In our ministry we have used the term "orphan heart" and I am sure many wonder what this really means. I have used it also to describe my own journey in life because I must have been the biggest orphan on this planet. I will describe my own "orphan heart" because I know it all to well. At 6 years old when I got the news that my father committed suicide, I believe I had an almost outer body experience when I felt the depth of truly being alone in the world, no one to comfort me, and facing the uncertain future without a father. An "orphan heart" springs out of one who believes they are cut off from love and therefore are alone in the world and must use whatever resources they possess to make life work and survive. Since from the very beginning God created us from love, for love, and to love; being cut off from love means we are cut off from Him and life. In 1 John 4:7-8 the Holy Spirit says through John, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." John shares the revelation of God from one who reclined at the chest of Jesus and was known as the One Jesus loved, that God is love and to know Him is to know His love. The love of God is not just some doctrinal point to be considered, it our ultimate destination which is to know God and therefore encounter His love. A person with an "orphan heart" may have a concept of love but they are really not at home in love, thus they pursue the lower desire which is to hide. People with "orphan hearts" hide behind performance, image, veneer of "I'm fine", behind thick walls around their hearts, and behind counterfeit affections such as drugs, alcohol, or pornography. Other people with "orphan hearts" look to their ability to be successful at work, to their children to give them identity, perfectionism, or even a spouse. There is a great deficit in the "orphan heart" that seeks to fill this void with anything that will give significance, worth, love/acceptance, and identity. An "orphan heart" will even use religion if it will promise that I will get these needs met by doing good things for God, all the while hiding from true intimacy with God and others. You see intimacy requires that we be vulnerable or exposed, that the veils we have put over our heart to hide our inadequacies, failures, losses, pains, and insecurities be removed. Many people will pay lip service that 1 John 1 says, "God is light" but then often hide these areas of their heart and wonder why they are unable to draw close to God. Through Jesus Christ God has done everything to make Himself accessible to us, yet the issues of the heart are on our side but require the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal and take down. We must look to Jesus as our hope to overcome the barriers, veils, and ways that I hide from God. Jesus came as our human representative and conquered every barrier between us and God, sin, an old nature, the curse, iniquity, demonic inroads, broken dreams, and all sin's twisted effects on humanity. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals to us personally what Jesus has done on our behalf and transforms us into the image of Jesus. We have the choice to surrender, agree, and yield ourselves to His transforming work but we cannot accomplish it on our own. The Gospel is not a self-improvement program but an exchange. The exchange is an "orphan heart" for our royal identity as His eternal sons and daughters at home in the love of the Father. Father's love is His powerful desire for His children to be reunited in life-giving relationship with Him, that has spanned all of time to see us brought into the place He always longed for us to be. Jesus continually paints a picture of the relational heart of the Father, in Luke 15 the "Prodigal Son" we see a father that is continually searching the horizon for His son and when He sees him runs out to meet him even humiliating himself by lifting up his robe and running. I believe a revelation of the Father's unconditional love is what can radically change generations and ignite a fire that will burn across this nation and world for years and years to come. Yet the revelation of Father's love will cost us everything, especially what our "orphan hearts" have held so dear. For this love is an all-consuming love, a fire that will burn up any counterfeit affections, and a fire that will burn away all earthly identities that we have held onto. An invitation with your name on it has been issued from the very throne of God and He is calling, will you answer this all-consuming invitation and lay aside every other affection. In Father's Love,
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