Are You Living Like an Heir or Thinking Like a Slave?

Can you be an heir of God and still think like a slave?

Through Jesus Christ, we become sons and daughters of God and heirs of His promises. Yet our thoughts, attitudes, and actions don’t always reflect the identity we’ve received. We can know what Scripture says about who we are in Christ while continuing to allow fear, insecurity, past experiences, and circumstances to control how we live.

To Think Like an Heir Not a Slave means bringing our mentality into agreement with what God has already established through Jesus Christ. It requires more than knowing our identity. We must allow that truth to transform how we think, respond, and live.

“God wants us to think like heirs while we’re here, not just when we get to heaven.” – Chad Everett

From Slavery to Sonship

Galatians 4:1–7 reveals a powerful truth about our position in Christ. God sent His Son to redeem us so that we might receive adoption as sons. Through Jesus, we are no longer slaves but sons and daughters, and because we are His children, we are also His heirs.

Consider the Israelites. After generations of slavery in Egypt, God delivered them into freedom. Yet even after leaving Egypt, they continued to struggle with a mentality shaped by bondage. Their circumstances had changed, but their thinking still reflected their former condition.

We can experience that same struggle today. Jesus has brought us into God’s family, but we may continue thinking as though our past, fears, or circumstances have authority over our future. God has already established our identity in Christ, and now our thinking must rise to agree with that position. Learning to Think Like an Heir Not a Slave begins when we stop allowing our former condition to define our present identity.

Renew Your Mind According to God’s Word

What has the greatest influence over your thinking? God’s Word, your circumstances, your feelings, or the opinions of others?

Colossians 3:1–2 instructs us to seek the things above, where Christ is seated, and set our minds on things above rather than earthly things. This requires intentional action. We must examine the thoughts we’ve accepted, confront beliefs that contradict Scripture, and refuse to let our emotions determine what we believe. When God’s Word says one thing and our circumstances suggest another, which one carries greater authority in our lives?

Second Corinthians 5:17 declares that anyone in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, and all things have become new. Therefore, we cannot continue allowing old patterns of thinking to govern a life Jesus has made new. Renewing our minds isn’t about convincing God to change our identity. It’s about changing our thinking to agree with the identity He has already given us.

Be Led by the Holy Spirit, Not the Flesh

Romans 8:12–14 reminds us that we are no longer debtors to the flesh. We don’t owe our sinful desires obedience, and we don’t have to allow our human nature to control our attitudes or actions. However, freedom from the flesh requires more than determination or willpower.

Scripture tells us that by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body. This isn’t a passive suggestion to try harder or gradually improve. It calls for a deliberate decision to confront and put an end to what contradicts our new life in Christ. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live differently.

As we pursue God through prayer, His Word, worship, and obedience, we strengthen our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the influence of the flesh begins to diminish as we increasingly yield to Him. Think about how you respond when someone offends you, circumstances become difficult, or things don’t go your way. Are your reactions controlled by your flesh, or are you allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you?

To Think Like an Heir Not a Slave means refusing to excuse attitudes and behaviors that no longer belong in our lives as sons and daughters of God.

Live in Your God-Given Identity Today

Romans 8:15–17 reveals that we have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

Our inheritance isn’t simply a promise for eternity. Our identity in Christ carries significance for how we live right now. We don’t have to remain bound by yesterday’s failures, controlled by today’s circumstances, or limited by old ways of thinking. Jesus has made us sons and daughters of God, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to live according to that identity.

The challenge is to Think Like an Heir Not a Slave in every area of life. Are your thoughts aligned with God’s Word? Do your attitudes and responses reflect the Holy Spirit’s influence? Are you living according to what God says about you, or are you still allowing something else to define who you are?

God isn’t asking us to earn a position in His family. Through Jesus Christ, He has already given us that position. Now it’s time for our mentality to match our identity.

Seek the things above. Set your mind on God’s Word. Yield to the Holy Spirit. And begin living today as the son or daughter of God you already are through Jesus Christ.

