Ruanna Levi - Our Inheritance in The Lord - Sunday, July 19, 2026

Thanks so much for your prayers.

Um, I was thinking when um we were worshiping just the glory of his face, and I was thinking, I want to speak today.

I felt like the Lord wanted to me to teach on inheritance and what it is, what is our inheritance in the Lord?

And we can kind of have a vague idea about it.

I don't know about others, but I think I used to think it was sort of my reward in heaven or something that was my inheritance, and certainly there is great reward for us in heaven, and you know, we will be celebrating it is more than we can possibly ever dream of, and the glory and the delight and the joy of unhindered worship, unhindered affection, unhindered love, unhindered union with God Himself will be so beyond anything we ever thought.

But this is the definition of an heir.

An heir is a person who will legally receive money, property, or a title from another person, especially an older member of the same family, when that other person dies.

I read it again.

An heir, the Bible calls us heirs.

So this is what an heir is: a person who will legally receive money, property, or a title from another person, especially an older member of the same family when that other person dies.

And we know that the Lord opened the Father's house to us.

You can ask for more.

Everything that we need in terms of grace, love, resource, finances, beauty, creativity, wisdom, it's all been open to us.

We are heirs of it.

We also have been given titles that were the Lord's.

He was the Son of God.

He's made us sons.

He was the light of the world.

Then he called us light of the world.

Part of our inheritance is the titles that he has released to us.

And it's released when that person dies.

It's one of the reasons why Jesus had to die.

But you can't be an heir once you die.

You don't become an heir once you die.

You become an heir when you're alive and someone else died.

That is when you are an heir.

And we are as now to what was released.

We are as now when we've received Christ of what he died for and left legally to us.

And we are not to wait with some concept of when I'm in heaven, I'll inherit.

You're disqualified then, you're in a different, you get your inheritance then, and you inherit God then.

But right now, there is an inheritance for us now while we are alive after Christ has died.

And I want to go back to the very first place.

I love the first place the Bible mentions things because it sets this foundation, it sets this grid that then that understanding, that revelation is built on through the word.

And the first time air is mentioned is in Genesis 15, verses 1 to 6, if you want to turn there.

Genesis 15:1–6

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless?

And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus, who is his servant.

Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring.

Indeed, one born in my house is my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

Then he brought him outside and said, Look now towards heaven, count the stars if you are able to number them.

And he said to him, So shall your descendants be.

And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness.

That passage started with after these things.

So you've got to know what the things are.

And the things that have just happened is that Abram has been served bread and wine by Melchizedek, King of Salem, the priest of God most high.

And most people say that was actually the pre-incarnate Christ serving, joining communion with Abram before this promise.

Jesus is called Melchizedek, the order of Melchizedek in Hebrews.

And here is a priest of God most high.

That's Jesus.

And he appears to Abram, and they have communion basically.

Ahead of time.

Before the foundation of the world, the lamb was slain.

So the cross, in one sense, had already happened right from eternity to eternity in the heart of God.

And then after that, the king of Sodom turns up to Abram and tries to exchange people for goods.

He says, Give me the persons and take the goods for yourself.

And I'd like to suggest to you, this is always the enemy's suggestion to us.

We have this communion with Christ.

And then the enemy will come.

How about if I give you this and you give me a bit of your affection?

Or a bit of your compromise.

How about if I open up this resources to you?

What if I just do this to you?

But I want your life.

And he can give us the things of the world.

He offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, but at the expense of locking up worship, locking up people's hearts forever.

The enemy will offer you many gains in the world for the sake of your person or the people that you are called to minister to.

And it's a testing of our hearts.

Do we want money, fame, position, resource, temporary comfort?

Or do we want the promises of God?

And Abram's here going, I'm not doing the exchange.

I'm not giving up my calling for resource, for wealth.

Because the promises of God come with all the resources.

Jesus gained all the world, but he did it the Father's way.

He did it in covenant.

