From the time I was six years old, I wanted a motorcycle. I dreamed about motorcycles all the time. I can remember coming home from school when I was a boy, and as I would turn the last corner before I could see our house, I would cover my eyes so I couldn't see the yard. Then I'd tell myself that there was going to be a motorcycle in that yard.

Day after day, I hid my eyes. Day after day, I pretended I would see a motorcycle sitting there. Day after day, I never did. So I just kept dreaming.

Like most kids I knew, I grew up thinking that, if there was something I wanted and I had to ask my parents for it, then I could count on having a hard time getting it...like a motorcycle, for instance. Why was that?

Well, if you think about it, probably generations of children have been raised on, "No, not now!" and, "What do you need that for, anyway?"

I don't care whether they're rich or poor, Christian or non-Christian, that's the general attitude a lot of parents communicate when their children come to them asking for something. What's more, most of those parents probably don't mean to be that way.

It's no surprise, then, to realize that generations of Christians have been raised in the Church believing it's next to impossible to get anything from God.

Now, I was raised in a wonderful, godly home by parents who were givers. They tithed on everything that came into their hands from the day they were married. They never did without, either. Yet, from the way I was raised at home and what I was taught in the Church, I assumed it was next to impossible to get anything from God.

When you and I were born again, we didn't become God's servants. We became His children, which was what He was after all along. We became children of the King, sons and daughters of the Most High God. And because of that, we gained access to a glorious inheritance—one that we didn't have to wait until heaven to receive.

Today, however, the Church is not walking in and enjoying the fullness of its rightful inheritance—all the blessings promised to us through our spiritual father, Abraham. The reason we're not is because we've not known our true identity. We haven't received our sonship in the kingdom of God.

Servant or Son?
When it comes to inheritance and serving God, we've all probably heard plenty of preaching on the parable of the prodigal son, and most of it probably focused on the son who squandered his father's money. But there's another point to that story about a father and his two sons.

It's not just about the son who got into trouble. It was the younger son who went to his father and asked for his inheritance. But notice how this bold request didn't seem to upset the father in the least. That's an important detail we need to keep in mind as we study this passage.

After the father divided his holdings and gave his younger son what was rightfully his, the first thing this young fellow did with his new-found wealth was hit the road. He went looking for a good time. The only problem was, he didn't have the wisdom to handle all his riches. Consequently, his riotous living came to a sobering end.

When the prodigal son went home, his father met him before he even made it back to the house. The repentant son confessed his error and told his father how wrong he had been and how unworthy he was to be called a son. But then the plan began to fall apart.

This father was thrilled to have his boy back. In fact, he was probably so busy kissing and hugging and just looking at his boy that he never even heard a word his son said. Reduce his long-lost son to the status of servant? Nonsense!

But notice this. Here's the son, working up enough nerve to ask his father if he can come back home and live as one of the servants, and the whole time he's trying to ease into the question, his father is busy barking orders to all the servants, "Get this...get that! Do this...do that!" The man has servants hopping all over the place. This man already had servants.

If the man had many servants, what did he need with another one? No, on this particular day, when the father looked "a great way off," he wasn't looking for another servant. He had servants. What he lacked was s-o-n-s. He was looking for a son...and a son was what he got.

Servitude or Sonship?
The prodigal son never got his opportunity to become a servant, at least not the way he had planned. His plan actually backfired on him, but in a good way. Before he knew what had happened, he was wearing a robe and a ring and was sitting down to a feast in his honor. That meant he was back in the family. He was a son once again.

When the elder son finally arrived on the scene, to the sounds of merrymaking, and found out what had happened...he was upset. That's when his true heart, and mind-set, were revealed.

Certainly, the father had given them their inheritance, but neither one received it in honor. The younger son took his and spent it in dishonor. The elder son never recognized the fact that all his father had was his (Luke 15:31). He was out in the field trying to make everybody happy by working hard.

Like the father in Jesus' parable, God is wanting sons. Hebrews 2:10 tells us that "it became God...in bringing many sons unto glory." Indeed, if we're born again, you and I truly are the sons and daughters of Almighty God.

For the most part, the problem in the Church has been that we've been too busy trying to serve God. We've been thinking and speaking and acting like servants, not sons.

Just think—here's God, wanting to bring "many sons unto glory," but we're all too busy working hard out in the fields. Meanwhile, God has more angels serving Him than we could probably count in a lifetime. He even has angels that do nothing but fly around Him day and night declaring, "Holy, holy, holy!" So what does He need with more servants?

You and I don't have to wait to receive our inheritance after we die and go to heaven. No, our inheritance went into effect when Jesus died. In fact, Jesus is the only man ever to write a will, die, then come back from the grave and probate, or officially validate, His own will.

We have obtained redemption. We have obtained an inheritance. It's time we realize our full identity as sons and daughters of Almighty God. It's time we shake off the misconceptions of man and the deceptions of the devil, and receive what is rightfully ours. It is time we take hold of our full inheritance.

God's not trying to keep anything good from us. He's doing everything He can to get it to us...and yes, that includes motorcycles.

You know, my parents never did get me that motorcycle I had wanted. But God knew my heart. I never stopped dreaming, either—in spite of all the reasons I was told I couldn't have one.

Several years later, Gloria and I and the children came home from a meeting one day. And as we rounded the last corner and drove up to our house, there was a man sitting on the front porch. In his hand was the title to his motorcycle. He wanted me to have it.

That day, God saw to it that the dream of a six year old boy came to pass.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries