Delight: Kingdom Identity and Inheritance

INTRODUCTION

As the Trinity gleefully created the heavens and the earth, we read that the Holy Spirit danced. I understand that the literal meaning for rejoiced or similar, according to many of our translations of the verse in Proverbs 8, is twirled.

How many believers have this notion of the Spirit of God as a reality in their lives? It was a delicious surprise to me, for sure.

But that’s right – we read of the Three-in-One taking rapturous delight in their workmanship, the project culminating in the bringing forth of the sons of men.

" ²⁶ While He had not yet made the earth and the [i]fields, Nor the first dust of the world. ²⁷ When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, ²⁸ When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became [j]fixed, ²⁹ When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His [k]command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth; ³⁰ Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was daily His delight, [l]Rejoicing always before Him, ³¹ [m]Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of men."

PROVERBS 8: 26-31

The Trinity still delights in us. And, many are discovering and experiencing this delight, perhaps to degrees previously unimagined.

It is God’s plan that we should know who we truly are, as people of Heaven, that our identity in Jesus Christ should be rock solid. Our enjoyment of our faith walk and our effectiveness in His Kingdom adventures are tied to this intrinsic appreciation of what it means to be a son of the House. There are, and there will be, plenty of media messages making a concerted effort to inform us otherwise. Their aim is to keep us very much earth-bound. But God says:

"Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² [a]Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. ³ For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

⁴ When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

COLOSSIANS 3: 1-4

God’s plan in Jesus Christ is very much on track and advancing, and we are very much part of it. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are passionately pursuing their delightful purpose of revealing the Kingdom of Heaven to, and through, His Church.

Religion is giving way to revelation. Tired traditions that have perhaps sapped our energies rather than transmitted the Life of God are making way for His truth. The whole Bible is the living, breathing word of God and carries the heartbeat of the Father.

God is love, and there is no darkness at all in Him. He is pure, pulsating, alive, delightful and compassionate. He is for us. He is rooting for us. He is very much involved in all that pertains to us, His treasured investments.

Christians are discovering the delight of their true identities and realising the power of the Cross in their life experiences. The purpose of this book is to encourage you to intentionally live more deeply and more securely in yours. You are going to wake up, rub your sore eyes and begin to see life colours that, perhaps, you never knew existed. Or maybe you didn’t think you were quite qualified.

Rest assured that he who writes these words has walked with the Saviour for some forty years. Yes, I’ve walked, triumphed, stumbled, fallen, wept, experienced rescue and compassion and the holding arms of Jesus. He has been more faithful than I could even begin to describe, though I will probably need to have a go at articulating His nature and His unwavering generosity.

He has shown me that I count; it is preposterous and yet glorious, to me, that the Lord cares enough to have shown me that His abundant life has nothing to do with deadening, legalistic religion. I am so grateful. I find myself vocalizing my gratitude ever increasingly.

Does the Church need evangelists as mouthpieces to the world around us? Of course. Does the Church also need to listen to its own evangelists? Absolutely. It is time for the sons and daughters of the Kingdom to be revealed.  It is time for us all in the Body to wake up to our identity and to our inheritance, because ‘getting saved’ is really just the beginning. It is awesome – but it is the beginning of a unique, divine journey that carries heavenly mandates.

Many believers are in cages; prisons of religion, regret and wrong roles. Some have struggled to settle, like jigsaw pieces jammed into places that do not truly fit.

The Holy Spirit is on a dedicated mission to fix our understanding of who we are in Jesus.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty…

2 CORINTHIANS 3:17

I once heard that a sound definition of true humility is along these lines, Knowing God as He really is and knowing who we truly are.

Such a sense of identity leaves no room for ‘woe is me’ gloom or ‘I am so unworthy’ self-deprecation; neither of those notions is remotely true as, I hope, this book will affirm. The Cross has purchased life that is far more abundant and significant than them.

This is truly a time to embrace the truth of the Gospel and its ambitions for our lives.

When your identity is found in Christ, your identity never changes. You are always a child of God.

Tim Tebow

1

THE CROSS IS STILL THE CRUX

I previously published a book entitled, Blood and Glory: The Cross is still the Crux. I had found the Cross (I use the capital C to designate the cross of Jesus Christ) beyond just simply relevant, or even amazing. I was so impacted by the crucial centrality of the Cross to God’s design for our lives.

