Pastor in the Pasture by Wendel Elliott: Inheriting the big spread

Did you ever dream, when you were younger, about inheriting the “Big Spread?” Maybe you imagined some long, lost and rich uncle left you a big ranch. You had plans of what kind of cows you would use to stock the place. You knew what bloodlines of ranch horses that would be in your remuda. You talked and visited with your buddies about coming and working together. You had it all planned out…but what if it actually happened?

There you are in the attorney’s office, the deed is signed and on the table. You’ve thought about this great opportunity for quite sometime. All you have to do is pick up the papers and go take possession of the property. Instead, you find yourself backing away from the desk not picking up the papers that give you what you always wanted. (I know some of ya’ll that operate family operations are thinking, “Sounds like a pretty good deal with the headaches I have.”) However, those dreams of having that Big Spread are within grasp and you find yourself rejecting the offer.

Israel was faced with a similar situation upon coming to the banks of the Jordan River. In the book of Numbers we find their hesitation. “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “we can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

(Numbers 13:2, 31, 33 NIV)

Poised to take possession, but instead partaking in hesitation. We know where they’re headed from here…the desert. They’re not going to take the deed at this point. No, they’ll face 40 years wandering in the desert. Same sand day after day…same food day after day…monotonous…routine…dull. That sounds pretty miserable and well maybe a little bit familiar. Are you there? Are you on the banks hesitating or in the desert wandering for 40 years? You’ve been saved out of Egypt. You have accepted Jesus Christ and the salvation from sin and death through that faith in Him. However, you feel like you’re strength is zapped by the hot desert sun. There’s good news out there on the horizon. This is a new year and a time to take possession of it. You’re on the threshold of 2016 and all that God has in store for you. “…and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:12 NIV) You see God the Father has given you an inheritance through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. The deed is signed with His blood and is waiting on the desk. Pick it up and walk in to possess what He’s given to you. Make 2016 all it can be with His direction and guidance and your hard work. He has given you victory. You don’t have to fight for that victory, it’s yours. You can fight, instead, from that point of victory.

I’ll see ya’ll out in the pasture!