We all want to ask the Lord for revelation, understanding, provisions, and physical manifestations. But most of us have had an experience with suffering that made God feel distant or moral failures that made us feel distant. Those experiences left our hearts with a conclusion, God has abandoned me, and I’m on my own.
The religious spirit enters at this stage and invites us into his orphanage to help cement the stronghold. We’re supposed to serve a God who is distant. Others hear, have seer gifts, prophecy, and experience Father’s fellowship, but I don’t. Businesspeople, in particular, are used to making decisions without hearing Father or seeing His wind in their business. The deception of the religious spirit is believing we have need of nothing (Rev 3:17). We offer up modern bulls and goats to punch our religious ticket and limit our hearing to a heady version of intellectualism:
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Gifts and ministries are not for today.
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Read the bible, claim the verse, reshape your thought life.
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Tithe 10%, attend church and throw in a home group.
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A priest, pastor, or prophet can hear God for you; it’s their anointing, not yours (Do what they say).
The religious spirit explains it all away even though we’re saved and on our way to heaven. The goal of this principality is to keep us out of God’s Kingdom and away from contending for our book and the Reformation of Nations. Keep them circling the mountain, busy with the loss of wood, hay, and stubble! But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ (Phil 3:7).
Religious Fig Leaves
The orphanage stage keeps us from genuine fellowship with our Father. We substitute our standards of righteousness for values and behavior and often have proof texts to justify them. We can’t divulge our true level of emptiness and frustration, so we wear modern religious fig leaves to hide our lack of identity and transparency. We use control for protection and opinions to defend our orphanage with head knowledge. Hearts are disconnected. We don’t have dreams or know what’s in our books. Our expectation that Father will give us an inheritance is as distant as our ability to converse with Him.
Sonship and Kingdom
All creation has been waiting for sons and daughters and Father’s Kingdom on earth. You can feel the cabal quaking as people awaken to another reformation. At the forefront of this movement are sons who see righteousness as doing what Father does (Jn 5:19). Outward appearances and the religious spirit are weakening their grip. Jesus is bringing many sons and daughters to glory (Heb 2:10), and he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters (Heb 2:11).
We’re being adopted out of religion into my father’s house. The principalities at the tops of mountains are being replaced with sons and daughters who are present in His council to see what is in Father’s heart. They are bringing Father’s Kingdom purpose from heaven to earth in every mountain, a Reformation of people, businesses, cities, and nations.
Out of the Orphanage
How do I move from orphan to son? It’s not an intellectual transition. It’s an experience in the courts of heaven that sets captives free from worshipping principalities like the spirit of religion. Here’s the progression of experiences.
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What’s the enemy accusation? Usually is something along the lines of “I can’t hear Father’s voice.”
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I’m agreeing with My adversary quickly and admitting to Father that I really don’t hear his voice.
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I’m allowing Holy Spirit to expose the roots. Whatever the trauma was that distanced me from Father, I’m inviting Jesus to nail it to the cross and I’m asking Father to forgive my unbelief and adopt me into His Kingdom as a son or daughter.
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I’m receiving my book so I can co-labor with Father. I’m listening to Holy Spirit’s decrees over my life and taking them like weapons of warfare into my heart.
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I’m experiencing Father’s love, an ordination into sonship to finish (see) the unique work Father designed me to do and love and dream about (Eph 2:10).
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I’m feeling invitation to Father’s Council, and fellowship with Father’s Seven Spirits.
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I feel the gravity of Father’s majesty, the honor of heaven for His glory, and the family belonging of sonship. I want to come back!
Biggest Take Home
Learning to receive is not passive. Father does pursue us, but there is a place in the Spirit to pursue Him.
Psalm 84:7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion (His Council). NASU
Hebrews 11:6 …. He rewards those who earnestly seek him. NIV
Jeremiah 29:13-14 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord NIV
John Garfield
