Free Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship by Jack Frost

love.
Spirits in Conflict
    Today, as in all the ages of human history, two spirits are in constant conflict on earth for our hearts. The first of these is the spirit of
sonship
, which we can also call the spirit of Isaac, Abraham’s heir and the son of promise. People possessed of this spirit live life as if they have a home. Their destiny is sure and secure.
    On the other hand, in conflict with the spirit of sonship is the
orphan
spirit, which causes people to live life as if they don’t have a home. We can call this the spirit of Ishmael, who was Abraham’s natural son by Hagar, his wife Sarah’s handmaid, but who was not included in the inheritance promised to Isaac. While Isaac grew up blessed and lived in anticipation of his inheritance, Ishmael and his mother were sent away. It was said of Ishmael,
“He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers”
(Gen. 16:12). History bears this out. Ishmael’s descendants (the Arab nations) settled near Egypt, far from the land of Canaan,and have lived in almost continual conflict with Isaac’s descendants, the nation of Israel.
    This describes the orphan spirit—independent; hostile; contentious; with no sense of home, belonging, or of being a son. Quite often, the natural foreshadows the spiritual. In other words, earthly events frequently reflect heavenly realities, revealing what is happening in the spiritual realm (see 1 Cor. 15:46).
    Today, in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the orphan heart continues to fight for control and domination of those who possess the spirit of sonship. Although the Arabs, who are descendants of Ishmael, own 50 times as much land as do the Jews, who are Isaac’s descendants, they continue to fight to take away what little Israel has.
    In the nations of the earth, the orphan heart is waging all-out war against sonship. Lucifer’s orphan thinking has weakened the nations in their understanding of God as a loving, compassionate, and affectionate father. This war is also within the Church, within the business realm, within our families, and within the hearts and minds of individuals. The orphan spirit has gained control of the world system as humankind has become subject to his own mission rather than to the mission of Father God.
    The orphan spirit is a heart attitude and a mental stronghold that is a temptation for all of us. But it can also become a demonic stronghold over a person, a church, a workplace, a city, or even a nation.
    If you (or a church) have an orphan spirit, as I did for a long time, you feel as though you don’t belong. Love, value, honor, and acceptance are foreign concepts to you. You believe you have to act right, dress right, talk right, and do right in order to be loved and accepted; and even then, it still doesn’t happen. You feel as if there is something more you have to do or put in order to find rest and feel valued. With a spirit of sonship, however, you feel loved, valued, honored, and accepted for who you are as God’s creation. Youhave no need to “prove” yourself to anyone. As a son or daughter, you feel a sense of total love and acceptance. Contrarily, as an orphan, you feel like you are on the outside looking in, trying as hard as you can to perform and be good enough to earn a place in someone’s heart.
    When wanting to cast out an orphan heart, remember that you can displace it only by introducing it to a loving Father. Even then, an orphan heart must choose to embrace the spirit of sonship by willingly becoming interdependent in relationships and embracing God’s community of love. This is not a once-and-for-all choice. You choose sonship over and over because orphan thinking doesn’t surrender easily, and it often comes back and tries to assert its influence once again. The orphan spirit tries constantly to weaken our families, relationships, and the nations by deceiving us into becoming