In the beginning of the Bible, we see that God created man in His image and according to His likeness so that man would express Him and represent Him. Man has the birthright to enjoy God, express God, and represent God.
But man lost this birthright when he fell by being independent from God and listening to Satan, and ever since man is fallen. Now every human being is born in sin and does not know or exercise the birthright.
In the old times, God chose a people – Israel – to have the birthright, that is, a people to enjoy His presence and be His priests and kings. This people eventually failed God because of their unbelief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God
Now the birthright is shifted from Israel to the church composed of many sinners who would repent and believe in Jesus. Now we, the repentant and believing sinners, have the birthright to enjoy God, be filled with God, express God, and represent God.
Today all the genuine believers in Christ are the “church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23), those who have the birthright to enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive good land and be priests and kings to God.
However, we need to be warned not to be like Esau, who for one meal gave up his own birthright (Heb. 12:16). Because Esau neglected and despised the birthright, the double portion of the land, the priesthood, and the kingship were not given to him and his children but to Jacob and his children.
We shouldn’t offend God in His New Testament economy by drifting back into Judaism, by being religious toward God or man, or by loving the world and the pleasures in the world. Rather, we should to exercise our birthright today by enjoying the all-inclusive Christ as our allotted portion of the good land and by having a foretaste of the blessings in the coming kingdom.
We need to exercise our priesthood to contact the Lord, enjoy Him, and minister to Him, so that we may be His priests today and in the kingdom. We need to exercise our spirit to rule over our self, our flesh, our entire natural being, and the enemy with all his power of darkness today, so that we may be Christ’s co-kings and rule the nations with Him in His kingdom.
Hallelujah, we have the privilege and the responsibility to enjoy and exercise our birthright today so that we may enjoy and exercise it in the coming kingdom age!
Do not Sell your Birthright but Enjoy it as Part of the Church of the Firstborn
Heb. 12:23 And to the church of the firstborn…
Through regeneration we become sons of God and we have the birthright. We have the right to enjoy God, contact God, and be priests and kings to God to express God and represent God on earth.
However, we need to be warned: we should not be like Esau who, even though he was the firstborn, he despised the birthright and, for one meal, gave up his own birthright (see Heb. 12:16).
Esau’s birthright as the firstborn son of Isaac was the double portion of the land, the priesthood, and the kingship. However, because of Esau’s profaneness in giving up his birthright, the double portion of the land was given to Joseph (that is, to his sons, see 1 Chron. 5:1-2), the priesthood was passed to Levi (Deut. 33:8-11), and the kingship was assigned to Judah (Gen. 49:10; 1 Chron. 5:2).
For the Hebrew believers to give up or sell their birthright was to revert to Judaism. For us today to give up the birthright is to believe in the Lord Jesus and yet to offend God in His New Testament economy by being in religion or doing religious things. Religion is opposed to God’s economy, just as the world and sinful things are.
We need to realize that we are the church of the firstborn (Heb. 12:23)! We are Christians, men born of God, the firstfruits of His creatures that He has reaped in His creation (James 1:18). In this sense, we as believers in Christ are the firstborn sons of God, and the church is the church of the firstborn.
Because we are the firstborn, we have the right of the firstborn – the birthright is ours by birth! We don’t have to “work for it” or “earn it”; simply by being born of God, we have the birthright to enjoy God, be filled with God, express God, and represent God as priests and kings to God.
As the firstborn sons of God, we have the birthright, which includes the inheritance of the earth (Heb. 2:5-6), the priesthood (Rev. 20:6), and the kingship (Rev. 20:4), which will be the main blessings in the coming kingdom and which the profane, world-loving-and-seeking Christians will lose at the Lord’s coming back.
So many believers today love the Lord and have God’s life in them, but they are being deceived, having itching ears and listening to the teaching telling them that, no matter how they live, as long as they believe in God they will be raptured and will be with the Lord in heavens forever.
If we love the world and the worldly pleasure, this may cost us our birthright in the kingdom age. We will never lose our salvation since once we’re born of God we cannot be unborn, but we can lose our reward, our birthright in the coming kingdom age.
In the millennial kingdom, the birthright will be given as a reward to the overcoming Christians (Rev. 22:12; 11:18), and for eternity we will all exercise this birthright in and as the New Jerusalem!
