“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” – Jesus
Quite often, you find yourself feeling fearful of an unknown future, or a broken past, or a shameful present. Today, keep your heart open – as God, who is your FATHER and who loves like a MOTHER, wants you to dive into His arms and receive His unconditional love that will wash away all your pain, rejection, shame, fear and burden. There is no place except the arms of your heavenly Father where you will be made whole.
The love that human beings have to offer is tainted by sin. An earthly mother or father can love you sacrificially and beautifully, but never completely. This is simply because sin entered mankind and only Jesus could pay the ultimate price for it because He had no sin in Him. God, who is sinless, is the only one whose love is completely selfless and totally unconditional.
To receive God’s gracious love, you and I need to do nothing. Only believe who He is and what He is saying is true.
Jesus literally came on earth to empathise with the scars and wounds that you have faced – caused by sin in others and yourself
Beloved, sin in others and sin in you has wounded and scarred your life from when you were a child. Yes, scarred physically but also spiritually. The inability to trust human beings because they harmed you, automatically, makes it hard for you to trust God. Inability to see good in yourself, automatically, makes it hard to see good in God. Every scar of your life leaves a mark that causes fear, anxiety and bitterness to flood your life.
And Jesus literally came on earth to empathise with these scars and wounds that you have faced – caused by sin in others and yourself. That is why, when He was talking about His ascension to heaven and about sending the Holy Spirit, He told his disciples – “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” John 14 : 18 (NIV)
The disciples weren’t orphans, but with Jesus leaving them to go to heaven – they were going to be ‘orphaned’ spiritually. This is why Jesus had to tell them that though he was going to heaven, he was sending another advocate who would live in them and speak God’s word to them.
Today, a lot of us continue living orphaned spiritually. Sometimes we get a hint of it, but a lot of times we don’t even recognise that the mistakes we make or say is because we’re deeply scarred internally.
Now, how does a king know when to send his army to fight a battle? It is when he recognises that the enemy is scheming to attack him or has already launched an attack.
The same way, a lot of us end up living with a spirit of feeling orphaned, which ties us down and limits us, because we don’t even know that there is such an attack upon us.
A lot of times we don’t even recognise that the mistakes we make or things we say are because we’re deeply scarred internally
So how does one recognise this spirit of feeling orphaned?
- Sensing loneliness and feeling helpless
- Feeling anxious and worried
- Finding it hard to trust anyone completely, including God
- Feeling jealous or upset when others are blessed
- Being unforgiving and unmerciful to God and others
- Pitying yourself
But you are not meant to be living a life feeling orphaned in your spirit.
In fact, the Holy Spirit who lives in you, is always reminding you that you are a CHILD of GOD!
Let me tell you, one of the most important truth you need to live by for a victorious life is that YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD – which only comes by believing in Jesus (John 1:12).
You are not meant to be living a life feeling orphaned in your spirit, but to live as a child of God
Paul understood this very well, and that is why he says in Romans 8 : 15 – 16, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
If you recognise any of these characteristics in yourself, or observe a pattern of any of these or all of it in your life, you know that you got to fight this out. The Spirit of feeling orphaned holds you back from the plans God has laid out for you. Even if you read the bible or attend church, these scars stop you from fulfilling the call of God in your life and living to the fullest capacity that God has fashioned you for.
Recognising and knowing your enemy helps you form a strategy and plan your battle. Every king sends his troops to battle based on the size, ability and schemes of the enemy. It would be foolish to send all the army for a battle against only a few or to take less army to fight a large enemy.
The Spirit of feeling orphaned holds you back from the plans God has laid out for you.
How do you strategise and position yourself to fight this battle and conquer the spirit of feeling orphaned?
1. Know your identity in Christ
Everything you do and everything expected from you is rooted in identity. You are a girl or a boy, a student or a professional, a doctor or an artist, an Indian or German, a daughter or a son and so much more. Do you see how everything in this world functions on identity?
The truth is all these worldly identities like gender, race, profession, and creed are limited and temporary. They either end once your life ends or they keep changing in your lifetime.
There is only one identity that lasts for eternity which is true and firm, and that is your identity in Christ.
When you believe in Jesus, you receive this identity in Christ – You are God’s child, You are God’s cherished possession. You are chosen, holy, a priest (1 Peter 2:9). You are the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8). You are His ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20). You are fearfully and wonderfully created (Psalms 139:14). You are His signet ring (Haggai 2:23). You are God’s chosen instrument and vessel (Acts 9:15).
As you read and meditate on the word of God, the Bible, to know who God is – you will begin to understand your true identity in Him.
There is only one identity that lasts for eternity which is true and firm, and that is your identity in Christ.
Every time you see yourself questioning your worth, or someone else questioning it – remind yourself of your identity in Christ. Feel jealous or upset when others are blessed? Remind yourself of who you are and how valued you are in God’s sight, as much as the other person is valued in God’s sight. Finding it hard to forgive someone who has wronged you or God himself? Remind yourself of what God has done for you through Jesus and who you are because of Jesus’ unconditional love for you.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. If you focus on your weakness or trials, you will end up pitying yourself which pulls your spirit down. Instead, in those moments of weakness and trials, focus on your strengths and the gifts God has given you. If you do this, you will see how, no matter which area you do well or don’t do well, you will remain confident of who you are – simply because your identity is now in Christ.
2. Trust your heavenly Father completely
When you feel lonely, left out and helpless, you tend to go further into a hole and hide yourself. This destroys all the amazing purposes that God has planned for your life. Instead, when you feel lonely and helpless, you’ve got to call out to God and seek Him.
Job was feeling extremely lonely when he lost everything he had, and even his wife told him to curse God and die. But Job says in Job 23:8 that God was near Him.
How did Job overcome loneliness? By trusting God.
God is a father to the fatherless. We are all His children and He will never let us feel orphaned.
Why should you trust God? Because He is never changing, holy, righteous, loving, compassionate, slow to anger, forgiving and He is the author and perfecter of your life. He holds the whole world in His hands. He is always good. He is keeper of His word, a giver, a helper and your all in all. God says in 1 Peter 2:6 that no one who trusts in Him will ever be put to shame.
God is a father to the fatherless. We are all His children and He will never let us feel orphaned. Because when you trust Him, He ensures He fulfills His word.
When you’re feeling anxious and worried, this trust upon God will be your shield and rampart. Someone who doesn’t have the spirit of feeling orphaned will never worry about life on earth – their job, marriage, family. It is simply because they trust God who says, ‘if I feed the birds in the air, will I not also feed you?’ So every time you feel anxious when a tough circumstance comes your way, proclaim your trust in this true and living God who is in charge of everything and who is faithful to His word. He will never ever fail those why trust in Him.
When you trust God, you also trust people around you because the God whom you depend on trusts those people. Is it making sense? God trusts those around you with gifts and talents and so much more. So if you say you trust God, you got to trust those people too.
People fail, because sin entered mankind and has made everyone sinful. But the God who is over those people and you will never fail. That is why, in Romans 8:28, God says that He works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Beloved, you and I are not called to be trampled by the spirit of feeling orphaned. You and I are called to conquer it – and it is only possible through the help of the Holy Spirit and understanding God’s word. We need to rest in our identity in Christ and trust God completely, even when it looks irrational.
You and I are not called to be trampled by the spirit of feeling orphaned. You and I are called to conquer it.
God is your everything. He promised that He won’t leave you as orphans.
If this post touched your heart and changed your life, share it with friends and family
HE IS ALIVE 