Mining Your Inheritance

I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know him through your deepening intimacy with him. I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones! I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!

Ephesians 1:17-19

The Bible talks about inheritance quite a bit. I’ve always thought of it as a big cheque you get when a relative dies. A list of treasured possessions that get passed down from one generation to the next. A stack of golden crowns you get to wear when you walk into heaven. Now I’m not saying that’s wrong, but perhaps there’s more under the surface of our inheritance.

Another meaning for the word inheritance is the genetic kind. You can inherit personality traits or physical characteristics from a parent, and pass them on to your children. What if part of the inheritance we’re promised as Christians is the genetic kind? In Ephesians 1, Paul says “the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones”. He seems to be implying that we carry the inheritance within us, that it’s part of our dna that we receive when we’re adopted into God’s family.

There are some parts of our genetics that are obvious. The physical traits, the mannerisms. When a child is living with their parent they will often pick up on family gifts, like an aptitude for music. But say that child was growing up away from their parents, in another country. They might never pick up a musical instrument, never realize their gift, until the identity of the parent is revealed. Only then would they know that music was a natural gift in their family, that they too have access to that inherent aptitude.

I believe that God is inviting us to mine for our inheritance. There are things that we have a right to as His sons and daughters, things that are actually already part of our dna that we haven’t yet accessed. Wouldn’t it be sad to arrive in heaven only to find out we could have been wearing those crowns our whole life? Let’s do the work now of mining our inheritance so we can live in the fullness of what He has for us, here and now.

So how do we do that? When a company decides to mine underground, they follow this 4 step process: Exploration, Design, Construction and Production.

Exploration

The first step is to find the right location. Experts are consulted to find an area rich with minerals. They use tools to confirm the validity of the resources and look for confirmations all around. Exploring our inheritance can benefit from the same preparation. You have to know where to look! Searching the Scriptures for the promises of God is a great way to start. Learning from others about what is available to us in the Kingdom is another great first step.

Design

The next stage in mining is to design the structure. It’s essentially counting the cost of moving forward. You’ve found the right place to dig, now you need to make sure that you can do it safely and sustainably. You want to make sure you have the right things and people in place to do it successfully. It’s also about dreaming, about imagining what the finished mine will look like! Do you have a vision for your life and your faith? Do you know what it would look like to be fully free and functioning in the fullness of your inheritance? If not, now is the time to consult the great Architect and get His vision. Do you have people in your life who will support this adventure? Get people around you who understand what you’re working toward. Do you know the cost? There might be some things you’ll have to give up in order to mine your inheritance.

Construction

Finally you get to build the mine. First you drill or dynamite your way through all the stuff that’s blocking the gold. Then you build the structure for the mine itself, what will support and enable you to do the work. But before you can dig out the gold, you need permits. You need approval from the one with authority. The one who says you have a right to be there. What are the things you need to dynamite in order to step into your inheritance? What needs to be blasted away? Is there a habit or structure you need to build in your life in order to sustain this work? Are you confident in your approval, do you know that it is by faith alone that you have a right to receive all that God has prepared for you?

Production

Finally, the good part! Mining is hard work, breaking rocks apart to find the gold. And once that’s done, it’s sent for smelting, so that an expert can purify the gold and melt away anything that diminishes it. Your job is to simply discover what is in your inheritance, the parts of your dna you may have forgotten, or have never even known was within you. Once you’ve found it, surrender it. Give it up to the One who purifies every gift, and let Him trim back any part that doesn’t belong. Are there any lies you’re believing about your gifts, your identity?

Phew. Sounds like a lot of work, to mine for your inheritance. But can you afford not to? Can you afford to stay safely in the comfort of what you know, or do you want to explore what God has for you?

I had a dream once, that I was mining for inheritance. There were people all around who didn’t have a permit, or who wanted to stay outside the mine and were scared to go in. They didn’t want anything to change, and some of them didn’t believe the mine even existed. But I knew that there were things down there that would change my life. There were things from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There were things from the Apostles. Things that are available to you and me. Are you willing to do the work?