When we consider our glorious heritage in the Lord, the first question we might ask is, “How big is the estate.” We want to know what is there for us. In their advertisements, large savings and loan companies try to impress us with their size and their security, “We have fifty million dollars in assets,” inferring that this is a good reason for us to open an account with them.
We may often be inclined to ask, “If they have fifty million dollars, what do they need with my ten dollars?” It makes one a little suspicious. Maybe that’s the way it works in heaven too.
The Lord says, “All things are Mine. Everything is Mine. The Father has committed all things into My hand.” Then He asks, “What do you have?” And we answer, “O Lord, You have all of that; why do You need the little that I have.” That’s not the issue.
The Lord asks a small boy, “What do you have?”
“I don’t have anything but five loaves and two fishes.”
“I need them.”
“Lord, you need my loaves and fishes? When you have the cattle on a thousand hills! Why You could just cause a stampede and have enough beef for the biggest barbeque anyone ever saw. And you want my little loaves and fishes?”
“Yes, I’ll take your loaves and fishes.”
You see, the Lord manifests His fullness through our limitation. At no time is our limitation a challenge to His omnipotence and His omniscience. At no time does our ignorance interfere with His wisdom. It doesn’t detract from it one iota. If I lack wisdom, I can ask of Him, and He will give to me liberally and upbraid me not. If I am lacking anything, I can just cry unto the Lord for it and He pours it upon me. I really believe that.
How large is the estate? Oh, so vast that it’s beyond our comprehension, even beyond our imagination. Who is the administrator of the estate? It is the Paraclete. The Holy Spirit Himself is the attorney, especially appointed by the Father to administer the estate. Who are the heirs? We who are born of God, who are brought into the family of God, are made the heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
The next important question, “How and when can we obtain a share? What is the process whereby we can begin to draw upon this inheritance?” We find all of these questions answered in the Word. John 14:12–18: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper. The Greek word is “Paraclete” meaning “one who stands alongside.” The same word is found in I John 2:1, translated “advocate” in the King James version: “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” We have an advocate with the Father, someone who stands and pleads our cause.
If God be for us who can be against us. The devil may come to accuse us, but the Father is not ready to condemn us. He sent His Son to die for us and His Son is the prosecuting attorney who defends us. If God is for us, not even the devil can prevail against us. He will find that he’s the one who will be indicted, not us.
He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Verse 26: But the Helper (notice again the same word), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
A good attorney or counselor is one who will sit down and explain your situation. He will explain your state of jeopardy as well as the rights and privileges you have. He will tell you exactly what your case is. Isn’t that what the Holy Spirit is sent to do for us? to stand alongside of us and to help us? As we come before the Lord, we could be completely ignorant of what is legally ours. When a man is arrested, the police must immediately inform him of his constitutional rights. When he comes up for trial, he is asked if he has an attorney. If he does not, the court will appoint an attorney for him, unless he is qualified to defend himself. Even though he has no funds, an attorney is chosen to represent him. The Father sees to it that you have the same opportunity.
Paul writes of this in Romans 8:26, 27: And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should (we stand before the Father and say, “Father, we don’t know what to ask for; we don’t know what we can ask for”), but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
The Holy Spirit, our beautiful advocate, the administrator of the estate, comes along and says, “I’ll help you. I’ll stand here and plead for you as an heir of God before the Father. I’ll make intercession for you with groanings which cannot be uttered.” And what is Christ doing? He ever lives to make intercession for us too. The Holy Spirit and the Son are constantly interceding before the Father on our behalf. Isn’t that fantastic? You didn’t know that you had such a marvelous administrator of the estate, did you?
It’s one thing for you to say that all things are yours, and it’s another thing for you to know the processes which God has set in motion on your behalf to bring into reality what He has provided for you by the Holy Spirit. In fact, you have such a glorious inheritance that sometimes you do not realize what God is doing to show you your legal rights and to bring into actual operation these privileges and blessings that are yours as an heir of God.
In Him (in Christ), you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13, 14. Not only do you have an inheritance and an administrator, but the Holy Spirit is more than an administrator. He actually, by Himself, brings the first installment of your inheritance. He is the beginning of your inheritance. And He comes as a pledge and a guarantee that the rest will be forthcoming. It’s always good to get that first token.
It’s one thing for me to say, “Yes, legally I’m an heir of God”; but what if someone asks, “If you are an heir, then show me something you have inherited.” “Well, I can’t; it’s all promises so far.” But that is not the case. If someone comes to you and asks, “Are you sure you’re an heir of God?” you can answer confidently, “Yes, I already have the first installment of my inheritance.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“The Holy Spirit Himself came to seal me unto God!”
