If you are heir of Salvation you have a heavy destiny and an assignment to fulfill for God: 'to declare the power of God to the new generation, His mighty miracles to all who come after you' (Ps 71:18 NLT). David prayed to God not to forsake him at his old age which he reached because God saved him through his early days. All the enemies he faced, the numerous battles he fought and still lived to old age was due to the goodness of God to him. He escaped the swords of his enemies, lived in caves (subject to danger from wild beasts), thirsted and hungered for running from his enemies for his dear life. Individuals, nations, allies and aliens etc found cause to vent their anger against him but he survived all of them. He had not shifted his faith from God and he attributed all his victories to God. By his trust in God, he witnessed too many mighty works of God to leave the earth without making them known to new generations. He had a positive reason to live and he lived and was not forsaken by God in his old age.
An heir of salvation is vested with the duty of advancing God's kingdom – he has to declare the faithfulness of God to others so that people would not be ignorant of the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – how creation was built by the Word and is sustained by the powerful hands of God who has wrought Salvation/ redemption to as many as name the Lord Jesus Christ – who are distinguished for special privileges and treatment namely: 'power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory, blessing' (Rev 5:12) such as distinguished Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the seeds of Abraham from all other peoples. As Abraham knew God, respected Him as everything he had and was to be, God made a covenant with him to give his seed a special place on earth – make them a special people. As he ordered his family in the way of the Lord, he fulfilled God's ordinance.
Isaac – kept to his father's path and enjoyed so much blessings as his father's heir and covenant chieftain of his generation. The schemes of the devil against the household of the covenant was thwarted by God as He specially wired Jacob to win the wars and the world that was fashioned to collapse the covenant lineage through Canaanites. As Jacob excelled, he brought forth the twelve tribes of Israel for God – another generation he had influenced positively for God through whom all nations of the world are blessed. For the responsibility that God laid on Jacob towards the raising of descendants of Abraham as an heir, he could not be killed or wounded by his adversaries – who sought the throne without seeking to please the God of Abraham who allocated thrones to whom He loves: one who would utilize the benefits of occupying the throne – the resources of God for His people: power, riches, wisdom etc to order, manage, sustain, source for, defend the household of faith and provide resources and direction for the projects of God's kingdom even the church.
Wordless and Worldly Esau who could sell his birthright for a plate of porridge thought he would kill Jacob – whom God allocated his father's throne but he plotted in vain against the Godly.
Laban imagined that Jacob deserved to be hurt for leaving for his throne/ country without his knowledge. Before he could wake up to pursue the heir of Isaac, God warned him not to 'speak good or bad to Jacob'. As the sons of Laban began to envy Jacob for being large and their father's countenance towards Jacob changed, God instructed Jacob to 'be on your way home'. That saved him from any evil the men would have schemed against him. As he moved to his father for his blessings on the express permission of his Worded-mother – with the assurance of his mother that she would bear any curse that would arise from the adventure if his father would uncover the deal. He was blessed by his mother and immune to any curse and fashioned to get equally good treatment by his father as his mother had nursed, initiated, sanctioned and found him worthy of.
As he got his blessings to become his father's heir, he would have been the envy or subject of Canaanites hatred: as he could not compromise like his brother to marry the forbidden women. May be the whole of Canaanites would have set traps against him to kill him so that their mindless in-law would welcome them into the special household to sap the heritage/ riches provided by God and reserved for the covenant lineage. To spare Jacob their fight and fury, God orchestrated his quick departure for Haran. At his return he was already martially established and in covenant with Laban not to add any other woman to his daughters and Jacob was too respectful to God to scoff the covenant for any reason.
Throughout the many years Jacob labored for Laban: to pay the 14 years of service bride-price and the 6 years he served for his wages, he worked day and night. God spared him from lions and bears, even serpents and scorpions and he lived and worked to earn a creditable testimonial (Gen 31:38 -42)
God in His unrepentant faithfulness to the seed of Abraham chose Jacob to use him to advertise His sworn benevolence to the covenant lineage. Jacob deserved it because of his unique lifestyle. Some are:
REVERENCE FOR GOD: Jacob fitted himself properly in the covenant mold. He did not do anything to offend the God of his fathers. He knew how well God appreciated covenant acts and he got God committed to preserving the lineage of Abraham through a vow at Bethel. 'If you would take me, keep me; give me food and raiment, when I come back….' (Gen 28:20-22 ). For his reverence for God, he expressed total belief in His Word about him – that the second born would become the first born and birthright owner as if he heard God himself. He pursued the feat that put him in the right stand with God proactively so that he would sit on his father's throne to perpetuate the good course that God established with his grandfather without giving any room to the corrupt and profane to tarnish the image of the God of Abraham.
