JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD
Today’s Scripture
Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
2 Samuel 2:4, NKJV
PROVING SEASONS
David was seventeen years old when the prophet Samuel anointed him to become the next king of Israel. What’s interesting is that David went back to work in the shepherds’ fields that day and did not become king until thirteen years later. When God gives you a promise, there will always be a waiting period. David was anointed, but he wasn’t appointed. He had to go through a season of proving, a season of testing. It involved caring for sheep, being discounted by his father, ridiculed by his brothers, and chased through the desert by King Saul who was bent on killing him.
As with David, you may know you’re anointed. God has put promises in your heart, but you’re not appointed yet. You’re in the proving season. If you keep passing the tests, not getting bitter because people did you wrong, not giving up because it’s taking a long time, not slacking off because things are not improving, you’re going to come into the fullness of what God has in store. Be faithful. Be patient.
A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that You are always working in my life to shape my character and prepare me for the next level You have for me. Thank You for the seasons of testing where You prove your faithfulness. I believe You are taking me higher to be used for Your glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
SECTION TWO
God’s blessings are part of our inheritance in the new covenant of grace, which Jesus died to give us. God’s Word tells us that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us . . . that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Isn’t it interesting that the Lord is very specific in mentioning that Christ became a curse for us on the cross, so that we can experience and enjoy the blessing of Abraham? He does not want us to simply experience any kind of blessing. He wants us to experience the blessing of Abraham. I think it behooves us then to find out what “the blessing of Abraham” is and who can receive it.
The Bible tells us that “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). Are you Christ’s? Do you belong to Jesus? Then that makes you an heir according to the promise.
Every believer in Christ is an heir. Whenever you hear the word “heir,” it speaks of something good. It speaks of an inheritance that you don’t work for, an inheritance that is yours not because of what you do, but because of whose you are.
In this case, as a new covenant believer in Jesus, you belong to Jesus and you have a blood-bought inheritance in Christ as the seed of Abraham. You, beloved, are an heir according to THE promise!
Now, there are many promises in the Bible, but what is THE promise that God made to Abraham? We can’t claim this promise if we don’t know what it is. We need to go to the Word (use the Bible to interpret the Bible) to establish what the promise is. And we find the answer in Romans 4:13—”For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
The promise to Abraham and his seed (you and I) is that he would be “the heir of the world”! In the original Greek text, the word “world” here is kosmos. Its meaning includes “the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures.”
Now, that is what you are an heir to through Jesus’ finished work! In Christ, you are an heir of the world—its goods, its endowments, its riches, its advantages, and its pleasures. This is THE promise that God made to Abraham and his seed. Don’t apologize for it. It is your inheritance in Christ!
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