And so here's Abram, and he has this communion, and he was entering into the full promises of God for his offspring to be more numerous than all the stars in the sky.

And God says to him, Don't be afraid, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.

Do you know that every promise you receive from God, from the Father, is wrapped up in what was accomplished on the cross.

That's why Abram's promise was wrapped up in communion.

The body of Christ broken open for us.

It says in Revelation that he was the only one found worthy to open the scroll, to open the glory of your life, to open the scroll of salvation, to open the purposes of God for each one of us.

He was the only one that could take that scroll and open it for you.

Salvation, knowledge of God, communion with God.

Experience the deep, profound love of God.

It was all when his body was broken open.

And God is here reassuring Abram that you don't have to choose fear.

You don't have to choose self-protection.

You don't have to choose self-provision.

You don't have to choose self-promotion.

You don't have to choose self-preservation.

You don't have to choose self-focus.

God is our defense and God is our provider.

And then he says this, he makes an even greater promise.

He goes, I am your exceedingly great reward.

And God opens up this possibility of not just being the giver of stuff, the giver of protection, the giver of resources, the giver of what we need.

He says, I'm your reward.

I am your reward.

That means our greatest reward is God Himself.

Knowing Him, loving Him, being with Him, communing with Him, gazing upon Him, hearing from Him, being held by Him.

That is our exceedingly great reward.

The stuff is the overflow, because He can't help it.

But He wants us to come to Him, His heart, His mind, His presence.

That's our reward.

It's like in Luke 16, 11, Jesus was talking about money and not loving it.

And he says, Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you your trust the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?

See, Abram had been faithful with money and with land.

In that he'd laid it all down.

He'd given it up.

God said, Go, he went.

He'd laid down vast amounts of wealth, land, resources, influence.

Just before this, he was giving tithes to Melchizedek.

He was faithful.

And so here he's being offered the true riches that Jesus talked about.

Which is God Himself.

Jesus is like if you can't be faithful with this thing, which isn't even yours to keep, you're not taking it with you.

If you can't be faithful with that, how are you going to handle the true riches, which is the kingdom?

The true riches of the presence of God, the true riches of testimony of his faithfulness, the true riches of his word spoken to you, the true riches of revelation open to you, true riches of encountering him.

Because he wants us to have that.

That's the goal.

Everything else, just training, just practice.

Your own depth with him, your own communion with him, your own fellowship with him.

And then Abram says to God, What's the point of giving me anything more?

I don't really have an heir, just this servant.

And the word of the Lord came to him and said, It's not a servant.

The servant isn't the heir.

It's the one that comes from your own body that will be the heir.

Did you realize that the church came out of the body of Christ?

Servants, you can rustle out.

You can pester people to be servants.

But the body of Christ came out of Christ Himself.

And so this situation here with Abram, it's a picture.

That's why when Jesus died on the cross, normally they broke their bones.

But to fulfill prophecy, his bones weren't to be broken, but instead they pierced his side.

Why?

It says blood and water flowed out.

That is a direct symbol of birth.

You can't birth a baby without blood and water flowing out.

And it flowed out of the side of Christ.

And I understand that when Jesus said in Aramaic, it is finished, it can also be interpreted bride, come forth.

We were birthed out of him.

The church was birthed out of him.

And God showed Abram the stars, the multitudes, the uncountable, and said, This is your descendants.

This is your heirs.

And I wonder all those times when Jesus used to get up before dawn and go and pray with his father out alone in the dark.

I wonder if the father used to just show him all the stars and go, these are your heirs.

This is his coming.

You and me, lovers of him.

And God showed would show him.

I reckon he did.

And it says, and Abram believed God, and it was counted as righteousness.

Jesus believed his father.

You've got to drink this cup.

There is no other way.

You've got to do this.

And he brought forth heirs according to promise.

And so there was this picture thousands of years before of what happened on the cross.

Now, if you want to turn to Galatians 3, verse 29, and I'm reading through to chapter 4, verse 7.

