Greetings,
I have been writing this month in regard to a 100-year plan. I have proposed that a 100-year plan is found in the promise that God gave to His friend Abraham. God told Abraham that in blessing He would bless him, in multiplying He would multiply him, his descendants would possess the gates of their enemy, and that through the Seed of Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed. These are the ingredients of a 100-year plan. It begins with a man and then it extends to a third and fourth generation. When this principle is applied in each and every generation it creates a perpetual testimony of life-giving destiny in the earth. I believe that this is God’s way in things.
These four things comprise the basic substance of humanity and mankind’s facilitation of spiritual forces of either good or evil. They are the issues of belief, action, imagination, and influence. These four things hold the power to bring about change in the earth. This is not a grace for mere blessings in our lives, but the very keys to unlock the destiny of our lives as those who rule in Christ. It all starts with the issue of belief in our lives.
Who you believe is whom you will be like. Who you believe determines what you believe. It is not what you believe that determines whom you believe, but whom you believe that determines what you believe. What you believe is the image that you will present to others, but it is all rooted in whom you believe. I believe that whom you believe determines who possesses the gates in your life. Who you believe determines who possesses the gates in the earth, because possessing the gates has to do with what you believe. Gates are places of influence. Gates are the power of true inheritance in the earth.
John 8:31, 32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
In these verses we see that Jesus was talking to Jews who believed Him. He was not talking to those who did not believe Him. He told those who believed Him that if they were to abide in the words that God speaks personally to them they would know truth that would bring a power of freedom. The word translated as “word” in this Scripture is the Greek word “rhema”. It is not the word “logos”. Rhema is a personal expression given directly to someone. The secret to knowing truth is not in something that God has already said. It isn’t in believing something that God had said. It is found in believing God. True belief in the person God would enable men to receive truth from God. It would enable them to receive a substance of inheritance from the one who gives inheritance, but the secret would be a close relationship with God where inheritance could be received.
Who you believe determines who possesses the gates. Who possesses the place of heaven in the earth? Who possesses the high places in the earth? Whoever possesses the gates, possesses the places of influence. God’s covenant promise to us is that our descendants should possess the gates of their enemies. This is part of God’s inheritance in the earth.
When inheritances are given they remain in the earth. These are the things that create places for the coming generations to stand. We stand in the inheritances given by those before us and we walk forward to expand those inheritances to the generations beyond us. God’s covenant promise to men is that wherever the soles of their feet walk it will become the possession of their inheritance. Money is not for spending, Money is meant to change the world. Wealth isn’t given to merely gratify the pleasures of a generation. Wealth of any kind is meant to influence the world. It is not the destiny of any generation to spend the inheritances given from the previous generations upon themselves. Inheritance is meant to influence the generations of men. The riches of inheritance far exceed the value of mere things and those valuable things are a power of influence in the world.
Jesus came to this world as a man so that through Him all the families of the earth could be blessed. Going to heaven is a fringe benefit of believing in Jesus, but bringing heaven to the world in which we live is a part of our destiny. We are called to advance the kingdom of God in the earth. We are called to bring the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. We must receive the inheritances given to us by God to pass them on the generations that follow our lives in this earth.
God’s promise to Abraham was not a promise to a man. It was a promise to his house. The good news given to Abraham was that he could trust in the Promiser. He could trust in the one who gave a promise and that He could change the world through the house of Abraham. The strength of the world is that they think they are the house, but they are not the house. The weakness of the church is they don’t know they are the house, therefore, they long to go to God’s house in some place in the sky. All God has every wanted is to tabernacle with men. All he wanted to do was to move in the neighborhood of humanity and satisfy the human heart.
We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing from God in heavenly places, but we must first believe that we have been blessed in order for us to receive the blessing of those blessings here upon the earth.
When I have lived my life and run my race I want to be said that I believed therefore I acted. I acted therefore I dreamed. I dreamed therefore my children and my children’s children were born with vision. My family was born with vision therefore many families of the earth were blessed. This is a testimony of inheritance and the reality of a 100-year plan. This is the kind of leaders we should be in the Church.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
Very good stuff.