Children of God – No Longer Orphans

Sometimes I am embarrassed about how much I fail to notice what is in the Bible. At the end of Matthew 3, after Jesus was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, the Spirit of God came on Him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased”. Then we go over to chapter 4 where the Holy Spirit leads Jesus in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  In the first two of three temptations, Satan started with “If You are the Son of God…”. I did not see that connection before. The Father Himself had said from heaven, “This is My beloved Son”, yet the devil comes in to bring doubt about Jesus’ sonship. And if this is what Satan did to Jesus, the Son of God, then what do you think he would do to us to make us doubt we are children of God? I believe this is why Jesus emphasized to His disciples that He would not leave them like orphans.

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:16-21

Jesus refers to God as His Father and He was the bridge between the Father and the disciples. He was always connecting the disciples to the Father and even taught them how to pray to Him by beginning with “Our Father”. Notice they weren’t supposed to say, “Jesus’ Father”, but “our” Father. It is amazing to know that the Creator of the universe wants us to be His children, and He made provision through Jesus and the Holy Spirit for us to be so. Just like Jesus’ disciples then we are not left like orphans now. Those of us who have the Spirit of truth will be led into this truth, knowing that we are children of God if we love Jesus, the Father will love us and the Helper, the Spirit of truth, will always be pointing us to the Father. And those of us who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God and His Spirit testifies with our spirit to confirm we are children of God.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15

Praise the Lord! We no longer have the spirit of slavery, but the spirit of adoption by God the Father. But then, why do we act as if we have no Father and are not adopted into His glorious family? Too many of us in church go around in fear, still in bondage to the spirit of slavery. Could it be that we are not truly being led by the Spirit of God, because where His Spirit is there is liberty? And the Spirit will make us understand we are adopted children of God and no longer orphans.  We are not alone and can bask in the Father’s love, knowing He, the most powerful Being in the universe, is taking care of us and has His eyes on us.

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:1-7

We may read this, and it sounds good, but we are not experiencing the Father’s love. It is only the Holy Spirit who can lead us into the deeper truths of the Word of God, and the truth that we are adopted children of the Heavenly Father, so that we can live it no matter what we have gone through in our lives and no matter who hasn’t been there for us. We need to know this truth without a doubt.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 1 John 3:1

This used to be my theme verse when I worked with fatherless children because I wanted them to see God as their loving Father. The Spirit of truth guides us to this truth. I pray that the Holy Spirit will make us understand that we are children of God and because we are adopted by the Father, we are no longer slaves. It is this truth that will help us to walk in the freedom of being children of God and an heir through Him, with the privilege of crying out, “Abba! Father!”