September 18, 2005
I WAS CHALLENGED by the message last week in which our guest speaker spoke of “Taking Hold of Your Covenantal Inheritance.” One of the things he explained was that the children of Israel enjoyed the blessings of sustenance while they journeyed in the wilderness. God provided for everything they needed: food, water and security. But God wanted them to enter the Promised Land so that he could bestow on them the blessings of inheritance. Only when they finally took hold of their inheritance could they begin to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham: “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3b)
The spiritual truth for us is that God does not only want to deliver us and sustain us, but he also wants us to put us in a position and a place from where we can be a blessing to others. While we should be thankful for God’s saving and keeping power, we should not lose sight of what God saved us for and what he is keeping us for. There is an inheritance which we need to lay hold of. For instance God told the Israelites: “"Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” (Deuteronomy 9:23a) Their destiny was not to continue wandering in the desert. God had something much better for them, but they needed to exercise active faith to appropriate it. God had given them the land but they needed to go in and possess it. That meant crossing a river, displacing the enemy, taking up residence and securing its borders.
But they were hindered by lack of faith which in this case became a full-blown rebellion against God. Moses reminded the next generation of this: “But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not trust him or obey him.” (Deuteronomy 9:23b) A whole generation missed the experience of entering their inheritance because they did not believe the promise of God, even though they had experienced his provision and protection in the desert. Let us learn from their mistake and by faith take hold of everything God has for us today.
************
For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did;
but the message they heard was of no value to them,
because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
(Hebrew 4:2)
This page was last updated on Friday, September 16, 2005