Focus: Repentance from Dead Works
Part 3: Culture of the Orphan
Greetings Sons of God:
The culture of behavior of the
family of Adam after the fall has now changed from being the culture of a son
where he knows God as Father to now the culture of a orphan, which is a culture
of fatherlessness. Now this is not
something I have just come up with there is Scripture to support. Now lets look at the characteristics of an
orphan:
1.
Does not know parents
2.
Views discipline as abuse
3.
Looks after self
4.
Seeks to provide and protect self even at the cost of
others.
5.
Hoards
Now looking at these
characteristics many would say well that is not the culture I live under but
when we examine the fruit of some we clearly see the culture of the orphan even
those who call on the name of the Lord because they know God as God but lack
the relationship to God being Father.
The prophet Jeremiah lamented over the state of Israel and had this to
say:
Lamentations 5:1-3: Remember, O Lord what is come upon us:
consider, and behold our reproach. Our
inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and
fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
This entire chapter of
Lamentations 5 is what I call the cry of an orphan and I urge you all to read
it in your spare time. Now God never
intended to have orphans. He always
intended to have sons and hence the culture of the Son would be the opposite
characteristics of the culture of the orphan.
The first sign of the orphan
culture in Scripture was:
Genesis 3:7-8: And the eyes of
them both were opened and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig
leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they hears the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
Garden.
First Adam and Eve perceived
themselves to be naked. Major problem
because if they were spirits encased in flesh then who they are is not based
upon the flesh but when the eyes of the soul were opened, no longer did they
see themselves are spiritual beings but fleshly. This is why they went and made fig leaves for
aprons. Adam and Eve were clothed in the
glory of God and when they sinned they were then truly naked. So instead of being a son and knowing that
you are already clothed in the glory of God, they went and made provisions for
clothes themselves.
Second, the concept of fear set
it. The same voice of the Lord that they
communed with everyday that brought peace and joy now causes them to hide and
protect themselves from the One who created them. Instead of knowing and trusting God for
their protection, they sought to protect themselves.
Orphans seek to protect and
provide for themselves because they can trust no one else to do so. Orphans will do whatever it takes, including
using people to get whatever need they perceive met. This is what God tells us about the orphan
culture and their attitude toward meeting their need:
Genesis 3:19: In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast
thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.
In other words, just to eat bread
which normally would be provided for you, you will work, sweat and till the
ground just to eat bread. Now cant we
see this today to stress and nearly kill yourself just for provision and
protection. This is not the life of a
son but the life of an orphan. It will
require repentance and a mindset change in order to shift to the culture of the
Son. Be aware that the Lord will
challenge you and show you areas where you must change if you desire to be who
God has created you to be.
In the next message we will examine
how man seeing through the eyes of his soul affects how he governs in the earth
that the Lord has given him to steward over.
Peace, Love and Grace,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.
