Over the past year, Father has been tilling the soil of our home. It has been messy, uncomfortable, hard, and raw at times. My husband and I have walked through some deep valleys with things we have encountered over the last year. There has been what feels like endless warfare from the enemy. There were many moments where we were on our faces, praying and crying out with hearts of desperation….just asking Holy Spirit to meet us right where we were because we didn’t want to take another step without inviting Him into every part of our lives. We came to places of beautiful surrender, while also working through relinquishing control in other areas of our lives.
In the midst of the warfare we have felt, our eyes were opened to the ‘death grip’ the enemy truly had on us with fear and anxiety. Fear of man, fear of failure, fear of rejection, the need to strive and please others. These fears were leading to such turmoil in our home because the anxiety from fears would spill out into our marriage.
I had revelation about the word “death grip” recently. When the enemy is crippling us and holding us in bondage, he literally has a ‘death grip’ on our lives. We are living in death, and not walking in life…we aren’t walking in resurrection power…we aren’t walking in freedom…we aren’t walking in the authority we’ve been given as His children. We aren’t walking at all because ultimately, we are bound by chains.
We are living as though there is no hope…we are living as orphans.
The Bible tells us in John 14—in red letters, meaning Jesus SPOKE it, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Savior, The Holy Spirit of truth, who will be to you a friend just like Me—and He will never leave you….I promise you that I will NEVER leave you helpless or abandon you as orphans-I will come back to you!”
It’s a promise from Jesus Himself that we will NOT go through life alone! He will not leave us as orphans, but promises His children that He will never abandon us. He sent His spirit to dwell among and within us, and be our ever present helper. He’s closer than our very breath.
My husband had a dream last night and he saw an orphanage full of children. He said in the dream, they never left the walls of the orphanage…they knew nothing of the world outside. He said he saw a door in the orphanage and in the dream he knew it was unlocked. He remembers feeling restless knowing that all they had to do was walk out…that freedom was theirs for the taking. It was unlocked and right in front of them, and yet they lived their lives in those four walls, not knowing that life outside of that existed. Not knowing that they did not have to stay orphans, but could have opened the door to be delivered from confinement.
When he told me about the dream, we prayed into it together and just had even more revelation about breaking agreements with living as orphans…and walking in freedom together, walking in the authority we’ve been given as HIS CHILDREN, and walking in beautiful surrender knowing that we have a Father who loves us deeper than we could ever comprehend. A Father who only works for our good and is working in the midst of all the pain, heartache, and hurt we face and will redeem EVERY thing the enemy has stolen. A Father who is going to battle for us in the warfare. A Father who is closer than we could even understand and never ever leaves us. A Father who calls us His own, and whose DNA is in us, whose blood runs in our veins!
Will you walk with me in freedom today, and step outside of the orphan mindset? Will you walk with me in confidence knowing that we are “His true children, we are heirs of God himself” (Romans 8:17)? Because when we know our identify in Him, everything changes and we can begin to walk out of bondage, into life, and into the promises our Father has spoken over us. We can walk out of the grip of death, and into marvelous light. There is freedom for me, and there is freedom for you, sister!
-Sara D.