Psalm 91:1-7& 9-11 

“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  This I declare about the Lord; He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God and I trust him.  For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease.  He will cover you with his feathers.  He will shelter you with his wings.  His faithful promises are your armor and protection.  Do not be afraid of the terrors by night, nor the arrow that flies by day.  Do not dread disease that stalks in darkness, nor disaster that strikes at midday.  Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For he will order his angles to protect you wherever you go.”

Pastor Chris gave a powerful sermon about rest in connection to fear, anxiety and worry.  I’ve recently learned that a big reason we succumb to fear, anxiety and worry is because we have an orphan spirit.  An orphan spirit is believing that we are on our own.  We have to make sure our needs are met.  It’s all on us.  When we have a problem, we’re on our own to solve it and make things better.   Deep down, we don’t believe we have a perfect Father who knows exactly what we need and who takes good care of us. 

That reminds me of Oliver Twist.  His story had lots of twists with danger lurking at every turn because he was an orphan and had no Father to love him, guide him and provide for him.  It was a scary world out there for a little boy all on his own trying to get his basic needs of food, shelter and love met.  I so often live my life like Oliver Twist.  Yet, I have a perfect heavenly Father who adores me and knows what I need better than I do.  He’s proven himself faithful over and over again.

The enemy uses things like childhood rejection, abuse, neglect, trauma and hurts to make us believe we are not well cared for by our earthly parents and our heavenly Father.  Disappointments, personal failures or sin, and deep wounds are also entry points for the enemy.  He tells us our heavenly Father is not good or didn’t show up for us when we needed him most.  He often disguises himself as us.  He sliders in and makes us think his lies are our thoughts.  And basically he uses some kind of pain in our life to convince us we are on our own and can’t count on our Heavenly Father. 

I’ve learned a lot about an orphan spirit and spiritual warfare from Jimmy Evans.  He’s said “Pain isn’t the problem, it’s our thoughts in the pain that’s the problem.”  And “You can’t kill a thought.  You can only replace it with a stronger thought.  Our thoughts are not stronger than the devil’s.  Only God’s thoughts are stronger.”  This agrees with verse 4 of Psalm 91 “ His faithful promises are your armor and protection.” 

When we have an orphan spirit, the terrors by night and arrows by day bring us thoughts like “God could have stopped this from happening, I can’t count on him.  If God really cared, money wouldn’t be so tight.  My child is far from you, you’re not showing up.” One thing we can do is replace those thoughts with scripture.  Replace the lies with stronger thoughts, God’s thoughts.  Like the verses above in Psalm 91 or Psalm 112:7-8 “I do not fear bad news; I confidently trust the Lord to care for me.  I am confident and fearless and can face my foes triumphantly.”   

I searched online for movies about great Fathers.  I wasn’t able to find one with a perfect Father.  A small handful portrayed good Fathers, but each Father had at least one flaw.  Because movies are about humans and all humans have flaws and limitations.  Thankfully, God is holy, which means “other than”. He’s other than us, other than human.  God is perfect! Sometimes we need to disassociate from our earthly Fathers to connect with our heavenly Father and know he adores us and faithfully provides all that we need. 

When God was revealing to Jimmy Evans that he had an orphan spirit, God told him “Treat me like I’m a perfect Father until I prove you wrong.” He said from that moment on he viewed God as his perfect Father and God has never proven him wrong. I’m up for the challenge, how about you?