Galatians 3:29

It says, and if you are Christ's, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise.

If you came out of Christ, received Christ, born again in Christ, belonged to Christ, then you're part of that seed and you are set to inherit promise.

What are the promises?

The promises are the protection, provision, all of that.

And the highest promise is God Himself.

Having God as your exceedingly great reward, all that's in him.

Now I say that the heir, says still Galatians.

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ to all from a slave, though he's master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the Father.

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba Father.

Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

You're an heir now.

You're inheriting now.

And there's layers of this truth.

First, there was the promise of inheriting God all the way from Abram.

We've read it all the way through to Christ.

But there were stewards and tutors along the way.

That was the law and the prophets.

That was people speaking, trying to keep this vision alive in people's hearts, the understanding alive.

There is something coming, there is seed coming, there is glory coming.

There is a way to know the Father.

And that depicts people living under law.

And we can still live under law now.

It's called the religious spirit.

And it says, even though they were heirs, they're no different from slaves in the house.

They're still in the house, they're still around, but in their thinking, they're like slaves.

Slaves don't get the inheritance.

They might be right next to the child.

They might do the exact same thing during the day, eat the same food.

But slaves are not heirs, sons are heirs.

And so Christ came and he redeemed us from under the law so that we could become sons.

Wasn't just so we would be forgiven.

That is stopping short of the fullness of what Christ did.

He died to bring us further than just forgiven, bring us into that understanding as sons in the house.

Not just crying out for you, interceding for you.

He's teaching you to cry out, Abba Father.

That is what the Holy Spirit, just one of the main goals, the main agendas of the Holy Spirit.

There's many, but I'm just saying it's just like this calling forth.

Because it's so hard for us to believe it.

It's so hard for us to believe that we are actually sons.

We know how to behave as slaves.

Just give me a list to do.

I'll be good.

I'll do the list.

I'll do the things.

I'll do everything you tell me.

But there's no heart that this is, I'm a son.

And the inheritance is mine now.

And so the Holy Spirit is at work in you with this aching, this longing.

I need something more.

There's a deeper longing, a deeper connection with the Father.

And that's the Holy Spirit crying out, Abba, Father, Abba, Father, Abba, Father.

And I think it's beautiful that Paul recognizes there's a dual cry from the Holy Spirit.

It's not just Abba and it's not just Father, and they're two different words.

Because we need both.

Abba is the Hebrew word for like daddy, papa, that closeness.

Apparently, if you walk around Jerusalem, you hear these kids Abba, Abba, when they're calling their dad.

Abba, Abba.

It's this closeness, this safety, this dependence, this care, this nurture, this love, this being known, being held.

It's all in that word, that name, Abba, that cry, Abba.

And we are invited in majestically into that kind of closeness with the Father.

And the Holy Spirit is not going to keep quiet until that cry becomes your cry.

He's not going to sit down.

The Holy Spirit is absolute most determined, unafraid, willing to just hover and be and cry until that cry becomes yours, other.

And he also cries out, father.

And that word father is like the founder of the family line.

The originator of the family line.

The generator, the origin.

And so the Holy Spirit that is creating this reverence, this understanding of the Father, as it's like what Paul says in Ephesians 3: the Father in heaven, from whom all of creation, all of heaven and earth derives its name coming from this one source, the Father.

And so it's this dual cry of the same person that we get to come in so close to him and call him such a familiar term as other.

And yet we're equally aware he's the father of all creation, and we bow before him in deep, profound reverence.

And you can't have one or the other.

It's a dual cry from the Holy Spirit.

And it becomes our cry.

You are no longer a slave, but a son.

But Christ died to redeem us and adopt us as sons.

I was thinking this morning, do you know how costly it is to adopt?

It's not a cheap process, just in the natural.

That everything he has, we have been adopted into, and there's no difference.

And the Father paid a huge price for us.

Every single one of us, a massive price.

There was nothing more to pay.

Your value is Jesus Christ Himself.

We're not standing in the corner trying to avoid the Father's gaze.

