What a Heritage! The Blessing of Being Part of the Family of God
by Ruth Hawkey
It’s a tremendous privilege to be born into God’s family through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He’s won for us a tremendous heritage.
Jesus, as head of our family has: ‘humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death’ (Philippians 2:8). And therefore, because of His obedience, we’ve been blessed: ‘with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:3).
According to D.M. Lloyd-Jones in his book ‘God’s Ultimate Purpose’, Paul’s encouraging the Christians in Ephesus (and of course ourselves) to enter into the heritage won for us by Jesus, and thus enjoy the Christian life as we should.
He argues that, before the world was created, God drew up a great covenant of grace – God the Father said that He’d grant forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, new life and a new nature to all who belonged to His Son. The condition was that the Son would come into the world and bear the sin of mankind. Through His perfect obedience to the Father, He was able to do this, and thus, because of His obedience, we have the right to enter into the spiritual blessings which Jesus has won for us.
What are the spiritual blessings to which Paul is referring? According to Francis Frangipane in his book ‘The Power of Covenant Prayer’, it is ‘everything we behold in the life of Jesus: the blessing of healing, and miracles, of virtue and deliverance’.
A few years ago, my sister and I received a small inheritance from a dear uncle. It was tremendously exciting, but it was nothing compared with the heritage we have in Jesus. What an inheritance He has won for us! What part of it will you claim today?
Prayer: Dear Father God, I thank You for Jesus and all the many blessings which He has won for me through the cross. Today I especially thank You for the blessing of salvation, and I pray for Your help to walk in the reality of it today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Ruth Hawkey has had the privilege of working alongside Ellel Ministries from the very beginning. She and her husband Joe helped to begin the work in both Glyndley Manor and Canada. She has written a number of books including Healing Emotional Wounds, Healing the Human Spirit, Generational Blessing and Generational Sin, and Praying for Children. She and her husband also helped to develop prayer ministry teams in the local church.
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