I KNOW WHAT I HAVE (MY INHERITANCE) IN CHRIST!

One major reason why many Christians are living a life of mediocrity today is because they neither know who they are nor what they have (possess) in Christ. 

So today, I want to show you from the Scriptures “YOUR INHERITANCE” because you are in Christ!

It is written, “In whom also WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11).

The inheritance we have in Christ is incorruptible (cannot be destroyed), undefiled, and does not fade away (cannot lose its beauty) (1 Pet. 1:4).

Here is the point: When we were placed in union with Christ, we became heirs of God, joint-heirs with His Son, Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:7; Rom. 8:17; Gal. 3:29).

Being an heir is not what you can work for but something which is your rightful possession by birth.

The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. An earnest is a down payment - an advance. When you got Born Again, God gave you a down payment on your inheritance in Heaven, which is yet to come. This down payment is the guarantee that God will come through on the rest of your inheritance. The down payment of your inheritance is the Holy Spirit. Just imagine it, if the down payment is this good, what will the rest of your inheritance be like?

An advance is usually very small compared to the entire purchase price. The remaining part of the entire purchase price will be paid at the rapture of the Church when we shall rise to meet with the Lord Jesus in the air (I Thess. 4:16-17: 1 Cor. 15:53). Then we will receive our resurrection bodies, and the final phase of our redemption will be complete.

The Scriptures have this to say about the remaining part of our inheritance: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

Everything God the Father owns belongs to Jesus. Since you are an heir of God, just as Jesus, it therefore follows that everything that God the Father owns belong to you. This is exactly what makes you a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. All the things that belong to your Father are your inheritance.

Beloved, if you then don’t know what your father owns, you can’t possess them. This is the plight of many Christians today. They are very rich spiritually, materially and physically (Jn. 10:10) but because they are ignorant (Isa. 5:13; Hos. 4:6) of their inheritance in Christ many die in lack.

For instance, Charles Spurgeon, a famous English Baptist preacher, narrated his own personal experience in this respect.

He was invited to the home of an elderly woman who was bedridden. Malnutrition was about to sentence this woman to untimely death. During his visit, Spurgeon noticed a framed document on the wall. He asked the woman, “Is this yours?” She said it was, and explained that she had worked as a maid in a household of an English nobility. But before the lady died, the woman said, she gave that to me. I served her for nearly half a century. I’ve been so proud of that gift because she gave it to me. So I framed it so as to preserve it. And it’s been hanging on that wall ever since she died some ten years ago.”

As Mr. Spurgeon took this document to the authorities, it was discovered that it was a bequest (an inheritance; a gift of personal property by will). The English noble woman had left her maid a fantastic home and a huge amount of money. But because she was ignorant of her inheritance, she lived in a little one-room apartment built out of wooden boxes and was starving to death, yet she had hanging on her wall a document that authorized her to be well cared for and to live in a fine house. Though Spurgeon helped her to get the money out, it didn’t do her as much good as it could have earlier. 

Today, many Christians live a life of poverty and defeat while lying by the side of their bed is a copy of the Bible (Blessed Information Bringing Life Eternal) which contains their inheritance. We are proud of the Bible but we have never taken time to find out what it says belongs to us.

This elderly woman did not have the knowledge of her inheritance as contained in that document. Consequently, she went into the captivity of abject poverty. She was stinking rich but because she was ignorant of what she possessed, she lived the life of a wretch and died the death of a pauper.

As a New Creation in Christ, you ought to know your Father’s property - His riche(s) in glory (Phil. 4:19). All these unlimited riches belong to you simply because You are a New Creation in Christ. You are born of the Spirit (Jn. 3:6), and the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, has become your Father.

Concerning your inheritance in Christ God says you have:

1. Eternal (new) life (1 Cor. 15:22; Jn. 17:3).

2. Abundant life (Jn. 10:10). This is life without limits.

3. All spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3). All physical blessings have their root in the spiritual blessings. The natural (physical) world is a mirror of the spiritual world. God created this earth with its beauty to look like the spiritual world where He lives - Heaven. Therefore, every physical blessing you need has already been given to you in the spirit.

All you need to do is to believe God and call them forth from the realm of the spirit to the realm of the physical. As you do this, you are calling those things that be not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). Therefore, the source of all your blessings in this life and in eternity is God the Father through Jesus Christ. You may notice that Ephesians 1:3 is in past tense. You may ask, “How could God do all that for me when I was not even here?”

The answer is because we had an elected representative, Jesus Christ. God poured all these blessings on His Son, and they were held in Him until the day of our redemption (until the day you receive Jesus Christ; until the day you become a New Creation). Every blessing we have in time and eternity is made possible because of our LORD, Jesus Christ. All blessings from God the Father come through Him, and all our blessings back to the Father go through Him.

Jesus is the only way to God the Father, and He the only way from God (1 Tim. 2:5; Jn. 14:6; Jn. 10:9). God the Father did not wait for you before He could do you this favour. Why? He did not need your assistance or contribution. You are imperfect, but God is perfect. Your contribution could have polluted or weakened God’s perfect plan of redemption. You cannot help God!