We're sons in the house.

This is what righteousness means.

Do you understand when it says we've been given the righteousness of Christ?

That word means equality.

That's why it's so outrageous.

That's why Paul got stoned.

That's why the apostles got killed.

Because it was so outrageous to say that the cross has given us this equality with Christ.

Equal access to the Father, equal embrace, equal affection, equal connection.

It should be outrageous to you and yet throw you into wonder.

Abba Father.

Abba Father.

And I would suggest that the degree to which we engage and mature into sonship, into understanding what that is, into letting that cry come out of our lives, into trusting the adoption.

It's not foster care.

It is not foster care you have been brought into.

You're adopted.

There's no going back.

The degree to which that we trust that and grow in that is the degree to which we will be done with slavery to the old nature.

And it's the degree to which you can actually go claim your inheritance.

Because you can be an heir to a million dollars, but if you don't go and claim it, no one's tracking you down.

Someone can leave you all of this money.

You have to go and cash it in.

You have to go and go, yep, I'm here to collect my inheritance.

And that's what we're learning to do.

Learning as sons to go and collect our inheritance.

And the degree to which we grow in that sonship is the degree to which we will begin to think like the Father.

We'll begin to be able to have his heart, his agenda, his trust, his purposes, and the degree to which we so become so little interested in our own agenda, so little interested in protecting ourselves, so little interested in our own ego, our own issues, and we just become more and more in love with the Father.

Slaves get traded in, sold off, sent away.

Sons don't.

Slaves have to perform to be in the house.

They stop performing, they're out.

And it's so easy to still live with that mentality.

Do something wrong.

Don't belong in the house.

That is not true.

Sons make mistakes.

They still belong in the house.

Sons are in the house, so they're learning the culture of the house.

They don't perform to be there.

Slaves buy for position and approval and attention and power.

Sons don't.

Slaves use the law to try and work out how well they're doing.

What are the rules?

Am I doing them?

Sons use the cry Abba Father to know their worth.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father.

Different church, same message, same cry, same need to understand.

You did not receive some catapulting back into being afraid of God.

You received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs.

Listen to this: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

That means everything that belongs to Jesus belongs to you.

There is no other way of interpreting that statement.

You're a joint heir with Christ.

Everything that he has.

That's why his prayer in John 17 was, Father, everything that I know of you, I want them to be here in thy glory, knowing you like I know you.

I want them here, I want them with me.

I want them experiencing everything that I have.

If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

And I just want to talk about that for a sec.

You're not back under the law performing for your inheritance.

You've received the spirit of adoption.

The spirit is not working to make you obedient.

The spirit is crying out a revelation of sonship.

And from knowing the father, you begin to love what the father loves.

And you begin to hate what the father hates.

It's different.

Everything Christ had in the Father, everything he accessed, everything he enjoyed, everything he receives is yours.

Now.

It's a now word.

There is nothing.

There is no access and no clothes closeness that Christ has with the Father that is off limits to you.

You're not excluded from anything that Jesus has.

Think about it.

Think about the kind of closeness that he has with the Father.

Think about the kind of access he has to everything ever needed.

You're a co-heir.

You are a co-heir with Christ.

And Paul says this statement if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

We're not looking for suffering.

God isn't looking to find ways for you to suffer.

But being like Christ, walking with Christ, being led by the Spirit, by living in a way where we lay our lives down in love for our Father, in yielding to him, there will be suffering for him and glorification with him.

There will be difficulties, there will be pain, there will be loss.

But in that process, there's somehow a raising up into glory.

What did David say?

Um, look at the hill, the mountains in front of me.

Surrounded by mountains, surrounded by difficulty.

He says, I will lift up my eyes.

There is a beauty in the difficulties, there is a purpose in the problems.

It is designed to lift you up into a greater revelation of the glory of the Father.

It is designed to lift your eyes up for you to call out, Abba, Father, where are you?

Abba, Father, where are you?

