POSSESSING THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE: Ephesians 1:11-14, 18-20; Numbers 27:4-7; Ezekiel 46:18; 1 Kings 21:1-3. Luke 12:13-15; Hebrews 10:34. The word inheritance is synonymous with possession in scriptures. Possession is inheritance and inheritance is what we possess. The scripture records that the daughters of Zelophehad requested and received their father’s inheritance. The Lord instructed the Israelites on the preservation of their inheritance. The possession of a vineyard owned by Naboth which Ahab requested to be given was also referred to as his inheritance. Naboth refused to cede his inheritance to king Ahab and that cost him his life. It is important to understand what possession or inheritance is, how important it is and the attitude the Lord wants us to have towards it. The question is, can holding on to earthly inheritance even at the expense of the believer’s life be the New Testament attitude or the instruction of the Lord. Rather than encourage a man who presented a case of dispute over inheritance to go ahead and fight for his right like Naboth, the Lord said, “Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”. The Lord here reveals that life is greater than property, inheritance or possession. Naboth thought he would give all it takes to keep his inheritance but he lost his life in the process and could not keep it. The scripture attitude and wisdom the believer ought to have towards earthly possession played out when the real mother of the disputed ownership of the living baby presented to Solomon gave up her right. Rather than have the child divided between her and the pseudo mother, she thought it was better to preserve life than continue to claim her right. Some people fight over land, money, wife, children, building a house and any other thing to the point they lose their lives. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? There is a greater inheritance than earthly possessions. And New Testament believers do not fight for earthly inheritance but give it up if that will give glory to God and bring us peace. No matter the material things lost, we “have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” PARTAKERS OF GREAT INHERITANCE ON EARTH: Colossians 1:12-14; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 5:5; Acts 20:32; 26:18; Hebrews 6:10-12; 2 Peter 1:3,4; Psalm 2:8; 1 Peter 3:9-12. Believers need to be thankful for being made “partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light”. They may not have all the earthly possessions desired but by their spiritual translation, they have the kingdom of God as their inheritance. That is a greater possession than any mundane thing conceivable. Believers have redemption, forgiveness, cleansing, salvation, eternal life and hope of making heaven as their inheritance. God has also given us His Spirit to live in us and lead us. What great possession this is! To have the influence, inspiration, guidance of the Spirit of God who leads us day by day. It is the Holy Spirit who “beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ….” As heirs of God, all that God has is ours. Some believers get so easily distracted by the passing earthly things to the point they lose sight of their great inheritance in Christ. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, they have strangely made these earthly additions promised by the Lord, the nucleus and pursuit of their lives. God has not denied us the possession of material things as “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth”. But meekness and wisdom demand that the believer gives up any earthly possession that serves as a risk of losing his spiritual inheritance. It is a tragedy for a saint who has all the inheritance of heaven to fight over land, privilege, woman/man to marry, job, position with a sinner/backslider who is ready to do anything to take possession of the property in dispute. Leave all that for them and depend upon the Lord; showing concern for things that belong to God and His children, and all your needs will be divinely supplied. Sanctification through faith is a great inheritance that grants us the privilege of seeing God’s face and even having His power upon us on earth. Some believers think it is foolishness to allow others forcefully take their material possession. Thus, they allowed themselves to be drawn into a fight over what they referred to as their inheritance. But the real inheritance of the believers is sanctification and holiness that takes them from the earth to heaven. Grabbing of earthly things is not important compared with heavenly inheritance. The church today is running after acquiring material things in this world and has, to a great extent, forgotten the great heavenly inheritance. This is revealed in our fervency in praying on earthly things than on spiritual things like salvation, sanctification, Holy Ghost baptism, consecration, evangelism, readiness for heaven, etc. We must not allow this trend and way of thinking of other shallow Christians we interact with to affect us. The inheritance of God for us is given to us through His numerous promises in scriptures covering salvation, sanctification, Holy Ghost baptism, etc. He has also given to us all things that pertain to physical, family, professional, devotional and Christian life through His promises. Above that He has granted us to be partakers of His divine nature. Souls of men to be won into the kingdom of God are the inheritance of saints for which many Christians no longer care. The Lord wants our prayer and concentration to be on winning souls into the kingdom. Believers are called to inherit a blessing. The inheritance the Lord wants the believer to pursue is spiritual, not earthly, eternal not mundane. PEOPLE WITHOUT ANY INHERITANCE HERE OR HEREAFTER: Luke 12:13-21; Ephesians 5:5-7; 1 Corinthians 6:9,10; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 15:50; 2 Peter 2:17-22; Hebrews 12:14-17; Psalm 37:8,9: The reality of today is that most of those who go for counsels are seekers of earthly inheritance, possessions, property and substances, not how to be saved or grow in grace. Like the fellow who came to request Christ to speak to his brother to share inheritance with him, all their attention is on mundane things. But Christ warns “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” And like the rich fool, what a fool the believer becomes when he shifts emphasis from spiritual things to ephemeral things of life and when he begins to elevate the non-essentials – amassing wealth above the essentials – the new birth, water baptism, holiness and sanctification, Christian not marrying unbeliever, etc. Sinners do not have any inheritance in the kingdom of God because the “unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God”. Anyone who is unrighteous and has not come to the Lord for salvation is poor. The things one says or does, the places he goes and his lifestyle reveal whether he has repented of sins and that he is living in the present day experience of salvation or he is just religious without being righteous. Christ wants to take the sinner from where has been to where he ought to be in relationship with Him seeing “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” The Bible likens people who go to church without being converted to wells without water. Those who are yet to be born again must repent of sins and be free from sin so as to inherit the kingdom of God. There is a blessing to inherit in heaven. All must be wary therefore of the tricks of Satan to make us lose the blessing like he did to Esau. POSSESSORS OF ETERNAL INHERITANCE IN HEAVEN:1 Peter 1:3-5; Hebrews 9:14,15; 10:34-39; Colossians 3:23,24; Matthew 19:26-29; 25:31-34,46; Revelations 21:7,8; 22:18,19; Jude 3. The inheritance that God has reserved for the believers in heaven is variously described as endless, eternal, enduring and everlasting. The righteous are entitled to it because they are begotten unto a lively hope through the new birth. When we come to the Lord in repentance, the new birth brings with it a sensitive conscience of what is right or wrong. It also changes our attitude to mundane things: they no longer occupy all our attention and we now have passion for the pursuit of eternal inheritance. With this attitude, it becomes difficult for persecutor to blow the believer away from the faith because he takes “joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” This is because he lives by faith. He knows that whatever he does is unto the Lord and that one day, he will inherit all things from the Lord as a result of his victory over Satan and sinful practices. He does not and should not allow anything to beat him out of the heavenly inheritance. The Lord has given His Church His word in totality as an inheritance. If there is any inheritance we can hold on to, it is the inheritance of the word of God and the doctrines of Christ. The Lord wants us to keep the inheritance and not exchange it for mundane things of life. We should not add to or subtract from it. If we have opportunities and other physical inheritances and are still able to keep the spiritual inheritance, fine. But on no account should we forsake our spiritual inheritance so as to have opportunities. We should be ready to forfeit any opportunity to keep our spiritual inheritance until eternity. We have to have this in mind whatever we do or do not do, wherever we go or do not go, whatever opportunities we have or do not have. Rather than giving up this spiritual inheritance, we are to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 10:35:34 +0000
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