“Your greatest places of warfare will become your greatest places of inheritance!”
This is the phrase the Holy Spirit spoke to me in the fall of 2014 while I was meditating on Psalm 2:7-8. In Psalm 2, we join David in witnessing a day when nations will rage, kings will plot and a generation will declare open war on God, His Word and His plan. David calls it vain. The Father laughs and confidently declares that no devil, nation or conspiracy of nations will be able to overthrow His eternal plan to give all nations to His Son from His Mount Zion. Then we are drawn far from the chaos, confusion and craziness of the day into the place of intimate intercession between the Father and the Son. The Father declares His affection over His Son and in essence says, “You see those nations raging out there? Ask Me for them, and I’ll make them Your inheritance.”
Right when I read this phrase and connected these dots, the Holy Spirit made it so clear that in the same place the enemy released the greatest assault (namely, Jesus’ eternal destiny of ruling from Mount Zion) will come the deepest inheritance that He will receive from the Father. “Our greatest places of warfare will become our greatest places of inheritance.”
On March 16, 2013, our family experienced the greatest assault on our inheritance in the sudden death of our son, Josiah Nash Russell. We called him “Nash” after the intercessor Daniel Nash, who co-labored with Charles Finney during the Second Great Awakening. After having three beautiful daughters, my wife and I had received several prophetic promises that we would have a son. On June 26, 2012, that promise became a reality when he was born.
After nine and a half months of experiencing unprecedented happiness over our son of promise and three stunning daughters, and doing life and ministry with my amazing wife and best friend, the floor fell out from under us. While I was on a ministry trip in London, England, and my wife and children were in Arkansas seeing family, my wife put our son down for a nap, but he didn’t wake up; he passed away in his sleep. After three hours of being unable to reach me, she finally did, and I was on the next flight home to begin the most gut-wrenching and painful season we’ve ever walked through.
Over these last five years, there have been times I did not know if our marriage was going to make it, or our family for that matter, but God in His kindness and faithfulness has kept us. In addition to His own faithfulness, He has given us five life rafts—five psalms of David that have helped us interpret pain and sorrow through the Word of God. One of these is Psalm 2, which strengthened me to believe for inheritance when everything around told me differently.
The enemy sought to steal, kill and destroy us, yet I clung to two things: I’m His beloved son in whom He is well pleased, and this is not the end of our story—God has an inheritance for my family and me. As I made the daily decision to come out of the chaos and confusion of what was surrounding us, lock eyes with Father and cling to His affection and dream for our lives, we were strengthened to survive another day.
Here we are five years later, still clinging to God and each other, believing that the promises that He has declared will come to pass. He has carried us on eagle’s wings through an intense season. Though we aren’t there yet, we choose to wake up every day and believe that “what God had promised, He was able also to perform” (Rom. 4:21). It’s been a messy journey, but we have chosen to not quit, and we truly believe that if we don’t quit, we win.
I believe many people can identify with some kind of loss or trial that has shaken you, your marriage or your family to the core, and it has changed you. We need more testimonies of people who are clinging to God as they walk through intense seasons, to give courage and hope to others to keep going, because if God can carry my family and me through such great pain, He can carry anyone. {eoa{
To learn more about his journey and the hope he received, read Inheritance: Clinging to God’s Promises in the Midst of Tragedy, by Corey Russell, available now from Forerunner Publishing. Corey’s honest journey through these five psalms will help readers discover how the Good Shepherd heals His people, makes us into shepherds after His own heart and calls us to believe in a God who turns the worst circumstances into a profound and eternal inheritance.
This article originally appeared at ihopkc.org.
Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett 