RESPECT TO PARENTAL AUTHORITY: His mother represented a spiritual authority to him. She was the one who heard from God and passed on God's message to him. As she believed the God of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob believed her that what she told him about his person in God was right. Therefore, without undermining her role in his metamorphosis, he submitted wholly to her and obeyed her instructions even when she seemed to desire the reality/ fulfillment of his Word than anything else.
Pa Isaac had more affection for Esau (Isaac's traditional heir) but Jacob did not make any occasion to offend him. His mother was all his love, support, inspiration and mentor yet he respected his father enough to be found worthy by God to be his successor at the covenant throne. When his father heard his (Jacob's) voice at his court, it was the voice of his second son and not a vile and offensive fellow that would have made him to suspect a game or foul play notwithstanding the name he gave him at his birth. Jacob was not a troubler to his father and could not have devised any games for the blessing but God programmed it for His name's sake. His father's traditional course that constituted himself and Esau (without God) was reversed or annulled to accommodate an obedient son who could not hurt his parents.
REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE: Esau was a bad example of a brother to Jacob. He had ignored the standards set for the covenant lineage by straying into marital covenant relationships with Canaanites. Jacob refused to copy his bad example. Esau did not have cause or time to stay with his mother to hear her mind for him – even to learn about his descent or social and spiritual history or their future in God's mind. Jacob found no better company than his Worded mother – who fed him with enough Word that he got sufficient unction to inspire himself and sustain all his strides to success.
While Laban cheated him mercilessly as one who was not blessed or whose God was not Almighty, he kept on the faithful course as the servant of the Most High God. He refused to revenge – to cheat him back or down his tools; to take to self-pitying, begging, borrowing or stealing to sustain his large family. At God's set time to revenge Laban for the evil he did to Abraham's seed, Jacob became the determinant of Laban's (his master's) pay – through the divine reproductive technology he was to apply on the livestock for his recovery of all his wasted effort and years.
For the long while he left his parents' home where Godliness was the order, he could not backslide to visit the altar of Laban or any other altar in Haran to earn their goodwill, solidarity or fellowship. He lived in a strange land for twenty years holding strong to the God of his fathers notwithstanding the temporary tough times he knew as if he was not blessed.
RESPONSIBLENESS: Jacob accepted the responsibility of doing everything that was needful for him to metamorphose into a first born. When Esau appeared at his mother's kitchen where Jacob was advantageous by regular presence than him, he dragged the Wordless one into his own world to strip him of the pearl (birthright) that was for the precious – not the profane. As God had set the transaction and handing over occasion, Worded and wise Jacob won the Weird and Wordless.
The Word of God that his mother preserved for him was not to be delivered to him through breast milk or native foods. He had to take responsibility to submit himself to be tutored and mentored. Hence, he had to settle down by his mother (as preacher and congregation) to hear and learn the Word of God while his brother and Canaanites scoffed at him for not socializing. His choice for the Word instead of the world paid him eternally and today's heirs are implicated by his exemplary adventures to seek, heed, and live by the Word of God.
God had marked him to multiply the seeds of Abraham without mentioning it in His word yet he took responsibility to align with the Unction on him to attune to happenstances. He accepted the responsibility to marry two wives, accepted gifts of two women to beat the spell of barrenness that was set to inhibit the multiplication of Abraham's seeds as God ordained. By his subjection to the divine agenda, he brought forth God's predetermined twelve tribes of Israel.
By his devotion to God's course, he labored to have resources to sustain his large family in a strange land where he sweated for everything he had while his father's riches abounded in Canaan. He further took responsibility to groom his family (even servants) in the course of truth. He was too strict as a covenant captain to permit their devotion to any god or fellowship at any altar. When he cursed anyone who had stolen Laban's gods, he meant to infer that no one in his household would have had any cause for that since he never had any appeal for, attraction, inclination towards such – from whom his family members would have copied the bad example from
In his responsiveness, he upheld Godliness, exemplified discipline and inspired orderliness, and rebuked and punished disobedience or contravention (as Rachel, Reuben, Simeon, Levi) deserved and got. Furthermore, Jacob took responsibility to take his family to their home in Canaan. He led them through courses unfamiliar to any of them. He manoeuvred over the challenges/ troubles that beset them in the journey. The God of Abraham and Isaac suffered no lost – not of any Israelite, Jacob's servants, flocks and herds which were to attest to the faithfulness of God before Esau and the Canaanites – that one who left home with only a staff could return with everything synonymous with surplus, surprise, serendipity and supernatural.
