Ever since Adam and Eve were alienated from God the Father in the Garden of Eden, an orphan spirit has permeated the earth, causing untold damage! By “orphan,” I am referring to a sense of rejection, abandonment, loneliness, alienation and isolation. Isolation because of separation from self, others, and especially God. Almost immediately after the fall in Eden, the fruit of this orphan spirit resulted in envy and jealousy, culminating in Cain murdering his brother Abel because God the Father didn’t receive Cain’s offering. To make matters worse, in contemporary society, with the breakup of the family, large numbers of people are not only alienated from God but are brought up without the loving care and security of their biological fathers who are tasked not only to be the spiritual head of the household, but to convey the perfect love of God to their wife and children. Unfortunately, we have ten, twenty, thirty, and more generations with an unloving spirit going down the line.
I believe all of the emotional, physical and spiritual ills of society can be traced to humans feeling alienated from God and their biological fathers. Orphaned men have a hard time connecting to their spouses, their children, those in spiritual authority and their supervisors, and they have a hard time accepting and loving themselves. There are presently millions of incarcerated men who are acting out lives of violence and rebellion because their earthly fathers abandoned them. There are churches filled with pastors and leaders who use people and destroy relationships because they are driven to succeed, and it’s due to their need for a father’s affirmation—which is a hole too large for ministry success or performance to fill.
The only way to break this Orphan Spirit (Unloving
Spirit) is for people to be filled with a sense of the Father’s love for
them in Christ, which then enables them to become mature sons who serve God out
of knowledge of His undeserved grace instead of trying to earn the Father’s
love through performance. Unfortunately,
our lives are punctuated with hurts, betrayals, broken hearts, anger, hatred,
offenses, and emotional/ physical traumas making it difficult for one to come out
of captivity to feel God’s love or hear from God.
The Orphan Spirit (Unloving Spirit) is
perhaps the greatest curse on the earth today. It will take spiritual parents
with great spiritual depth and authority to break and reverse this curse to
perpetuate a generational blessing. Only when a person is healed of
fatherlessness through the love of God is the orphan spirit broken so
they can begin the process of entering
mature sonship. Sonship is so important that all creation is
presently crying out for the manifestation of the mature sons of God (Rom.
8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the
revealing of the sons of God).
The following 11 traits contrast
the orphan spirit from the spirit of sonship:
1. The orphan spirit operates out of
insecurity and jealousy.
Those with
an orphan spirit are constantly battling envy, jealousy and
insecurity, since security originates in a secure relationship with our
parents. Those with an orphan spirit are so insecure, they even
have a hard time hearing a biological or spiritual father praise them.
The spirit of sonship functions out
of love and acceptance.
But those with
the spirit of sonship are so secure in the Father’s love
and favor that they’re content to serve in any capacity needed because God’s love
has given them confidence that they are worthy and special.Those with an orphan spirit are happy when their brother fails because it makes them feel good about themselves.
The mature son is committed to the success of his
brothers.
On the other hand,
those with the spirit of sonship joyfully commit themselves
to serve, celebrate and help their brothers succeed, since they don’t work for
human accolades but out of a deep sense of the love and affirmation of Father
God.
3. The orphan spirit serves God to earn
the Father’s love.
Along these lines, those with
an orphan spirit are constantly striving and trying to earn the
Father’s love through accomplishment in ministry or career.
The mature son serves God out of a sense of divine
acceptance and favor.
Those with
a spirit of sonship already know they are accepted in
Christ and serve others out of the abundance of this acceptance.
4. The orphan spirit tries to medicate its
deep internal alienation through physical stimulation.
Those with an orphan spirit are constantly
trying to push down their sense of alienation, loneliness and lack of
self-worth through constant work, going from one relationship to the next,
physical gratification and a life of narcissism and self-indulgence. However,
the more they indulge, the more addicted they become and the larger the hole in
their heart becomes because only the love of the Father can fill the deep
emotional needs they have.
The mature son walks in the joy and presence of the Lord
for comfort.
