Daily Devotion | Day 315
“In whom [Christ] also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:14, NKJV).
[NB: I have deliberately omitted the first part of Ephesians 1:14, so we can focus on the part that is most relevant to the current study].
According to today’s Scripture, when we believed in Christ, God sealed us with His “Holy Spirit of promise.” Paul tells us the significance of being sealed with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, he writes, is “the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” Here, Paul is employing the language of business transaction to explain what God has done for us.
Instead of the word “guarantee,” a better translation of the Greek would be “earnest,” “pledge” or “down payment” – understood in terms of a business agreement. This means the giving of God’s Spirit is His way of assuring us that He will make good on all His promises to us. In other words, everything Jesus has purchased for us (as an inheritance) will be delivered according to plan. Therefore, to have the Holy Spirit means to have in you the divine assurance that you are rightful heir to the Father’s estate. What belongs to the Father is now yours to possess (Galatians 4:6-7).
By implication, if you don’t have the Holy Spirit, it means God is not bound to give you His estate because He has made no such commitment to you. The New Covenant is established in the blood of Jesus (Luke 22:20). And the giving of the Holy Spirit is the ‘receipt,’ testifying that the transaction has been completed, and consequently, all those who subscribe to the covenant will inherit the blessings dictated by the terms of the covenant. This brings us to the main point of the current study, which is: knowing is the key to possessing, and in this process the Holy Spirit plays an indispensable role.
One of the primary duties of the Holy Spirit is to equip us with divine understanding. He, the Spirit, is the pledge of our inheritance in Christ. He also is the same Person whose work is to teach us about our inheritance. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would teach us all things (John 14:26). “All things” includes our inheritance in Christ. The Spirit knows well that without knowledge, we risk despising our inheritance. And when we despise our inheritance, we risk losing it. An example which comes to mind is Esau. He despised his inheritance (birthright) because he did not know the value of what he had. Therefore, he traded it for a bowl of soup (Genesis 25:34). His ignorance cost him his inheritance.
Lest anyone suppose that what happened to Esau cannot happen to Christians, the Letter to the Hebrews cites Esau’s example as a warning to us (12:24). If you don’t know who you are in Christ and what you have in Him, you can despise your inheritance and possibly lose it (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Aware of this, Paul prayed that the Father would open the eyes of our hearts, that we might know “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:15-19).
Our Father in heaven has limitless power and riches. And all of that is ours in Christ. But to benefit from it, it is important that we are fully aware that it is ours. What we have in our churches today is not a lack of power or riches. What we have is a lack of knowledge. Our best chance for revival would be a revival of knowledge.
God willing, we will wrap up this teaching tomorrow. Until then, stay blessed. Amen.
For further study: Genesis 25:29-34 and Hebrews 9:11-15
Higher-Self Realities 