Category: Inheritance

Dead Raised UP, Inheritance

How are the Dead Raised up?

Inge Schultz

But some man will say, how are the dead raised up?”

1 Corinthians 15:35

Have you ever asked this question, “how are the dead raised up?” It is the age-old question through the centuries that had many captivated as to the answer. Is there life after death is the other question that is related to the dead being raised up. During my lifetime as a Christian to date this topic may have only been preached a few times. One is so consumed about living and not dying, yet death is all around us. Even in my youth I have seen death. The death of a beloved animal, or family member and friends. When Job was going through his trial and complaining, God asked Job these questions.

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

Job38:17

If there is anyone acquainted with death is God and his son Jesus Christ. The word grieve means to inflict or afflict pain. It’s origin from the Hebrew word is “yagon” and it is associated with the word agony. We should remember that God was so grieved with the wickedness of man to do evil that the Lord God said in Genesis chapter six in verse six, “and it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” Read the rest of the story in Genesis chapter six. I believe the hardest thing for a human to do is to die to their own self will, yet that is exactly what Christ did on the cross for each of us. He died that we might have life. We are so consumed with our own life that we forget that death is knocking at the door if we do not address it for whatever is not of faith is sin [see Romans 14:23]. There can be no doubt in your life for you to lose the power of God to act on your behalf. The life of the Christian is totally based upon faith, and that faith carries with it the power of God to perform miracles in our life.

The first man Adam was a living soul while the last Adam who is Christ is a life-giving spirit. Christ is the Fountian of life, and He gave that life to others. And here comes the rub that most people ignore, it is that one must die to their own self will in order to live for Christ. Our self-will is what gets us into trouble. We do not want to give it up. We do not want to surrender. Yet God is asking us to do just that. Paul states that the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body [see 1 Corinthians 6:13]. Thus, when we read verse 36 of 1st Corinthians, we may begin to understand just a little about its meaning.

Thou fool, that which thou sow is not made alive, except it die;”

1 Corinthians 15:36

What did Jesus say about his own sacrifice? “Verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit,” [ see John 12:24]. What did Jesus mean by saying this? The answer is in the next verse of 25 in John chapter 12. If you love your life, you will lose it, for it is in your will to love your life more than anyone else. In otherwards your pride of life will bring you down like Lucifer who exclaimed, ” I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” Know that you can play right into the hand of Satan by doing the same and exalting yourself above the stars of God. Judgement is here and now. Jesus stated, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out,” [John 12:31]. Walking in darkness means you do not know where you are going, but the Bible tells us this is death. The judgement that is spoken of is here now because that judgement was upon Jesus Christ who bore our sins upon the cross. Think about it, it was death for Christ but to those who believe it is justification.

Satan the prince of this world will be cast down. It is God who giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed its own body [see 1 Corinthians 15:38]. All flesh is not the same flesh Paul states in the next verse of 1st Corinthians 15:39, and so is the resurrection of the dead. The whole later chapter of 1st Corinthians 15 should be read. It is Jesus himself who restored death to life. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. The natural body was sown in corruption, and it is raised in incorruption. Look at verse 45 of 1st Corinthians 15.

And so, it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:45

The natural becomes a life-giving spirit. We start in the natural but end up in the spiritual. This is our inheritance through Jesus Christ. Those in Christ will bear the image of the heavenly body. We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. [see 1 Corinthians 15:52]. What a day that will be. Death will be swallowed up in victory. Our inheritance at that point will be final, for we will have received a heavenly spiritual body. This is the earnest expectation we wait for, those who belong to Christ in faith. The fall of Adam has brought vanity to all creation. [see Romans 8:20]. Paul tells us in Romans 8 verse 21, that creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. How marvelous is God to even consider all living creation? Paul states that the whole creation groaned and travail in pain waiting for the redemption of the body.

This is the hope we have as Christians, the deliverance of our natural body to a heavenly body. For Christ is the head of the body and all things has been put under His feet [see Ephesians 1:22]. We can now understand Paul better when he exclaims that “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” We gain Christ provision of eternal life from death itself and a redemption of the body at a future date. But we must die to our own self-will and follow Christ on the road of love. With the Holy Spirit as our helper to point us in the right path, and to always pray with all supplication unto the Lord. We ask and receive to the fullness we have in Christ Jesus, for greater is He that is in us than He that is in this world, [ 1 John 4:4]. We can sing that wonderful hymn written by E. M. Bartlett, “Victory in Jesus.” Yes, He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood. His precious blood’s atoning gave humanity life over death.

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood’s atoning,
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory.

Chorus
O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about His healing,
Of His cleansing pow’r revealing.
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus,
Come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and bro’t
To me the victory.

