Orphan to Adoption by Joshua Shaw

Identity Crisis

    Everyone is searching for identity. Many find their identity in clothing and music, others in the sins they commit, some in work or hobbies. Many are just searching for the assurance of acceptance. They find their persona as an individual in what they do, what they follow, or what they look like. These things are what they believe makes them who they are, but for many, the need for this assurance outweighs the image they project. Inside they feel like orphans. They are looking for something more than this world can give them. What they are truly looking for is love that can only be found in God, but they are trying to find it independent of Him.

    The truth is, they are spiritual orphans, not knowing they have a Father who not only made them, but who loves them and accepts them. He is the only fulfillment to the love and acceptance they are searching for. He created mankind in His image and for the purpose of an intimate relationship with Him. He created us in such a way that He is the fulfillment of our desires. We were created to be loved by Him and be the overflow of His love for one another. In that place we find our truest identity. As His Children.

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The Fall of Man

    In the beginning man and God lived in perfect communion in the Garden of Eden. It was a fusion of heaven and earth, of God and man. Heaven and earth existed in a oneness with God. Man was given dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:26). There was two trees in the garden, one gave us life everlasting, and one gave us the knowledge of good and evil and the fruit of it would cause death (Gen. 2:9). All that was known was God’s goodness, His love, His joy, and in the place of intimacy and ecstasy of His presence we needed no consciousness of sin. The tree of knowledge wasn’t an evil tree, everything God created was good. Who knows, in the future when they were mature enough, they may have been able to eat of it had they not of fallen. What made eating of it a sin is that God said don’t eat of it.

    At this time, the devil had already fallen and became independent of God. However in that independence, He became the epitome of evil. Independent from God’s nature, his nature became to kill, steal, and destroy (John 5:5). He came to Eve in the form of a serpent and challenged God’s word by saying “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). When Eve said that if she ate it, she would die. He lied and deceived her by saying “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4). Think about this for a second. “He said, you will be like God” Weren’t they already like Him?

    We were created in God’s very image (Gen. 1:26). We were made to give expression to who God is, to be His image on this earth. We were like Him and in unity with Him. The temptation, was to become like God independent from God. When Adam and Eve sinned, they became separated from God. They lost their identity in Him and took on a new identity, fractured, sin filled, and independent from God. They became a god unto themselves and an enemy of God in their minds.

    Through that one act, man’s conscience was defiled and we were stripped of intimacy with the living God. When God approached them, they hid from Him in shame as a result of being sin conscious (Gen. 3:8). The human response to the shame of sin is hiding from the One who gives life. Through the fall, we were severed from the most amazing, wonderful person and left to find our own identity in a world now plagued with sin, sickness, and death.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”

    The devil had set up his kingdom, his government of influence. He became the god of this world and blinds people from seeing who they were created to be (Eph. 6:12; 2 Cor. 4:4). His influence devalues life, demoralizes, and enslaves humanity to sin and death, further distorting the image of God in us. We were meant to be the mirror image of God, but sin shattered the mirror, cutting us on the pieces. We were created to be so much more.

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Jesus, the second Adam

Romans 5:15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

    God still loved us and longed for us. He longed for the relationship He created us for. God became a man in Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God was one with the Father. He is the express image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). He gave expression to what God is like. He was the Word, who in the beginning, He was with God and was God (John 1:1). The Word became flesh (John 1:14). When His disciples asked him to show them the Father, He said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:7). He didn’t just come to show reveal the true image of God, but restore the image of God in us. To bring us back to our created value.

    Sin separated us from God. It defiled us. Jesus came and was tempted at all points yet was without sin. He was perfect, spotless, without blemish. The glory of God revealed in a man. He was the fusion of heaven and earth, of God and man. He lived His life overthrowing the influence of the devil everywhere He went. He showed us what it looked like to be a man completely surrendered to God looked like. He showed us what dependence on God really was all about, an intimate relationship between Him and the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. His mission was to destroy all the works of the devil and restore humanity to Himself. He did that through one act of love.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

    Jesus was rejected and despised by men under the influence of the devil. He was crucified by the very people He came to save. On that cross, He became took upon Himself the sin of the world. He became the payment. He died humanities death that we live His life. He became our sin on the cross that we might become His righteousness. What a glorious trade off. My rags for His riches. On that cross, He paid the penalty of sin, disarming the devil from anything that he could accuse us of. That cross was the judgment of this world and the ruler of this world being cast out (John 12:31).

    Death couldn’t hold Him, He rose again disarming the principalities and powers of all authority. Through His death and resurrection, we are restored back into our original image and purpose. The relationship that Jesus modeled with the Father, is now ours. It’s our right as Children of God.

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Image Restored

    When we believe on the name of His Son Jesus we become born again, a new creation, born of the Spirit of God. We receive a brand new identity! The old, distorted, sin torn image died and our lives are hidden in Christ (Col. 3:3). The sins and failures of the past are wiped clean and we are a new man created in righteous and holiness (Eph4:24). And through our restored relationship with Him, we discover who we really are. We get to put off the false image of who we were and live out who He made us to be. No longer independent of God, we are restored back into right relationship with Him. He now lives in us, and we in Him. Our identity is in the fusion of God and man.

    The Holy Spirit makes our hearts His home. We become the habitation of God (John 14:17). His Spirit gives life to our spirit. Our Spirit becomes one Spirit with Him and we become the dwelling place of God Himself (1 Cor. 6:14). The Holy Spirit God Himself living in us. He is presence of God here on earth, and we have the privilege as Children of God to host Him.

