In this lesson on the fact that we are God's inheritance I want to fill you with Scriptures and allow the Word of God speak for itself.

1.  GOD HAS PURCHASED HIS PEOPLE FOR AN INHERITANCE.

In Ephesians 1:14 we are told that the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory. This means that the Person of the Holy Spirit was God's down payment to us for all that we were going to receive. 

Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, (14) who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

In Acts 20:28 we read of "the Church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood." God has not only redeemed His people from bondage and death but redeemed a people for Himself as an inheritance. He did not bring us out of Egypt (the world) to die in the wilderness. He brought us out of Egypt to bring us into Canaan.

Acts 20:28 ESV Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

2.  GOD COMES AND DWELLS IN THE MIDST OF HIS INHERITANCE.

Psalms 94:14 ESV For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;

Psalms 94:14 is proof that these Scriptures are not referring to the nation of Israel after the flesh. Just as God the Father Tabernacled in the midst of the redeemed Hebrews, so He now indwells His church, both collectively and individually.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV (19) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, (20) for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

The passages in Corinthians chapters 3 and 6 reveals that we are God's possessions, God's tabernacle, which He purchased with the price of His Son's death. Therefore we are to bring the Father glory in all that we do.

Many within the church over the last 30 years has run from prophetic meeting to prophetic meeting "seeking a word" from the Lord. Don't get me wrong, I love receiving prophetic ministry. However from the hundreds of "prophetic words" Debby and I have received over the last 40 years we have 6 that we believe actually was a true Word from the Father that was rooted and grounded in both His Word and His character.

We have been given words that are nothing short of pure witchcraft. We have had to renounce and break the authority of many words spoken over us in the name of Jesus that violated the Word of God and the Character of God.  Folks, there has been some serious junk out there. However, there is a true prophetic mantel and those who are actually standing in a position of awe and fear before God and are serious about what they speak.

I have to say though that God never intended for His body, the church to be "Word" chasers, running from meeting to meeting just to "get a Word". Many who do this have no intention of being obedient to the word they get, they are just satisfied that they got one. Then receiving a word is an end in itself instead of a means to the end. If we get a true word from the Father the end would be that we walk out that word for His glory. The Spirit of Elijah that will soon fall on the church will allow the body as a whole to not run around looking for a word but becoming a word of reason and hope to a people who have no hope.  

1 Kings 17:2 ESV And the word of the LORD came to him:

How powerful is this statement. The word of the Lord came to him. We need to know that what we have is truly a word from the Lord.

1 Kings 17:3-5 ESV "Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. (4) You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." (5) So he went and did according to the word of the LORD. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.

Elijah went and did all which was according to the word of the Lord. We as the body of Christ need to settle this now before the Spirit of Elijah falls on the church. God will not empower someone with the spirit of prophecy who does not have a heart and intent to obey what He has spoken.

DON'T GROW WEARY, THIS IS A LONG RACE.

Many believers approach their Christian life like everything is a 100-yard dash to be completed quickly and then on to something else. I have seen it in their approach to Bible studies, Discipleship Training Material, reading the Word, confessing sins with an attempt for quick repentance, and many other disciplines of the faith.

The Christian life however covers three areas. The first of course is basic and it is the starting point. It is important how we start. I know people who prayed prayers but without a heart of faith therefore not having any change of heart or character. We must be sure of our salvation experience. I want to by-pass #2 and go to the third area of importance. We must end right. Too many believers are falling by the way-side and not finishing the race, not keeping the faith, not being steadfast.

The second area of important is one of running the long race. We need to be a people that no matter what we have determined that we are in this thing to the end. I have run a lot in my life. I use to have a running program of 5 miles 3 times a week with an intense exercise program the rest of the week. When I started running I certainly did not start running 5 miles. In fact I would run 1/4 mile and then walk 1/4 mile each day. Then I would add to it. Once I got to 5 miles I not longer wanted to add any more distance but I wanted to add speed each time I ran. In my mid thirties I was quite fast. Then something happened, I quit running. After almost 30 years I recently started walking/running again and I am fining it harder to stay focused as it was in my 30's. It is also much more painful starting again.

What does all this mean spiritually? We need to approach each day in our Christian walk as a long marathon that lasts for years and years and not as a 100-yard dash. Each thing we do should build on another to strengthen us spiritually for the next day.

