water, and consumed the evil Jedi. I did not understand it then. It was living water as a weapon.

Then I found the revelation in scripture. In Exodus 15, God reveals Himself as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals. But the first thing He heals is not a disease. It is water. He heals the bitter waters at Marah and then announces, "I am the Lord who heals you." Healing is in the water. Jeremiah 2:13 calls God the fountain of living waters. In John 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well that the water He gives becomes in her a fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life. John 7:38 says, "Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." Every believer has a well of living water on the inside of you. Most believers have never been told.

When I work with survivors with dissociation, we encounter parts that are crushed by grief over things you cannot imagine. The Lord will set up pools of living water inside them, jacuzzis of living water, and the parts go in, sit down, and grieve in there, and they come out healed without being overwhelmed. I have prayed for living water to be applied to demons and watched them leave without me even casting them out. The water heals the body of Christ and consumes our enemies in the same motion.

The Holy Spirit is our anointing. Isaiah 61 says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives." That is the same Spirit at work in us. Acts 1:8 says you shall receive dunamis, miracle-working power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says he who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him. He is the one who gives us the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12. Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues, interpretation. To write off the gifts is to write off part of the witness God deposited in the earth.

When you combine all three, the blood that has the power to conform atmospheres, the living water that heals broken places and consumes the enemy, and the Spirit who anoints, empowers, and gives gifts, you are walking with a threefold cord bearing witness to the victory of Jesus Christ in the earth. That is the weapon system Jesus left you. Pick all three up.