It was and is, unequivocally, almost unbelievably good news. If we will allow ourselves to dream beyond the ordinary, it is gloriously believable and transforms us from the inside out.

Heaven is earnestly and deeply downloading the stunning ramifications of Jesus Christ’s work on the Cross to His people. Mere theology – and the theology alone is truly magnificent – is becoming upgraded to experiential, abundant life.

To be ready for what is coming upon the earth – socially, politically and spiritually - we will need to have ‘hearts of flesh,’ a living reality of the Cross life. Head knowledge, alone, is not going to be enough. There is a very real spiritual conflict taking place and only those who are armoured in God’s spiritual equipment will be ready for these realities.

The Church is going to be gloriously and powerfully manifested; at the same time, standing for the Christian gospel is going to become ever more a challenge and society will shift further to seek to constrict Christian voices and values. Ignoring Christ, sneering at His values, and outright mockery has been and will be on the menu.

The Cross of Christ was a cosmic event that has forever changed human potential and destiny. And you, I and all believers get to walk it out. The glorious foundation is set solidly in the word of God:

¹² And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

ACTS 4:12

Saved. Saved from death. Saved from sin and its penalties. Saved from pointless, aimless living. Saved, too, from religious, deficit living.

Self-effort, striving and soulish programs have disappointed us. Never feeling good enough, judging oneself unspiritual and considering others far more qualified in their faith walk, have been the shadows accompanying many.

There is no Plan B in God’s marvellous economy. The Cross has triumphed and the Church, each of us who have come to know Him, was born to demonstrate that victory.

Jesus alone is our forever companion, our confidante and our supernatural source and supply in Heaven’s purposes. A religious life is one thing. A life reconciled to the Father in Heaven is totally something else.

⁶Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

JOHN 14:6

No cross, no salvation. No salvation, no Saviour or relationship with the Father. No Saviour? Then let us eat, drink and party, as Ecclesiastes suggests in a more pessimistic moment. What would be left for us, but to try to medicate and mask our emptiness in our own, wearying strength, desperately seeking to make something of this life? And we may help a few others to do the same along the way.

Or…Hallelujah! What if our God has endowed us with something immeasurably beyond that depressing offering and hopelessly limiting prospect?

There is simply no getting around the Cross. Jesus describes Himself as the 'door' to the sheep pen and the Cross is that heavenly entrance through which the old life can be disarmed, and the new creation of Christ be born and nurtured.

Born, nurtured, matured. Brothers and sisters of this blood-bought family supporting one another in growth, in trial, in discovery.

Each Christian a vital cog in the wheel; each one uniquely fashioned by the Creator to play a colourful, fruitful part. In Jesus, we realise our heavenly design! How pointless are the world’s efforts to conform behaviours, and to seek to mould people to suit others’ expectations. This is not for us in the Kingdom.

We know, don’t we, that someone can attend church for many years and not actually be a born-again believer. How about the countless believers who have been active for equally as many years, and yet have lived aimless, religious lives of drudgery and self-accusation? How can this possibly be the ‘abundant life’ that the Bible promises?

Revelation of the Cross is lethal to such a dulled and demeaning mindset. The power of the Cross deals with long-standing regrets, shame and captivating memories. At the Cross, we are relieved of the weights that may have hindered us for so long.

Surely, the Lord is the Spirit, and where He is, there is freedom and deliverance, (2 Corinthians 3:17). Not just deliverance from the old ways of thinking and judgements and failings, but deliverance into the life that Jesus has purposed for us. He is so good. He is so kind. He is on our side. And He is sure of His Kingdom purposes that He calls us to participate in.

We are going to be reminded in these following pages that Jesus’ words, 'It is finished,' are a cry of victorious, liberating freedom. They apply to us today as deeply as they have ever delighted the hearts of those who have walked in Christ before us.

The Holy Spirit’s heart is to enable us to function as those who have been liberated and empowered. He is not merely trying to help us to help ourselves. He is asking us to allow Him to do the transforming work. We get to take on 'an easy yoke' (Matthew 11) and, in so doing, we partner with the Kingdom power of the indwelling Spirit of God.

Our pride has to back off, right? There is no Kingdom glory for us in our own efforts. There is glory for us in Jesus as He is glorified through our lives.

"²²The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as