All the believers in Christ have the birthright to enjoy God, express God, and represent God. However, not all believers enjoy and exercise their birthright. Rather, there are many Christians who do not know about their birthright; there are many believers who are defeated, who have lost their birthright, and who live in spiritual poverty.
In order for us to preserve our birthright, we need to FIGHT: we need to fight for our enjoyment of Christ, and we need to fight for our brothers and sisters to enjoy Christ. If we don’t fight, we will lose our birthright as Esau did (Heb. 12:16-17).
We need to realize that it is only by fighting that we can preserve our birthright, and it is our duty to not only enjoy the birthright for ourselves but fight for the other believers to enjoy their birthright.
In ourselves we don’t have the strength or the willingness to fight, but we have faith in the Lord, open to Him, trust in Him, and we are one with Him. It is the Lord who fights for us; we simply need to believe that He has ordained us to fight by trusting in Him, and He will fight for us.
A very good example of one who fought not only for his birthright but for the birthright of others is a person called Boaz in the book of Ruth. He enjoyed the birthright, and he also paid the price to redeem Ruth and Naomi’s birthright.
This is our Christ: He saw us, the pitiful sinners, those who lost their birthright and are in poverty, yet He didn’t condemn us or criticize us but He came and redeemed us, bringing us back to our birthright to enjoy God! Christ paid the price to redeem us back to God and to recover our birthright, and now He is in us fighting for our birthright and also for the birthright of others!
May we have the heart of our God toward other believers and fight for their birthright, seeking to bring them into the enjoyment of Christ as the all-inclusive good land. Christ as the all-inclusive One is the good land in our spirit, and He wants us to be His priests (bringing man to God) and His kings (bringing God to man).
We need to fight for our birthright and be one with the Lord to fight for others’ birthright to enjoy God!
Preserving our Birthright by Fighting – The Lord Fights for us!
Joshua 23:10 One man of you chases a thousand, for it is Jehovah your God who fights for you, as He has spoken to you.
There’s a connection between Deut. 20:1-20 (regarding fighting) and Deut. 21:15-17 (regarding the birthright). Spiritually speaking, fighting and the birthright are related: in order for us to preserve our birthright, we need to fight. If we don’t fight for our birthright, we will lose it (as Esau did, see Heb. 12:16-17).
If we are more concerned for our house, our job, our family situation, our money, etc than for our birthright, or if we are afraid to fight, we will not have the enjoyment of the birthright.
In Deuteronomy, we see the life in the good land, and in Joshua we see the fight to possess the good land. God gave us the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, but we need to possess Him by fighting to gain Him and enjoy Him. Like Joshua, we need to be strong and courageous and take the land (Joshua 1:6).
Since we preserve our birthright by fighting, if we do not fight, we will lose our birthright. It is a fight to turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, so we need to pay the price and FIGHT for our birthright! We need to fight to turn to the spirit and not remain in the self, the flesh, or the vanity of our mind. If we are passive, the enemy will cause us to drift away from the enjoyment of the birthright.
As we are fighting for our birthright, we must learn to trust in the Lord and not in ourselves; we need to realize that we are fighting for what He has given us, and the all-inclusive Christ as our good land is ours to possess and enjoy (Josh. 1:2-9).
The Lord requires us to fight for our birthright to enjoy the good land, but He doesn’t want us to fight in and by ourselves. We need to say Amen to His requirement to fight for the birthright, and then immediately realize that we cannot do it. If we try to fight by ourselves, we are defeated. But if we tell the Lord,
Lord, You require us to exercise and fight for our inheritance. We say Amen to Your requirement. Lord, we are not able to do this, but You fight for us! Come in, Lord, and be the fighting One in us! We want to preserve our birthright and enjoy it!
When the Lord requires something from us, He doesn’t want us to “just do it” in ourselves; He wants us to say Amen to His requirement, and then come to Him and let Him do it in us.
He wants us to fight for our birthright: we need to say Amen to His requirement and then come to Him and let Him fight for us. He wants us to fight for the saints’ enjoyment of their birthright: we need to say Amen to His requirement and let Him fight in us and for us, and then take the lead to bring others into the enjoyment of this all-inclusive Christ!
