{"id":6464,"date":"2015-10-08T23:59:13","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T23:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6464"},"modified":"2015-10-19T20:59:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T20:59:21","slug":"1-peter-14-an-inheritance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6464","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 1:4\u2014An inheritance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you<\/em>\u20261 Peter 1:4<\/p>\n

INHERITANCE!<\/p>\n

Think about it!\u00a0You have\u00a0been named as the beneficiary of an unlimited,\u00a0immeasurable inheritance.<\/p>\n

Every single person\u00a0who believes in Jesus\u00a0is named in this\u00a0magnificent will, written and signed in the blood of Jesus, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and authorized by none other than the Creator of the universe Himself.<\/p>\n

And if I\u2019m reading Peter\u2019s letter correctly, you obtain this amazing inheritance through your living hope in Christ (see verse 3).<\/p>\n

No doubt\u2014it\u2019s a good<\/em> thing to be named as someone’s heir. They may still be alive, but your name is right there in the will. Their assets are still their own\u2014you can\u2019t access them as long as the person\u00a0is alive\u2014but upon their death (and then a waiting period of roughly six or so months in many cases in the US), those assets start showing up in your account.<\/p>\n

Jesus shared some of His treasure\u2014forgiveness, healings, deliverances\u2014while He was alive on the earth, but it wasn\u2019t until He died at Calvary that there was a transfer of funds from His account to yours. And again, according to Peter, the avenue by which you obtain\u00a0this inheritance is through the living hope birthed in your heart by faith in His resurrection from the dead.<\/p>\n

\u2026 reserved in heaven for you<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

When my\u00a0dad passed away seven years ago, I didn\u2019t automatically gain access to the entire portion that he willed to me,\u00a0even though\u00a0when he was alive, he would bless me from time to time from his accounts. I did, however, receive a part<\/em> of the inheritance he had specifically placed in my name to be received immediately<\/em> upon his death. All I had to do to\u00a0access those<\/em> assets was to present the death certificate to the one in charge of that\u00a0particular account. Life insurance is distributed in a similar manner\u2014no probate and no waiting upon creditors to claim their share.<\/p>\n

I have a theory that our inheritance in Christ is similar to this. First, all of us receive from Christ\u2019s treasure before<\/em> we know Him. We may not be aware of it; most of the time we are clueless when the Lord intervenes on our behalf and bestows a blessing on us\u2014but Jesus is generous to the godly and the ungodly alike\u2014and He pulls from His treasure chest of kindness as He seeks to bring each one of us to repentance.<\/p>\n

When you become born again to a living hope through your faith in His resurrection, you\u2019re still alive and well on planet earth, yet you are an entirely new being. You start learning about Him, His loving nature, and the specific treasure He has stored up for those who are called by His name. And you start making withdrawals on that inheritance which is reserved\u2014stored away\u2014in Heaven for you. Prayers get answered and you grow in grace.<\/p>\n

But the full<\/em> inheritance is not what we see, hear, or experience here on the earth. The full<\/em> inheritance\u2014from which we make prayer withdrawals now in this life\u2014is reserved for us in Heaven\u2014to be revealed to us on that Day when we see Him face to face. Right now, as the apostle Paul wrote, we only know in part. But then\u2014when we arrive in Heaven\u2014we will know fully, as fully as He has known us (see 1 Corinthians 13:12).<\/p>\n

\u2026 an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The inheritance we humans receive from our\u00a0parents can perish all too easily. We can spend it all; the banks that hold it can collapse; the stock market in which it is stored may crash; someone could sue us for every dime, and, whoosh!<\/em>\u00a0there it goes; the buildings and properties we\u2019ve received from our parents can burn down or blow away\u00a0in a\u00a0raging storm.<\/p>\n

But the inheritance from God is imperishable. It will never be spent up; it will never collapse, crash, burn, or blow away. The inheritance you have received from God is indestructible and limitless.<\/p>\n

Your\u00a0inheritance from God is undefiled. Whereas wealth can be accumulated by unscrupulous methods\u2014through fraud, taking bribes, charging outrageous interest, lying, stealing, and all other manner of devious, manipulative scheming\u2014the inheritance\u00a0from God is clean. It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it<\/em> (see Proverbs 10:22). The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds <\/em>(Psalm 145:17).<\/p>\n

The inheritance of the Lord will not fade away. God will never slowly lose interest in you; He will never phase you out of His good graces\u2014nor will His inheritance for you ever run out or lose its magnificence. It is imperishable; it is undefiled; it will never fade away.<\/p>\n

It is reserved in Heaven\u2014for you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

But as it is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.”<\/em> 1 Corinthians 2:9, International Standard Version<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015, Dorothy Frick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you\u20261 Peter 1:4 INHERITANCE! Think about it!\u00a0You have\u00a0been named as the beneficiary of an unlimited,\u00a0immeasurable inheritance. Every single person\u00a0who believes in Jesus\u00a0is named in this\u00a0magnificent will, written and signed in the blood of Jesus, sealed by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[298,297,300,299],"class_list":["post-6464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-peter-1","tag-imperishable-inheritance","tag-inheritance-in-christ","tag-inheritance-reserved-in-heaven","tag-undefiled-inheritance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6464"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7078,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464\/revisions\/7078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}