Those walking in sonship bask in the presence
and love of God and practice the joy of the Lord continually as their source of
strength because they understand that grounding their security and self-life in
anything other than God is like trying to build a house on sinking sand (Matthew
7:24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will
liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock).
5. The orphan spirit is driven by the need
for success.
Many seek to accomplish great things to satisfy the deep
yearning in their hearts for their father’s approval. This results in them
being driven to succeed instead of being led by the Spirit. Even many
leaders get their churches into huge debt to build huge buildings, driving the
people around them because they are blinded by their own innate feelings of
inadequacy. They think they can feel good about themselves with great
accomplishments.
6. The orphan spirit uses people as
objects to fulfill goals. Those with
an orphan spirit tend to use people as objects to accomplish
their goals. Whenever we objectify people, we manipulate them with words, threats,
and anything necessary to have our way and control them.
Mature sons serve people to bless the kingdom.
Mature people who
walk in son ship don’t use people; they serve and release people to
fulfill their destiny in Christ.
7. The orphan spirit repels children.
Leaders and parents with
an orphan spirit are constantly in turmoil, fighting and
striving for their own way, which gives their spiritual children the sense that
their leader is in competition with them instead of loving them. This results
in repelling spiritual and biological children, which can forfeit influence
over the next generation!
The spirit of sonship attracts
children.
Those who walk in son ship walk in the Father’s
anointing and draw children toward them because their children hear the voice
of a shepherd who cares for them.
8. The orphan spirit has anger and fits of
rage.
Those with an orphan spirit have issues
with uncontrollable anger, fits of rage and other forms of manipulation because
they feel they must control others and their circumstances in order to fulfill
their goals. In most cases, anger has
become so much a part of them, it becomes normal to them. This is because they
lack the trust necessary in their heavenly Father to guide and control their
actions and future.
The spirit of sonship rests in the
Father’s ability to control and guide the future.
Those walking in son ship walk in the Father’s
rest and have ceased from their own works so the Father can have His way in
their lives.9. The orphan spirit is always in competition with others.
Those with an orphan spirit are always trying to outdo others in their church, family, friends, or business because they receive their identity through being better than everyone else. To them, it’s always about winning.
The spirit of son ship is always
blessing others.
Those who walk in sonship are constantly seeing
how they can bless others, since they already have the affirmation of God in
their souls. They want to freely share His love with others.
10. The orphan spirit lacks self-esteem.
Those with an orphan spirit have a hard
time loving and accepting themselves.
The spirit of sonship walks in the
love and acceptance of Father God.
Those walking in son ship are filled with a
sense of divine love and acceptance that enables them to walk confidently in
te joy of the Lord in spite of the fact that all humans are sinners and fall
short of the glory of God.
11. The orphan spirit receives its primary
identity through material possessions, physical appearance and activities.
Those with an orphan spirit never have
enough career success, material possessions, pleasure or illicit relationships
to satisfy the hole in their heart related to their identity. Consequently,
they are constantly striving to gain satisfaction through the use of various
things or people in their lives. In many cases, even their form of
dress—including an inordinate number of tattoos, skin piercings and hairdos—can
be their way of standing out as unique in a cry for attention due to a lack of
self-esteem and fatherly affirmation.
The spirit of sonship is grounded
in son ship and the Father’s affirmation.
Those who walk in sonship are so grounded in
their divine Father’s affirmation that they can be satisfied serving in the
background and can celebrate the success and attention others receive. The void
in their soul has already been filled with the unconditional love of the
Father.
In conclusion, the
greatest gift known to humankind is to accept, receive and walk in the love of
the Father, who so loved the world that He gave His ONLY Son so that we may not
perish or waste our lives away but experience the abundant life that only our
divine Father can give.
The Orphan Spirit (Unloving Spirit) is the single most
challenging issue facing all of mankind going back to Adam and Eve when they
ate the forbidding fruit. If we had
maintained God’s perfect love since the beginning of man, we would not have
committed the inequities throughout the generations. The inequities that continue to keep us in
captivity.
Blessings,
Tony Sanchez,
References: NKJV, Joseph Mattera - Bishop of Resurrection
Church in New York,
