We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: Colossians 1: 3-6
There was a woman who once needed to see a doctor, she had an ailment that got complicated due to malnutrition, and the ailment became terminal. When the doctor got there eager to make her feel better, his eyes caught something on the wall of the house that was written and well framed. He read it and realized it was the inheritance that was left her by her father which made her a multimillionaire in dollars. The doctor enquired from her what the framed item was, and she enthused it was the paper her dad left her. Being the only thing her dad left her she cherishes it. The doctor in turn asked if she has ever read it, to which she gushed “I cannot read”; the doctor then tells her she should not even be in that condition in the first place had she known the content of her father’s will. This also applies to Christians who find themselves in certain unfavorable conditions because they do not know God, their Father’s will concerning them. All that God desires and freely gives is inside His will, His testaments for His children, and you cannot come into free inheritance of the will except you know what the will is about.
You can never really activate the instructions in the will except you read the Will and know it’s content. Paul said ‘I am praying that God will fill you with knowledge of this will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding’ So when you have the knowledge of the will and pressures of life comes, God says the reason why there is pressure is to reveal what He really has in store and what He has in store is in the Will. In 1st Peter 1:4-12 God beckons that we listen as the prophets have prophesied about the inheritance that He has laid in store for us. When the prophets prophesied they talked about first the sufferings of the people and then the glory of God that proceeds after the time of challenges. Even the prophets thought they were prophesying to just the nation of Israel but as they further examined the depth of the prophesy they realized the prophesy transcends time. Hence, they went to enquire of God, who then revealed that the prophetic word as of that time was for the people of the last days or the future days.
The prophecy was indeed an inheritance from heaven. After the death of Jesus Christ that inheritance came into operation on the earth. However, when was this will written? You know when a man is alive, he writes his Will and when he dies the Will he wrote would come into effect. Just as the bible says that ‘our tongues are the pen of a ready writer’, as the prophets were prophesying. It was God writing what was in heaven in a document. What God was saying was ‘ I want to give my people who are going to inherit these things the knowledge they own’. When the will was complete, Jesus was sent to the world. After His blood was shed, the Will now came into operation. So the words of the prophets described to us what our inheritance is in heaven and on earth. In prophesying the prophets described a particular type of suffering and what will be the outcome. The reason is to illustrate that when you want to know what God wants to do, you find it out by what you are going through.
The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. Psalm 118: 22. When you encounter rejection, you readily know its outcome. Even the prophets where not aware of what they were saying and did not even know God will be writing it all down as testaments. He was writing it down until the appointed time because without the blood been shed; that is, without Jesus dying His Will could not take full effects. God’s will and testaments concerning us is not the figment of our imagination, it is not an impression that we have ruminated upon and thus come to accept. It is in actual fact what God has indeed expressed in writing. In the book of James, God said “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (James 1:2). You may say it is difficult to rejoice, but God says that is because you lack wisdom being that you do not know what He has said in exact terms concerning that situation. God has a word for every situation you may find yourself. The Scripture says ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5 God reveals matters to us in the scripture when we enquire of Him in any given situation. He does not stop at revealing the circumstance of a situation, He further reveals the end of the matter and how it in turn favors us.
‘Poju Oyemade