Taking Possession Of Our Inheritance by Charles H. Spurgeon.

The country into which Israel entered was of a very choice kind. Travellers in Palestine tell us that it is the world condensed. Within that narrow strip of territory you get plains and hills, frosts of winter and heats of summer. You find products both of semitropical and temperate zones. Palestine is the whole earth in miniature and all the advantages of all lands are gathered into it. It was, in Joshua’s days, a place of extreme fertility— “A land that flows with milk and honey.” Nor was this all—while it was fertile on the surface it was rich underneath. It was a land “whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you may dig brass.” The useful metals were near at hand as was every other convenience. Besides being fertile and wealthy it was prepared for immediate habitation. The tribes had not to build houses—they inhabited what others had built. They had not to plant vineyards but to eat the fruit of former labors. All things were waiting for the true heirs of the land. Beloved, when faith gets her heritage in Christ, she is brought into a wealthy place. When sin is driven out and we come to live in God’s own land, then we find precious treasure. We dig and we are enriched. We have all things in Christ—yes, in Him we have all that our utmost want can require. As He has gone into Heaven to prepare a place for us—so on earth He has already prepared—in the Covenant of Grace, everything that is needed for the way home. Why do we not take possession of that which He has prepared for us?

This heritage upon which we are now looking down from the summit of our faith is full of variety. In Palestine there were fertile plains and rich valleys between rising hills and towering mountains. It was a land of brooks and rivers, a land which the Lord God thought upon. It was, in those days, the joy of all the earth—it was as the garden of the Lord for exceeding excellence. Beloved, if you come to Christ you shall never need to go away from Him to find variety of joys. In His teaching you shall find Lebanons of sublime doctrine and Sharons of pleasant precept. Here are Hermons of experience, Tabors of communion, Jabboks of prevailing prayer and Cheriths of Divine Providence.

The revelation of God is a blessed country, full of all manner of delights. They that live in Christ dwell in spiritual realms which for light and joy are as Heaven below. Above all things, it is “your land, O Immanuel!” That is the dearest name for the Canaan of Divine Grace. The saints’ inheritance is the choicest form of life and peace and joy. We come to live with Christ, in Christ, for Christ, as Christ—we rise in Him to fellowship with the Father and with the Church of the First-born. One heart sympathizes with all the purposes of God and we joy in God Himself.

I cannot properly describe all this but I live in the enjoyment of it. We live through our Lord and with our Lord. And this is life eternal. This is “the life which is life, indeed.” Compared with it, all other life is death. Divine Grace is Glory in the bud—it will be full-blown by-and-by. This privilege is enjoyed none the less because of daily affliction, bodily pain, opposition and reproach—it may even be enjoyed all the more because of these—if they are borne for Jesus’ sake. Our light afflictions are like the black shadows of a picture which throw up the bright lights and set them out more vividly. Christ Jesus becomes more and more precious to us when we have a straitness of earthly things. Yet this promised portion may be enjoyed if we have abundance of earthly things. God may multiply your possessions. And if he gives you more of Himself at the same time, they will not harm you. As you find all in God when you are poor, you shall find God in all when you are rich. Your life consists not in what you possess, nor in what you lack. You shall find in Christ a fullness, a soul-filling satisfaction. And this shall be a pledge of that something better which the Beloved has laid up in store for a still brighter day. What a word is that where we read of being “filled with all the fullness of God”! I do not think any man can exaggerate the possibilities that lie before Believers. If any man shall draw a line and say he can go no further, I must take leave to blot out that line—where God has set no bound we will not allow a stop, lest we be found guilty of limiting the Holy One of Israel— “All our capacious powers can wish In Christ does richly meet.”  All that is in Christ is meant for all Believers and therefore all Believers may have all that is in Christ who is All in All. We should not be content with pennies when He endows us with pounds. No child of God could ever yet say, “I have taken all that God can give me and still I am wanting more.” God All-Sufficient is our heritage and He more than fills our deepest need, our highest aspiration.