Are You Getting the Down Payment of Your Inheritance, Now?

By Milton G. Crane, M.D. and Barbara G. Crane, R.D. of Weimar Institute

What is Jesus offering you now? Here are three true stories about getting help outside of yourself to overcome physical problems. You see, our heavenly Father and His Son made out a will, an Old and a New Testament. Every promise in the Bible is ours if we present our request to Jesus, the executor of the will, in the court of Heaven. Paul wrote that a will is not in force until the death of the testator is verified (Hebrews 9:15-17). It pays to know the Executor of this inheritance because it means forgiveness from sins now, cleansing, and the grace of God to obey him. That is just the down payment for now (Ephesians 1:9-14). The rest of the will of God for His adopted children is eternal life in Heaven (1 Peter 1:4,5).

God's Will in the Heart: Karol was a 37-year-old happy, energetic, young salesperson who developed progressively worsening fatigue, stabbing pains, blurred vision, numbness and tingling of the lower limbs, urinary urgency and incontinence, and mental confusion. Within six months of the onset of the ailment, she could barely get about. She expected that soon she would be in a wheelchair. By her own statement she rated her health at that time at "5" on a scale of 0-100 (with zero being dead and 100 as perfect health). After many tests from several consultants she learned the diagnoses was multiple sclerosis. As if that was not enough, she found it was associated with multiple allergies or sensitivities.

A Seventh-day Adventist church friend persuaded her to go on the NEWSTART therapeutic diet. Within a month on this diet she had made definite improvement, but she still had some numbness and fatigue. She felt better at times and worse again. She began to keep a record of what she ate, how she felt, and what she did. As she studied this she noticed that some foods brought on her symptoms of multiple sclerosis in one or two hours.

Using a rotation diet and diversification of foods, she was able to determine which foods she could tolerate. If she omitted all refined foods (particularly sugar), animal products, food additives, yeast and other fermented products, and if she eliminated the natural foods to which she was sensitive, she made steady improvement.

On that diet she gradually regained her health until, by the end of three months, the numbness was gone. By the end of 10 months she was able to go back to work, but required a couple of rest periods during the day. After 14 months, she was able to return to full-time employment. She then rated her health at 95 on her health scale of 0-100.

Her safe diet consists of selected whole grains, greens and legumes. She cannot eat certain food combinations at the same meal. Now, she has recovered enough so that she can eat an occasional piece of low sugar fresh fruit. Salads and a special no yeast bread give her the most energy. Her exercise consists of walking two miles a day or an equivalent amount of stationary biking. She arranges to get adequate rest. She finds that especially selected purified water for cooking and drinking is important. If she diverges from this simple program, numbness and fatigue alert her of the danger in a matter of hours.

Although not a regular church member, she depends upon God to give her the desire and power to stay on this program correctly. You see, even though she knows that her dreadful health problems will return if she goes off her program, her appetite without God's help is too strong for her to stay on her program. She put together "12 Suggested Steps" from the Alcoholics Anonymous World Services and utilizes them for her own problem. I have paraphrased them below:

1. I admit that I am powerless over my faulty diet and lifestyle – that my life has become unmanageable.

2. I came to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.

3. I make a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him.

4. I make a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.

5. I admit to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs.

6. I am entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly, I ask Him to remove my shortcomings.

8. I make a list of all persons I have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. I make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. I continue to take personal inventory, and when I am wrong, promptly admit it.

11. I seek through prayer and meditation [upon His Word] to improve my conscious contact with God as I understand Him, praying [and searching His Word] only for knowledge of his will for myself and for the desire and power to carry it out.

12. I have a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, I try to carry this message to alcoholics [and others bound by faulty habits], and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

(It is interesting to compare the above with the writings of Ellen White in Steps to Christ, page 47.)

It Pays to Study the Will: When George was 17, his desire to be "free" caused him to leave his well-to-do family on their plantation in Charleston, South Carolina. Ho chose the hippy lifestyle, hitchhiked west to San Francisco, and settled down on a "pad" in Haight-Ashbury

One day, after three years of being totally immersed in the typical hippy lifestyle, a friend looked up from the daily newspaper to tease him by saying, "I notice in the financial section of the San Francisco Examiner that multimillionaire, George Johnson, is dead."

George read the notice and exclaimed, "That's my dad." Then George got to thinking. "As much money as my father had, I know that he must have left me something." He decided to hitchhike back to Charleston.

He arrived back at the plantation about four days later, but no one was there. He went to the office of his father's attorney in downtown Charleston. The receptionist, who had worked at the office for about a year, was not prepared for his coming.