May we be those who do not sell or give up our birthright today but exercise it and enjoy it as part of the church of the firstborn!
Lord Jesus, save us from selling our birthright by loving the world and the worldly pleasures. May we treasure the birthright, pay the price to exercise our birthright today, and have the birthright as a reward in the coming kingdom. Lord, save us from being deceived, religious or complacent. May we realize that we are the church of the firstborn, and may we exercise our birthright to enjoy God and be priests and kings to God!
Enjoying and Exercising our Birthright Today as a Foretaste of the Blessings in the Coming Kingdom
What a privilege we have today as children of God to enjoy in Christ a foretaste of the blessings in the coming kingdom!
We were created with the birthright, we lost it through Adam’s fall, but our jubilee Jesus as the real Boaz came and redeemed our birthright; now we believe the proclamation of the jubilee, we are released and restored to our divine family, and we are in the house of God as the church of the firstborn enjoying our birthright!
May we not sell our birthright by being passive and complacent but exercise and enjoy our birthright today!
How do we exercise our birthright? And what does it mean that if we exercise our birthright today, this birthright will be our reward in the coming kingdom?
What we enjoy in Christ is a foretaste of the blessings in the coming kingdom, and this enjoyment issues us in the full taste of these blessings.
If we don’t enjoy Christ as the reality of the good land, how can we enter into His rest in the kingdom and inherit the earth with Him (Heb. 4:9)? Let us enjoy Christ as the good land today, gaining Him step by step by enjoying Him, experiencing Him, and applying Him as the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
If we don’t exercise our priesthood today to contact the Lord and prayerfully minister to Him, how can we fulfill our priestly duty in the coming kingdom? We need to come as we are to the Jubilee Jesus today, enjoy Him, contact Him, open to Him, minister to Him prayerfully, and He will shepherd us. Learn to be a priest to God today by contacting the Lord, telling Him everything, and being infused with Him (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
If we don’t exercise our spirit with the God-given authority to rule our self, our flesh, our entire being, and the enemy with all his power of darkness today, how can we be Christ’s co-kings and rule the nations with Him in His kingdom (Rev. 2:26-27)? We need to learn to exercise our spirit and rule over our self, our flesh, and any negative thing.
We don’t know how, and there’s no clear “rule” how to do this, but because our heavenly Boaz redeemed us, we are FREE! Hallelujah! Now in this real spiritual freedom we need to exercise our spirit and reign in life with Christ over anything negative until we will reign with Him in the coming kingdom over everything.
If we enjoy Christ and practice the priesthood and the kingship today, we will be prepared and qualified to participate in Christ’s kingdom in the coming age (Rev. 5:10; 20:4, 6). In the kingdom age there will be the full recovery of what God intended for us in Genesis 1:26 and what we lost in Genesis 3.
Let us learn by doing to exercise our spirit, contact the Lord, and be priests and kings to God in the church life today, and in the coming kingdom this will be our reward!
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You as our good land today so that we will enter into Your rest in the kingdom and inherit the earth with You. Lord, we exercise our priesthood today to contact You and prayerfully minister to You so that we may be qualified to fulfill our priestly duty in the coming kingdom. Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit with the authority You gave us to rule over our self, our flesh, our entire being, and the enemy with all his power of darkness today, so that we may be Your co-kings in the coming kingdom! Lord Jesus, we choose to be those who enjoy and exercise our birthright today so that we may have the birthright as a reward in the coming kingdom age!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Hebrews 12:16 (footnote 1 – so good!), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 5 / msg 5, The Birthright.
- Picture source: see Christian Pictures blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In the holiest place, live before His face, / Light of glory thru me will shine; / In the holiest place, live before His face, / Light of glory thru me will shine. (Hymns #770)
# Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Fully opened from within, / With thy face unveiled, beholding, / Single, pure, and genuine. (Hymns #784)
# How I love Your reigning life, Lord. / How I love abundant grace. / How I love to have Your presence, / As I live before Your face. / By Your life, Lord, I am reigning. / I am over, over everything. / As I’m joyfully confessing, / Jesus, as my Lord and King. (Song on Reigning in Life)
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