OUR INHERITANCE - WHAT DO WE DO?

OUR INHERITANCE – WHAT DO WE DO?

We have a great inheritance from God, and choices as to what to do with that inheritance. The Lord showed me two examples in the Bible of people who squandered their inheritance. The difference between the two is a lesson for all of us. The first record is an unusual one for a message on inheritance; it’s the story of the man of the tombs, and the central characters are those who lived around him. Mark 5:2-4 tells us:

 

“When he [Jesus] was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.”

 

This poor man was possessed by an evil spirit, crazy out of his mind. “Always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones” (v.5).

 

The people who lived around this man couldn’t help him. They did everything they could to stop him from cutting himself. They tried to restrain him and calm him down, but every time he broke out of the restraints.

 

The people who lived in Gadara only believed what they could understand by their five senses, and it wasn’t helping them to help this crazy man. But when Jesus came, He healed the man by spiritual means. By the Spirit within Jesus, Jesus could see what was wrong with the man, and “He said unto him, ‘Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit’” (v. 8). Jesus taught by example, and the people had an amazing opportunity to tap into the spiritual inheritance Jesus was offering them.

 

They witnessed with their own eyes the transformation of the possessed man. “And they [the people] come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid” (v. 15).

 

When we don’t understand something, we are often afraid of it. Instead of being courageous enough to try it, we get angry and reject it. Mostly our reactions come from a deep fear that we’re not really worthy—it’s way too crazy, and if we reach out to take it, we may fail! That’s way to embarrassing!  

 

Well, the Gadarenes didn’t want to reach out. They said a big NO to their inheritance.

 

“And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts” (Matt 8: 34).

 

“The whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear” (Luke 8:37).

 

We don’t hear much about these people after this incident.

 

The other lesson about inheritance is one we know well. Jesus told the story:

 

“And he said, ‘A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me [his inheritance]. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living” (Luke 15:11-13).

 

This younger son squandered his whole inheritance. He rejected it like the men of Gadara rejected the spiritual answers Jesus came to give them. This son didn’t feel his inheritance was valuable.  

 

“And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him” (vv. 14-16). 

 

“And when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants” (vv.17-19)

 

This son didn’t value his inheritance. He abused and squandered it all. But the big difference between this man and the men of the Gadarenes is that when the prodigal son hit bottom, he woke up and was willing to humble himself to get right with his father again. He was going to go back and ask for forgiveness.

 

“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:20-24).

 

We’ve probably all rejected a part of our spiritual inheritances in one way or another. But let’s not be like the fearful men of Gadara, who never got to experience the wonderful treasures of spiritual life. Let’s be like the prodigal son, and go back and get every morsel the Lord wants to open to us.

 

Love, Carolyn