Inheritance

Pt X

Contiuation of Promises

 

God gave us an inheritance that we can fight with. It is something we can use and is beneficial to us.

1 Timothy 1:18-19—This charge I entrust to you Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.

I don’t know where you stand with prophecy but Paul is saying here that those promises and prophecies spoken over us are things we can fight with. We can use our promises to fight against that unbelief and those doubts that creep in saying God doesn’t want to use you for this, you can’t do that... etc.

As part of a new kingdom, we have weapons of warfare. God has given us His armor to fight with. He has equipped us with everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pe 1:3). In Isaiah 58 we see God put on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation (Isa 58:17). We, like His children, copy the Father and also put on armor just like His. We see a list of our armor in Ephesians 6. We need to use the armor God gives us. If we trust the armor God gives us has the ability to protect us but we never use it, it is becomes useless. It is meant for use.

Satan is a “roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (1 Pe 5:9). He makes a lot of noise, but because we are in Christ, we are already victorious over him. Satan has no power over us anymore unless we give him power. Stand firm in faith and resist him (1 Pe 5:9). He has to flee when we submit ourselves to God (Jas 4:7). Sometimes all we have to do is resist him.

We are victorious in Christ (1 Co 15:57, 1 Jn 5:4, book of Revelation). God always leads us in a triumphal entry (2 Co 2:14). You do not have a parade celebrating victory if you lose. We are operating from a place of victory. We do not have to surrender when God has already declared victory over us. This means we no longer have to give in to fear or shame.

Jesus has overcome the world and by extension so have we.

-        John 16:33—In the world you will have trouble but take heart for I have overcome the world.

-        1 John 5:4-5—For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

-        Romans 8:37—We are more than conquerors.

So, if Jesus lives in us and he has overcome the world and we overcome the world by believing that Jesus is the Son of God and we are more than conquerors, than we don’t have anything to fear. God’s name is Love and he says that perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn 4:18).

So what does this mean?   

1.  It means we don’t need to fear lack because we don’t have lack in the Father. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says He has given us everything we need for life and has given us promises as well. This implies the Father’s given us everything we need now as well as in the future.  

2.   We don’t need to fear that we have no purpose. We are anointed by the Holy Spirit, set apart, dedicated (2 Co 1:22). When you anointed something, you were setting it aside for a specific purpose. You have purpose.

3.    We don’t need to fear that God will not do as He promises. Isa 57:13-19 talks about how God will do what He promised. Psalm 146:6 says he is faithful forever. The NLT puts it: He keeps his promises forever. I didn’t earn these promises. They won’t be taken away. They can be delayed if I’m not cooperating with the Holy Spirit in preparation for the fulfillment of them but they will not be taken away. If I didn’t earn them then it follows that I can’t work to keep them. Romans 4 talks about the promise God made to Abraham. God made a promise of children to Abraham based on his righteousness of faith, not based on the law (Ro 4:13). If it was based on his actions, they could prevent the promise from coming true.

Remember how I was talking about the different promises God made in the OT and in the prophets about how he would restore his people? Do we get to see these fulfilled? We are a fulfillment of a promise. We are children of promise. God promised to restore his people and give them a new heart and place His Spirit in them. We are a fulfillment of that. Even as Gentiles we get to partake in this promise and are a fulfillment of this promise. God promised that the nations would come to him not just his own people. (Galations3:29) And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.