Who am I?
How am I made?
What am I made for?
We all have an individual inheritance from God: destiny, birthright, calling, purpose – there are many names we give it. And God has created us all different, designed us to operate best in particular ways, which we need to discover and understand. We all have an identity, and that identity is as sons of God (including the ladies), but we all start out as spiritual babies who are on a journey quest to discover answers to these questions. This series of posts which we are starting today is all about that journey: a journey from the slavery of childhood and infancy to the maturity of sonship.
We must leave behind the slavery of a poverty mentality. When we are born, we inherit a sense of separation from God: we do not know who He is or who we are created to be in Him; we do not know the wealth He has for us in relationship with Him, so we think like paupers. I am not really talking about money (though money certainly comes into it), but about knowing our royal identity. Someone who is of royal birth thinks very differently to someone who is not, and we have to learn to think like a child of the King of kings. Only when we think that way can we act that way, able to fulfil our calling and come into our destiny.
From slavery to sonship
We are in a training process, intended to produce that maturity in us. We start out as servants, then as we complete the training, go on to become bond-servants, stewards, friends, lords, kings and sons. Increasing levels of authority and power come with increasing levels of relationship and responsibility, as God entrusts more and more to us.
How much do we desire that? How willing are we to pursue that, to pursue Him? It will take diligence, faithfulness and perseverance. It does not come easily.
Opposition
As you would expect on a quest, there is opposition along the way; opposition to us knowing who we are and why we are here. When the children of Israel crossed into their Promised Land, they had to dispossess the nations who were there before them. There are things in our lives which need dispossessing too. There is a battle, but that battle to possess our inheritance will bring us into more intimacy with God. He has designed it so that we find Him in the difficult times, in the trials, where we learn His faithfulness; where we learn that He overcomes – and that through Him we too can overcome.
“Abba! Father!”
Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything… But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son… so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal 4:1-5).
God has adopted us into His royal family. Spiritually we may have started out as poverty-stricken beggars, but when He adopts us, everything changes. That passage continues:
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4:6-7).
Every one of us is an heir of the fullness of God’s kingdom as His sons; but if we think like slaves, we will not act like sons.
Predestined
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many sons; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified (Rom 8:29-30).
We have a destiny already agreed, to become like Jesus. It was impossible for us to fulfil our call and destiny when we were living restricted by sin; but all things are possible for us now that we are forgiven, now that we are justified, made right with God. And glorified – that was the part we used to think would only happen after we die, but the revelation God is releasing in our day is that we can be glorified here and now. We can access the realms of glory and the realms of heaven in order to bring heaven to earth through our lives.
“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters”, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor 6:18).
I get the impression from the way God phrases this that He is pretty serious about it. It is not open for discussion or negotiation. It is like that song we sing, ‘You Won’t Relent’: God will not relent, He will not let up, until we are His sons and daughters. We can no longer be content with living as slaves or orphans: we must pursue our sonship.
Every spiritual blessing
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will (Eph 1:3-4).
God has blessed us, just as He blessed Adam and Eve, with every spiritual authority to bring heaven to earth. We can access those spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ, to manifest them here on the earth. God always intended to choose us, from before the foundation of the world. He wants us as His children. That is His will, and he is not going back on it.
God is calling forth our spirit to maturity. He is calling each of us to our identity as sons. Let us each begin to embrace the fullness of what it means to be a child of God.