What does it mean to be an heir of God?

Power-filled Positive Thinking—Chapter 10B-What does it mean to be an heir of God?

As we have looked at the true positions of who we are in Christ; we have learned that we are His redeemed. We are declared saints. We are His Beloved, Blessed Children and as such we are heirs of the Kingdom. Does that mean that whatever financially I want is mine? Or is that a part of the prosperity idea that whatever I name becomes mine? What does being an heir to the kingdom have to do with earthly possessions? We need to go back to scripture to learn what it means to say that in Christ we are heirs of the kingdom of God and joint heirs with Christ.

Ephesians 1 ¹³ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,¹⁴ Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

We see here that when we accept Christ as our Savior, in Christ we are sealed by the Holy Spirit which is the earnest (the down payment, the security deposit of our inheritance until the full redemption of both body and soul occur. Therefore, part of the inheritance is that we will one day be perfectly righteous; until that day we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness.

This speaks about the inheritance in our future; but, what about now?

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courtesy of Sarah Barba whose photos can be found on fineart america 

God has promised to be our provider of all that we need. He knows what we need which may be different than what we want. Because He is our provider we should not be worried about our provisions.

Galatians 3 says”²⁸  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.²⁹ And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” In Christ we are recipients of all

of the Abrahamic promises which did include provision here on earth for our needs, descendants, blessings, and redemption by faith. Descendants in this case includes those who are in Christ. For Paul “his children” in Christ referred to all he introduced to Christ through his teachings. Therefore whatever possessions we have did not come from our own works; but by faith. According to Romans 4: ¹³ the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

I agree with Paul who said, part of the inheritance as heirs of Christ is our freedom from the bondage of sin. As he points out “remember this, that if a father dies and leaves great wealth for his little son, that child is not much better off than a slave until he grows up, even though he actually owns everything his father had. ² He has to do what his guardians and managers tell him to until he reaches whatever age his father set.³ And that is the way it was with us before Christ came. We were slaves to Jewish laws and rituals, for we thought they could save us. ⁴ But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew, ⁵ to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons. ⁶ And because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father. ⁷ Now we are no longer slaves but God’s own sons. And since we are his sons, everything he has belongs to us, for that is the way God planned” (Galatians 4 TLB).

When I think about it, our inheritance as heirs of the kingdom are both for now and the future and includes all the treasures we do receive here on earth. So, what do you think? Does that mean the inheritance is financial? Does inheritance mean the real treasures of love, peace, joy, friends, faith, hope and families? That is what we will further explore on Monday.

Listen to this beautiful song by Matt Redman,  Mercy  May you never lose the wonder of God’s mercy–

Living Bible (TLB)

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©2015 Effie Darlene Barba

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