He puts His seal upon the transaction, assuring me that all the rest of that glorious inheritance is to come. He’s not only the one who will administer the remainder of it in the due course of events, but He also comes to guarantee and seal to you that you are an heir of God and that the fantastic inheritance has begun. Where will it end? Not until God has His glorious inheritance in the saints of light. When will that be? When all of us are standing in the fulfillment of the plan and purpose of God that was predestined before the foundation of the world. What was that plan? That you would be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, made like unto Him in all things. It will be completely worked in you.
What a future! You’re not only going to inherit things, but you’re going to inherit a nature. You’re going to be robed with deity itself—God’s very nature being reproduced in you. Just think of that, bringing many sons to glory. What a fantastic inheritance! We may say, “I believe the Lord answers prayer and He will deliver me out of these circumstances. He will help me pay my bills and take care of me.” Prophesy a great deal more than that! Prophesy the Christ likeness, prophesy the new nature, prophesy the changes that are taking place—not only a change from something that is obnoxious, but take the positive view, “I’m going to be like unto Him. I’m going to take on His image. I’m going to think as He thinks because I’ll have His mind. I’m going to feel as He feels. My emotions will be the same because I’m going to have the fruit of the Spirit. My character is going to be the same as His. Hallelujah, all of it is going to be there!” This is your inheritance. The Holy Spirit comes to convey it. It’s a fantastic all-inclusive provision in the name of the Lord.
There are many words we could use to describe the Holy Spirit: Helper, Paraclete, Administrator, Attorney, Advocate. Now we’ll add a new one; the Trustee of the great trust fund. He is the one who has the responsibility of doling it out.
When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me. John 15:26. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. John 16:7.
This raises a question. Why couldn’t the Holy Spirit come to bless people while Jesus was here in the flesh? Remember what He said, John 7:37–39: If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink…out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) We can express it in a very beautiful positive way: Jesus had to die and be glorified in order that the testament or the will could be opened up. The Holy Spirit could not come to create that divine fountain in you until the estate was administered. Once Jesus was glorified and all things were placed within His hand, then the Holy Spirit could begin to minister it through all of these channels, who come and drink and literally become fountains of that blessing themselves.
Jesus told His disciples, I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth (the beautiful advocate, the administrator of the estate), comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you. John 16:12–15. The Lord Jesus has appointed the Holy Spirit to administer the fullness that lies in Him. Christ has all fullness—all things are His—and He appoints the Holy Spirit to come and administer it to you. He will come and disclose it to you and manifest it to you.
This brings us to the heart of the message. How often the Holy Spirit has been relegated just to ministering experiences to people. Of all the purposes for which the Holy Spirit came, the one that is the most important and has been most neglected is this administering of the fullness of Christ to us. Of course, this truth completely puts down the entire Full Gospel and Pentecostal movement, for in their thinking they have limited Him so completely. Once in a while, a sermon may rise above this acceptance, but the truth of the matter is that they have accepted only the receiving of glorious blessings and speaking in tongues, thinking that this is what the Holy Spirit is for. The Holy Spirit is for much more than that. The tongues may come as a sign to you that you have the first installment of your inheritance, but the Holy Spirit is to be the Administrator who opens up all the fullness and richness of the Lord. Because this has not been delivered or accepted, it has been lacking among the believers.
In a Spirit filled church service the prophecies begin to come, and as we look to the Lord, the Holy Spirit creatively brings words of life, words of revelation, until you stand amazed and say, “I never knew that. I never knew the Lord had that for me!” When you go before the Lord in prayer, how many times have you limited the Holy Spirit to move within the areas of convicting you of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. You wrestle with that, failing to realize that the basic purpose and function of the Holy Spirit is to enlarge your horizons and expand your understanding, so that you can know how tremendous are the things that God has for you.
Every movement bogs down because they do not realize that their experience was only a small token of their inheritance. They fail to throw themselves in utter dependence upon the Lord, looking for the Administrator to lead them and teach them all things. He is to bring all the truth to us, to let us know the fullness of everything that we are to have. He must blast the unbelief that comes because we have been limited in our understanding of what God really has for us.
It is true that faith is not based upon reason, but faith is often based upon understanding. When you preach to a man that salvation is for him and he becomes convicted, he asks for it. Very few people are saved without understanding that salvation is for them. Very few people are filled with the Holy Spirit unless the truth is quickened to them in the Word that this is for them. Very few people are healed in their bodies without the Holy Spirit revealing that this provision is for them too. The Holy Spirit must guide us into the truth; we have to come to a knowledge of it. When we have embraced all the experiences, we have only begun to touch the great reserve of what God has for us. There is so much that belongs to us.
We don’t limit this walk to a few experiences. I know we’ve had many experiences, but I still feel that we are barely beginning to understand what the Lord has for us. Jesus said, “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore the Holy Spirit will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” He will be the Administrator, the Helper, the Teacher who leads you and shows you, “This is for you; this is for you.”
