Spiritual Orphans

We start as spiritual orphans through no fault of our own. This problem started back in the biblical garden of Eden. We are born into it. Fortunately father God loved us enough to provide us a way to become spiritually reunited with him. This opportunity reverses what we lost in the garden. Because we have free will, it is not a guarantee already applied to us, but an offer. If we don't take the offer we implicitly reject the offer, keep our sin nature and remain separated from father God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, their spiritual nature was changed from that of father God, his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit (together, the Elohim, or God) to a death oriented sin nature and the devil became their spiritual father. We inherited corruption in our bodies, our minds and our spirits.

Originally...

If we consider that father God originally designed us and created us out of a few pounds of dust on this big ball of dust that we live on, we can look to the author of our existence and learn the true nature of why we were created. It is really quite exciting and will bring out the magnitude of power and authority that father God gave us over this planet.

Genesis 1:26 And God saith, `Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that is creeping on the earth.' ²⁷And God created the man in His image; in the image of God He created him, a male and a female He created them. ²⁸And God blesseth them, and God saith to them, `Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that is creeping upon the earth.'

Let's look at some of these words a little closer using the Strongs Hebrew and Greek Dictionary:

Image: צלם, tselem, tseh'-lem - From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: - image, vain shew.

Likeness: דּמוּת, demûth, dem-ooth' - From damah; resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like: - fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.

Rule: רדה, râdâh, raw-daw' - A primitive root; to tread down, that is, subjugate; specifically to crumble off: - (come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (bear, make to) rule, (-r, over), take.

Subdue: כּבשׁ, kâbash, kaw-bash' - A primitive root; to tread down; hence negatively to disregard; positively to conquer, subjugate, violate: - bring into bondage, force, keep under, subdue, bring into subjection.

We can see that out of a few pounds of dust we were created with a physical body in God's image and likeness and elevated spiritually to exist as rulers over the earth and all of its other inhabitants. We were given rulership over everything on the earth and we were to subdue it. This was exciting for father God to create us here in his image. We are a miniature physical and spiritual copy of God, and authorized to rule this planet as God rules the universe. It was our planet! Not only that...

Genesis 2:7 And Jehovah God formeth the man--dust from the ground, and breatheth into his nostrils breath of life, and the man becometh a living creature. 1 Corinthians 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another of fishes, and another of birds; Luke 3:38 ...the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Out of all of father God's creation, we were the only thing created in his image and his likeness. We were created in father God's image and likeness, thus we have his soul, or mind. We were given the breath of life into our dust bodies so that we became a combination of dust, soul and spirit. So, we are made of spirit, soul and body in father God's image and physical likeness. Adam was created by father God to be his son! Father God created, or birthed, children and gave them a planet to live on and own and rule over.

Another fact not made clear here is that we carry the spiritual nature of Adam without it changing. That is, we don't change the "image of God" spiritual nature by being a physical great, great, great... grandchild of Adam. We might be the flesh of two parents but the spirit/soul part doesn't differ in its general nature from that of Adam. Adam might be our great, great, great... grandfather physically, but he is our brother spiritually. We constitute one spiritual person corporately, made up of many physical parts existing through time.

Genesis 1:29 And God saith, `Lo, I have given to you every herb sowing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree sowing seed, to you it is for food; ³⁰and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to every creeping thing on the earth, in which is breath of life, every green herb is for food:' and it is so.

We can see that other beasts and foul and creeping things also have the breath of life, but they were not made explicitly in father God's image.

Genesis 2:16 And Jehovah God layeth a charge on the man, saying, `Of every tree of the garden eating thou dost eat; ¹⁷and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it--dying thou dost die.'

The charge to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was given to the man before the woman had been made. The woman would have had to learn of the charge from Adam if it applied to her.

Genesis 2:18 And Jehovah God saith, `Not good for the man to be alone, I do make to him an helper--as his counterpart.' ¹⁹And Jehovah God formeth from the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, and bringeth in unto the man, to see what he doth call it; and whatever the man calleth a living creature, that is its name. ²⁰And the man calleth names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; and to man hath not been found an helper--as his counterpart. ²¹And Jehovah God causeth a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he sleepeth, and He taketh one of his ribs, and closeth up flesh in its stead. ²²And Jehovah God buildeth up the rib which He hath taken out of the man into a woman, and bringeth her in unto the man; ²³and the man saith, `This is the proper step! bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh!' for this it is called Woman, for from a man hath this been taken; ²⁴therefore doth a man leave his father and his mother, and hath cleaved unto his wife, and they have become one flesh. ²⁵And they are both of them naked, the man and his wife, and they are not ashamed of themselves

Notice how openly father God was communicating with Adam. Father God would make it a routine to come down to this little dust ball and share his creation with the man and the woman he made and visit with his children after giving them all the authority over it. He brought all the beasts and fowl to Adam to see what he would name them. Father God was very serious about the level of authority he gave to Adam. He didn't hide anything from Adam. He didn't stay invisible and not let Adam know what was going on down here, or where Adam came from or why Adam was here. Adam probably didn't have the view looking back to see things the way we would, but surely Adam was very self aware, except for the knowledge of good and evil. One point to note is that the commandment to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was given to Adam and the woman hadn't been made yet. She had to learn about this rule from Adam.

