I’ve heard people say they just want to get away from everything. Sometimes, they want to move to another place and start over. Maybe it’s their job that is stressing them out, money problems, relationship issues, the list is endless. I always say, “There is only one problem, you have to take your head with you.”
“Peace never comes from a change of circumstances. Peace comes from what we know for sure.”
Peace never comes from a change of circumstances. Peace comes from what we know for sure. Perfect peace belongs to every child of God. Yet, so few walk in that peace. Why?
Rags to riches. We all love those stories. Ed Sheeran used to sleep under the arch outside of Buckingham Palace because it had a heating vent. As he was playing music at a homeless shelter, he met a drug-addicted prostitute and wrote a song about her. It’s called “The A Team.”
He now sells out stadiums and is worth 110 million dollars. He went from rags to riches.
“We may not be homeless or penniless physically, but many of us live as if we are spiritually.”
We may not be homeless or penniless physically, but many of us live as if we are spiritually. Ed Sheeran worked hard to get from rags to riches. I’m going to take us on a “what if” journey. What if he had a rich uncle he didn’t know about that died and left his fortune to Ed. What if he was legally in the top 1 percent of wealthiest people in America, but he had no idea. He lived on the streets because he thought he was penniless. He had an inheritance beyond his wildest dreams but he couldn’t enjoy it because he didn’t know. That would be an even better rags to riches story.
If it were a movie, we would all be waiting for the moment Ed was found. We would love watching his weary and tired face change as he finds out he is rich. We would laugh with him as he is driven up to his mansion that is fully furnished and stocked with delicious food. As he takes off his homeless clothes and sinks into a delicious bath, we would feel the warmth and relief with him. His troubles are over and he will live “happily ever after.”
Why do we love stories like this? I believe those stories take us back to how it’s supposed to be for all of us. Adam and Eve were meant to live in bliss. When God placed them in the garden, there was no stress. Every single need they had was met. They enjoyed God, each other, and His creation.
Now, this world is hostile. Nothing feels secure and stress is all around us and in us. What if we truly have access back to our beginning. What if we are all spiritual millionaires and we just don’t know it? Get ready for a storybook ending in your own life.
“Too many of us are held captive by everything in the world, but the truth of who we are.”
Listen to Paul’s prayer for his Ephesian brothers and sisters from a Roman prison. God didn’t take him out of prison, He took the prisoner out of him. Too many of us are held captive by everything in the world, but the truth of who we are. Paul was a pauper behind bars, but spiritually he was a millionaire.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:17-20
Paul wants the “eyes of our hearts” to be “enlightened.”
Our hearts in this scripture does not mean the physical thing that beats in our chests. It means the very center of our being… who we really are. Enlightened means that God shares His life with us and exposes and overcomes darkness. All the forces of this dark world would tell us we are poor, pitiful victims and that God is losing the battle.
NOTHING is further from the truth!
We have:
- Hope beyond belief
- Riches of His glorious inheritance inside of us
- Incomparable great power in us
- The SAME power God used to raise Christ from the dead
- Christ is now at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms (the place of honor and power)
- He is far above
- All rule
- All authority
- All power
- All dominion
- Every name
- Not only right now but for eternity
I’m not making up this next statement. It’s in the Bible. Read it weary Christian and weep for joy.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:6-7
“God intended for each of us to show the world how rich and powerful we are in Christ.”
We have so much better than a rich uncle. If we are in Christ, we are dual citizens. We are seated spiritually with Him in heaven and we are walking with Him inside of us on earth. God intended for each of us to show the world how rich and powerful we are in Christ.
We are rich even if we live as if we are destitute. Nothing changes the legality of our inheritance. It is finished equals everything is settled as far as our inheritance goes. Whether we access that inheritance is totally up to us.
“None of us need a change of circumstance, we need a change of perspective.”
Paul prayed that our inner being would be enlightened to know what is already true. None of us need a change of circumstance, we need a change of perspective. We have power in us that is beyond any of our imaginations. It is resurrection power. No power on the planet is equal to that power. Yet, we live as if we are victims. We choose to let our mind believe lies as if it is no big deal. It’s the biggest deal in the universe.
“The more we give out spiritually, the more of God’s Spirit we will be refilled with.”
Can we imagine meeting Christ at the end of our lives and seeing the inheritance we could have enjoyed and shared with everyone we came in contact with. We are so rich we couldn’t give all our riches away if we tried. The more we give out spiritually, the more of God’s Spirit we will be refilled with. No wonder Jesus said:
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
John 7:37-38
I love that Jesus screamed this truth from the top of His holy lungs. He was and is desperate to let His children know that rivers of His Spirit will flow from His throne. He didn’t say a pond of water or a puddle. He was very intentional in saying “rivers.” Rivers flow with new water always. We have a source that is inexhaustible. We have access right now to the river from heaven. It is a life-giving river.
The very last chapter of our Bible gives us a little picture of what Jesus knew when he said those words.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.
Revelation 22:1-2a
We have the ability to bring the river of life to this thirsty world. It’s unthinkable.