Scripture References
Galatians 4:1–7, Romans 8:12–17, Colossians 3:1–10, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 10:3–5

See Beyond Your Circumstances

What you see in your circumstances should never become greater than what God has spoken in His Word. Walking by faith not by sight means trusting God’s promises even when your current situation looks completely different from what He has said.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are sons and daughters of God and heirs according to His promise (Galatians 3:26–29). Our identity and inheritance come through Christ, not through our circumstances, achievements, or limitations.

God’s promises require more than simply knowing what He has said. We must believe His Word, respond to His instructions, and move forward in faith.

Leave Behind What God Tells You to Leave Behind

In Genesis 12, God instructed Abram to leave his country, his family, and his father’s house. Yet Abram brought his nephew Lot with him. Later, conflict developed between their households, and they separated.

After Lot departed, God told Abram to lift his eyes and look at the land He had promised.

Sometimes moving forward requires leaving something behind. Offenses, unhealthy attachments, familiar patterns, and our desire for control can keep us focused on what we need to release rather than what God has promised.

Obedience requires trusting God’s direction, even when we cannot see what comes next.

Lift Your Eyes and See the Promise

God instructed Abram to look north, south, east, and west. He promised to give Abram and his descendants the land he could see.

Abram had to see something before he possessed it.

Likewise, walking by faith not by sight requires looking beyond present circumstances and allowing God’s Word to shape our expectations. Fear, disappointment, and past experiences must not determine the limits of what we believe God can do.

God’s vision also extends beyond our individual lives. His promise to Abram included generations yet to come.

Are we seeing big enough and far enough that our faith and obedience today will impact people and generations beyond us?

Arise and Walk in Your God-Given Authority

God didn’t simply tell Abram to look at the land. He instructed him to arise and walk through it.

The promise required a response.

Joshua 1:3 reinforces this principle as God declares that He has given His people every place the soles of their feet will tread.

Walking by faith not by sight means taking steps of obedience before we see the complete outcome. In Luke 17:11–14, Jesus instructed ten men with leprosy to show themselves to the priests. They were cleansed as they went.

Their circumstances changed as they responded to Jesus’ instruction.

As sons and daughters of God through Christ, we must recognize our identity, believe His Word, and walk in the authority He has given us. Faith isn’t merely agreeing with God’s promises. Faith moves in response to them.

Drive Out Opposition and Possess the Promise

In Numbers 33:50–53, God instructed Israel to drive out the inhabitants of the promised land, remove their idols, and take possession of what He had given them.

The presence of opposition did not cancel God’s promise.

Likewise, fear, anxiety, lies, and patterns of thinking that contradict Scripture must not determine how we live. We cannot allow opposition to become greater in our thinking than God’s Word.

Instead, we must recognize what disagrees with His truth, confront it, and establish His promises in our hearts.

Philippians 4:6–7 reminds us to bring our concerns to God through prayer and thanksgiving, allowing His peace to guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Step Into What God Has Promised

Walking by faith not by sight calls for more than hearing God’s Word. It requires obedience.

What are you holding on to that God has instructed you to leave behind? Where have your circumstances limited your vision? What step of faith have you delayed because you cannot see the outcome?

God’s purpose reaches beyond your present circumstances and even beyond your lifetime. Your faith and obedience today can influence generations to come.

Don’t allow fear, opposition, or what you see naturally to determine the limits of your faith.

Lift your eyes. Believe God’s Word. Take a step of faith.

Scripture References
Galatians 3:26–29, Genesis 12:1–4, Genesis 13:14–17, Joshua 1:3, Numbers 33:50–53

The Way, the Truth & the Life

What does it mean when Jesus says He is the only way, the truth, and the life?

In The Way, the Truth & the Life, Blake Bradley teaches from John 14:6 and points us back to one of the clearest declarations Jesus made about Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and this truth reaches far beyond what we believe about salvation. As followers of Jesus, it should shape the way we think, the truth we accept, the choices we make, and the lives we build.

Jesus Is the Only Way

Salvation does not come through good works, knowledge, accomplishments, family history, or religious activity. Scripture tells us that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all need what only Jesus can provide.

Through His death and shed blood, Jesus made the way for us to be reconciled to God. Following Him, however, means more than knowing about Jesus or having prayed a prayer at some point in our lives. Following Jesus requires surrendering our lives to Him and receiving Him as Lord.

