I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, for those of you who are Americans. We had a great day spent with family and friends who are like family. We ended up with about 20 people at our house. It was awesome! The following day was my 21st wedding anniversary. We kept things low key and went to a movie and dinner. 

We are going to continue our study on Ephesians 1. We are learning that God the Father has blessed us “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” We looked at the first spiritual blessing of being chosen to be holy and blameless before the foundation of the world. If you missed that study, I encourage you to go back and read it. Today we are going to look at the next spiritual blessing. This one is an exciting blessing!

According to Ephesians 1:5 we are adopted as sons through Jesus. We were predestined to be adopted as sons through Jesus because it is the will of the Father for us to be sons. 

“He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬

What does it mean to be adopted as sons? Being a son of the King comes with some pretty amazing benefits. As a son we are heirs of the same inheritance of Jesus. Check out what Romans tells us regarding sonship. 

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭14‬-‭17‬ (‭ESV)

‬‬How to know if you are a son of God

How do you know if you are a son of God? We are told the sons of God are led by the Spirit. As a result of being led by the Holy Spirit, you have been set free. You no longer have to live a life fearful of things to come. Rather, you have the confidence knowing you are a son of the one true God. As a son of God the Father, you know that he will guide you and protect you. The son of the King has extra protection surrounding him.

I live in America. Here, we have Presidents. The President has a group of people who protect him. We call them the Secret Service. The Secret Service follows the President, both while he is serving and afterwards. Their job is to look out for potential danger and whisk the President away should danger come his way. Guess what? Not just the President gets protection, but the children of the President as well. 

Likewise, as sons of the King of kings, we receive a secret service of protection. In Matthew 26:53 (ESV), Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”

‭‭Jesus had Protection

You better believe Jesus had the Secret Service angels following him. It was their job to protect Jesus from harm until the time came for him to be our sacrifice. Just think about the time when the Pharisees wanted to kill him early on in Jesus’ public ministry. What happened? We read the account of when Jesus visited his hometown.

On the Sabbath day Jesus went into the Temple and was handed the scroll of Isaiah. Jesus took the scroll and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬

At first the people marveled at him and spoke well of him. The problem was that they didn’t understand who Jesus was. They saw him as the son of Joseph. Then Jesus said something that riled up the religious spirit. Jesus reminded them of Elijah being served by a Gentile woman, and Naaman being healed though he was also a Gentile. Jesus was really saying, “I chose Gentiles to receive healings and miracles because they had belief. You don’t have belief, so you won’t see any miracles and healings.”

This made them livid with Jesus. They were so angry that they wanted to kill Jesus. It says in Luke 4:28-29 (ESV), “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.”

Here is where we see the Secret Service angels come to help protect Jesus. It says in verse 30 that, “But passing through their midst, he went away” (‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭30‬ ‭ESV‬‬). Do you suppose the angels blocked the ability for these men to see Jesus? Could they have been standing between Jesus and these murderous men? As the Son of God, Jesus was given special protection. Even Satan knew this as fact. We read in ‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭(ESV‬‬), “And he [Satan] took him [Jesus] to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’””

If Jesus got the Secret Service of angels to protect him, wouldn’t we, as adopted sons, receive the same protection? I know my husband and I have seen these angels work in our lives. There have been times when we should have gotten hurt but didn’t. 

My Husband was Protected

One day my husband was entering onto a 3-lane freeway. There was a guy driving in the middle lane, but he decided he needed to be in the right merging lane as fast as possible. This guy attempted to swerve into Brett’s car! But he never made it to Brett’s small black coupe. A tire screeching sound was heard, and all of the sudden this car swerved in the opposite direction, away from Brett, causing the guy to lose control and wreck with someone else. A few weeks later the Lord revealed to Brett in prayer that an angel kicked that car out of the way so Brett wouldn’t be harmed. This reminded him of Psalm 91 where it talks about those who trust in the Lord will be safe from harm. 

We are told in Romans 8:29 (ESV), “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Remember, we were chosen to be sons of God before the foundation of the world. We were foreknown to be transformed into the image of Jesus. It makes sense then, that if Jesus was given angels to protect him, we would also be given angels for protection. This is just one of many perks of being called a son of God. 

Freedom from Bondage

Another perk of being called a son of God is that we get to be instruments to set all of creation free from the bondage of sin. “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭(ESV).

What does this look like? What does it mean? Over the past several years the Lord has been uncovering what this means and looks like to Brett and I. The Lord has called us to pray over land. It began with the land the Lord gave us to live in. We prayed for our own home and invited the Spirit of God to reside here. We’ve asked for our home to be a place where people get healing and feel the peace of God when they come here. Brett and I have dedicated our home to be a place of refuge to both people and angels. It’s our desire to provide a place of renewal for people. 

The result of these prayers is that our home has been a place where people come to feel God’s peace and hear from him. Everyone who spends the night at our house tells us the same thing, “I slept really well here. I don’t normally sleep well in a different place, but I slept really well here. It just feels so peaceful in that room.” We’ve sat back as people have come to our home for prayer and leave lighter, healed, and free from whatever tormented them. These are things Brett and I could never do. It’s only something God can do through us. He works through us and our home because we prayed and asked him to do so. God really loves to answer prayers!

When word got out that we prayed for our land, and people felt the effects of those prayers, they started asking us to pray for their land too. We’ve gone to several homes to pray for the freedom of the land. We’ve prayed for God’s peace to dwell in their homes, and for angels to come and get rid of anything that doesn’t belong there. After a few weeks, we typically receive reports of things that have happened in the physical because of what we’ve done with God in the Spirit. Sketchy neighbors suddenly packed up and moved. Trees and plants suddenly started growing in places where they wouldn’t grow before. Animals started hanging out at these homes. The people who live in these homes report feeling closer to the Lord, and being able to hear his voice better. Their homes felt peaceful. 

Praying for the freedom of creation is another perk of being a son of God. It’s part of our inheritance we receive as sons of God. Remember what Ephesians 1:5 (ESV) tells us, “he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” God the Father predestined us to be his son through Jesus. Why? Because it is his will that we are his sons. Furthermore, as sons, the Spirit bears witness to the Father that we are his sons. As sons, we are also co-heirs of the inheritance Jesus receives as the Son. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬.

Here’s the best news of all. The inheritance of being protected from harm, and being able to partner with God to free creation is just scratching the surface of this inheritance we receive as sons of God. There is so much more! I encourage you to seek the Lord for what else is your inheritance as his son. And, by the way, you are a son regardless if you are a man or a woman!

Part 1