It is not an unusual occurrence for a person to be an heir to an estate and yet know nothing of it. Therefore, as it is the policy of the law that no one shall be deprived of any right without an opportunity to be heard, it is generally provided by statute that before a will may be probated, or an estate administered, notice of some kind must be given to the heirs, so that if they desire they may claim their inheritance. But this is as far as the law goes: the person entitled to the inheritance asserts his right thereto before coming into its possession.
It is made very plain in the Bible that we are heirs of God. Paul says, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Christ Jesus devoted the major portion of his time while on earth to acquainting men with their spiritual rights, so that all might inherit the kingdom which he said had been prepared "from the foundation of the world." Throughout the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, by the voice of the prophets, of Christ Jesus, and of the apostles, we are lovingly urged to claim our inheritance. "Ho, every one that thirsteth," calls Isaiah; and, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. ... And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely," are the familiar words of Revelation. The Bible, therefore, fully apprises us of our rights as heirs of God; but, it will be noted, it is nowhere recorded that anyone ever received his inheritance who did not seek and ask for it; in other words, as in temporal affairs, if we desire our inheritance, as children of God, we must claim it.
Intelligently to claim any kind of inheritance we must, of necessity, know of what it consists. Otherwise, we may be quite erroneously influenced into accepting something undesirable; and that is exactly what frequently happens regarding one's inheritance as a son of God. On account of our ignorance of the nature and character of this inheritance we have been grossly imposed upon, and in the place of the real and true, have been induced to accept the mere husks and counterfeit; because of our inability to distinguish between the real man created in God's image and likeness, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, and the counterfeit, described in the second chapter, we have been led into the error of believing that our inheritance is only sorrow and trouble, pain and suffering, sin, sickness, disease, and death, and that, undesirable as such an inheritance is, there is no escaping it. So, during all the years from the time of Adam, men have been bound with heavy chains, bowed down with heavy burdens, shut out from the sunlight of Truth, and have spent their money "for that which is not bread" and their labor "for that which satisfieth not," all because of ignorance of their rights and inheritance as children of God.