Boaz Redeemed Ruth – Christ Redeemed the Church – We can Fight for Others’ Birthright
Boaz treasured the God-given birthright. He was not only concerned for his own birthright, but also for that of others. He paid a price to redeem his kinsman’s inheritance and married his widow (Ruth 4:1-17). It was due to his compassion on the poor and weak Ruth and his redemption of her birthright that David, the king who established the kingdom, was brought in. (Witness Lee, Truth Lessons — Level One, vol. 1, p. 129)
In the book of Ruth we see how Boaz redeemed both Ruth and her birthright (see Ruth 1:16-18; 2:1; 3:2, 9-11; 4:1-17). Ruth, a Moabitess, was married to someone in the people of God; that one died, and due to their poverty they lost their birthright in the good land.
She had no right to enjoy the good land, but Boaz (her kinsman) saw her, loved her, paid the price to redeem her and her birthright, and brought her into the proper enjoyment of the birthright. Due to his compassion on the poor and weak Ruth and his redemption of her birthright, in their genealogy, David and later the Lord Jesus were brought forth.
In the same way, we lost our birthright and had no right to enjoy God, but Christ as the real Boaz saw us, loved us, and paid the price to redeem us and our birthright to enjoy God. Now we have the right and position to enjoy Christ with the privilege of being a priest to bring man to God and being a king to bring God to man (see Eph. 3:8; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 5:10).
Hallelujah, as believers in Christ we have the right to enjoy God, contact Him, express Him, and represent Him! Our heavenly and spiritual Boaz has redeemed us and our birthright!
Now He wants to duplicate His heart in us so that we may care for and pay the price for our fellow believers who have lost their birthright. May the Lord give us the heart of Boaz toward others so that we may pray for them, care for them, and pay the price to redeem them and their birthright.
May we care not only for our own birthright but also for that of others. We need to have the loving and caring heart of our God, not criticizing or exposing others for not enjoy the Lord, not judging them for not having much spiritual reality, and not condemning them for not being happy in the Lord.
We need to care for others’ birthright, praying for them to enjoy the Lord. Our opinions and judgement cannot accomplish anything.
We need to be concerned for all the saints to experience and enjoy their birthright. Like Joshua, we need to take the lead to enter into the good land, fight with and for our brothers to enjoy the land, and have no rest until all God’s people enter into the full possession of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land. The Lord wants this, we are one with Him in this, and He will fight for us.
Lord Jesus, we want to fight for our birthright and care for others’ enjoyment of their birthright. Give us Your loving and caring heart for the saints. May we treasure our God-given birthright to enjoy God, express God, and represent God, and may we be one with You to fight for the other saints to enjoy their birthright. Lord, gain many who would take the lead to enter into the enjoyment of the good land and bring others into this! Make us willing to pay the price to redeem our fellow believers and their birthright!
Read this article in Spanish via, Combatir por nuestra primogenitura y ser uno con Cristo para redimir la primogenitura de los demás.
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, Life-Study of Deuteronomy (msg. 21), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 5 / msg 5, The Birthright.
- Picture source plus some more ministry portions on this topic – Christian Pictures blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Our Christ is so enjoyable, / His life is so applicable; / He lives in us to cause the flow / To reach the world, His life to show. / Oh saints, don’t just sit idly by; / Rise up! Your gift do not despise; / Let’s eat and drink of this sweet Christ! (Song on Enjoying Christ)
# Fight, saints, for Jesus our Lord! / Take in His life, stand in one accord! / Never fear God’s enemy; / Tread on his head triumphantly! / Pray that the daily church life be strong, / That all the saints in spirit press on, / Fighting as the one new man, / Fulfilling our Lord’s great plan! / (Glory! Hallelujah!) (Hymns #1283)
# Fight the battle in the Body, / Never fight it on your own; / With the Body to the Head joined, / Fight the battle on the throne. / Fight the battle in the Body! / By the virtue of the Head; / Standing firmly with the Body, / Into vict’ry you’ll be led. (Hymns #885)
Praise the Lord for His compassion for us! Here’s a song on this topic of, Ruth’s Redemption: http://youtu.be/393-AjMQNHU