“Our spiritual inheritance takes an entire lifetime to discover, with the help of the Holy Spirit, one intentional and surrendered step at a time.”- Heath Adamson
“Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places.”- Isaiah 40:4 (NLT)
Heath Adamson concludes Chapter 7 of The Sacred Chase as he stresses our need to possess the willingness and ability to quit making excuses in order to receive correction from God. As a result, Mr. Adamson explores the differences between the similar terms of sin, iniquity, and transgressions.
1. Sin. The word sin means ‘to miss the mark.’ In addition, one can literally translate sin as ‘crouching beast.’ Also, missing the mark, an archery term, serves as a metaphor for aiming toward a bulls-eye, but shooting the arrow outside the red circle in the middle. Finally, we refer to sins of commission and sins of omission.
2. Transgressions. Heath defines transgressions as blatant, intentional sins that violate God’s stated standards in Scripture.
3. Iniquity. The literal meaning of iniquity is ‘crooked.’ Consequently, ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving exist that seem right to us – due to our experience. However, compared to the plumb line of God’s best, they fail to align. And it’s often subtle, thus hard to detect.
Furthermore, the author underscores, iniquity refers to areas of our soul where we believed a lie. Hence, we developed a habit based on that lie. Next, we harden our hearts toward God, cutting off His access to those areas. And, at times, this happens through our premeditated choices.
In conclusion, Heath advises:
“The traveler studies your iniquities well. There are things that have accompanied you in life that have become normal. . . . However, you and I will never reach a place with God where we are too good, too religious, or too Christian to need a course of correction every once in a while. Indeed, keeping our hearts open before God to deal with the iniquities will . . . serve as a sign of humility and love for God.”
Today’s question: How do you discover your spiritual inheritance? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “A full and holistic Christian life”
