Possessing What Has Been Given

Joshua 13:1 Joshua was old, but there was still much land still to be possessed.

Romans 5:20 Now the Law crept in so that the offense would increase. But where sin increased, grace increased even more.

Reflect now on what has been conquered by the grace of God. Humbly and gratefully survey the years of memories that have gone by and carefully recall where the grace of God has triumphed so that you can look into His face and say, "But where sin increased, grace increased even more."

Can you now say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (11 Timothy 4:7)?

Our most profound blessings of the spiritual life cannot be held in the strength of our purpose. They can be ours only in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all our inheritance is vested, and from whom we receive every blessing by faith.

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. He has blessed us in the Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.

The experience of defeat can be followed by the relief of finding that the blood of Jesus cleanses and that the Savior is at our hand, by our side, and in our hearts to lead us on with Him. It is this that keeps us pressing toward the goal. He will never leave us or forsake us.

Philippians 3:8-10 What is more, I continue to consider all these things to be a loss for the sake of what is far more valuable, knowing the Messiah Jesus, my Lord. It is because of Him that I have experienced the loss of all those things. Indeed, I consider them rubbish in order to gain the Messiah and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but one that comes through the faithfulness of the Messiah, the righteousness that comes from God and that depends on faith. I want to know the Messiah - what His resurrection power is like and what it means to share in His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death.

Complete Self-Surrender.

Why live in spiritual poverty? It is only when in our hearts we have accepted the authority of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and every part of our being is yielded in unconditional surrender to the Trinity, that we may count on victory and seek to possess our possessions in Christ.