Walk

323. You can choose how to “ Spend Your Inheritance”

Through many experiences with my own flesh, my own natural inheritance and with many of my own children, I understand that we can choose how we spend our Adamic inheritance. Notice, I did not say we could choose IF we will spend it or IF we have it to spend. We do have a cursed inheritance (Exodus 34, Jeremiah 31) and we will spend it. One other point, when I say ‘WE’ I am talking about God’s children, the righteous.

I see three Bible biographies that illustrate what I am talking about.

1. Lot.

It was stated that he was a righteous man, a defeated righteous man. Did he go to heaven? Yes. Did he live a defeated life on earth? Yes. He pitched his tent towards Sodom and did not go all the way with Abraham. He had a love for the world. When he spoke to the people in Sodom about God, they laughed at him. That was enough to shut him up for good. He even got into a “mixed marriage” and married a non-believer. Actually, she pretended to be a believer, but history proved she was not. He ended up getting drunk and having sex with his own daughters. He did not even appreciate God when Abraham risked his life and entire financial empire to save him.

I believe that Lot was living out his inheritance that he received from his family line, all of the curses coming down from Adam, and more specifically from his mother and father. He did indeed spend it. However, he did not return to God and his eternal inheritance until he left this planet and went to heaven.

2. The Prodigal in Luke 15.

I believe that this boy had the same problem that Lot had (actually, that we all have): he was stuck with a bad inheritance. Romans 3 says that none are righteous, all have gone astray. This was his destiny. However, the boy chose to leave all of the principals that he had learned about his new inheritance, his blood covenant with God. Had the boy just gone on and not “wearied in well doing”, had he pressed into God and the Word, he would not have had to spend his inheritance in such a devastating way. But, thank God, he was a step above Lot’s life. He got back to God and received his eternal inheritance, his blood covenant with God, while he was still alive on earth.

3. Abraham.

Now Abraham also had a bad inheritance, which he needed to “spend” and get rid of. His family was into worldly wealth, moon worship and perhaps even sacrificing their children on the altars of Molech. But it is said of Abraham that he hoped beyond hope, he believed God, no matter what. He was honest with God and took time to hear Him speak. He was not ashamed of God. He was not ashamed to say he had been having a conversation with an invisible God, and that was the reason that he was doing all those unreasonable things. He didn’t mind leaving all of his security, wealth, and worldly comforts; they paled compared to what he had seen.

In effect, he kept his hand in God’s hand. He saw the value of the covenant. He knew that God could not lie, and that a blood covenant with the Creator was worth more than anything on this earth. He had experienced the Presence of the Creator because of his meekness and appreciation and obedience. Even when he blew it, he came back and received forgiveness.

The payoff came when Abraham spent his inheritance. God was holding his hand all the way up the hill with Isaac (Genesis 22). Abraham was not rebelling against God by taking his son up the hill. Abraham was obeying God. What a paradox. Actually, had he never met God, Abraham would have lost his son anyway. Why? That was his fleshly inheritance. It was written on his DNA. He was destined to be childless. That was his inherited curse.

What I am proposing is that when one has a heart like Abraham, that God will actually take him into his curses full faced. But with one such as this, God will have the Lamb of God in the thicket ready to accept the curse on his behalf.

We can, by God’s grace, be more like Abraham than the other two characters.

We don’t have to be some perfect religious freaks; we can be real like Abraham. We are saved by grace through faith, and even that is the gift of God lest any man should boast. But Abraham and his faith do indeed stand for me as a reminder that we have to push in, be obedient to the small things of integrity and honesty, be not weary in well doing, go beyond the hurting point, push through the pain and keep trusting God.

That usually means in the menial and mundane tasks and relationships of life. Matthew 24 and 25 keep emphasizing that we need to take care of the little things, the little relationships, the little moral choices, the little ways we treat others, and God will take care of the big things. It’s easy to trust God when you see Him on the mountain, but the rubber meets the road in the little things.

Summary.

We need to know that we are born with an involuntary “computer program” in our DNA which goes off and does horrible things which God never intended for humans to experience. This was the fallout from the “Fall.” The good news is that we can choose how that happens in our life.

Lot returned to his God and the covenant when he left planet Earth. Actually, that didn’t take long. Life is short and the “Clock of Life” is ticking.

The Prodigal in Luke 15 returned to God and the blood covenant while he was still on Earth. Fortunate boy!

But Abraham kept his hand in God’s hand and didn’t have to “come back.” God and Abraham spent their inheritance together. That not only was advantageous to Abraham, but I feel that it makes things worthwhile for the Creator when He is trusted to this degree.

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