This combats the lie of the devil, for by his lying spirits Satan is constantly working to counteract what God is sending by His Holy Spirit. Every time God says, “Here, by prophecy, is what I have for you; by revelation, this is what I have for you,” we are still only beginning to touch His provision. We may prophesy over a man, “You are going to be a prophet; you’re going to be a mighty man of God.” Then the devil comes around and says, “You’ll never make it; you can’t have it.” and makes him feel like some stranger in the house of God. That’s his whole purpose. He tries to make you feel unworthy. Christ died for you. That’s all the worthiness there can be for anyone.
You may wonder, “Is this all really mine.” Has He given you the Holy Spirit? If so, then you have all the basic ingredients. You belong to Christ, and if you’re a child, then you’re an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. You have the Administrator within you. Now quit lying to yourself and quit listening to the lies of the devil and begin to believe in your inheritance; begin to believe that God is going to open the door of understanding and wisdom and guide you into all the truth.
There were some things that Christ was unable to say to His disciples, but He told them that when the Paraclete would come, He would guide them into all the truth, things that He couldn’t tell them then. In other words, He is constantly looking for a growing awareness in you that will lift you out of your stupidity long enough to realize what God has for you. That’s what He is trying to do.
God has prepared so much for us. Paul writes of this in I Corinthians 2:9–15: But just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” The King James Version reads: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. This passage is often used at funerals. Then they sing, “In the sweet by-and-by” as though we have to be dead before we can get anything from God. Either it was all used up when the day of miracles stopped, or else it’s way off in the sweet by-and-by. No sir, that isn’t what the Word says.
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. The Holy Spirit is the Administrator and He works in two directions. First of all, He is inquisitive. He keeps listening to all the conversations and communication between the Father and the Son. Whatever He hears, that He is going to speak to you. He listens to it all and then He whispers it to you. He penetrates deep into the depths of God so He can know the things that belong to you. God appointed Him to represent your cause and He does a very good job of it. We don’t comprehend this.
After He has reached into the depths of the Father, which only God the Spirit could penetrate, the next thing He has to do is to try to make you aware of at least a small measure of what that depth is. And this is His big problem, to penetrate our thick stupid skulls some way and give us an understanding and perception to begin to see all the good things that God has for us. We are a people whose eyes have never seen it, whose ears have not heard, our wildest imagination couldn’t fathom it—and that is why we need the Administrator of the estate. No one would ever dream that God had so many things. As we walk into the land of Canaan, we don’t realize what is under the surface. “The gold is Mine, the silver is Mine, the oil is Mine—everything is Mine,” the Lord says, “and I’m giving it all to you.” Sometimes we walk along so unaware of all that He has for us. So the Holy Spirit says, “It’s My job to reach you. I’m going to help you now. I’m going to put in your heart the awareness of what God has prepared for you.”
For who among men know the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. That’s why we need the Paraclete, the Administrator. He knows how to bridge the gap between what God has provided and what we can appropriate. The work of the Holy Spirit is to change a theory that we don’t even understand into a natural reality that we can walk in.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. I want to know what’s mine, don’t you? I want to know what my rights are. I want to know what I can claim. Many times people blot out the answers for their prayers because they pray like beggars. They do not come to the Lord on a legal basis. God is a God of principle and law. Even the grace of God is based upon a law. We often hear the expression “free grace”; it is actually a law. For everything God gives you, a price had to be paid by Jesus Christ. The Father gave His Son to pay the price to make it legally yours. Then He gave you the Holy Spirit to administer that fullness and make you aware of it so you can claim and appropriate it. It is through a legal structure that God has provided everything for us. In the Old Testament, He made covenants. In the New Testament, He gave us a new covenant in His blood—the blood of the Lamb that brings us so many precious things.
We don’t love Him enough. We don’t even begin to comprehend how completely the heart of the Father is turned toward us. We don’t understand how completely the Lord has taken our place and opened up the treasures and riches. All things are ours. Nor do we understand how the Holy Spirit would administer to us in greater fullness. This is the thing that bothers me. This message has a way of exciting you and lifting you up. It can be inspirational in nature, but it can also be very, very disturbing because you know that the fault is not with the Father; the fault is not in the completeness of Jesus’ sacrifice, for by one sacrifice our Lord has forever perfected them that are sanctified. Forever, it was done. The provision was perfect. And if we’re not walking in that perfection, it’s because we’re not letting the Holy Spirit bring it to us. We’re not open and teachable.
We talk about grieving the Holy Spirit and not being yielded to the Holy Spirit when we see people in their elementary moving with God; but what about the saints of God who have reached an impasse, who are not breaking through in more and more and more from God? What about those who have become stagnant, or those who have been overcome on a plane of battle when God had so much more for them? Perhaps we should feel the rebuke of this message even more than its inspiration and ask God to deal with our hearts.