In this picture I was stationed with the Air Force in Germany in 1974. When I was not working on base I was working in a David Wilkerson Teen Challenge Coffee House witnessing and leading people to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I did not see this as a quick race that would come to a close soon, but a building block to a very long race where I would have the honor and joy of leading thousands to the Lord Jesus Christ in my lifetime. I am at around 8,000 and still looking for thousands more before this race is over.

Galatians 6:9 ESV  And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

2 Thessalonians 3:13 ESV  (13)  As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.

We have been talking about the end times and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days and the manifestation of the prophetic Spirit of Elijah. We will see the body of Christ as a whole hearing, seeing and speaking events before they happen. Just as the Father told Abraham what He was going to do to Sodom before it happened so will He inform those who are walking with Him the end times events before He does it.

However we must discern the substitute and false prophetic voices. We need the real prophetic voice to warn and guide the church, but there will be a false prophetic voice that will deceive many. Throughout the Old Testament we have examples of the false. In fact when our early church fathers were compiling books together to make what we call the Bible today they had to sort though hundreds of false books written by false follows of Christ or written by those who claimed to be Christ right after our Lord rose from the dead and ascended back into heaven.

(1 Kings 12:28 ESV) So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

(1 Kings 12:29 ESV) And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

(1 Kings 12:30 ESV) Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.

(1 Kings 12:31 ESV) He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.

(1 Kings 12:32 ESV) And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

The false priesthood of this world in these last days shall embrace itself in a particular type of worship. This is nothing new.  The feast will be counterfeit.  It will appear to be real but it will not be the real thing ordained of God in His time. The establishing of false gods, false priests, and false worship by Jeroboam is a perfect picture of what is happening in the "church" today. Mark these words and watch as false spiritual leaders are publicly raised up in these end times to lead the world as a whole into all kinds of demonic worship. We talk a lot about the one world government and the one world money, however we forget that there will also be a one world church, the rise of Babylon. The foundation of that structure has already been laid.

The Spirit of Elijah will be upon a radical believer who will love God not by just lip service, but will love God unto death. This group will not be silent. They will proclaim the truth of God and expose the false demonic movement which leads the people into a Babylonian worship of false gods with false signs and wonders. However, not all Christians will have ears to hear and some will be deceived and follow after that which seemed right in their own eyes.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, (2) through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
 
Is it possible that because of the constant fight over the right of homosexuals to be legally married that the governments just suspend all marriage ceremonies? Think about it as a possible government solution to the crisis of defining a marriage. The only people who then will be affected will be the Christians who hold that a ceremony and certificate of marriage is God's idea. 

1 Timothy 4:3 ESV who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

This same government agencies that would suspend marriage ceremonies would also attempt by law to make vegetarians out of everyone.

2 Timothy 3:5-7 ESV having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (6) For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, (7) always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

In these days we need men and women who stand before the Lord and hear His voice clearly.

What is the number one work of the Holy Spirit? Christians would give a lot of answers to this question. The Word gives the number one work of the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s most important work is to draw us to the Son.

Having the answer to the number one work of the Holy Spirit, what is the number one work of the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? The number one work of the Lord Jesus Christ is to bring us to the Father.

What then is the number one work of the Father? The number one work of the Father is to present to Himself a pure spotless inheritance. We are that inheritance which the Father will present to Himself. 

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOD’S PURPOSE IN ETERNITY TO HAVE SUCH AN INHERITANCE:

Psalms 33:12 ESV Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

This “favored people” of Psa. 33 was chosen by God to be His inheritance. It was not an afterthought with Him, but decreed by Him in eternity past. Before the foundation of the world God fixed His heart upon having these chosen people as an inheritance for Himself.

1 Peter 2:9 ESV But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The "nation" here is identical with the holy nation, the chosen generation, royal priesthood, and peculiar people of I Peter 2:9.  The term "peculiar people" does not mean that we are strange or a bunch of eight balls. The term means that we are purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ for the Father.

Psalms 135:4-6 ESV For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession. (5) For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. (6) Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Malachi 3:16-18 ESV Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. (17) "They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. (18) Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

There are places on the earth that God the Father really, really hates and that is the HIGH PLACES established to the worship of false gods. As a shame to the Christian faith we as believers and our forefathers have erected high places on the land. Jeroboam had established the “high places”.  These are places of worship to baal and other false gods.  Then he ordained people who were not to be priests as priests of the high places.  These were men that were not a part of the tribe of Levi, from which every priest of God was to come from.  So these men were not God’s appointed messengers. Their ministries were not born in heaven, but at the hand of an evil king.

