Let’s take a brief look at the differences between an orphan and a son.
- Family Love: A son is free to receive love from members of the family and also free to offer his love and affection to others. An orphan is fearful to do so.
- Inheritance: A son has a right to claim his father’s inheritance; an orphan has nothing to inherit. An orphan often carries with him an endless pride of being “self-made” while a son enjoys a natural posture of being assured of his place, especially his future.
- Provision and Protection: A son freely enjoys his father’s protection and provision. These are absent for an orphan for lack of a father.
- Mental and Emotional Well-being: A son, with a good up-bringing and healthy education, is more likely to be stable in his mental and emotional expressions of himself as he enjoys great security, stability and confidence of being who he is. An orphan, having none of these, is seldom whole and stable in his expression of himself, whether mentally or emotionally.
When Jesus was with His disciples, He shared with them that He would lead them to the Father, His Father and their Father. When He was ready to die, He encouraged them with the thought that He would not leave them as orphans. By our Adam-born nature, we all lost the spiritual sense of home and love with the absence of the Spirit of our Heavenly Father. Only when we receive the Spirit of Sonship, are we able to be restored back to our relationship with our heavenly Father. And that is a process. It cannot be done by self-will and self-strength, but by the apprehending and appropriation of His grace.
This post is _Part 8_ in a series Restored Back to the Father: Son and Orphan. To use this as a growth tool to better understand your own calling, you might start by reading the explanation of this series and then read Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5, Pt 6 and Pt 7.
Photo credit: DaisyCat77