Discover Your Spiritual Identity!
The Revelation of the Names and Titles God Has Given His People
“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (Acts 3:25, KJV).
In this powerful proclamation, spoken by the apostle Peter right after the crippled man was healed at the gate beautiful, God’s people are named “children of the prophets and of the covenant.” What does that mean? Whatever you are a child of, you owe your existence to. So, through divine revelation flowing through the prophets, from Enoch onward, and the introduction of covenants into this world, God has brought forth a people chosen for miraculous interventions, outpoured blessings and abundant provisions. This inheritance empowers us to overcome all the evil and darkness of this realm.
There have been nine major covenants introduced by God into this fallen world. We are participating in the eighth called the New Covenant. Without this covenant, there would be no such thing as the body of Christ (see Jer. 31:31-34, Heb. 8:8-13).
A covenant is a binding agreement made between two or more parties, each binding himself to fulfill certain obligations. These are called “covenants of promise” in Ephesians 2:12 because each covenant contains divinely authored promises that give God’s people blessed assurance concerning what He will do for them and how He will move in their behalf.
The Hebrew word translated covenant in the Old Testament is beriyth (pronounced ber-eeth’), which means to enter a pact by passing through pieces of flesh. In ancient times, covenanting parties would slay a sacrificial animal and then walk in between the divided carcass to make a symbolic statement. They were displaying the seriousness and the permanence of what they were doing (as serious and permanent as death itself), and they were actually calling down a similar fate of death upon themselves if they dared to break covenant.
When God made a covenant with Abraham, He first pledged to Abraham a promised seed, then a Promised Land which they would inhabit. Having established His commitment to this two-fold miracle, to seal the agreement, God commanded Abraham to slay five different kinds of animals, dividing three of them in half. Surely, Abraham watched in awe-struck wonder as the Creator passed through the pieces of flesh in the form of a “smoking oven and a burning torch” (Gen. 15:17, NKJV). What a serious and sacred statement the eternal God was making! Knowing how Abraham would interpret this vision, it can be deduced that God was symbolically calling death (annihilation) upon Himself if He failed to keep His covenant with Abraham. Because such an aftermath was impossible, our heavenly Father was showing how dependable and unstoppable His covenant commitment to Abraham was. We can have just as much confidence concerning our covenant relationship with the God of Abraham.
When God made a covenant with David, He promised to preserve His dynasty (the throne of David) forever. To verify this, God spoke through Jeremiah this powerful prophecy: “If you can break My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season, then also My covenant may be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign on his throne . . .” (Jer. 33:20-21, MEV). How intense is that! The solar system would have to shut down before God’s covenant commitment to David would fail! Evidently, the sun has continued to rise, and the night has continued to fall — in an unbroken, steady, predictable way for thousands of years. All the demons that exist could not stop this natural rhythm of nature from happening, neither could they stop the Messiah from being born (the Son of David who caused David’s throne to endure forever). And this is the amazing takeaway — we can have just as much assurance concerning our covenant relationship with the God of David.
The Greek word translated covenant in the New Testament is diatheke (pronounced dee-ath-ay’-kay) and it means a will or a testament to be enforced at the death of the testator. So, the “New Covenant” is a revelation of the glorious inheritance that belongs to sons and daughters of the Most High by virtue of Jesus’ death on Golgotha. We are referred to as “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ,” because we share in the inheritance of the firstborn, Son of God — which includes the New Creation in all its glory (Rom. 8:17; Rev. 21:7).
So, Child of the Covenant — quit fearing! Quit allowing your heart to sink into depression and discouragement, thinking that all hope is lost! Your God is going to uphold you with His grace. Nothing can pluck you out of His hand. Satan and his demonic underlings cannot win. God would call death upon Himself before He would fail His commitment to you. The sun would have to cease shining before your covenant with God could be thwarted or overcome. God has made a sacred and serious commitment to get you to your final goal. He is the covenant-making, covenant-revealing, covenant-keeping, covenant-establishing, covenant-fulfilling God!
Explore this wonderful subject more deeply by listening to this episode of Mike Shreve’s weekly podcast, Discover Your Spiritual Identity, or you can view the video podcast by going to our YouTube channel (YouTube.com/mikeshreveministries).
Be sure to subscribe so you will get notifications for two more upcoming episodes on this powerful subject: Children of the Covenant / Part 2 (Episode 92 — October 1) and Children of the Covenant / Part 3 (Episode 93 — October 8). {eoa}
A product of the Jesus Movement Era, Mike Shreve has traveled evangelistically in the United States and overseas since 1970 with an emphasis on healing and the prophetic. His primary biblical teaching for over 35 years has been the spiritual identity of believers. This powerful insight is featured on his weekly podcast on cpnshows.com and his TV program — both titled Discover Your Spiritual Identity. It is also the theme of his Charisma House book titled WHO AM I? Dynamic Declarations of Who You Are in Christ. The first three categories on his YouTube website expand on this amazing revelation: YouTube.com/mikeshreveministries.
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