God has given us His Word so that we can know Him. As we hear His Word and respond in obedience, the Holy Spirit empowers us to live surrendered to Jesus.

Jesus Is the Truth

When Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” he was standing in front of the Truth.

Today, countless voices tell us what to believe. Feelings, opinions, friends, social media, podcasts, and popular ideas can all influence the way we see the world. Yet none of those things determine what is true.

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Because Jesus is Truth, everything we hear must be measured against Him and His Word. If an idea contradicts the Word of God, our feelings about it cannot make it true.

For that reason, Christians need to know Scripture for themselves. Knowing God’s Word helps us recognize what is false, reject lies, and remain grounded when the voices around us contradict what God has said.

Build Your Life on the Rock

In Matthew 7, Jesus describes two people who hear His words. The wise person hears His words and does them, building his house on the rock. The foolish person hears His words but does not obey them, building on sand.

Sand becomes a powerful picture of mixture. Mixture happens when we take the truth of God and combine it with beliefs, values, or practices that contradict His Word.

Instead of reshaping God’s truth around culture, our preferences, or our feelings, His truth must reshape us.

Hearing Scripture is not enough. Knowing what God says while refusing to obey Him leaves our foundation unstable. When we hear the words of Jesus and do what He says, we build our lives on the Rock.

Hear the Word and Do It

Jesus makes a clear distinction between hearing His words and actually doing them. Both builders heard, but only one obeyed.

In the same way, knowing Scripture, attending church, or listening to biblical teaching does not automatically produce a life built on Jesus. God’s Word calls for a response. Our beliefs become visible through our choices, actions, relationships, and obedience.

Therefore, we must allow the Word of God to confront areas where we have settled for partial obedience or accepted mixture. Rather than simply collecting more biblical knowledge, we can put into practice what Jesus has already shown us.

Jesus Is the Only Life

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. In John 11, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Meanwhile, the world offers many things that promise life: experiences, success, money, relationships, pleasure, recognition, and possessions. Some may be enjoyable, but none can give us the life found in Jesus.

True life does not exist apart from Christ. It is found in Him.

As followers of Jesus, we must examine what we believe, recognize where mixture has entered our thinking, and surrender those areas to the truth of God’s Word. We can ask the Holy Spirit to expose lies we have believed and reveal places where we have heard the Word but have not obeyed it.

Above all, Jesus is the way the truth and the life. He is the only way to life. To know Him is to know truth. To know Him is to know the way to the Father.

Key Scriptures

John 14:6, Acts 4:12, John 10:7–10, Matthew 7:24–27, John 11:23–25

What has God already given you that you have not yet possessed?

In Spiritual Authority: Sons & Daughters | Take the Land, Pastor Chad Everett continues teaching about our identity and inheritance as sons and daughters of God. Through faith in Christ, we are sons and daughters, Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Yet it is possible to be an heir and still not understand or possess everything that belongs to you.

God does not want His sons and daughters living unaware of their identity or inheritance. He wants us to know who we are, believe what He says, and move forward into what He has given us.

Know Your Lineage

God’s promise to Abraham included two important things: lineage and land. Lineage speaks to identity. Before we can take the land, we need to know who we are and whose family we belong to.

Jesus demonstrated this when He encountered Zacchaeus. Other people saw a sinner, but Jesus called him a son of Abraham. Jesus also encountered a woman who had been bound by a spirit of infirmity for 18 years. Rather than identifying her by her bondage, He called her a daughter of Abraham and declared that she ought to be loosed.

Our struggles, past experiences, circumstances, and the labels of others do not determine our identity. In Christ, we are sons and daughters and heirs according to the promise.

Believe God Over Your Circumstances

Abraham received an incredible promise from God while his circumstances seemed to say the exact opposite. God brought him outside, told him to look toward the heavens, and promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.

Abraham had to decide which voice would determine what he believed: his circumstances or the Word of the Lord.

The same choice confronts us. When what we see does not match what God has said, faith continues to believe Him. We do not have to wait until we see the results before trusting His Word.

Take the Land

Land represents territory. God promised His people land, but they still had to go forward and possess it.

