DEFENCE DUTY

‘Building a barricade about our Birthright’

 JUSTIFICATION

 Justification ­– Implies being a worthy reflection of the Word: that which God prophesied and ordained for His heirs. That is, the testimonials of an heir of God that make him deserving of all that God earmarked for him

 Justification can also imply ‘doing the needful to attain the status /realm ordained by God for you’. i.e accomplishing the feat that makes you befit your status as God heir.

It is giving God cause to release to you what you were redeemed to reflect.

 Justification is overcoming all the resistances that stand against your enthronement to be really enthroned at your ordained post.

It also implies making maximal use of available equipment for current responsibility to deserve further equipment for future responsibilities as God’s heir.

Examples of Heroes who epitomized JUSTIFICATION

 Jesus - the only begotten son of God went through the horrible cause of pains and sacrifice to befit the deferential status of the heir of God

 Jacob followed the covenant path strictly and fought gallantly to defend his inheritance and he was deemed fit to bear the status ordained for him :Israel (the Holy Nation).

 Abraham heeded God’s instruction to leave his country and kinsmen to the country that God would show him.  Also, he was commanded to give his only son (Isaac) as a sacrifice at Mt. Moreh. He complied without hesitation to all that God ordered him to do. Hence, God counted him for a righteous man and a friend who befitted the person for a covenant relationship with God.

David gave apt attention and care to his father’s flock and did not hesitate to go after any lion or bear that dared to hurt any of the animals in his care. For such boldness, energy and love that caused him to take the risk to smote lion and bear, God found him fit to be the leader of his people: to fight their battles to save them from every nation that were having a filled day against Israel by the fallen state of king Saul whom God had rejected.

            “Hence, God found David and raised him into a respectable personality that none of his senior brothers (even those in king Saul’s army) could befit.

 Mother Rebecca was justified to be God’s confidant concerning the destiny of the sons of Isaac (her twin boys) because she was so mindful of the God of Abraham she believed in the reverenced - to go to Him at her time of need: when the state of her womb (by the troublesome motion of the babies) was beyond her comprehension. At her understanding of who had her answer (not her husband who was already reveling away from God for the prospect of fathering); the same God of Abraham who answered her husband’s prayer (even her prayer) for the pregnancy.

 The believers and disciples who assembled in the Upper Room were justified by God for obeying the instruction that Jesus gave them before His ascension. They were instructed to tarry in Jerusalem till they were endued with power. So, up to 120 persons gathered in the Upper Room and experienced the visitation of the Holy Spirit who rebranded them into ‘fireful’ fellows – sufficient to tame and trample upon the elements of resistance who did not wish to know the Truth. As they obeyed to tarry, their world could notice them for the impact they reproduced.

 FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR JACOB’S JUSTIFICATION

 This implies what Jacob represented that made him JUSTIFIED for every feat he attained in the course of his destiny that climaxed into his transformation or metamorphosis into Israel.

Jacob personified these virtues:

(1)      Wisdom:  He was made acquainted with the mind of God for him. His mother had earned the confidence of God to be told about the destinies of her sons Jacob and Esau. She dutifully imparted her privileged insight into Jacob and he guarded his insight jealously. He gathered momentum to be a reflection of authority and covenant: one born blessed.     

 (2)      Well behaving:  Since he got to know that God had ordained him to head: to be the covenant captain of his generation, he upheld the statutes of the covenant as his grandfather & father embodied. He spent time with his mother to be thought how to live to uphold the covenant that God chose to use him to perpetuate. He did not offend his parents nor the God of Abraham and Isaac.

 (3)      Willingness to pay the price: Greatness is the not reality of the slothful and has never been. Jacob knew that the height of the firstborn, his father’s successor and whatever God would release to him as a covenant heritage would be a product of a painful price. Hence, whatever he needed to do through the guidance of his mother and the Spirit of God he embodied, he did them cautiously and creditably. He ran with his mother’s instructions and had clearance for all his doubts and fears and the fruits of his obedience and sacrifice were bountiful.

 (4)      Wellness:  On the basis of his strong appetite for the Word which he stayed at his mother’s feet in humility to digest, he reflected strength perpetually. By the uncommon strength he embodied, Esau was willing to let go anything to get Jacob’s porridge because he thought it was porridge that made him go strong beyond his comprehension. As Esau companied with forbidden people and spent good time away from home, his lot was a Fainting Spell that made him unworthy to continue carrying the prestigious firstborn status. As Jacob had the firstborn right to add to his strong personal character, he was well capable of meeting every demand in the course of his growth.

 (5)      Worship:  The obligation of the redeemed or ransomed fellow to his Creator is worship - to pay Him obeisance for making him a unique creation by the finished work at the Cross of Calvary which makes all that God owns His heritage. At Bethel where Jacob encountered God, he exemplified Covenant sensitivity by promising God a tenth percentage of all that God would give him if God would keep him and returned him to Canaan (Gen 28:20). He was journeying with only a staff yet he vowed that he would uphold the principle of the tithe that made his grandfather worthy of the covenant relationship with God. That was the Spirit of Worship that Justified him before God as a good choice for the Covenant throne.

