Everyone ought to have a will. This is the common wisdom of our day. The reasoning is that none of us knows when we will be checking out and so we ought to be prepared. But wills are for the living, not the dead. That is probably why we procrastinate in making our wills. We like to think of other people's wills, because we might be in them. We don't like to think of our own, because of what they remind us that we will one day have to do.
I do not know how many wills you have ever been in, if any. If you get word that a distant uncle died, who happened to be worth several million dollars, and that you were in the will, would you read the will? The answer is obvious. You would want to know what you had been left.
As you read the Word of God, you come to understand that you have been named in a will. There is a lot to this business of being a child of God. It is more than simply having your sins forgiven. It is coming into an inheritance. We become heirs, the Scripture says, fellow heirs with Christ. In other words, you're in the will now that you are in the family.
As believers, we need to understand what the Scripture says concerning the benefits of being a child of God. This is what being in the will is all about.
In a book by Lord Eldon, this quote is found: “I was born, I believe, on the fourth of June, 1751.” We may safely assume that this hesitation in that statement refers to the date and not the fact of his birth. Unfortunately, many people, today, are as unsure of the fact of their spiritual birth as they are of the date of it. The Scripture teaches us that we can know that we are saved. We can know that we are a part of God's family and it is important to know that.
…because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ``Abba, Father.”(Romans 8:14-15)
One of the benefits of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and being in His family is that we have fellowship with God. That is precisely what he is speaking of here. We have communion with God. We are in the family, and therefore, we can fellowship with God Himself. God is not some force in the universe, “out there somewhere,” not to be approached by mere mortals. He is a personal, living God, who loves us, a God who wants to be involved in our lives, a God who wants to be our lives. He wants to draw us into fellowship and communion with Him. He wants us to get to know Him personally. And He wants to be intimately involved in the very smallest details of our lives. This is what it means to be “led by the Spirit of God” — that God is intimately involved with us, and that we come to know Him personally like we know a good friend.
Now, the only way you get to know a good friend is to spend time with that friend, to fellowship with that friend, to converse, to listen, and to develop a relationship over a period of weeks, months, perhaps even years. That is precisely the same way we get to know God. After we are born from above and brought into His family, then we begin to dedicate ourselves to spend time in communion with Him, through prayer, through reading His word, and through interaction with the body of Christ. As we spend time with Him we get to know Him better every day. Only as we spend time with the Lord in these ways will we really know Him.
You see, as a son or a daughter, we are privileged to be able to approach the very throne of God. I do not know if that excites you, but it should. Some people are afraid to approach God's throne because they do not really know what they are going to find there. Many people are afraid to close the door to their prayer closet and lock themselves in with God because they are not really sure what God is going to say to them. The God who sees the secrets of all hearts is an awesome King to stand before, especially alone. But the Bible says that we, as believers, can approach God's throne boldly.
This is because this holy, righteous, just, awesome king of the universe loved us enough to send His son Jesus to die for us. Therefore, we can, on the basis of that love, approach His throne and enjoy intimate fellowship and communion with Him. The privilege of being a son or a daughter is that we can know God as our Father, and as our friend.
An additional benefit is also the communication from God that we receive. In order for us to be led by the Spirit of God, it means that we have to be the recipients of His communication to us, the communication of His guidance in our lives. We have to be willing and ready to hear and obey to be led by the Spirit.
How does the Spirit lead us as Christians? Some people will use spiritual jargon about being led by the Spirit. And many of the people who are constantly talking about being led by the Spirit, are not really as led as they make out to be. Others will use these kinds of spiritual phrases as excuses for not getting involved in the work of God. When you come to them and say, “You need to be involved,” they will say, “I just don't feel led.” You wonder if they aren't really feeling the lead in the seat of their pants.
How are we led, practically, as a Christian? I believe the Spirit leads us in a number of ways. He leads us, firstly, by being our teacher and opening the Word up to us. He illuminates the Word. That is one of His functions, to guide us to the truth of the Bible, which is our rule of faith and practice. He is the author of the Word of God. He is committed to illuminate that word to our understanding and help us to apply that word to our lives. And so as you read the Word of God, the Bible, the Holy Spirit leads you as He reveals His holy Scriptures to your heart.
But the Bible is not primarily a rule book. It is a living book, breathed by the Holy Spirit of God. And in order for us to understand this book, we have to read it in the anointing and the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
If it is your practice to regularly read the Bible through, you understand what I am talking about. At times, you may have read the word and it seemed dry and unexciting. You know it is the Word of God, but at times you wonder what a certain passage means. You know that Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” but you think, “What does this passage have to do with my life?” At other times you are moving along through your daily reading, perhaps in a passage you have read many times before, and a verse leaps off the pages of Scripture. Your mind suddenly becomes keen and you understand what the Holy Spirit is trying to say in that passage of Scripture. It is as if you are reading that passage for the very first time. And you really understand what it means in terms of your life. Faith is brought to birth in your heart and your life is forever changed as a result of reading that verse.