Now we receive the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches, so that this would not be just a warning, but that it would lead into such fantastic levels of appropriation that we could be the Church without spot or wrinkle in this generation. I am praying for the Lord to open up once again a free flow of the Holy Spirit and a great amount of perception for us to listen to what God is saying. Listen! Listen! He is coming to teach you, to lead you into all the truth. He’s coming to disclose and manifest to you all the fullness of the Lord, to show you the things that are freely given to us by God. All of this is true, and it’s actually disgusting that we are so slow to appropriate it and get into it.
Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God (this is the problem: we still move too much on the natural plane); for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. You have to walk in the Spirit or you do not even perceive what the Spirit is trying to say to you.
But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. No one can really understand the man who is spiritual. No one can judge him or evaluate him, for he is moving in another realm. He is moving into the place where he can say, “Yes, I know I’m an heir. I know what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to me. I’m listening. I’m spiritually tuned. I’m not on a natural plane like a dumb animal that doesn’t perceive any of this, but I’m going to be a son of God, led by the Spirit of the Lord, open to understand what God has for me; and that’s exactly what I’m going to walk in with all of my heart and soul.”
We’re looking for the Holy Spirit to lead us into the revelation of God’s great provision for us. We know it will exceed anything we could even imagine. We know that He uses channels and vessels: foundational ministries of apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He uses the elders and the deacons. But without being independent or lacking in submission to those channels that the Lord has chosen for us, don’t you think there ought to be a greater dependence upon the Holy Spirit speaking to each one of us and our listening for His voice? Let the ministries come to help our faith, to help us to appropriate; this is very essential. But there ought to be continually a goal before each one of us to listen to what God is saying.
No sermon can honestly apply to every need of every individual. In a sense it is usually a matter of generalizing a truth. But if we could preach and bring revelation to each one of you individually, the Holy Spirit would specify exactly what each one should be claiming, what you should look for. He is able to bring confirmation to you so that you do know it.
Let us begin to practice that by applying each message in this series. See the legality of this fantastic process by which God wants to bring His blessings to you and apply it in your relationships with each other. Visualize the things that you could become. You may be having a little problem in your home. Did you ever stop to think that if you grew a little spiritually, it would change? As you grow and mature a little more, as you reach into God and begin to appropriate from Him, the problems have a way of disappearing.
In old order we had to solve every problem because the growth rate of the people was so slow. They did not grow rapidly enough; therefore they were overwhelmed and overcome by the problem. In this walk, we take the opposite viewpoint. In ninety-five percent of the cases, I refuse to touch the problem because, given a few weeks’ time, the people will grow out of it. This is the only way to pastor now—just cry out to God and bind the situation over to God. As the people grow and continue to come up to a higher spiritual level, the first thing you know they have grabbed on to a truth that solved the problem for them.
How many adults still worry about tying their shoelaces? That problem existed for them when they were about four or five years old, but by the time they reached six or seven, it was no longer a problem. They grew out of the problem as they developed greater dexterity. Then they probably could help a younger brother or sister tie their shoes. Don’t you realize that if you would start seeking the Lord and waiting before Him, you could grow out of many of the things that are limiting you? Grow up into God and begin to appropriate.
When a child is small, he isn’t tall enough to reach the cookie jar. He has to ask big brother to get the cookie for him. But as he keeps growing, before long he doesn’t need his big brother to get down the cookie jar; he can reach it himself. Or he will devise some way of climbing up on a stool to reach it. God is trying to teach you to help and strengthen one another, but you should also have a real desire to constantly reach up to the Lord yourself. As you grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the problems (like the Egyptians) that you see today, you will see no more forever. Maybe they were problems when you were a slave, maybe they were chasing you when you were first delivered, but there comes that boundary line where the Egyptians are going to drown in the sea. Don’t look back. There are more problems out ahead—more than you ever thought of. Just keep growing up into the Lord and appropriate more. He will throw the mountains at your feet just to see if you will believe Him to cast it out of the way, for Him to lead you and teach you and to open the door.
Have you ever noticed how an elephant swings his trunk from side to side, even when he is standing still? One time I asked a zoo keeper why he does this. He explained that the elephant is too large for its heart, and this motion is the way he keeps his heart beating to provide circulation in his entire body.
This is an illustration of what happens in this walk. People come and they start growing spiritually. Soon they are like a bunch of elephants, laboring to keep going because their faith has not grown in proportion to the need of their faith. Their faith was probably sufficient for their needs a year ago, but now they must expand their faith as they reach out and believe more. This message necessitates a reaching out so that you can keep yourself going. You don’t want to fail or get washed out. You don’t want the enemy to come and carry you off. Sure, the battles are worse than they used to be, but the victories are greater too. God is demanding more faith on your part. You must believe for greater things. Lord, increase our faith! Lord, increase our faith!