Battle of Inheritance Part 2 Written by: Eric Johnson

Your core value needs to be that God intended for us to enjoy the fruit all the time. Psalm 68:19, "… he daily loads us with benefits." God’s desire is that we eat all the time. The Church has a tendency to believe that the fruit is for us to enjoy for a single moment; we don’t realize it is bait that is meant to lure us to the source so we can pick the fruit at will.','In Part 1 of "Battle of Inheritance," we talked about not apologizing for what’s been given to us for free. Along with that, we talked about the tension that occurs when you have been given something for free and about not letting the pressure of "I need to prove why I deserve this inheritance" determine what you do. A few years ago, while flying to Alaska to do a conference, I was caught up in a conversation that I was having with myself on the plane. I had been pondering the whole thought of why kingdoms or empires fall. Why do we look into history and see a king build up his empire and then see it fall when the next generation takes over? Why do we see revival explode in one generation and then die in the next? As I was dwelling on these questions, I felt like the Lord told me that it’s because they didn’t make the transition from inheritance to responsibility. Then I was led to read the story about the nation of Israel and the 12 spies that went into the Promised Land to spy out the land. At this moment in history, we can extract some keys to help us make this transition in the years to come. I will address one of them in Part 2 of "Battle of Inheritance." In this story, the spies were sent into the Promised Land to bring back two things: 1) a report and 2) fruit from the land. There is something significant about the report of the land and its fruit. Let’s first ask the question, "What is fruit?" The word "fruit" is defined as "the sweet and fleshy product of a tree or other plant that contains seed and can be eaten as food." It also carries the meaning of the result of hard work or activity. After the spies had spied out the land of promise, they brought back the fruit from the land. I ask, why was it important for them to bring back the fruit from the land? It was God’s way of seeing what their reaction would be upon seeing the fruit. He was looking to see if the bad report or the fruit was going to determine what they would do. To understand this part of the story is important. There are many times in our lives when we are presented with a bad report, which can be disguised in what we would normally call "reality, " and we are also presented with fruit from a land we don’t own. That is, we don’t see the fruit in our everyday life. Currently, we are experiencing a tremendous breakthrough in many areas of sickness, diseases, and ailments. One area that we have purposely targeted is cancer. We absolutely hate cancer with a passion. Early on in this pursuit of a "cancer free zone " we did not see as much breakthrough as we do now. Why? We have made a choice to pursue it no matter the cost. And there have been some great losses along the way, as well as great successes. Instead of letting the reality of the strength of cancer in our world determine what we do, instead of looking at the fact that there "are giants in the land," we have chosen to look at the fruit--because the fruit is meant to give a clear target to shoot for. When you move from looking at the giants in the land to looking at the fruit, it takes you out of a defensive stance and moves you into an offensive approach. God’s intention when he shows us the fruit is to lure us into a Kingdom reality that we can pick this fruit any time we want. When the nation of Israel saw the fruit, they had an opportunity to believe that God wanted them to live in the land it came from so they could have it any time they wanted. Instead, they were distracted by the bad report. With fruit comes responsibility. When you value fruit, don’t also equally value the bad report. If you value both, you make room for options. When fruit is your only option, then what you do is very strategic with an extreme purpose of attaining the fruit. Such a hunger is birthed in you that you’re not satisfied that someone else is enjoying the fruit and you’re not. We begin to make decisions and live a life that is on a constant pursuit of seeing that the Kingdom of Heaven is invading earth. Our core value needs to be that God intended for us to enjoy the fruit all the time. Psalm 68:19, "… he daily loads us with benefits." God’s desire is that we eat all the time. The Church has a tendency to believe that the fruit is for us to enjoy for a single moment; we don’t realize it is the bait that is meant to lure us to the source so we can pick the fruit at will. So start by recognizing the different times when you have had fruit show up in your life and make the decision that you’re after the land that it came from while not allowing the bad report or the giants to deter you from the course. Give God permission to set you on a journey through the land of giants so you can own the real estate all those fruit trees are sitting on.