Let me begin by saying this is not intended to be a complete teaching on the orphan spirit, but to give a brief insight into some of the content included in my deliverance manual, “Wisdom to Defeat the Enemy”.

The orphan spirit carries with it a feeling of unworthiness, a fear of rejection and abandonment, which causes the individual to feel driven to perfectionism or a need to prove to themselves or others they have a sense of value or importance.

Selfish ambition is a spirit that becomes an internal driver of behavior because the person is trying to overcompensate for feelings of rejection, inadequacy, inferiority and insecurity.

The struggle with foundational issues of identity and the dysfunction it creates often cause relationship problems because the person has an unhealthy or unrealistic perspective on how their emotional needs should be met.

It can also result in placing unrealistic demands for validation and affirmation of their identity upon others when in fact only God can meet that need.

When a person looks to other people to meet their emotional needs, they make idols for themselves.

The heart of the orphan has deeply rooted feelings of rejection and insecurity, which often causes them to be quick tempered, or have feelings of competitiveness and jealousy towards others.

They compare themselves to others in their relationship circles, whether it is family, friends, peers or professional relationships.

They look for the praise and approval of others and often cannot bring themselves to genuinely celebrate or acknowledge other people’s success or blessings.

The spirit of competition is opposed to brotherly love. It sees people as rivals, competitors and they harbor a fault-finding, critical attitude towards others.

This orphan spirit causes people to want to expose people’s weaknesses rather than cover them in love.

This spirit is also quick to bring accusations or harsh words against others.

The person with an orphan spirit often operates under a religious spirit because acceptance, approval and love are always conditional upon performance rather than the love, acceptance and compassion that comes from the Spirit of Adoption.

The person who struggles with an orphan spirit is not free. They desperately seek praise and recognition through self effort and their works because they feel a deep need to feel validated and affirmed.

One of the characteristics of an orphan spirit is a tendency towards holding onto offense and critical judgments towards oneself or others.

This will cause a spiritual block to answered prayer and keep new doors of opportunity closed.

The orphan spirit is a root cause for people feeling jealous, critical, bitter, or justifying unforgiveness.

There are many signs of an orphan spirit, but here are some to consider:

1. Feelings of inadequacy. Needs approval and strives for praise and acceptance from others.
2. Jealous and competitive, has a difficult time being happy for other people’s success.
3. Has trouble trusting authority and difficulty submitting to God or other authority.
4. Closes their spirit to correction and discipline, defensive and easily offended.
5. Critical and judgmental towards others, quick to expose the weakness of others. Inwardly they feel they need to do this to make themselves look better. It is also a form of ‘cutthroat competition’ to try to eliminate anyone that makes them feel threatened or insecure. Prone to gossip, slander and character assassination. They destroy the reputations of others and feel justified in tale-bearing.
6. Feels like they are under bondage to performance in order to receive approval. Often feels as if God is difficult to please; feels like a slave, bound by a sense of duty and obligation.
7. Prone to using guilt, manipulation, controlling behaviors and toxic shame to try and force others into compliance. Will go to any length to get what they want; does not respect boundaries.
8. Seeks relief from counterfeit sources such as drinking, drugs, sex, shopping, video games and other escapes.
9. Repels mates, children and others due to toxic demands for validation and making others feel unimportant or unloved. Others are often seen as a means to getting what they want.
10. Leaders who have an orphan spirit seek to have others serve them and do not release others into their calling or gifting. They hold onto them due to their desire to build their own kingdom. They need to be needed.
11. Compares their perceived righteousness through their works to the righteousness by faith imputed through the blood of Christ and often feels offended. They stumble over grace shown to others that they disapprove of.
12. They focus on the faults of others, especially those with genuine spiritual authority.
13. Narcissistic and selfish; uses others for their own selfish purposes.Blames others and refuses to take responsibility for their own actions.
14. More concerned with ministry, work or other pursuits than the needs of family because they are trying to prove themselves.
15. Unbiblical view of what God thinks about us.
16. Inability to have intimacy in relationships, difficulty in giving and receiving love, trust and acceptance with others.

Matthew 7:1 tells us we should not judge lest we be judged by the same standard as our own lack of love towards others.

The person that judges others or resorts to some of the critical behavior listed above is now on a path to be judged, either by God or others as their own hypocrisy is revealed by their behavior.

It allows others to see the insincerity towards the beliefs they profess but fail to model. When our conversation isn’t healthy, it’s because sin needs to be confessed and the tongue delivered from unrighteousness.

Many times people do not realize that the power of their words and thoughts keep them from being healed because there is an agreement in the spirit realm that must be broken.

Sometimes those agreements go all the way back to childhood or some traumatic event where we made a vow that binds us to the past.

If those agreements are not broken it can end up affecting a person’s physical health, because the body ends up absorbing the emotional pain.

Emotional pain=a lack of peace, or a lack of ease. Dis-ease. This is where a majority of disease and illnesses come from. These things must be driven out with prayer!

God designed us to gain our sense of identity and a sense of security from our parents and Him, but when parents fail to affirm a child in their identity, fail to nurture and protect them, a void is there that the enemy will gladly fill.

These are legitimate needs that become areas of a person’s identity that are shaped through lies and distorted beliefs from a false father — the father of lies.

Our heavenly Father longs to shatter the lies and replace them with truth about who He really created us to be. We receive this as revelation as we walk with Him.

It is a truth that is received deep in our innermost being where our spirit bears witness with the Holy Spirit. This knowledge brings comfort, and as we are comforted, our souls settle down into rest.

When our souls are at rest, it brings stability to our emotions, peace of mind, and stabilizes other areas of our life, too. Is that something you have longed for? You do not need to live as a slave to fear, insecurity, or feel like an outsider looking in.

Ask Holy Spirit to reveal the heart of Your heavenly Father to you and flood your heart with the Spirit of Adoption.

Pray:

Holy Spirit, please forgive me for any agreements I have made that would prevent me from receiving the fullness of my Father’s Love.

I forgive my parents for not being able to meet my physical and emotional needs, and I forgive them for any ways they broke my trust and contributed to me feeling abandoned, unimportant or rejected.

I renounce any lies I have believed that cause me to feel fear, anxiety, stress, rejection or other negative emotions.

Let the blood of Jesus cover my sins as well as my parents.

I renounce all spirits of rejection, disappointment, disapproval and dishonor that have been released into my life.

I want nothing to do with these spirits and command them all to leave me now in Jesus’ name.

Break every demonic chain in my life, Lord Jesus.

Forgive me for believing lies about you that have kept me from developing a closer relationship.

Please reveal yourself to me, and reveal any lies I have believed, in Jesus’ name, amen.

If you would like more teaching on inner healing and deliverance, please consider ordering the book, “Wisdom to Defeat the Enemy”, available on Amazon.com

 

~ Laura Gagnon

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Laura Gagnon is a woman who has been blessed with the gift of understanding God’s restorative work through her own personal experience. Through her insights and revelation, God has led her to influence many individuals into a restored relationship with Jesus Christ. She is a woman who stands on the promises of God, encouraging others in an elevated expectation of the miraculous and declares the gift of His life. Laura is the author of Healing the Heart of a Woman and writes for her blog, Beyond the Barriers.

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