There’s a word that’s been circling around me in the Spirit for a while now. About a year, in fact. I’m hearing it everywhere, and it has ignited a holy curiosity in me. I want to know what God is up to with this word!
I have found that whenever He wants to bring me into something new, an understanding of another part of the Heavenly reality I haven’t yet grasped, He will repeat it…lots of times! Maybe He’s just super patient, or maybe I’m a little on the slow-to-get-it side…or maybe both are true. Regardless, eventually He has His ways of making sure I don’t miss out on what He wants to give. I’m so thankful for His kind intentions toward us!
So the word I’ve been hearing is “inheritance.” I’ll spare you the details of all the places my imagination went with that, although I’m sure you would find it amusing. A whole year of wondering can produce all kinds of wild and crazy ideas! But I am reminded often (maybe because I so easily forget?) that we are not supposed to lean on our own understanding, so my search for the meaning of this word I’ve been hearing has led me, time and time again, back to conversation with God…with yet more questions!
Recently, I am beginning to gain a greater sense of what He might be up to with this word. Let me share, because it’s not just a word for me. It’s a word for us. If not now, it will definitely need to be embraced at some point in your future, because it is a word that is passed down from generation to generation. It is an inheritance word.
As I face what seem to be mounting pressures and problems on all sides, at an intensity I have never faced before, my spiritual ears are very attentive, straining through the noise of the storms to hear God’s voice. What I have heard Him say over and over again is that this is about more than just surviving. It’s about more than just getting through the issues and the suffering and the hardness of it all. It’s about more than sucking it up or grinning and bearing it. It’s even about more than enduring, and believing God for a great testimony as I wait for Him to deliver me.
The ferocious battles I am walking through are about one thing: inheritance. God is desiring to establish something about Himself here – in the middle of my chaos – that I will be able to hand down or pass on to the generations that will come after me. I have to see more than what’s directly in front of me. I have to see past the devastation and the discomfort. I have to see that there are names and faces assigned to this struggle, which I have never met yet, and may not ever meet. Yet, God has destined them to know Him through a part of my story. It will be retold in their day. A marker will be set up here, in this rough terrain.
If I remember that the sufferings which I am presently enduring are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed (Romans 8:18)…and if I set my sights to see beyond me.
Paul knew this reality. And because He did, we now have His testimony to draw from. We now have those Scriptures to write upon our hearts and draw strength and courage from. I won’t write Scriptures, but I wonder how many generations of descendants, of believers, will be strengthened by my report of the goodness and the faithfulness of God? It fascinates me, and it urges me onward, in spite of the cost of the fight.
Dear Woman of Breakthrough, maybe this is a new concept for you. Maybe your walk has been all about making it through your difficulties, and you’ve never even considered the reality that God is desiring to build a faith and a story through you that is worth passing on. My prayer for you today is that you would realize that being a child of God also means you are His heir. You have inherited everything He has.
This means that God has given you Jesus, and all things that He possesses, you also inherit. Part of that inheritance includes the nations – scores of people that will come to know God’s incredible love through your love story with Jesus! God adopted you so that, through you, others could be adopted as well. He wants a great big, giant family! He wants the family He created. And your brave endurance, with an eye toward future generations, is a huge part of what will make God’s dream a reality.
I love dreaming with God. He’s a creative Genius! But I am discovering that all of His dreams revolve around one thing: revealing Himself to more people so they can see His heart and come home.
It’s kind of ironic: He gives us an inheritance so that He can, through our lives, collect His own inheritance back. I am always amazed and amused at the way He does things. He thinks so much bigger than I do. Hopefully, day by day, that is changing, as I am being transformed to become more and more like Him.
I want to encourage you to consider learning to see beyond yourself, dear one. Especially in the hard things, but also in the overflow of goodness and abundance. In everything really, we ought to have an eye toward what God wants to establish for those who are coming after us. This should motivate us to steward, or manage, all that we’re given, with greater intentionality – to invest it, rather than simply spend it. I’m not speaking merely about money here. I am also referring to our time, our love, our service, our talents and abilities. All of it has been given not only for our comfort and benefit. It was meant to make a mark on future generations, as well.
I’ll give you a little key to take before God in prayer as you begin to ponder this reality: if we are going to be able to live out our days with future generations in mind, we will have to acknowledge and deal honestly with our victim mindsets. We will have to look at whatever it is that causes us to take pain so personally, to feel sorry for ourselves and seek out comfort and solace, rather than rejoicing in what God has appointed it to accomplish in and through us.
In case I hit a nerve you weren’t ready for, I won’t dive into that in today’s post. But I hope to touch on it soon, because I sense God is wanting to dig up some old bones that we’ve been carrying for far too long. So long, in fact, that we may not even recognize them. I’m in that camp, and I am so thankful God is exposing all that might hinder what He has designed for me to leave as an inheritance to others. I want to pass on an untainted report of His glorious grace!
For now, would you commit with me to live with at least one eye on contending for the inheritance God has entrusted to you, for the sake of those who are coming after you? Would you agree to try and see all that you come face to face with through that lens? My wager is that things will begin to look a little different, and you and I will find much more courage with which to face our daily battles, as we remember that it’s not just about us. God created life to be bigger than us, so He will empower us to get our minds off ourselves and onto the bigger picture.
May you discover a greater revelation of God’s heart for you and for all mankind as you align yourself with this challenge.
She Dances Over Graves 