Are you and orphan or a son?

I’ve been slowly working my way through an amazing book written by Jack Frost called “Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship“. The main focus of his book is to identify the orphan heart and thinking that mankind has had since the fall of Adam and then guide the reader toward the true spirit of sonship that God has called us to by his son Jesus. I highly recommend this book it’s definitely one of those perspective (even life) changing books.

Midway through the book Frost contrasts the spirit of an orphan with the spirit of sonship. Below are the three the impacted me the most.

Dependency

Orphans are independent and self-reliant. They depend upon their gifts, talents, intellect, and anointing. They are convinced that they cannot trust anyone else. If they want anything, they must get it for themselves. “If anything is going to get done right, I’ll just have to do it myself.”

Sons are interdependent; they know they need the community of love that God and the Body of Christ offer. This interdependency allows them to be open for Father’s love to flow through them to others. Sons also know they are completely dependent on their heavenly Father,  just as Jesus was. “The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing;  for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19b)

This contrast hit me on two fronts the first was that in the definition of Sonship, I see everything that I want from “Church” or the Body of Christ, and then second in the definition of the orphan I see everything that I am.

Need for Approval

The need for approval is universal; we all desire acceptance. Orphans, however, are addicted to and strive for the praise, approval, and acceptance of man, But these counterfeit affections will not satisfy and instead lead to the fear of failure and rejection, which pulls an orphan hear farther away from God.

Sons are not influenced by this turmoil and fear because they know that they are totally accepted in God’s love and justified by His grace. They don’t have to strive for approval because in Christ they already have it.

I see myself here a lot in how I relate to my boss, my wife, and even my Pastor. I feel great when they affirm me, they tell me how good a job I’m doing (pat me on the head in a sense), but I feel fearful or insecure when they don’t. It can be one horrible roller coaster of emotions to ride. But there’s a much better way in the spirit of sonship.

Sense of God’s Presence

For orphans, God’s presence, if they sense it at all, is conditional and distant. If everything goes all right, if they have a good day, if they feel they’ve appeased the Master, if they Tthink they have dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s, then they man sense God’s presence. But even then, He often seems far away because their hearts are closed to intimacy.

Sons enjoy the close and intimate presence of God because they know that His presence and nearness do not depend on their behavior. They have discovered that He is with them all the time,  no matter how much they get off center of His love. All they have to do is stop, return to the center of their heart where God’s love dwells, and He is always right there. Sons know from personal experience the truth of the scripture that says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb 13:5b). Orphans question whether God loves them; sons know that God is crazy about them.

For more on Jack Frost and his ministry see Shiloh Place Ministries.

Dream: A Baby & Ring

we were at this clinc and there were some other people there i didn’t know, you went back for some tests and when the nurse came out with the results she said that there was a 99.9 percent chance the baby wasn’t mine. I was like whatever I’ll love the baby anyway. After that i was back in the back near like a basketball court and you had gone into the bathroom. While you were in there my dad came out, we hugged for a second, but he had to go. As he was leaving i noticed a ring on his finger that had three crowns on it that were attached by little loops on the ring. After he left you came out and we left.
(Ring with three crowns = Father, Son, Holy Spirit.)

Dream: Witchcraft

I was in this place, that was hilly lots of green grass and a dirt path that I was following. Next to the path ran like a deep chasm. Along the way I ran into Sarah Palin (of all people lol) she was giving a speech or something though I didn’t see any people. But behind her across the chasm standing on the edge was a wizard or witch that was trying to kill with a spell or something. I spoke to the rock he was standing on and it broke and he fell into the chasm. Sarah realized what was going on and made some kind of comment and my reply was something like prayer is like witchcraft or visa versa don’t remember that well, but that does kind of make me upset that i would say something like that. Anyway i continued following the path and another wizardly fellow came flying after me because of what i did to the other guy. I started running down the path trying to get away but ran into a dead end. I turned to fight him and fire came out of my hands. That’s when I woke up. Really disturbed.

Dream: Bridge

In this one Arielle and I were flying back and forth between what we called in the dream Columbia, Florida. It was like an island off the coast. Ari recommended that I try the bridge next time, so I rented a car and started driving. The bridge was normal at first, but after a few mins it got crazy. I was doing loops and going upside down and crazy fast. About half way across there was a big chunk of the bridge missing and so I ended up in the water. In the water I started swimming intending to finish my journey. Along the way I found a big floating box that I was able to climb on top of and then hop from box to box till I got to the other side around the time the sun was setting and my rental car was waiting for me right next to my hotel.

Bridge = faith
Broken bridge = little faith
Swimming = Spiritual activity; serving God; operating in the gifts of the Spirit

The Mentoring Project

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5383654&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

The Mentoring Project – Elephant Musth Cycle from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo.

@tmproject seeks to respond to the American crisis of fatherlessness by inspiring and equipping faith communities to mentor fatherless boys.

Find out more at The Mentoring Project and @tmproject

Job

We all know the story of Job, but I found this interesting. The beginning of the book of Job describes Job like this:

He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.
Job 1:1

Later on in verse eight God describes Job himself as “the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” Now we know the rest of the story God allows Satan to test Job and in doing so Satan kills his farmhands, kills all his sheep, steals all his camels, and  kills his sons and daughters. Distraught, he does what we all should do at a time like this he praises God. He remains true to his God. Then he gets his second test, Satan takes his health, making him really miserable. Even his wife encourages him to curse God, but Job remains true. After this we get into long debates with Jobs friends, probably more of Satan’s tests to try and get him to speak against God. What I want to focus on is the end of Job:

1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do anything,
and no one can stop you.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’
It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about,
things far too wonderful for me.
4 You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!
I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.’
5 I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
6 I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
Job 42:1-6

Look at what he says, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes”. How crazy is it that a man that even God described as what we would call a “Godly man” or a “Good Christian”, a man that didn’t fail even in the face of many painful trials, but still a man that only had a referential experience of God? Maybe this is the reason that God allowed Job to go through what he did, to take him from knowing about God to knowing God.

James says it the best.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
James 1:2-4

Our trials and troubles, there just might be more to them than life sucking, God might be using them to grow us and our relationship with him. That fills me with a lot of hope.

(PS: This reminds me of Fathered By God)

The changing of a man

“That the tide of sin, which before did run so strong — should be so easily turned; that the sinner who, a little before was sailing hellward, and lacked neither wind nor tide to carry him there—should now suddenly alter his course, and tack about for heaven—what a miracle is this!

To see . . .

an earthly man become heavenly,
a carnal man become spiritual,
a loose man become precise,
a proud man become humble,
a covetous man become liberal, and
a harsh man become meek, etc.,
is to behold the greatest of miracles!”

– Thomas Brooks, The Crown and Glory of Christianity

Via: First Importance

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. – 1 Peter 2:1

Radical

Here’s a book I’m looking forward to reading: Radical by David Platt

Brent @ Holiday at the Sea summarizes the book like this:

Always pointing to Jesus, Platt reminds us that, what we now call “radical” is simply what Jesus expects of all of His followers. The answer is not to try harder but draw closer to Jesus. The book culminates in what Platt calls the Radical Experiment, calling people to one year of:

  1. Pray for the entire world
  2. Read through the entire Word
  3. Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose
  4. Spend your time in another context
  5. Commit your life to multiplying community

While this list initially seems like quite a bit for most people, closer examination simply reveals it to be biblical living. If that’s what the world now calls “radical,” then so be it. But it’s time that we realize that there is no other way of living if we truly desire to follow Jesus. Here is Platt introducing the book:

Via: Holiday at the Sea