 (6)      WARLIKENESS: This implies showing or having the impulse to be combative. That is being mindful of using the authority that the heir embodies (by the blessing) to stop opposition, defend the heritage of God (in the household of Abraham) and set captives free. For being warlike, Jacob got all that God ordained for him and he had the praise of God that he ‘had power with God and with men and had prevailed’ (Gen 32:28).

 (6)      WORKFULNESS: The essence of man in the Garden of Eden was work - to dress it and to keep it (Gen 2:15) and all that embodied creation became reality because God worked. Jacob grew as an embodiment of work. He took care of his father’s flock like Jesus did with his time on earth to guard, guide and keep them from the adversary: the same responsibility that the man in the Garden of Eden was to fulfill towards other creatures that he was bestowed with authority to rule over. Jacob worked hard at home to relief his parents and keep their flocks (what he would do for God in the future as Israel, the father of the twelve tribes) whereas Esau lavished his precious time in the company of forbidden Canaanites and in the bush running after games (animals to kill) for food to devastate and waste God’s creation: a venture that contradicted the ‘keep mandate’ that God gave to man.

As he was mindful of working to deploy his abilities and strength to the flock of his father, he was justified for the feat (Israel - the father of 12 tribes) that God ordained for him.

 (7)      WEALTHINESS:  This implies the possession of riches. Riches is a key aspect of the heritage of God’s heirs and it was the chief reflection of the blessing that the covenant lineage of Abraham embodied. Wealthiness is the product of Workfulness.

 Although the process of Jacob’s making mandated his fleeing from his home (his inheritance) where the riches & blessings of Abraham and Isaac abounded, he was empty for only a while by his adherence to work. At Haran  - in the employ of Laban where he fled home to dwell with and work for, he exhibited so much discipline, diligence and dexterity that wealth could not be disassociated from him. His crooked master tried hard to make him miserable but the blessing that magnetized wealth made all the gimmicks of Laban inconsequential. Hence, Jacob was justified before God for the ownership of Canaan where the riches that God ordained for the posterity of Abraham were located. He made so much as a servant that he was not defined by what his father had - which he left in Canaan and was mindful of returning with everything he had at Haran to boost to the glory of God who chose him as the covenant captain of his generation.

He was justified for the headship post God ordained for him for the sake of guarding the heritage of God and perpetuating the covenant that made the wealth of God the portion of Abraham’s household and lineage.

 (8)      WATCHFULNESS: It takes the watchful to perceive/ discern what the adversary is scheming to achieve to frustrate the good purpose of God for His people. The watchful deploys his equipment, grace and gifts, illumination and insight even his spiritual weapons to frustrate the adversary and make his schemes inconsequential. The Word has instructed in Matt 26:41 ‘watch and pray so that you may not enter into temptation’.

Jacob embodied Watchfulness as he journeyed with the heritage of God - his properties and possessions from Haran back home to Canaan. He sent his servants to check the road ahead and they brought him the report that Esau was on his way with 400 enemies to attack him. Hence, he refused to allow the plot of Satan against the heritage of God (Israel- in- the making) to prevail. He spent the night to watch at the place of prayer and God responded to Justify him for the third dimension of the blessing that turned him into Israel: an undefeatable nation /heritage of God by his covenant with Abraham.

Also, Jesus embodied Watchfulness as he approached the time to go to the Cross to nail the sins of the world which He bore on his body as a sacrificial lamb (Luke 22:42). At that an angel from Heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him (Lk 22:43). By his suffering, death and resurrection, we are Justified to be called God’s heirs: justified for God’s heritage  -a bountiful package that far exceeds whatever Abraham and his lineage had by the Covenant - the Blessing.

THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE HEIR OF GOD

    Jesus Christ embodied the Justification of the heir of God. He was the only Begotten Son of God who was sacrificed by the father for the redemption of man from the curse and captivity of Satan. For the finished work He submitted Himself to God to go through for man’s sake, God Justified Him to be His heir and also Justified the man He ransomed to be His co-heirs (Rom 8:29). Hence, by the Justification of Jesus for heirship, the believer is justified to be God’s heir - a more precious and prominent person in God than Abraham and all his seeds. In Christ, the heir of God must manifest to a higher dimension everything that Jacob manifested which justified him as the heir of Isaac: an embodiment of the Blessing and Israel.

 

    The heir of God has all the help in Christ to manifest every attribute that would justify him as one in Christ before God so that His allocation as God’s heir would be released to him.

Note, Jesus Christ had justified His co-heirs for God’s heritage which we all have portions/ allocations but those who must receive their allocation must know the Truth that Jesus Christ embodies to be Free from ‘the accuser of the brethren’ who like the roaring lion is looking for whom he may devour - whose allocation he may steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

  BEHAVIORS THAT JUSTIFIES THE HEIR OF GOD

(1)      Wear the mark of Christ on you (Gal 6:17)

(2)      Welcome the person of the Holy Spirit into your life and make yourself a comfort zone for Him to live in to fulfill His mandate.

(3)      Worship God with your graces, gifts, time, talents, resources etc.

(4)      Willingly adhere to divine instructions without hesitation – such obedience that made Jesus to leave His throne in Heaven to come to the earth to save the sinful man - the same man that scorned him

(5)      Work hard at being an embodiment & reflection of all that are yours in God through Christ as enumerated in Revelation 5:12: Power, Riches, Wisdom, Strength, Honour, Glory and Blessing.