REMARKABLE WORKS: Some works are peculiar to the Worded and heir of salvation especially when his faith is being tried or the enemy like a roaring lion is seeking the heir to devour (to record a work of null effect). Some of such works that are identified with Jacob which orchestrated his salvation and freedom from death are:
REFLECTION ON THE WORD: Reflect means 'think deeply or carefully about'. It is synonymous with Meditate. God had spoken about Jacob and he knew what God said about him. When the situation arose to question the possibility of the Word becoming real, Jacob reflected on the Word. His first encounter with God at Bethel was invaluable. He had heard God personally and he could reflect on what transpired between him and God at their meeting (Gen 28:13-19).
Life is certain to synthesize situations to hamper the Word – to make it seem like God did not say it or the devil was going to foil God's plan. Hence, God advises 'meditate on it day and night' (Joshua 1:8). Jacob was under obligation to reflect on his encounter with God at Bethel and meditate on all the Words he has ever been told or heard personally from God. As the situation he experienced did not align with the Word of God for him, he had to take another course of action.
REASON WITH GOD: This means to argue (with God) in a logical manner. An argument is logical when it is reasonable and based on good judgment (Cambridge English Dictionary). In Isaiah 1:18 God called Israel into reasoning with him. To REASON with God is to get into the mood of prayer. To tell God how things are contrary to His Words and promises.
When Jacob was told that Esau was on his way to meet him with 400 men, he isolated himself to reason with God. He reminded God of His promises to him at Bethel. He reasoned with God in a prayer mode: to seek defense for his family, servants and livestock. As God found him liable to employ his physical energy against Esau, He sent the angel to stir him into a historic fight that was to strip him of energy – to dehumanize him so that he would look up to God solely for defense from Esau.
At his release from the divine transaction where he sowed humanity to ripe divinity he was blessed by the angel and renamed as 'Israel' and crowned a covenant chieftain as he could exercise Wisdom (even the Unction on him) to embark on remarkable works.
N/B: To REASON logically is to hold God by His Word and persuade Him to beat the adversary and cause His Word to become real at the time of need.
REFUSE TO FEAR: In the journey of life and destiny, there are always reasons to fear. Such occasions cause faith to shrink and one wonders how it is possible to come out of such situation. Global news or happenings in one's vicinity may engender thoughts of tragedy. At such time, the heir of salvation should consider that the finished work on the Cross of Calvary was the final judgment/ sentence of God against the adversary concerning His heirs. He should remember what He means to God who said in Isa 43:4 'Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.' and Isa 54:17 'No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.'.
After Jacob's encounter with the angel at Peniel and his renaming, and blessing – the consequences of the works of 'Jacob' were over, the limitations that marked his person/ life as Jacob were long disassociated from him and his changed person transformed Esau into his beloved brother – no longer a foe because 'when a man's way pleases God – He makes his enemies to be at peace with him (Porv 16:7).
So, let anything that is generating fear around cause you to reflect on God's Word for you (His heir). Reason with Him over the unwelcoming situation and Release yourself from fear - knowing that He is able to do more than what He says in Ephesians 3:20 'Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us'.
RECONCILIATION: This is the restoration of friendly relations. Our God and Lord Jesus Christ are good, kind and merciful yet their eyes are too holy to behold iniquity. When an heir ignores the grace of God that is to fashion him for victory over self and sin, then he is bound to lose his heritage. When he does what God forbids or fails to do what God commands, he is at offence with God and bound to suffer the consequences if he does not repent readily and ask for forgiveness. Therefore, as an heir, judge yourself so that you would not be judged (1 Cor. 11:31) and return to God from where you had fallen (Rev 2:5).
It is really a waste of time to wish to be able to thread upon the serpents and scorpions of the world while living in sin and pretending to belong to the sheepfold of Jesus Christ because of only good church attendance. Therefore, stop taking the mercies of God for granted and stop groping in sin as if you were not saved. The power that God bestowed on you as an heir is for you to use to tell the devil and his agents 'get behind me'. I have given my life to Jesus Christ and you have no right over me.
