I apologize ahead of time for the rambling nature of this posting, I am working it out as I write and I hope it does not become too confusing. This is about inheritance and claiming promises.
This began with the video that we were watching at the Ladies meeting about how the daughters of Zelophehad asked Moses, and later reminded Joshua, that God told Moses that these 5 daughters were to receive an inheritance with their uncles because their father had no sons. Women of the day, who were considered property, who had the courage to go before their leaders and ask in humility, to be given equal inheritance with the men, and were rewarded by God and their leaders with a share of the promised land, as equals to the sons. Numbers 27 (1-7) and Joshua 17 (3-4).
There is a massive amount of revelation here, but I am dealing with the specific aspect of claiming inheritance and promise. During the video the speaker advised the audience to write down some of their promises from God on a sheet of paper and spoke as if he assumed that everyone in the room had specific promises from God for their lives. I sat and struggled to think of one thing that God has ever promised me, and I could think of nothing. I know many others have files full of the prophetic words and promises that God has sent you in various forms and different ways, but I could not think of a single time in my life when God has ever given me a specific promise. Don’t get me wrong, God has performed wonderful things in my life and provided for me in countless ways, but He has never, to my memory, told me He was going to do them. So I sat and struggled with the concept of how to “CLAIM” my inheritance, when I didn’t even know what it was. How do you fight for something you don’t know is yours?
I prayed afterwards and expressed my sorrow at my sense of loss of what to do or, but I still had no answer as to what I was for. What was my inheritance? So the week continued as always, but now with the knowledge that I was missing something important. I even received good counsel to focus on God instead of my seeming lack of future or worth, and although I acknowledged that was the right thing to do, I had no idea how to do it.
So, I was talking to Jesse and he said something that I didn’t understand at the time he said it, but as church progressed that day, it began to clarify and I began to understand more about my promise and my inheritance. (Actually it would be more correct to say, OUR promise and OUR inheritance), because what I am coming to understand is that my promise is the same promise that is given to all of us and my inheritance is the same inheritance that is offered to every single one of God’s people, men and women. But, as always, it requires a conscious choice.
What I was looking for was a promise from God for an inheritance that I wanted. I already know what my heart’s desire is and I have been waiting for many years (read all but about the first 12 years of my life LOL) for God to just tell me what I wanted to hear Him promise. Anything else was just not relevant to me, because I didn’t care about anything else. But what God opened up to me today was that I already have a promise and an inheritance, but I have to choose to accept it and claim it. Accept (as passive) because my inheritance is nothing I deserve or have earned and claim (as active) because there is that which will try to steal it if I allow it.
God has PROMISED us that we WILL walk in His POWER if we CHOOSE to follow Him and our INHERITANCE is the POWER of walking in the FAITH of an almightily GOD.
I know I know, you are thinking, well Becki, duhhhh. :) But if you have known me for very long you know that I have been seeking a long time for a place, a nitch, to call my own and this revelation was something I knew in the back of my mind, but it had no real substance to it. It was simply words. Today, it became living knowledge. It acquired substance and became real instead of just words and ideas. I realized I had been tricked as a child into believing that, and I quote, “People like us don’t do miracles. Things like miracles and healings and casing out demons is for God’s “special” people. Not us,” (meaning me). And although I have spent a lifetime rebelling against that idea, it was very firmly rooted in my soul. I have spent way to many years wishing that I was one of “those chosen few,” but, I never really believed that I had any worth to God or anyone else for that matter. So I never felt that God ever gave me any promise except that of heaven, because I could not change the world. I was not one of His “special Christians” and I was not worthy to call forth nations or miracles in His name. (We won’t get into the fact that none of us are worthy :) - different project). In this post I am talking about being worthy because of the blood of Christ, which is worthy.
My friends and I have talked about it being time to stop “existing” and start living with purpose. To combat depression most of my life I learned to exist. I learned to get through the day as best I could. Never think too much about the future because it seemed bleak and hopeless, so just close your eyes and plow forward and then do the same again the next day. You can live that way, but it is not what God wishes for us and we will never find joy if we keep our focus on just making the next step. There comes a point when you have to look up and make a decision, a choice, about your purpose.
Even though I believe that God has individual plans for each of us, our true purpose is the same. Our true purpose is to be the creation that God is molding us to be individually! Our PROMISE is that God is our Father and as His children we have an INHERITANCE of POWER. Like the daughters of Zelophehad went to Joshua and reminded him of the promise that God gave Moses for their inheritance, we need to remind ourselves that God has given us an inheritance of His Spirit and a promise of His Power when we follow in His footsteps, just because we are His!
It is like there is this massive reservoir of power flowing around us that we are oblivious to because we do not truly understand what it means to be children of the King. Not a power to use as we please. Not promises to receive what we think we want. But the responsibility and authority to act in the name of our Father and do His Will and His Work in His Kingdom, His Way.
The key to it all is that we MUST be willing to let go of our dreams and our hurts and our hopes, (crucifixion is not a fun place, but it is a place of power) and accept the real meaning of what it means to be a son of the living God. This is where we, as ladies, learn to be sons and step up to our inheritance. It is time to become mature Christians and to put away “childish” things like my dreams and hopes and desires for the greater reality of a living Kingdom that has more power than any sci-fi movie ever dreamed. It is time for the church to wake up and claim the power over this world that has been swirling around us for centuries to show the world Who it’s creator is.
No comments:
Post a Comment