Authority of the Believer
Inheriting from God
Roy Blizzard III © 2014
Text:
Galatians 3:29: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Romans 8:17, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Last week we spoke about the Authority of the Believer and how we have to intersect with God if we want to have authority because we have none without Him. Today I’m going to talk to you about how it is necessary to understand the concept of inheritance and how this influences our ability to be authoritative in Jesus’ Kingdom.
When we speak of inheritance, there are several things we could be speaking of. 1st we could have inborn physical outward characteristics that we inherit from our parents or other distant relative. This would be traits such as eye color, skin color, height, weight, all sorts of things. I in fact look very much like my great, great grandfather. These traits are very strong in some families and weak in others.
2ndly, we have the inborn abilities such as skills for this or that, like my fishing skills that I inherited from my father or my skills for working on equipment that I got from my grandparent. Again, these traits can come from close proximity to one’s parents or from a great distance removed up one’s genetic tree.
3rdly, then we come to the act of inheritance, which is how families pass down certain objects or authority to someone in particular they want to inherit that particular thing. Say if I were to die I would like to give certain of my assets to my wife and other things to my daughters depending on what I determine their needs or abilities to utilize those gifts.
As we see inheritance in the fleshly world around us, so too is there an inheritance in the spiritual world that is essentially the same as we’ve seen prior, however in the spiritual realm we are the inheritors of the spiritual nature of our creator. I’m sure that our physical characteristics may be somehow related to the appearance of God, but since I’ve never seen God I can’t speak to that first hand. I doubt that God has a giant head with six legs because if he did we would probably look much more like a bug than a person. There is a specific reason for this as we saw last week, since Genesis specifically states that we are created in the exact image and likeness of God, so I’m positive in my own mind that we are in outward appearance much like God.
Spiritually, we have the inborn abilities of God as well since He is our spiritual Father. What are some of these traits? Actually, many of the skills that we are born with are creative traits, inborn, passed down to us through our creative father in heaven. However, there is a limit to our abilities when they are not coupled with the spiritual nature of God and when we do not practice them unified with His purpose, just as with practicing the piano for example.
As we practice the piano, the closer we come to being able to play some greatly complicated piece of music like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. If we don’t practice we will never be able to play at all. The same is true of our inborn spiritual natures and skills. As we find ourselves becoming closer to God in nature through life practice, the more likely we become to having the Godly traits expressed through us as we go about our daily lives. What are these expressions that demonstrate that we have become closer to God? Ephesians, 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
These are the manifestations that we have indeed inherited something from God as our nature without God is contrary to these. Hate, unhappiness, turmoil, impatience, anger, evil, unfaithfulness, disobedient, selfish, these are the world’s concepts that show we are neither unified with God’s purpose nor an inheritor from His nature.
But with this knowledge, we still have to know how we become inheritors from God in the first place. While some small parts of all of us is inherited from God because we are all created in His image and likeness, for us to be able to fully gain the authority that the Bible says we are due, we have to become joint heirs with Jesus, because only He has been given authority that God had given man from the beginning in the Garden and we lost.
So in order to be able to be a joint heir with Jesus we have to be acceptable to Him to be able to inherit that which He has for us. It is as simple as that. How do we become acceptable to Jesus? Acts 2:38 tells us how, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
The first step to Authority is when we repent of our sins. So what is this for? Repentance means to turn away from and go back to. So we are to turn away from the covenant that Adam and Eve swore to Satan back in the Garden of Eden and return to the covenant that Jesus re-struck in His Blood with God at Calvary. This means that we give up our sinful and fleshly nature and are qualified to be given the Spiritual nature of God instead.
So after we repent, we are told we need to be baptized. So what is this act for? Once we are qualified to be forgiven, we should to go through the act that actually stamps us with the seal of the forgiving nature of God and makes us joint heirs with Jesus and that is the act of Baptism.
