'Right now!' attitude

For Believers, the knowledge of what we have as our inheritance is the motivator to endure the pressures of this present time. The sufferings in this world simply aren’t worthy of even being considered with the glories that are ours in Christ.

“If you understand your sonship position in Christ, and the fact that you’ve been made an heir of God--but not just that, a joint-heir with Christ—you know everything that belongs to Him belongs to you,” says Jordan. “That’s what’s called ‘co-per stirpes’ in legal jargon. It’s to have equal shares. Everything that Jesus Christ inherited from God the Father, we inherit. Whee, doggy! Occupy your mind with that! Be stabilized by that.

“Paul is saying, ‘Your understanding NOW of your sonship position isn’t just all this pie-in-the-sky-bye- and-bye, that life is yours right now and it affects your walk right now.

“Do you know if you go out and serve the Lord what’s going to happen? ‘Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’ You begin to get rebuffs, Satan comes against you, the religious system comes against you, the world system, your friends, your relatives, your neighbors.

“Everybody comes against you and tries to make you feel ashamed and dirty for serving the Lord; for not being under the law system, not being under the legalism.

“He says, ‘Hey, that’s no big deal.’ In the passage here, you begin to suffer pain, you get sick, your old body wears out. What do you begin to do? Are you going to begin to cry and moan and squall? That’s what the average Believer does.

“Listen, God Almighty expects you and me to live in light of who we are! And Paul says when you begin to realize just who you are, he said, ‘For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.’

“That’s a mental-attitude dynamic. I have a mental attitude. He said, ‘Hey, man, I understand some things about who God’s made me in Christ!’

“Paul says, ‘Here’s the way I look at it. When you keep that eternal glory out there in front of yourself, and that privilege of sonship position and joint-heirship with Christ, here’s what it does. It lets you look at this over here and you say, ‘This light affliction is but for a moment. And it works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ He said, ‘This thing down here it isn’t even worth talking about! Let’s talk about that up there! We don’t want to talk about this and that in the same breath!’

“You listen to me, God Almighty wants tough sons. You write that down, would you please. God Almighty expects us to be tough and He’s fixed it so we can be!

“Hey, folks, it doesn’t mean that when you stump your toe and you go crying to the Lord, it doesn’t mean He’s mad at you. It doesn’t mean He won’t listen. But God has equipped us to be grown-up Believers. Recognize who it is God’s made you, and who you are, and live consistent with that.

“Endure hardness. He didn’t say it’s all going to be lace pants and sunshine. He said, in order to get the job done that I put you here for in that Body of Christ, be tough! Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

“You know what a soldier does? When the ol’ enemy comes along and takes a pot shot at him does he go squalling back to the battalion leader? Why somebody would kick him in the seat of the pants or lock him up on a Section 8. What does he do? He shoots back! You expect a soldier to be able to endure hardness.

“Talk’s cheap, gentlemen. Talk’s cheap. Easy to say that and ain’t so easy to do it and live it and walk in it unless you’re strong in the grace that’s in Christ Jesus.

“How do you do it? Well, here’s an example. Hebrews 12: ‘Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.’

“You know something, fellows, in your ministry, you don’t have to fear poverty, you don’t have to fear war, you don’t’ have to fear the government, you don’t have to fear the congregation, you don’t have to fear relatives and in-laws. You don’t have to fear but one thing and that’s sin.

“The only thing you need to fear is sin. I hope that will sink into your head. ‘The sin which doth so easily beset us.’ That’s the one that comes along so innocently looking like it might be so easy.

“You can’t run with patience with that sin out there. You see, it messes you up. What you’re doing is you’re messing yourself up.

“If you want to endure the sufferings you do what Christ did. He kept some information in His mind at all times that allowed Him, and helped Him, and motivated Him and empowered Him to endure.

“Romans 8:19: ‘For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.’

“The idea there is it’s like a kid with his head stuck out the window looking for his daddy to come home. He’s eagerly anticipating. In other words, creation out here is waiting for what? Man, it’s waiting for the time the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and we’re put in the heavenly positions up there . . . He comes back to the earth, sets up His kingdom on the earth and then the whole shooting match out here is brought under the headship of Jesus Christ and is liberated.

“The globe out here, the whole universe, is waiting for the time the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and take up His inheritance which, as you recall from Hebrews 1, has to do with universal dominion over the heavens and the earth.”