(1 Kings 12:31 ESV) He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.

(1 Kings 12:32 ESV) And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

(1 Kings 12:33 ESV) He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.

There are countless religious practices running rampant today. There is a world dying because of the self-ordained groups with their false messages that give no hope.  We have not yet seen the end of the ways or the full fruit of these false representatives of our Most High God.

There is a world church that is being formed that is preaching a religion of convenience and tolerance.  In it, you shall not have to sweat to go up to Jerusalem, or enter before the presence of our Father.  In this world Church everything shall be easily accessible, and nothing shall be required of you. 

The men who minister in its temples shall speak in soft conventional terminology without saying anything, but they shall not know God.  Such men are not "Levites.”  They are not God's priests nor anointed and called.  There is only one true priesthood, it is comprised of all those who have been born again of the Spirit, and who are wholly cleaving to the Living God.

Where are the Elijah's of God calling out our nations to repentance? Where are the men of God who would dare stand against the high places established in the name of Christianity? When the Spirit of Elijah increases on the face of the earth we will see a holy spiritual war that will be unparalleled in Christian history.

(1 Peter 2:9 ESV) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

(1 Peter 2:10 ESV) Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The last days are upon us. The enemy has poured out a renewed spirit of lawlessness upon the earth. Sexual perversions and violence fill our air waves in the daily news reports. Our governments believe that they are making history by voting in and establishing as common practice all forms of laws that spew disobedience and rebellion in the face of God. Laws are being enacted that try to silence the church and God's people.  What will be our response to a total atheistic and Jezebelian advance in the world against the body of Christ?

I am deeply committed to the principle of submission to authority, and to all the principles of relationship within the Body of Christ.  Therefore I am not speaking about us committing rebellion against authority.  Yet, there is required of every child of God a total dependence upon the Holy Spirit and a passionate cleaving to the Lord, even when a situation might arise where it is seemingly impossible to give those closest to you an explanation they could accept or understand.  When it comes to obeying God over man the Scriptures are clear about our decision.

Acts 4:18-20 ESV So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. (19) But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, (20) for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."

Acts 5:28-29 ESV saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us." (29) But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.

1 Samuel 15:23-24 ESV For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king." (24) Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

When Elijah was commissioned to speak to King to Ahab it can  be appreciated all the more when we consider the character of Ahab. We will know when the Spirit of Elijah is in operation because it will reprove those in authority for their sins that not only affect them but also affects the nation. These Spirit-filled Spirit-lead believers will speak a Spirit of Elijah "thus says the Lord" before national leaders who have a reputation of wickedness before God such as was the heart of Ahab.

1 Kings 16:30-33 ESV And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. (31) And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. (32) He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. (33) And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

With each king we can see that Israel's departure from holiness was increased. Of all these black-hearted kings listed in 1 Kings 15 and 16, Ahab was the worst.  His wife Jezebel had seen to the execution of most of God's prophets.  Elijah was the only one left. It is before this evil man Ahab that Elijah stood.  But prior to standing before Ahab, Elijah had to learn the art of a continual audience before the King of Glory, the Most High God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We can see the wickedness of the days of Elijah by seeing the deeds of the evil kings leaders and Presidents of th enations of the world.  Much of what happened during Elijah’s time in the Old Testament is happening today and we need people who are comfortable with standing before the Lord. 

Before I can stand and speak boldly before kings such items of signs and wonders, I must learn to “stand before the Father”.  To stand before the Living God means being closed in with Him while being separated from the world. 

The Spirit of Elijah will fall on the body of Christ. That fact is for sure. However, will be the body be ready? There is still way to much of a "people-pleasing spirit" among the believers that many will not be ready to receive the Spirit of Elijah nor willing to hear and obey the message given.

Yet even more fearful and demanding than being separated from the world is the separation that sometimes happens between our own brethren in the faith. This does not mean there is a strife among our brothers, but that the Father will need to place us in a position where we are willing to stand alone. 

Many of us have graduated from worrying about what the world says of us. Have we, however, come to a place of such maturity that we can live with the “second guessing” or separation of our brothers?

Matthew 16:13-16 ESV Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" (14) And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." (15) He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" (16) Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Luke 6:22-23 ESV "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! (23) Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

That is not an easy place to come to, because perhaps we have just begun to really enjoy the prestige and acceptance of men and women in the body of Christ. The man who can stand before the "king Ahabs” of this world has got to be the one who stands before God continually or he will be overwhelmed being in the presence of stardom and worldly heroes.  He must ultimately be indifferent to the opinions of both the world and those who call themselves believers.