The Fall And Its Consequences...

Genesis 3:6 And the woman seeth that the tree is good for food, and that it is pleasant to the eyes, and the tree is desirable to make one wise, and she taketh of its fruit and eateth, and giveth also to her husband with her, and he doth eat; ⁷and the eyes of them both are opened, and they know that they are naked, and they sew fig-leaves, and make to themselves girdles. ⁸And they hear the sound of Jehovah God walking up and down in the garden at the breeze of the day, and the man and his wife hide themselves from the face of Jehovah God in the midst of the trees of the garden. ⁹And Jehovah God calleth unto the man, and saith to him, `Where art thou?' ¹⁰and he saith, `Thy sound I have heard in the garden, and I am afraid, for I am naked, and I hide myself.' Genesis 3:16 Unto the woman He said, `Multiplying I multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow dost thou bear children, and toward thy husband is thy desire, and he doth rule over thee.' ¹⁷And to the man He said, `Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and dost eat of the tree concerning which I have charged thee, saying, Thou dost not eat of it, cursed is the ground on thine account; in sorrow thou dost eat of it all days of thy life, ¹⁸and thorn and bramble it doth bring forth to thee, and thou hast eaten the herb of the field; ¹⁹by the sweat of thy face thou dost eat bread till thy return unto the ground, for out of it hast thou been taken, for dust thou art , and unto dust thou turnest back.' Genesis 3:21 And Jehovah God doth make to the man and to his wife coats of skin, and doth clothe them. ²²And Jehovah God saith, `Lo, the man was as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil; and now, lest he send forth his hand, and have taken also of the tree of life, and eaten, and lived to the age (forever),' -- ²³Jehovah God sendeth him forth from the garden of Eden to serve the ground from which he hath been taken; ²⁴yea, he casteth out the man, and causeth to dwell at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubs and the flame of the sword which is turning itself round to guard the way of the tree of life.

And out we went. Adam didn't obey the charge given to him by father God and maintain his authority over himself and the ground, or planet. He gave up that authority to sin and thus inherited sin. Adam lost authority over the planet when he gave in to sin. Our spiritual nature was changed for ever and we inherit as a great, great, great...grandchild of Adam the spiritual sin nature that he ended up with. We inherit the curse on the ground and we inherit the curse in our body because it is made of the ground. Notice father God made clothing of skin. This is the first instance of bloodshed mentioned in the bible, and it was to cover us due to our sin. In Genesis 1:29 and 1:30 we saw that for all the beasts, fowl and creeping things the green herbs were their food and for us the fruit and herbs. In the original design, no blood had to be shed to feed us or the animals. Time wise, it is believed based on Adam's age and when he had children and their ages that we were in the garden about 100 years before our downfall.

So we can see that through no fault of our own we inherit a curse automatically just by being born under Adam. We are kicked out of our garden of Eden even before we ever see it. We are distanced from father God even before we ever get to talk to him. Hiding from him doesn't make him go away. We have to admit that he exists and that he desires to cover us even in our sin. In fact, if we didn't have sin, he wouldn't have to cover us and we could talk to each other freely face to face. Just because we can't see father God doesn't mean he's not there. If we could see him, it would be like living in milk. All we could see would be God. We couldn't see our hand in front of our face. If we could hear him in every way, we would only hear all sound, like white noise. It would sound something like a radio not dialed into a radio station. We would only hear static in all frequencies and volumes. In this creation, father God has partially separated his full capability of manifesting himself so he can have something sort of outside of himself. Yet, he is still in all of it as it is made up of him.

Idols...

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Acts 17:16 and Paul waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, beholding the city wholly given to idolatry, Acts 17:22 And Paul, having stood in the midst of the Areopagus, said, `Men, Athenians, in all things I perceive you as over-religious; ²³for passing through and contemplating your objects of worship, I found also an erection on which had been inscribed: To God--unknown; whom, therefore--not knowing--ye do worship, this One I announce to you. ²⁴`God, who did make the world, and all things in it, this One, of heaven and of earth being Lord, in temples made with hands doth not dwell, ²⁵neither by the hands of men is He served--needing anything, He giving to all life, and breath, and all things; ²⁶He made also of one blood every nation of men, to dwell upon all the face of the earth--having ordained times before appointed, and the bounds of their dwellings-- ²⁷to seek the Lord, if perhaps they did feel after Him and find, --though, indeed, He is not far from each one of us, ²⁸for in Him we live, and move, and are; as also certain of your poets have said: For of Him also we are offspring.

We live and move and exist inside of father God, but we don't have a relationship with him. We are like a little death spot inside of him. We create idols to fill our minds and hearts with because we are lacking the relationship with father God that we were made for. These things might give us a thrill for a while, but they leave us lacking as the thrill subsides. Making money. World domination. Corporate power. Winning that "fight". Father God does not dwell in temples made by hands. We can create our own gods but we cannot create God. We will always feel stress from trying to attain God and not attaining him but we will never attain him by creating idols.