    When Jesus was in the flesh, He promised He would not leave us orphans, He would come to us through giving us the Spirit of truth (John 14:17-18). Not leaving us orphans is not leaving us without a Father. The Holy Spirit is how God Fathers us. He is very intentional with us and His goal is to form Christ in us and He empowers us to live out who we are in Him. Holy Spirit repairs the shattered mirror as we behold the glory of the Lord, Jesus! (2 Cor. 3:18).

Romans 8: 17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

    Our relationship with the Holy Spirit is vital for living out our identity in Him. In the Holy Spirit is the Kingdom of heaven, the divine influence, the rule and reign of Jesus! He teaches us who we are in Christ and gives us the power to walk it out. He also empowers us to overthrow the devils influence over this world. Learning to walk in a oneness with the Holy Spirit is the power behind everything in a believers life.

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Deny Yourself

    Before we knew Christ, we established our own identity in the world independent of Him and our lives evolved around sin and self. This identity is not who we are, it may have traits of how God created us, but is a false image of who we really are. God created us to be His image on this earth. He created us as an expression of Himself filling our own uniqueness. He is the fulfillment for our truest hearts desires. As we live for Him, we die to self, and find ourselves in Him.

    When we come to Him, we must deny ourselves, meaning we no longer live for ourselves but for Him. Jesus said deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me (Luke 9:23). That doesn’t mean strip yourself of all your desires, hopes, and dreams. That means cut off every part of your life that is independent of God. Your identity if fused with His indwelling. You are no longer independent of God but one with Him (John 17:21). To fully embrace who we are created to be in Him, we must deny the false identity we’ve accumulated in the world from the fall.

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How we see ourselves

    What we believe about God and what we believe about ourselves will paint everything we do especially the way we represent God to others. First, we must believe God is who He says He is, He is good and in Him there is no darkness. He loves us and is love Himself. He is a good Father. We also need to believe what He says about us to walk in our identity. We overcome the flesh by living in intimacy with God and believing who we are in Him.

    Before we come to the Lord, we have a lifetime of thinking like the devil. Our minds get cultivated by the enemy of God. We have mindsets that stem from demonic wisdom, sin habits, ways of thinking that produce doubt, and suspicion towards God. Our minds, independent from God will always fight against faith, but in Him, we have the mind of Christ through the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:7 ; 1 Cor. 2:16) We really are a brand new creation. Our minds need renewed to the reality of that. We are to put on the created in righteousness and holiness, and put off the old who grows corrupt according to deceitful lust (Eph. 4:22-24).

    The flesh isn’t an internal nature that we can never overcome, but the unrenewed mind. We have become partakers of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). We have been given His righteousness as a gift, and His Spirit to empower us to live it out. We are no longer slaves to sin. In Christ, we are no longer sinners, we can reckon ourselves dead to sin (Rom. 6:11;22). If we believe we are still sinners, we will sin by faith, but if we believe what He says, that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, we will live out of that place.

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Prophetic Prayer meeting

    I’ve been a believer for 12 years now, but for the last 6 the Lord has taken me to a place of bring all in. After I went radical for Jesus I was invited to a dance and prophecy gathering. At this time, I was new to the prophetic.  There was a DJ, it was fun but something was missing. People were dancing and I had some encouraging conversations and made a goof of myself because I’m not a very good dancer. When the music stopped, I heard really loud in my heart to grab a bowl of water and wash everyone’s feet.

    At first I was like, no way. I was wrestling with the tension of obedience and rational thinking. I ignored the battle in my mind and went around and washed everyone’s feet. Right after that, the presence of God fell and everyone started getting visions. I started receiving really clear revelations over people I was praying over. Worship music started and I was worshiping, laying on the floor, crying because of God’s presence that was hitting me.

    Numbers mean something to me and the Lord uses numbers to speak to me a lot of times. I had a vision of a 6 and a 7 in the sky. That was how I viewed myself, a sinful man reaching out for righteousness. Those were the numbers I would have described myself as, a sinner saved by the grace of God. Then, I heard a booming no in my heart. It was loud and startling. Then the 6 and 7 got crossed out and I saw a 7 and an 8. Then I heard really loud in my heart, “You are not a sinner reaching out for righteousness, I made you righteous, now your reaching into eternity” That changed the way I viewed myself. That revelation has been growing in me ever since.   

Clear Conscience

    When we see ourselves as who we are in Him, it empowers us to have a clear conscience before Him. Many grow up believing that they are wicked and living in a constant struggle to do what’s right. But the truth is, God made us right. It’s activated by faith. The blood of Jesus is enough to perfect our conscience before Him (Heb. 9:14). When we have a clean conscience and a pure heart, we receive more from Him. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:8). As Adam and Even ran from God because of shame, we can run to Him because He made us righteous.

    With a clear conscience we can engage Him in deeper and deeper levels of intimacy. There is nothing separating us from Him! It was all paid for, we can now boldly enter the throne of grace. There is nothing separating us from Him anymore. We can have real fellowship with the living God! The foundation of the Christian life is an intimate relationship with God. As we grow deeper and deeper in intimacy with Him with a clear conscience, as His children, we are able to hear Him clearer for ourselves and others. Praise the Lord, thank you Jesus! May we continue to grow deeper and closer to You.


This is possibly the first chapter of a book I'm working on, give me some feedback.
Joshua Shaw

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