“For years I have preached a gospel of grace that is radical in the light of what the church normally preaches. Some people that I love dearly and truly admire simply cannot grasp it. They cannot understand it nor can they receive it with freedom.”
There is a picture in my mind that I have seen a thousand times.
. . . The eyes of little boys and little girls that look up from what they are busy doing . . .
Looking longingly at a dad or a mom or someone they want desperately to respect . . .
They gaze in order to see if there is a return to their gaze . . .
This is the picture of a child that simply needs someone’s approval from above them. Too often that simple need is not met. Too often that simple need is never met. A selfish world is not paying attention to the little eyes that gaze. A self center need driven people do not understand the investment that is made in the act of appreciating one child at a time.
That same little boy/little girl grows up never having had the approval that was desired and reacts to every stimulus as rejection, hurt and pain. Even when that child becomes an adult and begins to serve God, he still performs and needs the approval of God and man in everything he does. That little girl is still looking up with a gaze that is hoping for something in return. A substantiation of her heart and life, but . . .
. . . but a wall has been built by the orphan spirit that caused that rejection from the very beginning.
For years I have preached a gospel of grace that is radical in the light of what the church normally preaches. Some people that I love dearly and truly admire simply cannot grasp it. They cannot understand it nor can they receive it with freedom. They simply must perform. They perform for God and they perform for man. If they happen to love me they even perform for me. What’s that about?
I often picture with these, whom I am especially fond of, that have such a fight to receive grace, the little boy . . .
. . . the little girl, with eyes that are looking for approval that is so very hard to get, if it is accessible at all . . .
This is the work of the orphan spirit! Years of eroding the heart and soul of this child of God! A spirit of death and hell that comes to usurp the heritage of the Lord as he did in the Garden of Eden! Placement of the question of God’s love and handling of His children! The child is forced to seek approval in other ways. This system is demonic!
Yet the child of God who lives by faith is not only readily accepting of grace but is also walking in that grace as a robe of inheritance. That child of the living God is generous with grace because the heart of the child of God is like his Father! His Father in heaven is the epitome of generosity and that little girl–that little boy is fulfilled and has become an adult that is satisfied with the knowing that he shares His Father’s character and traits.
That “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free!”
“Papa God! I desperately need Your delivering power to flow through my heart and cleanse me from all that the serpent may have done to me. I want to gaze at You with awe and never for Your approval. I know that I am approved by Your grace and that is now a settled issue in my soul and my heart of hearts! I gaze at You in amazement as a greater love swells on the inside of me. My eyes will forever more meet You, wherever You are working and my joy is in knowing that I am not an orphan. Your Spirit abides both in me and with me – that Spirit of adoption whereby I cry out to You; Abba! Father!! I am not rejected! I am Your inheritance and You are mine. Therefore, rejection is an impossibility! The spirit of rejection, that demonic thing, must go from me by the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Oh, that precious Blood that cleanses my heart, my soul, my thoughts and my intentions. That is the Blood of my inheritance in You, Father God! I am grateful that I am appreciated by You. I am now living a life filled with joy knowing that my gaze as Your child is one of amazement of Your love, Your grace, Your great and glorious abilities to be my Father! Abba! I am Yours! Amen.”