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Holy Spirit, Inheritance

Be Filled with the Spirit

Inge Schultz

“And be not drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.”

Ephesians 5:18

Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? To be filled with the Spirit is to walk in the Spirit and not to walk in the flesh. Have you not been quickened together with Christ and saved by grace? If we have been quickened with Christ and saved by grace, we should be walking in the Spirit whereby we have been sealed unto the day of redemption [Ephesians 4:30]. This is the gospel of your salvation that the apostle Paul spoke about in Romans.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.”

Romans 1:16

Jesus Christ’s resurrection is the power of God. It was Jesus Christ himself who spoke of the promise of the Spirit’s indwelling in the Gospel of John, chapter 14. Oh, how we need the Spirit so desperately to guide our path in these days. The Holy Spirit that Jesus prayed to the Father for was to be our comforter and guide in our everyday living. Jesus did not want us to be orphans, He wanted us to be children belonging to the Father God. The Holy Spirit is to teach us all things and bring all things to our remembrance. The Holy Spirit will also teach us what we need to know and hear in the word of God. We are to be filled and led by the Spirit in order that we do not go back under the law where the works of the flesh bring bondage. The works of the flesh that we were saved out of such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying’s, murders, drunkenness, raveling’s, and such like as is stated in Galatians 5:21. If we are in Christ, we have crucified the flesh with its desires. We put to death these desires by binding them in the name of Jesus. We are no longer under its control and the Holy Spirit comes to dispel us of those desires.

Have you received the Holy Spirit? This is a question for every believer of Christ. If you are a believer of Christ, you are His disciple and you should receive the Holy Spirit of God. We need the Holy Spirit in our life to teach us every day, for temptations are visible and we must make decisions not to fall into them. How can we compare spiritual things with spiritual [see 1st Corinthians 2:13] if we do not have the Spirit of God residing within us? We need the Holy Spirit convictions to guide us into the truth of the word of God and to discern its meaning. This is more than just mere head knowledge of the bible. This is a deep heart felt knowledge that is proven in your life because you are walking in it and experiencing it firsthand. The apostle Paul states that the natural man cannot receive and know the things from the Spirit of God [ see 1st Corinthians 2:14]. We must have the Holy Spirit to teach, guide, and keep us in the light of Christ. There is so much disillusionment and false teaching regarding the Holy Spirit that the Spirit is stamped out in our life as well as the church. When this happens, we become dead in Christ rather than alive in Christ.

After I got saved, I went with a small group to another church where the pastor laid his hands on our heads to receive the Holy Spirit. We all started to speak in tongues. Was this wrong? No, it is no different than what happened in Acts 8:17 and Acts 9:17. I went back to my church and word got out about the young people who received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. The pastors of the church said it was of the devil and those who spoke in tongues were to stop. I missed this service were this was said but had a long discussion about it with one my friends. My faith stumbled. I could not believe that something so joyous was of the devil. The apostle Paul told the Thessalonians in 1st. Thessalonians 5:19, “Quench not the Spirit.” Some churches are doing exactly that quenching the Spirit. Why? Because they do not understand, believe, or feel that they cannot control the Spirit of God. In fact, some believe that it was only for a specific time period of the early church in 30 AD.

I did not have the assurance of what happened to me and being a new babe in Christ, I could only continue my walk as a new Christian. The truth about the Holy Spirit I kept to myself, and I struggled with it for a while not being sure about it. However, when I had my prayer time, or when I sang, I knew I still had God’s Spirit residing with me, for I sensed His presence. This was a heartfelt experience and I know I was praying and singing to a person rather than just praying and singing with no knowledge at all to whom I was praying or singing to. That made a big difference in my life, just knowing to whom I was praying and singing to. That God was real in my life and that I had experienced His divine intervention in my life. It was not magic; it was real, and God proved it to me.

Our God is our protector, healer, and provider. He will always give us what we need in life as long as our faith in grounded in His Son Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus that we have been given the privilege to pray to our Heavenly Father. It is through Jesus that we can also receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus stated that “he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water,” [John7:38]. Look at the next verse in John 7:39 where it states that He spoke about the Spirit, that those who believe should receive the Holy Spirit. God is a Spirit, and we must worship him in spirit and in truth.

“Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

John 4:22-24

I pray that you know to whom you are worshipping. Every believer should have the living water flowing out of his heart, which is the Holy Spirit. Every believer should know to whom they are praying and worshipping to. Every believer should test the spirit to see if it is of the Spirit of God.

