Living in Malaysia for 9 years forded me the honor of learning things I did not know. One of the things I learned on one of my many walks in our neighborhood was about “squatters”. “Squatters” are people who find a vacant piece of land, set up a temporary dwelling, but the longer they stay on that land, the more permanent they make it. One day they decide it is now theirs and they are not moving. The land is not theirs, but they will not be dislodged from their “home” without a fight, because of how long they have been there.

Reading Mark 12 this morning reminded me of this story from my life in Malaysia. Jesus says, “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.” Jesus owned the land, the vineyard, and all he placed in it, but then he leased it out to some people. As you continue to read this story, you realize these who were called to lease this vineyard, believed they were now the owners because they worked it for so long.

Friends, our life is not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20). No matter how long we live in this tent, body, we are owned by someone else and when He speaks to us about what He wants from us, He made us so He knows what He is producing in us and through us. The challenge is, most people live as though they are the owner of their lives. Many are “squatters”, who have assumed ownership because of time. The son of God owns our lives, we are leasing this body, so when the Lord asks us to do something, wants to receive something from us, we must stop resisting Him, for He created us, He designed us, He is in charge of us and He is a really, really, really good owner, but we must let Him be in charge.

You are called to be royalty not a squatter. Come up higher, give Him charge of you, and watch Him crown you with glory in ways you never thought possible.