Recently I watched the documentary, Compelled by Love, about Heidi Baker and her work. And it finally hit me the orphan spirit versus the son spirit.

Heidi goes out and brings in orphans. She adopts them into her family. Every Sunday they get to come to her house and raid the refrigerator and eat and drink anything they want. Her house is their house. They can do it anytime, but Sunday is a special time. Heidi was sharing about how you can tell the new orphans, who don’t quite understand that they are no longer orphans, from the ones who have been there longer and understand. The video showed a young boy who was a new orphan there… he was sitting on the outside looking in, figuratively speaking, watching everyone else having fun. He was confused. He did not know how to act. He did not go up to the refrigerator and get anything he wanted. He just sat there watching, not understanding. All the other boys and girls who knew they were Heidi’s children treated the refrigerator as their own. They were not guests in the house. They were children in Heidi’s family and all that was Heidi’s was theirs.

This is the image of how we are in God’s Kingdom. We are no longer orphans in the spirit, without a father. In our spirit we are now adopted into the family of God. We are brothers of Jesus himself and co-heirs with him of all that is the Father’s. All that the father has is ours. We can come into his house and raid the refrigerator and watch the TV and sit in the chair anytime. It’s all ours. And only once we believe it’s ours will we take advantage of it.

The little boy in the video had it all. He had already been adopted into Heidi’s family and everything that was hers was his. But he didn’t understand and believe it yet. And because he didn’t believe it he got none of the benefits the other children had, even though he was just like them. The only difference is they understood and believed they were part of the family. Because they believed they lived in their position in the family.

And that’s how we should be. Once we understand and believe we are fully adopted into God’s family and all that Christ has is ours, then we can tap into it and use it. And this is the essence of the parable of the servant son. He was an owner of everything. But he never understood it and therefore he never believed it. And because he never believed it he never lived it.