Baptism is an act that was taken directly from Judaism. One of the commandments from the category of Jewish statutes (chukim) was the mikveh ritual immersion bath. The word mikveh literally meant “a collection or gathering together.” Over time it came to be most associated with a collection of water (such as a pond or cistern or reservoir).
We also know this about the mikveh; one had to have at least 120 gallons of water in a land bound container for it to be considered an acceptable vessel for immersion. Only if one was immersed in flowing spring water or Maim Chaim – Living Water- was it considered acceptable for cleansing from sin. The Jordan River was a spring fed river and was considered appropriate for ritual immersion for the forgiveness of sin and consecration to God as was the Ritual Immersion bath complex at the Temple Mount.
This Jewish immersion involved the way individuals demonstrated their eligibility for full privileges and responsibilities within the community and as such Paul and the disciples use Baptism to demonstrated new believers eligibility for full privileges and responsibilities within Jesus’ Kingdom. Paul and the Disciples were well aware the Mikveh in Judaism was called the womb of the world and it was a new birth separating one from the pagan world. “A little child just born” or “A child of one day” were Jewish idioms referring to a convert who had come out of these waters, one who had risen in Newness of Life!
The fact is, we are all Spiritually Unclean and we have to be made Spiritually Clean in order to inherit from God. God had commanded in the Bible that whenever someone became ritually impure, he or she had to go immerse themselves in the mikveh bath in order to restore one’s status in the community. The entire 15th chapter of Leviticus provides the specific details about how a woman is restored into the community after she is ritually impure during her menstrual cycle.
Baptism is all about signifying that you have been given a new life within Jesus’ Kingdom. It is to be a life of blessings and responsibilities within in the community that demonstrates the power of God manifesting through our lives. It also demonstrates through obedience that a person is spiritually clean and eligible for full privileges and service within Jesus’ Kingdom upon the earth and as such this means we are then able to inherit power and authority within the operations of Jesus’ Kingdom on the earth.
In short, if we want to have true Authority either within the earthly realm or the spiritual realm, we must do what is necessary according to the rules laid out by the King of the Kingdom, Jesus. Repent, and be Baptized for the remission of our sins and receive what? A bowl of soup? Some bread? A winning lotto ticket? Power over others? Power to tell God to give us whatever we think we need? No! We are told that we WILL receive The Holy Spirit. This is the asset, the inheritance, which God gives those who are willing to unify within Jesus’ existence and it is the Holy Spirit which allows us to exist as authoritatively within Jesus’ Kingdom upon the earth.
The world asks us just one question don’t they? They want to know by whose authority we operate. If we have no power and authority within our daily lives then we must ask ourselves if we truly believe and accept as true that which Jesus has told us. As believers, we have to begin to realize we are spiritual beings first and foremost and we have to begin to recognize the spirit in and around others for we war not against flesh and blood, but against a spiritual realm. So if the battle is not in the fleshly realm, why do we want to exist for most of our lives chained to it?
The Authority of the Believer exists within Jesus’ Kingdom and we have to go and intersect with it. We have to go out as the Disciples did and go to where God wants to operate and in going and obeying the commandments we receive from our Master we thereby exercise, or allow the Holy Spirit to flow out from us in a creative and empowering manner to the people whom God is drawing to himself and into Jesus’ Kingdom.
God want to bless us within the service of his Kingdom. When we experience the Authority of God in our lives, we grow as individuals and our experience and belief and faith grow as well. We are able to recognize what God tells us to do, where He tells us to go, and that what He tells us to do works. This is truly experiencing the blessings of God in our lives as the seed of Abraham!
Today, think about what this means to you. It means everything God promised Abraham, you are able to receive them. These Blessings have been passed down to you through Jesus. You can either choose to accept them and operate within Jesus’ Kingdom or choose to warm a pew. It’s your choice.
The next message in this series will be: The Authority of the Believer, Experiencing the Blessings
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