We have a spiritual inheritance that is real and exceedingly powerful. Christ revealed the evidence of this inheritance through the pattern of His life and living as He walked on this earth. After His death, burial, and resurrection, He appeared to His disciples and told them to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of Holy Spirit to come upon them and into them, enduing them with “power from on high” (see Luke 29:49). After many days, Jesus then ascended into Heaven, and He sent back Holy Spirit. The Spirit which was in Jesus and enabled Him to walk in the power, wisdom, and likeness of God was the same Spirit that was given by promise of the Father to the Church in that upper room experience on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit of God came upon them and occupied their human bodies. He empowered them to take on the likeness of Christ. They taught with the same anointing with which He taught. They performed miracles, signs, and wonders by the same power that worked through Him.
The Church was birthed out of that encounter. This was God’s original intention! He did not leave us comfortless! He left us empowered with His own Spirit to live our lives in the reality of the effects of our spiritual inheritance! It is an inheritance that never fades away (see 1 Peter 1:4).
Through salvation in Jesus Christ, we have been given access to this rich heritage. The breath of His Spirit now dwells in us, and His purposes must continue through us. Those who have gone before us paid the price to pass along the evidence of this inheritance. Laying their reputations—and even their very lives—on the line, they determined to obey God in order to give future generations knowledge of His power and evidence of His presence with us. We are inspired by the glory stories that we read and hear that came as a result of their devotion to the Lord, but it’s not enough just to be inspired! Accompanying the inspiration must be a revelation of the undeniable responsibility that we now have. In order for the next generation to know and receive the spiritual inheritance that belongs to the children of God, we, too, must embrace and fulfill our part so that His fire continues to burn in us, no matter the cost.