Why do we spend so much time speaking about some sins and we never hear about others? Why would the sin of homosexuality be greater than say, the sin of laziness or telling a lie?

Sin is sin. Sin is defined as a transgression against the Character of God, the Word of God and the will and ways of God. Therefore man and government cannot define what is sin and what is not sin.

Although all sin is equal in status as being a transgression against God and His Word, not all sin carries the same weight in judgment and consequences. In the Old Testament God commanded a blood sacrifice for some sins yet for the sins of murder, and all sexual sins the offenders were stoned to death. Sin was sin but each carried different consequences of judgment.
 
When we teach and live the life of holiness and righteousness, which is the life of Christ in and through us we naturally stand against all acts of transgression against God.

We cannot speak against every sin or that is all we will do. In fact most sins, especially within the body of Christ are sins of thoughts and intentions of the mind and heart and not in deed.

God could have mentioned thousands of sins against Sodom, but He singled out the one that caused His destructive wrath and that was homosexual sins.

God could have mentioned thousands of sins about the people of the earth to Noah, but He mentioned the one that caused His world-wide destruction of the earth, and was that violence had filled the land.

So although I agree that all sin is wrong and should be addressed, however some carry such a destructive nature and are such a reproach to God that we need to call the nations to repentance against them.

Elijah! What manner of man is this who presumes to command the elements?  Elijah! Who is this that would dare to change the natural laws that God the Father has established? 

This would be an act of unspeakable arrogance if Elijah were not so wholly hidden in God.  From what we believe about the true prophetic voice Elijah was not even the one who was speaking, but God who possessed his life and spoke through him. The Father and His servant could work together in perfect unity.

1 Kings 17:1 ESV Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."

We have "so-called" prophets running around the world speaking a "thus says the Lord" all over the place.  Some of them might be true and of the Lord but many are "want-a-bes" desiring to be recognized as a Prophet of the Most High. The true Prophets of the last days will be an instrument in the hands of God and instead of predicting events they will speak forth events. They will declare God's judgment upon a land and speak from the throne room of heaven the very voice of God and cause the earth to shake, the seas to roar, and the mountains to tumble.

1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

There is an incredible union between God the Father and the believer through the Lord Jesus Christ. That intimate union between the Father and the one whom He has called to stand as a Prophet will be as one voice.

It is to this place of intimate union with Him that the Lord is bringing those who are willing in this present hour.  The shaping of such vessels is not accomplished in one day.  Elijah was not afraid that he might be accused of testing God or of attempting to steal His glory.  He spoke boldly, for he knew that the two halves of his statement are perfectly related, “The Lord God of Israel”, “before whom I stand”.

For those seeking to follow the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ know that soon and very soon the Spirit of Elijah will cover the earth and empower the remnant.

In the last post we spoke about the valley, the desert and the mountaintop experiences of our Christian walk. Elijah and King David had a lot of all three.

Valleys and deserts preceded the mountaintop experiences of King David.  This surly was true for Elijah as it is for us.  These are places where we submit to God within our heart to His will and ways.  In this way we can view each valley and desert as a school of the Holy Spirit, as we learn the ways of the Father.  In these valley and desert experiences the confidence of the flesh is exposed and revealed for what it is, which is enmity against God. 

Usually we find ourselves on the mountaintop with a crowd waiting and watching to see what we will do and to see what God will do.  This is because everyone loves the mountaintop experiences.  Therefore while we are on our mountaintop there will be Christians who “jump on the bandwagon” and get as much joy out of our experience as possible.  But when we are in the valley or desert, we are usually alone with God.  Crowds don’t like to gather in the desert places or the deep valley places, because they are not exciting or fun.

To stand before the Pharaohs and Ahabs in this world, there must always be a period of crucial preparation in loneliness.  This pattern is true even of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  Except for a few incidents surrounding His birth and one youthful episode in the Temple of Jerusalem, we know nothing about the first thirty years of His life. 

Unknown and lonely may be where our lives are now. Even corporately as the Assembly of Saints gather together we can seem alone. Someone in our Church once told me that our fellowship was a great kept secret.  Unseen and in places unknown to others, the Lord is dealing with us corporately and bringing us low, even into pits in order to refine us and create in us an unwavering faith.