LIVING OUT OF OUR INHERITANCE


Max Lucado delivers us a better perspective on Joshua's conquest of the land of Cannan when he says, "We typically think of Joshua as taking the land. It's more precise to think of Joshua as taking God at His Word. Joshua took the land, for sure. But he did so because he trusted God's promise. The great accomplishment of the Hebrew people was this: they lived out of their inheritance. In fact, the story ends with this declaration: 'Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.' " (Joshua 24:28) [Unshakable Hope, p.41]

That was a divvy of land as an inheritance. The New Covenant or New Testament we have in Christ establishes and affirms an inheritance in Father God through Jesus by a deposit of the Holy Spirit. 

"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 21-22)

"For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 5:4-5)

"When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14)

"Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." (2 Timothy 1:14)

The Deposit has been made. The Inheritance is Assured. And what an Inheritance the full manifestation will be. 1 Corinthians 2:9 paints a word picture of that inheritance. Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4 saying - “'What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived'—the things God has prepared for those who love him—" as awesome things our imagination might struggle to consider. However, the next verse, verse 10 says those things not seen, those things not heard and those things the human mind has not conceived yet are possible to be revealed to us - "these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit."

In the book of Revelation, we get a glimpse of our environmental inheritance - streets of gold, gates of pearl, walls of jasper and so forth. We also realize Christ as our ultimate Inheritance. However, in the here and now, our deposit is the Holy Spirit. The down payment we have is His Spirit of Grace. Flowing from His Spirit means you are fulfilling Galatians 5:22-23 - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." And if you are prolific in His Spirit, in His Deposit, then you are Father God's treasured kid with an incredible promise. God had Paul communicate that promise in Romans 8:15-17, it says, 

"The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

My encouragement today and always is for all of us to be Living Out Of Our Inheritance.

Comments