The guarentee of our future inheritance

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory Ephesians 1: 13 - 14

One of the amazing things that people who have visited heaven before their death tell us about is the ability to communicate without using the spoken word. This is how it is described in one account I read:

Communication was forming in my mind without the need for sound. ‘Hey how are you doing?’ a man asked matter-of-factly. ‘How long have you been here?’

I told him I had only just arrived but I was stunned, because it was like he was speaking with two voices. Underlying what he’d said was this stream of affirmation that continuously kept telling me what an amazing person I am and what wonderful qualities I have. I will never be able to express the joy I felt at this.  Excerpt from Real Life, Real Miracles by James L. Garlow and Keith Wall.

Telepathy, which is what we call this, is God’s creation which was stolen by the devil at the fall. The devil now has full use of it on earth which is why as Christians we must not use it but at the recreation of all good things, telepathy in all its original power and beauty to communicate not just words but ideas, pictures, affirmation, love will be restored to us just as it is in heaven.

Of course this is how God communicates with us now. He rarely uses the spoken word but he uses his written word and also forms thoughts, ideas and pictures in our minds. He constantly seeks to affirm us with his love. He talks to us continuously without speaking aloud, if we are listening. We may not speak to one another using this means of communication but God does.

This is just one of the many things that I believe we now have as a deposit through the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing what is to come.  In Bible times a seal was not just a sign of ownership but also could be used as a pledge or down payment which would guarantee the full amount, paid later. The Holy Spirit has been given to us as such a guarantee. When we die or when Jesus returns, everything we have just a tiny part or glimpse of now will come to us in its fullness.

We will see, know and understand then what we have only an inkling of now. So many things lost in the fall will be redeemed to us fully; communion with God, health, strength, vitality, prosperity. As Paul says, ‘we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23).

We will be fully redeemed and restored to how God meant things to be and how wonderful that will be for us all            `.

Thank you for the cross

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53: 5

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. II Corinthians 5: 21

On Good Friday, as we consider again Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, I am overwhelmed by a sense of wonder of what Jesus did for us.  I have been reading J John’s Holy Week devotional and yesterday he wrote, ‘Jesus went to a place of separation so that we might never need to be separated from God. He cried out these words of abandonment (My God, My God why have you forsaken me) precisely to ensure that his followers should never have to say them.’ Today he wrote, ‘Christ became cursed that we might be blessed, became empty so that we might become filled and became nothing that we might become something. That’s what the cross is all about’.

 Everything Jesus went through was for us. We know this but it has hit me afresh this Easter. The perfect Son of God suffered unimaginable torture, humiliation, abandonment, betrayal and crucifixion for people like you and me. That just blows my mind away.  I know what I am like. I am not sure I would have done that for me so how can perfection do that for people so imperfect, so broken, so impure?  The answer of course is love; a love so pure, so perfect, so holy that he will do anything to make sure that the object of his affection can be saved from their self imposed sin and wickedness.

We should not shy away from the horrors of the cross but look them full in the face, as far as we are able, even though it breaks our heart, and be thankful for what Jesus did.  He has prepared a wonderful place in heaven for each one of us to enjoy with him forever.  However he also has a wonderful life for each one of us to live here and it is wonderful because no matter what we go through, we will never be abandoned, forsaken or alone. The God of love is always with us.  Jesus took it all on the cross. The divine exchange is complete and all that we should have suffered for our sin has been paid for and all the perfection of Jesus and the fullness of his life is ours for eternity. 

 What can we say but thank you from the bottom of our hearts?

 

Freely you have received, freely give

Freely you have received, freely give Matthew 10: 8

I have just been reading something from Joyce Meyer who was saying that she had great difficulty in the past from being merciful because she had never truly received God’s mercy for herself. She had no mercy from God to give others.

We can never give to others what we have not already received or have access to.  I cannot give you a glass of water if I have neither a glass nor access to fresh water. In the same way I cannot give you grace if I have not received God’s grace for myself. I was a very graceless person because I was hard and legalistic to myself and therefore to others. If I made a mistake I beat myself up about it so if others also made mistakes, even if I did not say anything, mentally I was criticising them for their mistakes. God had to show me how ‘bad’ I was and how much grace he had shown me, so that I too could show that same grace to others. It was a bit of a revelation to realise how graceless I was.

This difficulty can infiltrate all sorts of areas of our lives. If we feel guilty, we want to make everyone else feel guilty; if we feel shame, we want to blame others; if we feel rejected, we reject others and so on.  What we have, we give to others. The great news though is that as we get revelation of this, we do not have to sit in a pond of despair but realise that God is holding out his hand to lift us out. Jesus suffered to take all our sin, guilt, shame, rejection, sickness and every work of the enemy from our lives.  It takes time but God is patient and as we let him work in our lives, he will bring us to wonderful places of freedom.

So as we have been shown grace, we will be very gracious; as we have been shown mercy, we will be merciful; as God has set us free from sin and shame, we will walk confident in God’s goodness and love and show that to others. Where God has healed us, we will have great faith for healing for others. The very areas of greatest weakness and shame in my life have been turned around by God to bring freedom to others in those very same areas. As a teenager, I made quite a mess of my life – I was insecure, rejected and behaved very badly. As God has healed me, he has given me such a heart for teenagers not to have to walk through the things I put myself through. It is such an honour to help them find God’s love and walk through those tricky teenage years holding his hand and not walk through hopeless and helpless, trying all sorts of useless things to fill the void in their hearts.

So freely give what God has given you and if you are still struggling with some areas in your life, give them over to God, stop struggling and trust him to bring wonderful freedom that will bring great glory to him and help others. My old life honoured nobody; my new life I live for him to honour him as best I can.

Adopted into the family

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Ephesians 1: 3 – 6

These first few verses of Ephesians are just so rich and give us a wonderful insight into all that God has done to redeem his loved ones and make them his own.  Every sentence is full of wonderful promises; he has blessed us, chosen us to be holy and blameless, he has predestined us, adopted us to sonship because he loves us and this is his pleasure and will. It has all been freely given to us through Jesus.

God has taken people living in the gutter of sin, often completely unaware of their real plight and the desperateness of their situation and lifted them out to become his sons and daughters and be adopted into his family. Jesus was God’s son by nature but we are God’s children by adoption. Nevertheless we still have all the privileges of natural sons and daughters of God as well as full inheritance rights.

Adopted children are not second best – they have been adopted so that those who had no choice or chance before could now be treated just as if they were natural sons and daughters and born into the family. In the natural that is marvellous enough. I am sure we all know of children who have been born with little or no chance in life, who have been adopted into families where they have been treated just as if they had been born into that family. They have been given a chance they could do nothing to earn or deserve. It is even more wonderful in the spiritual realm.

We were dead in our sins, destined for a life in eternity separated from God forever and with no hope of being able to do anything about it ourselves. We may have even not been aware of our situation but God, because of his rich love for us, did all that was necessary to rescue us. What a wonderful God!  He took us and made us his own with all that implies. All those spiritual blessings are ours. 

Perhaps we need to start to realise just how much God loves us. This was a marvellous, carefully thought out plan.  God knew all about us but he did not reject us, instead he predestined us which means he had a destiny for us before we were even on the scene to love us, save us and bring us into his family. The cost for God was high – very high – because it cost him the life of his natural son, Jesus, on the cross. I do not think any of us really have any idea what Jesus had to go through to gain our redemption. However I am just so thankful that he did so that today I know I am part of God’s family – holy, loved, righteous and all given not because of anything I had to offer but through his glorious grace which he has freely given us.

Words just cannot express our thanksgiving but we are surely oh so grateful.