When God’s people finally left the wilderness stage of their experience and began to move into the land God had planned as inheritance, it was only the beginning. This was just the beginning of the greater blessings and benefits that God intended for His people. The beginning of the amazing things awaiting them.
As soon as they sampled that first blessing, the fruit of the land, the manna ceased. The manna that had been God’s provision was being replaced with something even better.
The manna ceasing marked a turning point in their relationship with God. The manna had allowed for a certain amount of immaturity. While they were dependent on God, their participation was to simply pick up the blessing that waited for them.
Ahead lay the greater blessings and greater benefits that God intended for His people. God’s blessings would come in new and better forms. And the process of receiving the blessing would require a new degree of participation to receive it.
As they matured and moved beyond manna, they began to receive what God had, not by waiting for it to fall among them, but by His leading. By overcoming. By battling through obstacles that at times seemed unsurmountable. In doing so God was glorified and they began to possess the inheritance that awaited.
They would appropriate through a deeper, more profound relationship with God. Now their participation would be to seek and respond to His direction. In doing so they defeated so many nations greater than them.
When we consider “inheriting” we get this mental picture of something that just happens. That the effort is on the part of the one bestowing. The reality is the Old Testament concept is to possess or seize. God had ordained it, but they had to possess it.
It doesn’t really change in the New Testament. To “receive” means to authoritatively appropriate what has already been provided. Again, the idea is still to seize or possess.
This season is the beginning of new blessings. But they don’t fall among us like manna. Rather God is calling His people to move from being children to heirs of the promises. Heirs who can possess the inheritance He has planned for them.
Our inheritance and blessings are tied up in His promises. And by the leading of the Holy Spirit and applying faith, we begin to release the power in those promises. Then we see them moving from the spiritual and impacting the natural.
Learning to appropriate what God has provided is an ongoing process. Challenges and obstacles are no longer setbacks, but reminders to seek His direction to obtain the victory He already has planned.
Randy Gladden
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