Until we understand the greatness of God in the situation that far outweighs any suffering.

And Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verses 6 to 8 that the trials call forth the beauty of refined faith within us.

1 Peter 1:6–8

They're part of the Father's love to us.

Because that fire actually brings forth a new closeness.

It dials up that cry, Abba, Father.

It will reveal Jesus to us.

Sons are not exempt from suffering.

Otherwise, Jesus wouldn't have suffered.

He's our model.

It's just sons are willing to suffer without bitterness, without rejection, without frustration.

Just gonna quickly read you this and then we'll finish.

So Ephesians 1 verses 7 to 12, and I want to tell you what your inheritance is, so you can claim it in fullness.

Ephesians 1:7–12

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.

In him.

In him we also have obtained an inheritance.

It's past tense, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory.

Right here, I'm just gonna list off part of your inheritance.

Full forgiveness of sins.

Full the riches of his grace.

The word grace means his empowering presence with you.

Wisdom.

Do you know you're an heir to wisdom?

You get as much access to the wisdom of God that Christ had.

That is stunning.

Understanding a making known of the mysteries of his will.

You don't have to walk through life going, I don't know, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, I don't know what God's saying, I don't know why God's like this.

Right here, Paul says the mysteries of his will is part of our inheritance.

To understand his ways.

Moses tapped into it.

It said, Israel understood his acts.

Moses understood his ways.

Good pleasure.

You know that it says, in his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Everything that will truly delight your heart is in him, and it's your inheritance.

A gathering into Christ, things in heaven, things on earth, and you in him.

It goes on.

I'm not going to read it because of time.

Verses 15 to 23.

This is more of your inheritance.

The spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, knowing him.

That means experiencing him.

Opening and shining of the eyes of our understanding.

Knowing his calling, knowing his hope, and the expectation of that.

Greatness of power.

We are not powerless people.

Part of our inheritance is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, is available.

You can't have more power than that.

Riches, glory, everything being brought under the feet of Jesus.

This is your inheritance for your life.

Things that are rearing its head, part of your inheritance is seeing them come under the feet of Jesus.

And God filling all in all.

You know, somehow I used to be afraid that if I really understood sonship, the depth of welcome, the depth of acceptance, I might become lazy.

I might just sit around then.

Already loved, already got access to everything.

And that somehow I would lose motivation.

And you know what I found?

The more I understand sonship, the more the fight, the more the passion, the more the zeal.

Because there is a joy in partnership with the Father.

The more the willingness to lay down our lives, the more that we're willing to suffer and be glorified, the more it's all in that understanding.

Father, thank you.

That you didn't just make us heirs.

You didn't just leave us to try and figure it out.

But you brought us the Holy Spirit.

It's why you said, Jesus, when He the Spirit of Truth comes, He will take all that is mine and declare it to you.

He'll take everything that I have in the Father.

And he'll begin declaring it to you in that cry, Abba, Father, Abba, Father, Abba, Father, closeness, reverence, closeness, reverence, closeness, reverence.

Abba, Father.

God, I ask that you would turn up the volume of that cry within each one of us.

Turn it up.

Turn up that cry within each one of us of you, Holy Spirit.

Crying out, Abba, Father, I ask that you would teach us even this week, lead us into things that we go and claim of our inheritance.

We come and receive our inheritance.

Understanding in a particular situation, grace for a particular situation, understanding you, drawing closer, understanding a mystery of your will, resources, whatever it is, Lord.

I just ask that this week, this week, this would be an action for everyone in this room.

That we would be receiving inheritance in some area we haven't received it before.

Make your word alive to us, God.

We just thank you that you were pleased to call us sons, pleased to bring us into you, pleased to bring us into your glory.

I love Jesus that it says in Hebrews that you weren't ashamed to call us brothers, you weren't ashamed to share your full inheritance with us.

That is glorious.

We love you.

We love you.

We love you.

We're so in love with you.

So just there's nothing that could delight us more than you and your ways, oh God.

Amen.