Junk To Jewels
Chapter 3

Paul's Junk

The gateway to his true inheritance

We can experience portions of the resurrected power and Jesus' Kingdom now on earth! Jesus told a parable in Matthew chapter 20 about the weakest of the people receiving the kingdom before the stronger. He said that the last would be first and the first would be last. The man in the story who was first only worked one hour while the others worked most of the day. Recently in a Spanish speaking country the congregation worshipped at the hearing of this story and carried banners stating "El hombre una sola hora." The one-hour man! They were proud to be one-hour people.

The Apostle Paul grasped this truth. Paul expressed this time and time again. I would just like to use two Scripture passages to demonstrate how he felt. When the messenger of Satan afflicted him, it probably had to do with his list in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. That list included, being flogged with thirty-nine lashings five times, shipwrecked and spending the night in the sea, being robbed, facing perils by the heathen, perils in the city, in the wildernesses, in the sea and among false brethren, being hungry, cold and naked, and then having the cares of the new churches that had many problems and attacks. In addition, history records that these false brethren were legalistic Jews who always attacked Paul's message of grace.

His response to all this was, "Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Notice he said, "I take pleasure." He did not say he just endured them, but rather they were profitable for him. Why did he think this way? Let us take a peek into his mind and some of the things he had learned as shown in Philippians chapter 3.

First Paul listed his strengths, the things that he had accomplished in life and even the things and privileges he was born into.

(Philippians 3:4-11 - brackets indicate Amplified version).
"though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:

5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."

Then he stated that these assets and strengths were of really no value when compared to something else. Notice he did not state that they were of no value at all, but that they had no value when compared to a greater thing.

"7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss [dung] for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection [the power out flowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers], and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death"

"11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead [that lifts me out from among the dead even while in the body]"

Paul was a performance-based person.
He achieved his significance from how he performed. But later after he changed, he wrote in Ephesians 6:6 that being a men-pleaser and working for eye-service were attributes of slaves. He finally understood that his significance was in his identification with Jesus only. Prior to that revelation his significance was according to the formula:

How I perform + How you view me performance = My Identity.
I will paraphrase what Paul said in Philippians.

"Look, I know I have been born into privilege even religious privilege, that I have been educated with and by the best. I have performed perfectly in my vocations, I was a real performer, and few people could keep up with me. However, I have noticed something interesting. The fruit that I see in my life and in my ministry is fruit that came from my afflictions. That fruit far surpassed anything all my natural strengths could and did accomplish. I was amazed! His resurrection of my afflictions has produced more fruit than all of my performance! Therefore I long for His resurrection power to work in my life, and I count all other things as "dung." I would rather have Him turn my Junk into Jewels any day!"

He also stated in Colossians 1:24, "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church."

Why was Paul's junk his gateway to his true inheritance?
We all were born under the curse of our old genealogy. Some have greater curses some have greater blessings coming from our natural genealogy depending upon our forefathers. However, we all come from the same forefather Adam, who put himself and all of us under a curse.

Now that we have received the new birth however, we have a choice. We do not obtain the blessings of our new spiritual genealogy by default. Certainly it is by grace, but it is also by our own choice. How do we make that choice? Too many Christians miss the whole point on this and spend their lives inheriting curses.

Abraham in Genesis chapter 15 experienced the benefits of exchanging his old cursed genealogy for God's spiritual DNA through a blood covenant. However Abraham never shed his own blood. Two theophonies (or early physical manifestations) of Deity walked the bloody trench while Abraham was put to sleep. The blood benefit was actually transferred to him by the words of the covenant. I believe that today's Jews still enjoy this blessing.

Then in Deuteronomy chapter 28 God states that we will be blessed if we hear and obey His Words. He also says that we will be cursed if we do not hear and do not obey His Words. In Deuteronomy 30 He goes on to say that we should choose between life and death, blessing and curse, and that choice is made by words. Paul quoted Deuteronomy 30:14 in Romans chapter 10. "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it. See I have set before you today life and good, death and evil." It goes on to explain that our choices are in our hearts and in our words as well, and in whose word we hear and obey. You cannot obey someone's word one a consistent basis if you don't hear the Word consistently.

Jesus was telling the poor people in John chapter 6 that in order to have life they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood. That disgusted many and many departed as His disciples from that time forth. Then in John 6:63 He uncovered the real truth about spiritual DNA and the blood covenant, He said, " It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life." In other words, the life of the soul may be in the blood, as stated in Leviticus 11, however the spiritual life, or the spiritual DNA is in words. Jesus also stated in that chapter that He, the Word, is the heavenly manna. How often are we to eat manna? Did the Israelites eat it only once a month because they remembered what it tasted like? Some say "Why do I need the Word every day? I can remember what I studied last year."

Jesus bore all of your curses, and indeed your entire genealogy on the Cross. He offers to you all of his genealogy, all of the blessings through the blood covenant. However it is your choice to feast on the Word in order to inherit His genealogy, and therefore the blessings.

To the degree you hear and obey God's Word, you will receive more of His genealogy and blessings. To the degree you hear and obey any other words, you will receive your own natural family genealogy and the resulting curses. The more you hear only the words of those at work, worldly philosophy, your family and their traditions, and from the TV set, the more you will be like your grandfather, or perhaps someone else in your family line that lived his/her life under the curse of sickness, addictions, sexual perversity, rebellion, poverty or some other curse. If you do nothing, then by default you will be under the curse of the old genealogy.

Ancestral worship is not limited to primitive Africa. It is the "default" religion of most nations and people groups. Why? It is Satan's strategy for keeping us in the bondage of our generational curse. It is even prevalent in the so-called "civilized" Western nations, however under a sneaky disguise.

The more Word you hear and obey, the more Word you meditate upon, the more Word you speak, the more of the life of Jesus, your true inheritance will come into your life. I believe that even more of this blessing comes upon us when we pray in our spiritual language for extended periods of time. They are words of the Spirit!

Jesus said in John 17:17 that His Word actually sanctifies us or changes us into His image. That is our true inheritance, our true genealogy.

The answer to the above question of how Paul's junk brought his true inheritance is simple.
His sufferings weakened his old flesh nature to the point that he knew that all of his credentials were worth as dung compared to the resurrected genealogy of Jesus. His sufferings actually diminished and extinguished his old genealogy to the point that Paul began to covet more suffering. He stated in Philippians 3:10 that his passion was to KNOW Jesus. That is a term describing intimate fellowship that can only be achieved through the exchange of words, His and yours.

Can you say that? We don't want to suffer in the wrong way, to suppose that God is teaching us some lesson with a big stick, however if our suffering is killing the old flesh nature that only can bring curses, then you can praise God!

God does not want polished junk; He is looking for jewels! God actually takes the suffering and infirmities caused by your old genealogy, and with your permission, buries them and then raises them in a supernatural resurrection.

I used to be tempted to compared myself to others. I could always find someone who was more gifted than I in whatever I was confronted with. Let me tell you right now, it is pure insanity to compare yourself to anyone else! It will cripple you! Instead, embrace your limitations, your infirmities as raw material for the resurrection, for some kind of jewel. Grab hold of Paul's mindset. He would rather have had one jewel for the Kingdom of God, then ten thousand pieces of things from his natural life. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). Polished junk won't stand before God. It may taste good, look good, but it is still junk. It must go through death and resurrection before it counts for anything eternal!