What changed your life? What happened in that verse of Scripture? The Holy Spirit is what happened. He took that verse and applied it to your heart. Reading the Bible is not merely a duty. It is a privilege of encountering the living God. You see, this book is a place to meet with God. When you open its pages and ask the Lord Jesus to speak to your heart as you read His word, God will meet you there. And His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation will guide you into just the truth you need to hear.
The Lord knows where we are in our spiritual pilgrimage. He knows where we are hurting, where our burdens are. He knows exactly where our weaknesses are, and He knows precisely how to speak the word to us which we need to hear for our lives today. It does not matter if you are in the Old Testament or the New Testament, the Holy Spirit can take the Word of God and apply it to your life. He is not just interested in filling your notebook with spiritual principles, He is interested in filling your life with Himself. He leads us through revealing Scripture to us.
Another of the functions of the Holy Spirit in the church today is to magnify Jesus Christ as Lord of the Church. As the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to you, He does that to draw you into prayer and praise before the living God. He wants Jesus to occupy your vision, so that the world diminishes and the Lord increases in your life. And so, he leads us, not only through His sure word, but also through prayer, praise, and His indwelling presence in our lives. His fellowship is so sweet that we look at God and spontaneously cry out, “Abba! Father! You are my Father.” That is fantastic! Jesus began His model prayer with “Our Father.” That is a tremendous revelation in itself: “God, you are my Father; I am your child!” Fantastic! In this way, we experience the benefit of fellowship with God.
Another benefit is assurance. Look at verse 16,
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
This is how we know if we are a child of God. We know because the Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with your spirit that you are His child. The Holy Spirit confirms in our life that we are a child of God by His working in our lives. When you feel convicted over sin, when you feel troubled because you are not in the will of God, that is the Holy Spirit's confirmation in your life that you are a child, a son or a daughter. He would not bother with you, you would not feel the conviction of the Spirit, you would not feel the troubling of the Spirit, nor would you feel the chastening hand of the Spirit were you not His son or His daughter. As we experience these things the Spirit is confirming to our spirit that we are a child.
He confirms our place in His family, and by that confirmation He gives us confidence. We realize, perhaps for the first time, that we are a child of the king and we need to begin to act like one. Let's say you were a waif on the street, a pauper, a beggar, someone people kicked around on a regular basis, and some benevolent monarch, having no children, adopted you and made you heir to the throne of his land. As you were escorted into the palace, you might not have any concept at all of what are now your rights, privileges and authority in that position. A servant might cause you to cringe in the corner for fear that he was going to throw you out. But once the realization that you were now royalty came clear to you, you would find that you no longer had to cower from fear, you could command the servants. And you would begin to take upon you the dignity, authority and the responsibility incumbent upon one who is the heir to the kingdom.
It makes a difference how you view yourself, doesn't it? You can have confidence because you are a king's kid. You are a child of the most high God. The Bible calls us kings and priests. We are royalty. We are the blue-blood of the kingdom. We don't have to cower in fear before anyone. We do not ever have to be ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God. The keys to the kingdom, Jesus called it. The power of proclaiming the Gospel to unlock the gates of heaven to the lost is ours. What a power that is. God has not chosen angels to do that work. He has chosen His children to unlock heaven's gates by proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world. What an awesome responsibility. He did not give it to us because He thought we would fail. He sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost so we could succeed. It is the Holy Spirit of God living within us, inhabiting us, empowering us, who enables us to live in victory.
Then, of course, inheritance is a blessing of being a child.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (v. 17)
Now this is exciting to me. You are not only an heir of God, but you are a co-heir with Christ. It says in another translation, “You are a joint heir with Christ.” How many of you have joint checking accounts? Most of us. In a joint checking account, two people or more share one account. How much can you write a check for on that account? Half? No. To have a joint checking account means that you can draw out of that account 100% of whatever is there. Now we are joint heirs with Christ. We share in His kingdom, not just a part, we share it all with Him. We have access to all the promises of God, to all the blessings of God, to all the inheritance of God with Christ Jesus. We are joint heirs. It is all ours. Everything we need for life and godliness is ours. Every promise of God, the Bible says, “is yea and amen in Christ Jesus.” It is yours. How often do we write a check on the bank book of faith? We need to write more. We need to stand more on the promises of God. We need to put God's word to the test and find it to be true in our lives. We need to obey it and live it. There we will find the power of God immediately given.
Let me ask you something: Where is the last place your obedience stopped? Is there anything in your life that God has been speaking to you about? When I am experiencing dryness in my spiritual walk, I can generally trace it back to a place and a time where I chose to go my own way. It is as if God, in that moment, said, “You go your way, I'll let you do it in your own power.” What I need to do, then, is to go back to that place and say, “Lord, I am willing to be obedient to what you told me to do.” And as I begin to obey, the fellowship is restored, the glory returns, the joy of the Lord becomes my strength, and I am given the power of God to return to communion with Him.
As we abide in Christ, we become the recipients of the benefits of being in the family of God. We experience fellowship with God, assurance of our place in His family, and an eternal inheritance as children of God. After all, we are in the will!
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