Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Ephesians 1:16-19
16-17 I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18-19 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.
Ephesians 1:16-19 (Paraphrase) - “I pray that the Father of glory breathe His supreme intelligence and wisdom into you resulting in REVELATION according to His full discernment, that may be able to see, understand and grasp three divine things in the realm of the spirit… His calling on your life, your inheritance in Christ and the exceeding greatness of His power toward you as a believer.”
REVELATION KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR INHERITANCE IN CHRIST
The Father wants to give you revelation knowledge through the Holy Spirit about your inheritance in Christ. When the eyes of your understanding are supernaturally opened and you get a revelation of what you have been given in Christ through the New Covenant established in His blood, you will never be the same again! You have received an inheritance in Christ that has left you rich, powerful, healthy, strong and overflowing with supernatural ability.
Many believers are poverty stricken, sick, weak and defeated… why is this? The answer is firstly that they do not know what they have been given in Christ, and secondly, they do not know how to lay claim to or how to receive what they have been given… thirdly, some have been deceived into believing that they are not qualified, or good enough to merit anything from the Lord. The inheritance from the Father is to Jesus, and since you are in Christ, your inheritance in Him is unmerited. It is based on Jesus and what He did and not on you and your works.
1 Corinthians 2:12 says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
THE HOLY SPIRIT, SENT BY THE FATHER WANTS TO BRING REVELATION TO YOU SO THAT YOU WILL KNOW WAT YOU HAVE BEEN FREELY GIVEN…
The Holy Spirit wants to take you beyond mental assent to supernatural revelation. Believers that have been taught the Word know intellectually much of what they have in Christ, however there is a difference between intellectually knowing something and having a supernatural revelation from God concerning something. When you get a divine revelation, it seems like you have just heard something for the first time… revelation knowledge goes far beyond mental assent and includes the ability to walk in the imparted revelation.
Romans 8:16-17 (TPT) says, “For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as He whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!” And since we are His true children, we qualify to share all His treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that He is and all that He has. We will experience being co-glorified with Him provided that we accept His sufferings as our own.”
The New King James Version says, “…if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
THERE IS A ‘SUFFERING’ IN FOLLOWING JESUS… JESUS’ SUFFERING WAS FROM THE HANDS OF HIS PEOPLE AND OUR SUFFERING WILL BE FROM THE HANDS OF OUR PEOPLE.
The Word is not referring to suffering in sickness, poverty and being stressed out and defeated… the suffering that Jesus, Paul and the other apostles are referring to comes from people. People that we love and minister with and to, often betray, break covenant and say and do hurtful things, regardless of how good you have been to them. When believers that you love hurt you, it is a very deep hurt… it is different from any other hurt because it is spiritual hurt… this is the suffering that comes to every believer.
Jesus said that if we leave our land, our home, our family or our friends for His sake to bring the gospel to people that we will receive one hundred times more as an inheritance, in this lifetime, land, homes, family, friends and whatever we have given WITH PERSECUTION.
Our inheritance is linked to suffering… how we respond to this suffering is very important. If you allow yourself to become bitter, offended, angry and vengeful then you give place to the devil to steal your inheritance. When you walk in grace and mercy toward others… in love, forgiveness and in generosity toward those that have wronged you, you are walking in Christ’s divine nature, and that divine nature is what receives your inheritance.
2 Peter 1:2-4 says, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (self-centered, self-focused desire.)”
We partake of His divine nature through the grace and peace and power that we have been given as an inheritance, and then His divine nature in us receives the revelation and the supernatural ability to occupy, or to lay hold of the rest of our inheritance in Christ.
THE PROMISE IS IN THE DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST!
THE DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST IS BIRTHED AND MAINTAINED IN THE ANOINTING
AS WE WALK IN HIS ANOINTED NATURE, WE HAVE ACCESS TO ALL THAT HE HAS AND TO ALL THAT HE IS!
HIS DIVINE NATURE IN US RECEIVES THE PROMISES OF GOD
LUST, OR THE SELF-CENTERED FLESHLY DESIRE STEALS, CORRUPTS AND GIVES PLACE TO THE DEVIL
YOUR NATURE IS YOUR FUNDAMENTAL DISPOSITION AND CHARACTER – TO POSSESS THE DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST IS TO WALK IN HIS GENTLE, STABLE, LOVING, STRONG DISPOSITION.
Tomorrow’s devotion will continue the teaching on ‘The power of what I have in Christ’.
In His amazing love, Nick
