Dear Pilgrim, do you realize you are wearing a ring on your finger?

Dear Pilgrim, do you realize you are wearing a ring on your finger? Hold out your hand….do not feel embarrassed by showing your hand, dear Pilgrim, for it is no longer filthy but clean, because He has washed you...look…it is a ring of royalty! How beautiful it is! It is gleaming, shining, a magnificent jewel!

Do you remember how it came to be there? You recall how you came home to your Father, hoping that He might take you in as a servant in His house, when your eyes were opened to the reality that you were eating the food of pigs? You remember when you were still a long way off, He saw you coming, ran to embrace you and kissed you? You then said to Him "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against You and I am no longer worthy to be called Your son."  Do you remember His response? He called His servants to bring the best robe and put it on you, the robe of the Righteousness of His Son! Oh, mercy! But don't forget He called His servants to also put a ring on your finger (Luke 15:22).

Pilgrim, take the time to look at this ring. This is a ring that confers dignity and honour. It is a ring that attests to an inheritance. Do you see? The prodigal son squandered his earthly inheritance, throwing it away in Vanity Fayre. Yet the Father gives him a ring as a sign of another inheritance, an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, an inheritance in Christ.

For His Son has been appointed heir of all things (Heb 1:2). Just as Pharaoh took the signet ring off his own finger and gave it to Joseph as a sign that he was giving all authority to him, so too the Father has given all authority to the Son. The nations are His inheritance, the ends of the earth His possession (Psalm 2:8). When He returns, every knee will bow before Him and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

But it is the people He redeemed with His own blood, the people of Mount Zion, who are His own inheritance (Ps 74:2), those in whom He will be glorified when He returns! For He has given us the glory that the Father has given Him (John 17:22). “Here am I, and the children God has given me” (Heb 2:13). We, who have been made children of God, are His treasured possession (Mal 3:17)! We will sparkle in His land like jewels in a crown when He returns (Zech 9:16)! We will shine like the brightness of the heavens, like the stars for ever and ever (Dan 12:3)!

Furthermore dear Pilgrim – take heed – since you are His child, the Father has not only sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart (Gal 4:6), but He has also made you an heir (Gal 4:7). For Christ Himself is the Signet Ring – the sign and seal of the Father – the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His being.  And so the Spirit is the seal, the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession. Though we were responsible for the Heir being killed, that His inheritance might be stripped of Him if that were possible (Mt 21:38), yet in Christ we are seated with princes and inherit a throne of honour (1 Sam 2:8)! A throne of honour! Oh, Pilgrim! What a gospel!

This throne of honour….these words I am about to share with you, precious Pilgrim, I can hardly take them in myself. Truly, as He enlightens the eyes of our heart to know the hope to which He has called us, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, this can be overwhelming. Listen, Pilgrim, to the words from His own lips: “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Rev 3:21). Pilgrim, I would be content to lie face down forever at His feet in His Kingdom….now I discover that He will give authority over the nations to the one who is victorious and does His will to the end, just as He received authority from His Father (Rev 2:26).

Look again at the ring on your finger. This ring makes you an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. This ring points to your inheritance. It points to Christ, to the seal of His Spirit in your heart. Fix your eyes on Christ. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We are co-heirs with Christ if we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory (Rom 8:16-17). If we endure we will also reign with Him (2 Tim 2:12). For the King of Kings wore a crown of thorns to point to His Kingship, and no servant is above his Master. Yet as you endure, precious Pilgrim, remember His abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness that will enable you to reign in life (Rom 5:17)! It is this that will enable you to be victorious, to continue to the end, to persevere, to overcome! 

And remember, precious Pilgrim, that the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son (Gal 4:30). Ask Him to enable you to walk in freedom through the grace He has given, that you may reign in life even as you share in His sufferings. Do not allow the thief to steal your inheritance from you! He would see you stripped of your rightful inheritance on the mountain of the Lord (Ex 15:17), he wants to prevent you from possessing the mountains (Isa 65:9). Resist the devil and he will flee, Pilgrim.  You will then find that the boundary lines have fallen for you in pleasant places, that you have a delightful inheritance. And you will walk into an inheritance that is exceedingly and immeasurably beyond your comprehension.

Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth', for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 

(Rev 21:1-7)