“Try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

1 John 4:2

The Holy Spirit will always point to Christ, if it does not, it is not the Spirit of God. Remember that Satan has his spirits as well. That is why the apostle John was telling us to test the spirits in 1st John chapter 4. Look at verse three of John chapter 4 where he states, “every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” In fact, John states that this is the spirit of antichrist, and is already in the world. So, there is the spirit of antichrist, and there is the Spirit of God. Know the difference. Be assured that you stand in the liberty where Christ has made us free from all the works of the flesh. Christ has given us the Holy Spirit as our comforter to help us walk as disciples of Christ. This is the down payment of our inheritance (the Holy Spirit) until the redemption of the purchased possession [see Ephesians1:13-14]. Read Ephesians 5:16-20:

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:16-20

If you lack the Holy Spirit in your life, ask God to fill you with His Spirit in the name of Jesus. Read the Gospel of John chapter 14 verses 13-26. It will happen as you believe.

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Inheritance

We have obtained an Inheritance . . .

Inge Schultz

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

Ephesians 1:11

We have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to His will. What does it mean to be predestined? The Greek word is “proorizo,” and it means to mark out or determine beforehand. Another word would be foreordained, which is to ordain in advance according to Merriam-Webster. Some may call it fate. The apostle Paul used this word in Ephesians chapter one verses 5 and 11. We should know God’s will and testament as it is written in the Holy Bible. Many people were involved in the translation of the Bible and fate has brought it through many generations. Biblical archaeology has affirmed its historical truth, even though there are those who wish to discredit it. The debate still goes on today because of unbelief and doubt. Let us consider what it would be like not to have the Bible and know the story of man [Adam & Eve] fallen from their own desire to be something else than what God desired them to be, rulers over the earth [see Genesis 1;26].

Man is a law unto themselves. They choose what they desire in their heart to do good or evil. Those who have ruled have not all been good. Friedrich Nietzsche was an influential German philosopher, and it is interesting to note that even he commented on why people do not want to hear the truth because it would destroy their illusions. They do not want to face their own fears or demons in their life. However, the stories written in the Bible are about men who must face the reality of their own fears and or demons in their life. Maybe that is why David exclaimed, “who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults, [see Psalms 19:12]. Do you have any secret faults that need to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus? This is one thing that the Apostle Paul talked about the desires of our own flesh and fulfilling those desires that is in the sons of disobedience [see Ephesians 2:3]. Those desires are not easily given up without divine intervention. The grace of God brings salvation through his Son Jesus Christ and when we confess, he is faithful to forgive us all our sins.

We are acquainted with our own sins and secret faults. If not our own, we know about others that have sin and secret faults. We like to point the finger, but remember what Jesus said to those when they accused the women of adultery, He said, “he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” [see John 8:7]. No one is exempt from the all-seeing eye of God. The realization that God is acquainted with all our ways is astounding. My substance was not hidden from God when I was made in secret and there is a book where all my members were written [see Psalms 139]. All my members being formed were written in a book. What book is David talking about in Psalms 139:16? Can it be the Book of Life? Did you know about the books that were opened in Revelation 20:12? When you are wondering about your life and how you have come so far from spiritual death, a light begins to dawn that our future is in the hand of God. Even when we cannot conceive it ourselves, we are given an inheritance that was sealed in a book.

We also have the down payment of our inheritance. When we have believed in the word of truth concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise [see Ephesians 1:13-14]. This seal is a finished transaction of ownership, which brings in the adoption of the believer to the position of a child of God. This is a divine decision of foreknowledge that is mind-boggling to many people especially to new believers. Therefore, as a believer’s one must ask God to open the eyes of our understanding as to what the scriptures are revealing. As a child of God, the believer begins to gain understanding who he or she is in Christ. Paul states in Romans 8:16-17 that the Spirit bears witness that we are the children of God. As the children of God, we have become joint heirs with Christ. We were redeemed from under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons, [Galatians 4:5]. I remember the song that was sang with gusto at the church when I was a young adult titled,” The family of God.” It meant something to me since I was born out of wedlock and then abandoned by my mother as a teen. As a teenager I wanted to belong somewhere. When I got saved, I realized that I belonged to God.

I’m so glad I’m a part

Of the family of God

I’ve been washed in the fountain

Cleansed by His blood

Joint heirs with Jesus

As we travel this sod

For I’m part of the family

The family of God

The Family of God by Bill & Gloria Gaither

I now have a family in God.  Joint heirs with Jesus as I travel this earth. No one can take me from the Love of God. This applies to you too. . .if you are a believer, you are joint heirs with Jesus also [see Romans 8:17]. Do not take this lightly. Think about the book you are written in. God has given everyone a free will to choose life or death. We are called the “sons of God” in 1 John 3:1. There is another song that was sung in the late 70’s and written by Patricia Van Tine. As a teenager I grew up on this simple song of worship. Listen and sing it within your heart. We have obtained an inheritance through Christ, and this is something to rejoice in.

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