4. Your name written in the Book of Life (Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; Rev. 20:12, 15).

5. The nature of God (2 Pet. 1:4).

6. No condemnation anymore (Rom. 8:1-2; Jn. 3:18-19).

7. The blessing of Abraham (Gal. 3:14, 29).

8. Redemption through His blood (Col. 1:14; Rev. 5:9).

9. Forgiveness of all your sins (Col. 1:14). A certain Christian who was having severe problems in his life said, “I guess I am just paying for the life I lived before I got saved. I was so sinful.” But here is the truth: When you got Born Again, you were totally redeemed not only from sin, but also from the penalty of sin. You do not have to pay for your sins anymore because Christ has already done that for us. You cannot even be able to pay for it, “For the wages of sin is death, and the soul that sinneth shall die” (Rom. 6:23; Ezek. 18:4).

From the moment you repented, God no longer has any knowledge that you ever did anything wrong. And if God does not remember your sins anymore, why should you?

If after you were saved you continued to reap what you sowed as a sinner you would then have to go to hell when you die, because that’s part of the penalty of sin too. If you will reap any part of the penalty, you would have to reap all of it. But you are redeemed not only from the power but also from the penalty of sin. Jesus took your place. He suffered the penalty for your sin and even went to hell for you. He has made you able to enjoy the inheritance of the saints in the light. Hallelujah! (Isa. 43:25; Ps. 103:12). God forgives all your sins (Ps. 103:2-3).

10. Been reconciled back to God the Father. Through Christ, God was happy to bring all things back to Himself again. God made this peace using Christ’s blood (death) on the cross. Therefore, by the death of Christ on the cross, you have been fully reconciled (brought back) to God. The differences between God and you have been resolved.

The things that separated you from God have been rolled away because Christ paid the price for you in full through His death on the cross. He became your Substitute (Col. 1:20; 2 Cor. 5:18-20).

11. The ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18), as well as the Word of reconciliation.

12. The Spirit of Christ in your heart (Gal. 4:6-7).

13. Joy (Ps. 16:11; Neh. 8:10). When you lack this joy you are spiritually empty. Joy is exceeding gladness or rejoicing. Joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is natural, but joy is supernatural.

You do not need to have the Holy Ghost in order to be happy. Without the Holy Ghost you cannot experience joy, because joy is one of the manifestations of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22).

And this is why the devil does everything possible to rob you of your joy so that you don’t have the power to confront and overcome him. This is why the Bible instructs us to rejoice always (Prov. 8:30; 2 Cor. 6:10; Phil. 4:4).

14. Peace (Jn. 15:11). Jesus Himself is our peace (Eph. 2:14; Isa. 9:6; Rom. 5:1). Peace is another manifestation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When your peace is tampered with, you also lose your joy, which Jesus desires that it should remain in us.

15. The Spirit of power, love and sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7).

16. All the promises of God, for all His promises in Christ are Yes and Amen (2 Cor. 1:20).

17. Divine health (Ex. 15:26; 3 Jn. 2).

18. Divine healing (Isa. 53:4-5; Matt. 8:17; 1 Pet. 2:24).

19. Direct access to the Father (Eph. 2:18; Rom. 5:2).

20. The citizenship of heaven (Phil. 3:20).

21. The angels and the power of prayer at your disposal as a citizen of heaven (Matt. 16:19).

22. The Name of Jesus Christ (Mk. 16:17; Jn. 14:13-14; Jn. 16:23).

23. The Blood of Jesus (Rev. 12:11).

24. The whole Armour of God (Eph. 6:10-18).

25. Divine protection (Col. 3:3; Zech. 2:5; Isa. 54:17).

26. The creative ability of God. How does God create things? God creates things from nothing (Rom. 4:17), and through spoken word (Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14-15, 20, 24, 26; Mk. 11:23).

27. A glorious future in Christ (Jer. 29:11; Prov. 4:18; Ps. 37:37).

28. The wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:30).

29. Long life (Ps. 90:10; Ps. 91:16; Gen. 6:3).

30. Been justified, made righteous and brought into a new relationship with Him (Rom. 5:1, 9).

31. Been delivered from the power of darkness (Col. 1:13; Col. 2:14-15).

32. Been delivered from the curse of the law (spiritual death, sickness & poverty) (Gal. 3:13-14).

33. Been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6).

34. Been accepted in the Beloved (His Son, Jesus Christ) (Eph. 1:6). The Beloved is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Therefore, when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour, God the Father will begin to see you as perfect as He sees His Son. By accepting Christ as your Substitute all your limitations are removed.

What a privilege! No wonder the Bible says, “If any man BE IN CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Conclusion: The realization of your unequalled inheritance in Christ will make you more than a conqueror.

Talk about your position in Christ! Think it! Believe it! Confess it! And act like it!

Watch out for the next edition of the Good News from the Pulpit!

Your friend, I. I. MADUBUNYI (Head Pastor)                 Aug. 27, 2017