There is a difference between having an inheritance promised and actually possessing it. Wrong thoughts, attitudes, habits, fear, disappointment, and spiritual opposition can occupy territory in our lives that we were never meant to surrender.

To take the land means recognizing what belongs to us through Christ and refusing to remain passive about the territory God has called us to possess.

God did not save us simply to survive until heaven. He calls His sons and daughters to advance His Kingdom and bring the life and authority of Jesus into the world around them.

Keep Advancing Through Opposition

Moving forward does not mean there will be no resistance. Paul described having a “great and effective door” opened to him while also facing many adversaries.

Opposition does not automatically mean you are moving in the wrong direction.

Disappointment, tragedy, struggle, and resistance can cause us to retreat. We can slowly back away from things we once pursued with faith. Instead, God is calling sons and daughters to rise up, believe Him again, and keep advancing.

Where have you stopped moving forward? Where have you allowed opposition to convince you to retreat? What territory is God calling you to possess?

Know who you are. Believe God’s Word over your circumstances. Get back up and take the land.

“Possess the land. Take the land. Move forward. Advance.”

Scripture References
Galatians 3:26–29, Galatians 4:1–7, Genesis 15:1–6, Deuteronomy 11:22–25, 1 Corinthians 16:8–9

Freedom in Christ changes more than where we will spend eternity. Jesus came so that sons and daughters of God could live differently right now.

In Spiritual Authority: Sons & Daughters | From Under to Over, Pastor Chad Everett continues in Galatians 4:1–7 and challenges us to recognize the areas of our lives where we may still be living under something Jesus has already given us freedom and authority over.

From an Heir to a Mature Son or Daughter

Galatians 4 describes an heir who, while still a child, “does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all.” The inheritance belongs to him, but he has not yet matured enough to live in everything that belongs to him.

In the same way, this can happen spiritually. We can belong to Jesus and still live under attitudes, desires, fears, pride, or patterns that keep us from experiencing freedom in Christ.

God’s invitation to grow is not condemnation. Instead, it is an invitation into greater freedom. Part of that growth requires humility and a willingness to receive the guardians, stewards, correction, wisdom, accountability, and guardrails God uses to help us mature.

What Are You Living Under?

Not everything should have authority over our lives.

To identify what can keep us under, Chad points to 1 John 2 and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh says, “I want what I want.” The lust of the eyes allows what we see to shape our desires and beliefs. The pride of life leads us toward self-reliance and the belief that we can handle life ourselves.

Instead, Jesus showed us another way when He surrendered His will to the Father: “Not My will, but Yours.”

Freedom in Christ means recognizing what has been controlling us and bringing those areas under the authority of Jesus.

The Fullness of Time Has Already Come

Galatians 4:4 says, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son.”

The fullness of time was God’s appointed time for Jesus to come and accomplish redemption. Jesus came. He fulfilled what God had promised. He paid the price for our redemption with His own precious blood.

Because the fullness of time has already come, we do not have to live as though we are waiting for Jesus to accomplish something He has already done.

“We were under, but Jesus came to redeem us and place us over.”

Receive Adoption and Believe What God Says

Jesus came to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 4 goes on to say that because we are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.”

Because of what Jesus accomplished, our identity does not depend on how we feel.

Chad challenges us: “Believe over feeling. Faith over feeling.”

Therefore, freedom in Christ calls us to believe what God says even when our emotions, circumstances, or past experiences tell us something different. We are no longer slaves. Through Christ, we are sons and daughters, and if sons and daughters, then heirs.

Ultimately, what is our inheritance?

“You know what your inheritance is? It’s Him. It’s not something from Him. We get Him.”

It’s Time to Come Over

Where are you still living under something Jesus has given you authority over?

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal those areas. When He does, do not hear His conviction as condemnation. Instead, hear His invitation to grow, mature, receive what Jesus has already provided, and experience freedom in Christ.

The fullness of time has already come. Jesus has already paid the price. Now we can receive what He has provided and live from our position as sons and daughters.

“Where we’re under, we got to come over.”

Scripture References
Galatians 4:1–7, 1 John 2:15–17, 1 Peter 1:18–19, Romans 8:2, Luke 10:19