Contending with the Orphan Spirit II

The Orphan Church

Independent self-reliant; Insecure; Duty and Obligation over sonship; Must be holy to receive favor; Unable to forge relationship; Blames others for their problems; easily offended; and believes the presence to be conditional and distant.

Contending with the orphan spirit is a must win battleground, we cannot live out our christian walk in this condition, we must overcome.

The work of the cross has brought us into adoption we are no longer orphans but children of the Living God.

Circumstances Leading to Orphanhood

Warriors of the House

Servants of the King’s Son Bannah, and Rechab appointed to the care of the son

Benjamites… belong to the house

2 Samuel 4:5–7 ESV

Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ish-bosheth as he was taking his noonday rest. And they came into the midst of the house as if to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and put him to death and beheaded him. They took his head and went by the way of the Arabah all night,

They plotted against the one they were appointed to care for causing them orphan all who were assigned to Ish Bosheth’s care

They trick their way in and behead the him and think theyre doing the body a favor.

This happens in ministry all the time… the “warrior” kills the lineage does not restore it

They were trying to do good

Caretakers of the House

2 Samuel 4:4 ESV

Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

The nurse in fear and haste drops the one she was to care for.

Existential crisis in the life of the caretaker causes them to drop the ones we are appointed to care for

Left the orphan damaged he will forever be an outcast

The nurse was trying to do good

The Abandoned Orphan

Something special about Mephibosheth

Dispellar of Shame

Dispellar of Baal

Return the people from the shame and worship of Baal to the worship of the Lord.

From birth to age 5 he was being conditioned as heir of the kingdom.... Now in adulthood he has lived the majority of his life as orphan, abandoned, tucked away to be forgotten.

Early christian to adult Christian

Blood-line was of Saul

Kings replacement would kill the lineage

Deserved to die

As a cripple yielded a son…

what was the son being conditoned

served him...

Danger when those who are hurt yield a hurt offspring....orphan

In 2 Sam 9:4 we find out he was from lo-debar

without word/without bread.

When we examine Mephibosheth he exemplifies where we are in our hurt, orphanhood.

Instead of residing in a place where the word abounds we hide in a place without bread.

The Restorer of the House

When we read in chapter 4 about the fate of Bannah and Rechab David kills them for their murder of the one they were appointed to care for

Mephibosheth is from lo-debar… David is from Bethlehem

the house of plenty the house of bread

David was conditioned as an orphan moved to kingship

As king he is in his right to kill the lineage of the previous king but instead;

2 Samuel 9:3 ESV

And the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.”

After warring in his rest he considers the house of Saul… is there no one left

his house must have ben confused… “is he now going to finish off the lineage?”

Covenantal love of God is what he wants to show not contention

there is a love that is due to him not because of his original bloodline but the one that is under covenant

Ziba gives a disqualifier… David says “bring him to me”

what was Mephibosheth thinking.... He’s going to kill me...

In the engagement Mephibosheth I am a dead dog....

we see ourselves as this

2 Samuel 9:7 ESV

And David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.”

2 Samuel 9:9 ESV

Then the king called Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master’s grandson.

Protection

Covenantal Love

Restorer

Sense of I belong

For Mephibosheth the blood of Johnathan spoke in his defense bringing him back to the table as king…

According to Eph 1 there is a blood that is in the believer who was once dead in their trespasses but now is found with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places… redemption because of His blood… forgiveness because of HIs blood… we are lavished with riches of grace…

No longer are we orphans… and yes there are a multitude of people who have been hurt, whose spiritual parents hurt them, who were abandoned in their crippled state however today we are adopted according to the purposed of His will...

Our purpose with the ones who are found as orphans is to bring them home… not to finish them off but to restore them into the kingdom where all that the enemy has taken from them is restored...