Displacing the Orphaned Spirit

     God seems to impart "revelation" to the heart at just the right time for each of us.  He has recently been imparting yet another level of revelation to me relate to the healing of the "orphaned Spirit" in my own life.  The "heart or spirit" of a man is the central place of government in a persons life.  It seems to me that one of the great strategies of the enemy is to keep this place of government locked up in the inability to trust, the fear of rejection and fear of real intimacy.
     The late Jack Frost has written a book by the title, "Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship."  In this book he describes a very powerful twelve step part cycle through which the orphan spirit progresses toward developing a Stronghold of Oppression.  This has been very insightful, revealing and instructive to me personally.  For in this cycle, I see myself and God's loving favor reaching down to pull me up and out of the quicksand of the orphan spirit.
     Twelve steps to developing a stronghold of Oppression:

• 1.  We begin to focus on the faults we see in parental authority.  Of course there are no perfect parents.  In fact, parents don't mean to be inconsistent, they just pass on their wounds from their own disappointments, broken promises and inconsistencies of their parents.
•  2.  We lose basic trust in parental authority.  Once disappointed, rejected or wounded by a parent, we begin to close off a part of our heart/spirit from being hurt again.  This closes us off from receiving any warmth, affection or comfort that is actually there.
• 3.  We lose basic trust in parental authority.  The loss of basic trust keeps us from holding our heart open to another person.  Basic trust is the ability to risk being real and vulnerable, to keep our heart open even when it hurts rather than close off our spirit.
• 4.  We move into fear of receiving love, comfort, and admonition from others.  We become fearful of becoming vulnerable.  Then we begin to take care of everything ourselves because we don't trust anyone else or believe there will be someone to comfort us.  Orphans always feel alone even in a crowd or during a time of crisis.  
• 5.  We develop a closed spirit.   Once we close off our heart to receiving love, we close our hearts to every form of intimacy.  We retreat into a closed spirit, isolating our heart from the outside influences.
• 6.  We take on an independent, self-reliant attitude.  Everything then falls to me to do what must be done.  I have to do everything myself!  Our insecurities and fears have shut our heart off from any meaningful relationship with others.  We become independent and self-reliant all the time.
• 7.  We start controlling our relationships.  Independent and isolated we begin to control everything and everybody around us, or withdraw into passivity.  The fear of trusting, the fear of rejection and the fear of intimacy prevent us from  becoming genuinely responsive to others.  All of our relationships begin to suffer.
• 8.  Our relationships become superficial.  We keep people at an "arms distance" emotionally.  We rarely realize that we are doing the very things we fear they will do to us: rejection.
• 9.  We develop an ungodly belief that says no one will be there to meet our need.  This is a major symptom of the orphan spirit.  The closed off heart/spirit begins to dominate all relationships.
• 10.  We begin to live life like a spiritual orphan.  The spiritual orphan feels like they do not have a safe and secure place in father's heart where they feel loved, valued and affirmed.  We have no safe harbor, no refuge, no place of rest.  Our identity then become developed around what I do or what I have.
• 11.  We begin chasing after counterfeit affections.  Having shut off my heart from genuine affection through loved ones, we begin looking for counterfeit affections or substitutes.  we were created for love, for family and for genuine intimacy with the Father...now we begin looking for the counterfeits.  Addictions begin to surface in order to cover the pain of separation and isolation.  Here are seven (7) counterfeits:  PASSION, POSSESSIONS, POSITION, PERFORMANCE, PEOPLE, PLACES, POWER.  Each of their counterfeits can be used to cover our pain of isolation and orphan spirit.
• 12.  We begin to daily battle a stronghold of oppression.  Having isolated ourselves from cultivating healthy relationships, we become trapped in a cycle of seeking fulfillment in things that can never satisfy.  Life becomes an oppressive mix of tension, agitation, anger, bitterness, restlessness and frustration that can eventually lead to deeper oppression and depression.

     Now having looked at the cycle degenerating into oppression from the orphaned heart or spirit.  Please remember that God is passionately displacing this spirit by pouring our his unconditional love.  We need to personally receive the revelation of the father's love to displace this void in our life.

Malachi 4:5-5 the very last verses in the Old Testament state:
          "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
          He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their   
          fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."

The curse was reversed in the person of Jesus, the one proclaimed by John the Baptist.  Right now, the Father is pouring out an anointing to raise up sons and daughters who have received this revelation of the Father's Love and share it with the people they meet.

Jesus sain in John 14:18, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.!"

May be begin to trust and press into this amazing transformational love of the Father!