Shofar Stellenbosch | Our FatherExemplo

Devotional: Our Father Who Adopts

In the natural world and orphanage is visited, a child is carefully selected and then adopted through a process. That fortunate child is then taken home, educated and takes on the identity of the new family. After receiving the name of the adoptive parents, he or she often becomes an heir to property, etc.

The term adoption was also used by the Romans, when a son was placed in a position of authority in the household. This involved a whole ceremony where the child was set apart for the specific position. It is probable that Paul referred to this in Romans 8:15. 

In the world, a child is adopted because of some good characteristics, but in the spirit, a child is adopted and renewed after being born again. Through spiritual adoption, the child receives an impartation of the spiritual nature of God. Adoption thus only follows after the new birth. God places His children into the position of an adult son. 

Jesus radically introduced God as “Our Father” (Matthew 10:32, Matthew 11:25-26, Matthew 15:13, Mark 14:36, John 17:25). Adopted Sons are led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14,16 and Galatians 4:6). We become new creations (2 Peter 1:4), with a new family and part of a new nation (2 Corinthians 6:18, Hebrews 2:10-11, 1 Peter 2:9). We are called children, sons and heirs of God.

An Orphan Spirit?

There are many Christians who love God but have submitted themselves to what I call an orphan spirit. Typical fruits of such a mentality are:

• Striving
• Jealousy
• Competition
• Self-pity and self-centeredness
• Pride
• Not being a team player
• Loneliness
• Performance-driven
• Struggling to rest in God
• Feeling like a stranger/outsider in the Kingdom
• A feeling of not belonging
• Always being suspicious of other Christians’ motives
• Inability to receive love
• Feeling unworthy
• Depression
• Struggling to trust others
• Thinking you can do better
• Manipulation, control and seduction

Testimony:

Once, while praying for a lady, I felt that she had a strong need to know something: Her heart’s desire was to discover her roots. She began to cry and told me that she was an orphan, abandoned by her parents when she was two years old. She always had an intense desire to know who her parents were and why they had abandoned her. The Lord did many miracles in her life to heal a deep wound of rejection and a feeling of abandonment. It took her a while to really trust God.