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Chapter Twenty One
Choice
It seems like -- we as people -- have no choice but to fulfill the things that God says are true -- but we must remember -- just because God sees our choice doesn’t mean that we don’t have a choice. It reveals that we know a God that is capable of providing for us no matter how many mistakes we make. He sees them before we make them. That way He has a provision for us no matter what we do. However -- our choices are real and we make them voluntarily.
(Heb 1:10 KJV) And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
The foundation that God has laid is dead works. Dead works are the foundation of the earth that is to rise from the dead.
(Heb 1:11 KJV) They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
(Heb 1:12 KJV) And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Because Jesus has received Creation as a gift by inheritance -- then offered it back to His Father as a gift -- He will remain the Lord forever. Then -- because Jesus has chosen to receive all things by inheritance -- Creation will be changed. When Creation comes under the authority of Jesus the Christ -- (the God of resting to be blessed by inheritance) Creation will come forth in the likeness of Jesus Christ. That is the nature of the Kingdom of God where Jesus is King.
As Creation -- which we are -- bows to the Lordship of Jesus the Christ -- all of Creation is changed as it groans waiting for the sons of God to take the place that their Father has called them into. The place of receiving all things by a gift of inheritance.
Reordering Life
If this Truth is really true -- and I believe that we will see that it is -- you begin to see the implications of it as we apply it to our every day life. Ask yourself -- if the Kingdom of God is based on -- righteousness by a gift and blessings by inheritance -- and I’m praying as Jesus said to pray -- Thy Kingdom come now. How much of my stuff have I received by a gift? How much of my life is built around earning as much as I can by my works? How come I’m praying in one direction and walking in the opposite direction? On one hand I’m praying for God’s Kingdom to come and bring with it blessings by inheritance -- because that is the only way God’s Kingdom blesses. Then on the other hand I’m working for everything I get.
This Truth of blessings by inheritance is taught clearly in many places in the Bible -- but I will use just one case to illustrate that the Truth is there to see -- for all of those that have eyes to see.
Job’s Blessings
In the life of Job -- we see a man that is greatly blessed by God. He seems to have it all and the Bible says that God had a hedge around him so that the Devil couldn’t touch him. Well -- What was this hedge that was around Job?
Job 1: 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
This is saying that the hedge was the fear of God and because Job feared God and respected Him as the all mighty God – there was a hedge of protection around Job.
There were no laws of Moses yet and so-- Job was walking according to what he felt was right and it is called the integrity of his heart. He stayed true to what he believed in his heart was right. What he believed in his heart was based on the information passed down to him by those that knew about the sacrifice of the lamb in the Garden of Eden and all that it meant.
The Bible doesn’t specifically say this -- but I believe that Job had worked very hard for his blessings and God protected them because Job was a man seeking to please God. He didn’t understand The Lie of blessings by works -- but he was a man that feared and respected God and if he had known-- he would have ordered his life in whatever way God said to. The proof of that is -- when he did find out The Truth -- he submitted himself to it -- even if it cost him his life.
(Job 13:15 KJV) Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Here Job is saying that he will trust God no matter what and yet he still felt that he was right in his own ways.
Then -- because of an accusation the Devil brings against God and Job about God blessing Job -- the Lord removes the hedge of protection from Job and the Devil attacks him.
I don’t believe that God did this with Job just to prove Satan wrong about his accusations. I believe God saw Job’s heart -- that he was truly a man seeking the Kingdom of God first -- but there were things that needed to change in Job’s life as well. So God would accomplish both purposes in allowing Satan to attack him. Job’s integrity and God’s integrity are both vindicated and Satan is proven to be not only a liar but also a killer.
Job loses everything and yet-- he still holds fast to his integrity. He doesn’t curse God for all his problems. Job argues his cause -- but he submits to the will of God. Then God reveals Himself to Job in such a way that Job says that he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes over his unwillingness to allow God to show him how to live based on blessings by inheritance rather than blessings by self-rule and the work of his own hands.
Then -- as God begins to restore Job -- God establishes him on the foundation of blessings by inheritance.
God tells Job to pray for those that despitefully used him and when he does -- the Lord moves all of those that Job prayed for to came to him and give him a piece of gold as a gift. Then out of that new start -- God multiplied Job in his new relationship with God that was built on blessings by inheritance.
(Job 42:10 KJV) And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, ( the word captivity means that -- God changed the former state of Job’s prosperity. The former state of Job’s prosperity was blessings by his works motivated by self-rule. Now Job’s prosperity will be based on blessing by inheritance. That new state of Job’s being came when he humbled himself and prayed for those that had cursed him for what they thought he had done to deserve his problems.
His blessings came -- when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
(Job 42:11 KJV) Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
(Job 42:12 KJV) So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
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