I imagine all that Jacob gave up to appease his wounded and Wordless brother – who would have been likened to the person of the devil after the heir of salvation. The devil is wounded that Jesus Christ redeemed the church from its clutches/ authority and he is roaring around looking for whom he may devour. The heir must let go every carnal passion and possession and wait on God for the riches that abound in glory – which God has allocated to His heirs. Enough of dining with the devil in immorality and dining at the Lord's Table during Communion Services in Church. Enough of spending the resources/ riches meant for Kingdom advancement to fund carnality and pleasures and worldly pursuits to your damnation.
RELEASE OF SACRIFICES: At the time of need, it is wisdom to sacrifice unto God. It pleases God to respond speedily- to do the unimaginable depending on the magnitude of the sacrifice – which speaks of the place one has in his heart for God. At Peniel when Jacob needed God to intervene for him – to avert any mishap at his meeting with Esau, Jacob offered God praise. He recounted the goodness of the Lord upon him; how he went out with only a walking stick (Gen 32:10). As he remembered to pour his heart in gratitude to God, God inspired him into sacrificing from the bounties God had given him into the life of his brother – knowing what mighty works of peace sacrifice could do.
God knew how Esau would be appeased and he got the inspiration to sacrifice massively.
As he knew to offer God a sacrifice of praise and Esau sacrifices of livestock, God encountered him, changed his name and made him a brother to Esau – even a prince that was due to be worshipped by Esau and his 400 men.
As an heir of Salvation, you are a product of the sacrificial work of God at the Cross of Calvary – where His only begotten son was slain for the blood that was to cleanse man of Sin. Therefore, as you appreciate what God did for you through His son, you have nothing to give to God that would be too much in your expression of your love to Him. So, present your body as a living sacrifice to God (Rom 12:1); Col 3:5 (NIV); withhold not your Tithes, Offerings, Harvests, First fruits etc notwithstanding nay sayers who do not acknowledge the great Teacher (the Holy Spirit) for light to understand the Scriptures. By these, Jesus Christ has received you into His body and you live in Him. The devil knows that you are of God and not killable and you must be alert to rebuke him if he dares mess around you and yours.
RULERSHIP: As Jacob departed from Peniel as Israel, he began to exercise his newly received mandate to rule. He ruled Esau with his gesture of goodwill (the bountiful gifts he sent to him). He ruled himself as the prince and chieftain he was – as he found peace with the core object of his fear (Esau). He became fully at home with his family and fellows and matched with them safely home. As Israel, he became the leader of a people (Israelites) and no longer bands that showcased his varying preference and value for his family. That was God's answer to his prayer at his time of need. So, heirs of Salvation do not have cause to delay to turn to God – to reason with Him when the situation contradicts His promises to His heirs and the seeds of Abraham.
N/B: It is the right of the heir of salvation to rule and to keep to rules, reflect on the Word of God on contrary situations when happenstances disqualifies from ascending his allocated throne – to partner with God to propagate and promote God's programs on earth so that the Will of God can be done on earth 'as it is in Heaven'.
The God of Abraham is the Lord and He alone is the help of the heir – to inspire and enable him to do all that would keep God committed to saving him from all the schemes of the enemy that is fashioned to kill, steal and destroy (Jn 10:10) God's heritage even the heir of Salvation.
So, heir of salvation, take note that Life is a journey of rules and the Word of God is the ruler. The good you get from God is measured by His Word you know and keep. As you seek to fulfill your years on earth as God stipulated for you in bliss as the blessed, keep the commandments of God and serve Him with all you have and are. Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations (Deut 7:9). 'He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber' (Ps 121:3).
PRAYER FOR LIFE: Lord Jesus, thank you for the finished work you did for me at Calvary. I am sorry for every offence I have ever caused you. Please forgive me. I have now returned wholly to you to belong to your sheepfold as a son and heir. I have forsaken the devil and every work of darkness to live a useful life in Christ Jesus.
Please, write my name in the book of life and guarantee me eternal life in Heaven when I am done with discharging my responsibilities to generations yet unborn – to whom I must tell about your mighty works on earth.
Therefore, I shall not die but live to declare the goodness of my Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 118:17). So, help me God. In Jesus' name I have prayed. Amen.
This is your ACQUITTER. When you would have complied with the highlighted rules for living in Christ Jesus, you shall be justified for life no matter what the devil is using to wage war against the Church. Jesus Christ –the only begotten Son of God had built His church and the gate of hell shall never prevail! So, cheers!!
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