17 March, 2009

The story is told of a young man in England who scraped together all the money he could to buy a boat ticket to America.   He carried as much food as he could and got on board.   A few days later his food ran out and he began to feel hungry.   He looked longingly at the fellow passengers feasting in the Dining Hall and longed for something to eat.  Finally, he swallowed his pride and went to an officer saying I am willing to do anything, even clean the toilets, for some food.  The officer asked for his ticket and told him to his surprise that he could eat as much as he wanted because when he bought the ticket all the meals came with it.

How often we have been acting like slaves instead of sons.  Having a great inheritance but moving through life as orphans.  What we need is a fresh revelation of our sonship and position in God’s family.  We need an overwhelming baptism in the love of the Father.  The orphan spirit is not something we can cast out by prayer (how I wish we could) but it must be put to death by the revelation of who we truly are in Christ Jesus.   Too long we have believed  the lie that somehow God does not love us enough, he has deserted us and we are orphans.  The truth is that God is our Father, He chose us, He likes us, He loves us and wants to be well pleased with us.  We are joint heirs with Jesus Christ to all that God owns – and that’s a lot.

The orphan spirit is as old as man and endemic to the entire human race because of sin.  Let us wage war against it and determine not to allow the enemy to misrepresent our Father to us.  Let us hear the words of the Prodigal Son’s father to the older brother, “My son you are always with me and everything that I have is yours” (Luke 15:31).

(Picture:  Young girl having a bad day at the Preschool, not wanting to receive a gift)