Identity...

We look for things to fill our minds to relate to and fulfill us. How much input do we have from outside sources telling us who we are? We have been taught by a world system that tells us what to believe. We seek fulfillment from accomplishments, thinking if we just accomplish this thing we will be fulfilled. We compete with others for no apparent reason to "win" some status or recognition. How many man made award shows or competitions are there that give people some kind of credit for doing something better than others. We create our own goals to fulfill. The race to win. We like to be on that white knuckle ride because it excites us. Our brains get high on peptides and we try to always recreate that high that occurred some time. We dedicate our lives to some hobby or trade or career. Many people are looking for affirmation of their selves because they are lacking in love and affirmation as children. We believe we are "onto something" when we are actually missing something. Father God calls it "...walking in the vanity of our minds" and "being alienated from the life of God". Father God sees us as being robots and not the spiritual creatures he designed us to be. The mind and spirit are two totally different entities and they each process different things. Mental affirmation will never fulfill our hearts need of father God's love and affirmation.

Orphans...

How often do we see people stressed out, blaming others for their problems as though we were their parents? People walk around with a big hole in their heart that they don't even recognize and can't fill if they did recognize it. We have pain and rejection because we are looking for love and affirmation from everyone else to fulfill us that can only come from father God. We want to attain affirmation and love that we are missing from our childhood. We want to attain father God. It is okay and even good that we are looking for this spiritual fulfillment, but we need to be looking in the right place. We look for father God in religious ceremonies that have no real spiritual value or connection. We are not created for rejection. Some of us are in a vicious circle because we look to others for answers and then we reject those answers because "you're not my father and can't tell me what to do". In a way we are right, because they aren't our father. They are off the hook. They are not our father. They can't give us what they don't have. They cannot fill our father hunger. Only father God can fill that hole for us. He made us that way so we could share with him. Like we need food for our bodies, we need father God to fulfill our spiritual needs. We should not have looked to others for this fulfillment in the first place. Likewise, they should never look to us to fulfill them. Only the relationship with father God will do that for us. Our natural fathers in father God's ideal world are supposed to be a physical representation of father God. We might have grown up without a father or with a distant father or with a father that himself didn't know father God and could not convey father God's true nature to us. Having an emotionally distant relationship with our natural father is as bad if not worse than not having a father at all. We might get a wrong impression or wrong experiences or a distorted view of fatherhood from a distant father where if we know that we didn't have a father we wouldn't get any impression at all.

Fear...

We might be satisfied at a very low level of existence, either through fear or ignorance. We are happy with a small thing and never perceive that we missed father God entirely and never get into a good relationship with him. We will miss the fruit of having a relationship with him. We will miss a fulfillment in life by not having father God in it. We may have fear that keeps us from trying for something because we can't tell what will happen. There is too much stress in trying. Sometimes we want to control things out of fear. We won't go beyond what we can control, and we know that isn't much. We stress ourselves over current events that we don't know the whole story of and can't control anyway.

Pride...

Pride is an expression of an orphan nature. When we have pride we are expressing that we are not very close to father God. Father God already knows everything we can know. He already sees all we can do. We should be thinking of father God as our source for everything as this is what he wants. He wants children that rely on him and that use his power to do things. Father God will give us access to plenty of knowledge and plenty of power to do things. He really wants us to mature in his ways. When we want to do things that are without his power, knowledge and nature we are acting like an orphan. We are self willed. We are not expressing a family interest. Father God encourages and trains us to have plenty of will towards things that contribute to father God's kingdom, but we can be oriented towards things that contradict father God's interests. This puts us in conflict with father God and the rest of his family. How many of us spend our life pursuing some vain goal because of pride that we find out we get no reward for because it wasn't part of father God's kingdom? We are proud of what we have done. Father God would approach the same thing within his family as a family project. This keeps everybody at the same level, with father God at the top directing everything. We don't have an advantage over anyone else. We can create and share. We express father God's knowledge that he gives us and share the results with others, like they do back for us. No need to be proud. We can be fulfilled without needing to be prideful when we are in father God's kingdom.

Father God is connected with the past, present and future and can give us information that we could never obtain through physical means. Father God can tell us things like "Don't marry this person" or "Don't sign up for this thing" because he can see where that will take us in the future. While father God knows all these things, it takes relationship with him to be able to get and use this information. If father God were in charge of our lives, he could create for us an experience that has excitement, fulfillment and peace. He can coordinate between others so there isn't strife between potential competitors. Father God can make plenty of room for everyone. He has plenty of ideas and resources. We don't need to steal from or conflict with others to have what we need. Only father God can fill our heart needs. Only father God can fill our father hunger.

In order for us to reconnect with father God we will need a spirit of a son/daughter that replaces the spirit we inherited from Adam that became damaged through sin. Father God can become the spiritual father we have always been looking for. Then we can become spiritual brethren to each other. We will see on the Spiritual Adoption page how Jesus creates this link for us to once again be able to call father God our spiritual father.