When George walked in with his shaggy beard, dirty hair, and clothed in his smelly, rumpled hippy garb, she recoiled and yelled out, "What do you want? Who are you? Do you have an appointment?" She was in a hurry to get him out of the office.
George responded, "Is attorney Taylor here?"

The receptionist replied loudly, "Do you have an appointment?"

By this time the attorney came out of the back office to see what the commotion was about. He had known George since he was a baby; but it was difficult for him to be sure about this person. He looked at George and asked, "George, is that you?"

"Yes," was the reply.

The attorney asked, "What do you want?"

George said, "I heard that my father died."

The lawyer interrupted by asking, "But what do you want?"

"I, ah, went out to the place…"

Again the lawyer interrupted by asking, "What do you want?"

"Well, I have been traveling four or five days now, and I am hungry."

Again came the question, "What do you want, George?"

He stammered, "Could I have a dollar to get a sandwich?"

The attorney reached in his pocket and gave him the dollar. Then George ventured, "I want to know, did my father leave me anything?"

Attorney Taylor explained, "George, I was just in the back office going over your father's will with your mother and your sister. Your father left $38 million in cash in a couple of banks in town plus a number of other holdings. The will said this, "When you see my son, George, ask him what he wants. Give him the first thing that he asks for and nothing else."

What did George get? What could George have gotten? If George had studied the will, how much do you suppose he would have asked for?

What about you and the will of your heavenly Father? How much of it will you get?

Only What is in the Will: Some years ago, as I was conversing with my patient, Rose, in my office, the subject of prayer came up. She stated rather finally, "I no longer believe in prayer."

"Why?" I asked. She demurred, "Well, I asked the Lord for $50,000 and He didn't give it to me."

"What would you have done with the money?" I questioned. "Oh," she beamed, "I would have gone to Las Vegas and had a 'high-old-time'."

I then asked, "Do you suppose the Lord wanted you to go to Las Vegas and have a "high-old-time"? She hung her head a bit and said, "Well, I suppose not."

She was lead to see that the Father answered her request. He let it be known that there was no $50,000 in the will for that purpose (James 4:2,3). Besides that, she may not have come properly prepared to have her request granted.

Mother's Forgiving Love: When Bill was 17, he became involved in crime. After some years in a detention home, he lived aimlessly in run-down rooming houses in San Francisco. For 15 years he contacted his mother and his sister only to threaten them. Although his mother and his sister were afraid of him, yet they loved him. They avoided him for their own safety.

In her will, the mother left half of her property to her son. The sister was too fearful to contact Bill herself, so she hired Wayne, and "Heir Finder," to search out her brother for his part of the inheritance.

With the description of Bill and an old address supplied by Bill's sister and an aunt, Wayne began his search. The address was that of an old locked building, secretly used by various Orientals and "street folk" as a resting place at night. None of the English-speaking dwellers knew of such a person who fit Bill's description. With careful watching, Wayne never saw anyone resembling Bill enter or leave that building.

After some searching and discussions with the owners of dilapidated rooming houses, Wayne finally found one owner of a building who knew Bill. The problem was that she claimed some of the money for payment of one of Bill's old debts. Wayne could not meet that demand because the funds were in the hands of the court.

After much searching and watching of those who entered and left cheap rooming houses, Wayne was finally able to find Bill. Very carefully, Wayne explained to bill that he had some money coming from an inheritance. When Bill found out that the money was from the will of his mother, Bill refused to take the money.

"After all that I have done to my mother, I cannot accept that money. I have been so mean. I have not spoken to my mother for nearly 15 years. How can I, now, accept her loving gift?"

Wayne persuaded Bill to help him settle the inheritance records in the court. Bill's identity was confirmed by his aunt and he received the money. But he wanted nothing to do with it. He put it into a bank and refused to take any of it.

The Will of Jesus: Our heavenly Father and His Son have made out a will. They love us with an undying love even while we are in rebellion and making threats against them. God permitted His Son, Jesus, to come and provide a ransom. Some may feel that they are too wicked to be forgiven. But, if they refuse the gift, they make the will of God of no effect. If we merely hide it in a vault, we are like a prisoner who has been pardoned by the Governor, but who refused to accept the pardon.

(I am indebted to my friend Richard Bland of United Prison Ministries of Georgia and to Wayne Eproson, an Heir Finder, for the story of Bill, both true stories.)

Copyright © 1995-2002 Milton G. Crane, M.D. and Barbara G. Crane, R.D., Weimar Institute, Weimar, CA 95736. All rights Reserved.