Closing the Door to Orphanhood

The Holy Spirit highlighted the ministry of John the Baptist and his main message, which was "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 3:2)  The Holy Spirit revealed to me that John the Baptist whole ministry was to prepare the way for Jesus, so if we want to encounter Jesus we must repent.  Those who did not repent from their way of thinking and living were not able to recognize who Jesus really was as the Messiah and ushering in the Kingdom of God.  The Holy Spirit was also highlighting when Jesus corrected the disciples thinking about who would be greatest in the Kingdom of God by sitting a child on His lap and convert to a child they would not enter the Kingdom of God.  The word convert is similar to repent, converting and becoming childlike meant being trusting, lowly, loving, and forgiving (according to Matthew 18:3 Amplified version).  The disciples at this point were acting out of an orphan heart and orphan thinking when Jesus calls them to repentance to becoming childlike (sons and daughters) to enter the Kingdom of God.  Recently, the Holy Spirit challenged me to close the door on living as an orphan.  I asked Him when this door got opened and how to close it.  He showed me that at age 5 when I did not feel protected by my mother that I began the journey of being alone in the world.  We have a tendency to follow the first orphan (satan) and the first parents on the planet (Adam & Eve), declaring our independence and being alone (the Fall).  The truth is we were never designed to live in independence from the God who created us, we were meant to live in continual fellowship with Him.  The Holy Spirit then showed that after age 5 the door to orphanhood was completely opened when I believed the lie at age 6 that I alone in my grief and pain.  This was the age when my father committed suicide, it was not the event that caused so much damage but what I believe and chose based on the lies.  Later at age 7, I remember being alone in my room and believing the lie that I would never have a father.  The door to being an orphan was standing wide open, inviting me to live a life of loneliness, fear, and survival.  Going through this door meant that as I played sports, went to class in school, or walked home that I was walking the lonely road as an orphan in the darkness only accompanied by the great weight loneliness with it's dark and foreboding talons that dig deep into the heart.  I believe this is the old man that died on the cross (the lie-believing orphan), according to Romans 6 and the new man that came out of being united to Christ was a son who lives in continual awareness of God's Presence.  Jesus as the firstborn Son lived in a continual awareness of His Father's Presence, only doing and saying what the Father said and did.  This was a relationship of childlike dependence, Jesus is our model for sonship and the one who has made a way for us to be sons and daugthers of God.  I finally was ready to shut the door to orphanhood, fatherlessness, and loneliness as the Holy Spirit had identified the key lies and times when I believed them.  I needed Jesus help to shut this heavy wooden door with huge bolts holding it together, it was much to heavy for a small child to shut but with Jesus's help I was able to shut it.  Then with Jesus helping me we nailed the door shut, then we nailed boards across it so that it will never be opened again.  It takes declaration in the Kingdom to see things shifted.  The Door to being an Orphan, Alone, and fatherless is now closed never to be opened again!!!!!!  I am not alone and will never be alone, I will live life continually in His Presence!  Declaration aligns me with the truth of what has been purchased for me through the death, burial, resurrection, and acension of Jesus Christ.  The invitation is for you to close the door to being an orphan and start living in your true identity as a son or daughter.  You were made to carry the Presence of God (the Holy Spirit) and live in continual awareness of your Father who loves you.  I like this version of the Father's Love Letter because the reality of the truth of Father's love is sinking in deeper to my soul.

In Father's Love,
Bret

P.S.  Listen to messages on Orphan to Son by Peter Young at www.bridgeway.us.