I am going to attempt to write about a subject that I have been asked about a few times recently. It may be familiar to you or it may be totally foreign, but it is a subject that is very much a problem in this time we are living in.
Fatherlessness or lack of a good father role in the home is causing a condition where our children and even us as parents and grandparents still look and long for the role of a father. Fathers give stability, approval and hopefully the love our heart longs for. God, our true Father knows the role of a Father well and He understands that our hearts long for the love of a father, He designed it that way.
No earthly father will ever be able to give us what we need so we keep looking, keep trying to prove we are loveable. This is called in spiritual terms the “Orphan Spirit”.
A demonic type of spirt that invades our minds and hearts causing us to have a sense of abandonment, loneliness, alienation, or isolation. It can also come along after a person experiences rejection in their life. A person can know all about God and yet still be operating with an orphan spirit.
The orphan spirit came into existence right after the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden. God banished them from the garden and the orphan spirit went to work immediately. It feeds lies like, “God doesn’t love you” or “how could God love you?” The orphan spirit is probably one of the most prevalent spirits roaming the earth today and telling people they are not good enough or that they must work harder.
People with an orphan spirit have a hard time believing that their salvation is God plus nothing. What I mean is that our salvation is a gift, no strings attached, we only have to reach out and accept it, it is done, it is finished!
Instead they believe that salvation is from God BUT they have to work to prove it in order to keep it and they live by a strict set of rules. Unfortunately a lot of churches and most religions look and sound a lot like this method – pointing out all the things you should not do if you want to have and keep your salvation.
What does life look like with an orphaned spirit: the motto for the Orphaned Spirit is “I Must Do It!”
- Very performance driven
- Competitive
- Works independently
- Struggle with self-worth, insecurity
- Cannot accept that God would lavish gifts or love on them, unworthy
- Having healthy relationships can be a struggle
- Feels inadequate
- Perfectionism
- My behaviour is my responsibility: Control
- My spouse’s and my children’s behaviour is also my responsibility: Control
- Very critical attitude of others
- On the outside people appear to be all together, just right, perfect
- Will not admit to problems
- Jealous, bitterness or envy
- Willing to help others but cannot help themselves (not worthy)
- Protection walls are built high so that we will not be hurt again by other people
- Wonders frequently if God cares or can even hear them
- Use people to try to attain their success and needs
- Shame – it is very tiring to keep pretending everything is fine
- Try’s to medicate their pain with working, exercise, drugs, relationships trying one thing after another but nothing seems to work, it becomes a hamster wheel and the addiction keeps getting stronger
How do we stop the orphan spirit and the negative mindset it brings to us? We have to go to the opposite and that would be the spirit of sonship: as a child of God; sonship.
The only way to fight the negative is with the truth and feed on the truth daily. We have been chosen by God to be adopted into His kingdom and to receive His Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will”
Romans 8:15 “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God”
Galatians 4:6 “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
1 John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.”
Galatians 4:7 “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,”
These two competing thoughts take us back to the Reformation when Luther thought of salvation as Christ plus nothing but the Baptists' thought of salvation as God plus performance. So much debate and hurt over these two sides clashing.
I prefer to go directly to the Bible for confirmation:
Psalm 103
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Did notice God says: Do not forget ALL God’s benefits
1) God who forgives all your sins, not just “some”
2) God who heals ALL your diseases
3) God who redeems your life from the pit
4) God who crowns you with love and compassion
5) God who satisfies your desires with good things
If you have identified with the Orphaned spirit listed in this blog, then I would advise you to write out and mediate daily on Psalm 103 and some of the other scriptures mentioned.
How do I know about the orphaned spirit? I struggled with it for years. I was adopted and that "they didn't want me mindset" led me down that road. I can happily report that I have not had to live under that orphan spirit for a long time now.
Can you get rid of the Orphan Spirit – absolutely!
Prayer something like the following prayer say it out loud:
Father God, Abba, thank you that you chose to adopt me as your child. I accept my place in your kingdom because Jesus paid for my sin by His death and broken body on the cross. I ask Father that you send your Holy Spirit to come and live in my heart.
Father right now I confess that I have participated with the Orphaned Spirit, I believed I was unworthy and that I had to save myself please forgive me for this. I confess right now that You God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit paid completely for my salvation. It is not based on my works or performance, please forgive me for attempting to do the work you have already completed.
I agree with Jesus words from the cross, “It Is Finished” and accept the completed and finished work of Jesus.
Right now, by the authority of the blood of Jesus Christ, I tell the Orphan Spirit that you must leave my body, mind and soul in the powerful name of Jesus, you must leave based on Jesus authority and you must never return. All legal ground I have given the enemy has been cancelled from this moment forward.
Father, fill the places in my body with your Holy Spirit. I pray you would lead me forward knowing that I am your child and teach me how to walk in the spirit of Sonship as your child.
Thank you. I pray and ask this in Jesus, Holy name.
Amen.
Walk right into the freedom that God bought and paid for for you. Know that God has promised you: "I will never leave you, never will I forsake you" Hebrews 13:5
(He also promises it in Genesis 28:15, Deuteronomy 4:32 and 31:6, 1 Kings 8:57)
He means it! You are His child, how could He ever let you go. You are the only one that can walk away from Him and even then He is standing there watching for you with His arms stretched out waiting for you to walk back to Him and into His embrace.
What is stopping you?