The Spirit of Adoption

I've been so drawn to Romans 8: 14-17: "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."

Tonight at Huddle we explored the difference between the Spirit of Adoption and the
Spirit of Slavery. I understand that slavery comes from being an orphan, because no one who is adopted into God's family will ever be a slave. We are invited to the table, given everything we need, and are overflowed with his love.

I was amazed at the list that came up for each:

Spirit of Adoption: chosen, unique, being loved, trust, part of the family, WANTED, provision, security, belonging, redeemed, new identity, new name, rest, peace, SIGNIFICANCE, valued, comforted, nurtured, new beginnings, protection, promise of eternity

Spirit of Slavery: abandonment, SHAME, anxiety, perfectionism, uncertainty, insecurity, cluthing, false identity, BLAME, CONTROL, self protection, hard heart, unprotected, mistrust, religiosity, misplaced love, idolatry, never full, co-dependance, addiction, wanting REJECTION, risk adverse, self-sufficiency

Do you see the difference? One leads to life. One leads to faith.
The other leads to fear. It leads to death.

I told of a story of a little girl who was adopted by parents who had wanted a child for a long time. They had her room all decorated and new clothes hanging in the closet. They made wonderful dinners and set the table, but she wouldn't come to eat. She wore her torn and tattered clothes to school and continued to use her old name. They even found her sleeping in the concrete basement.

She was never able to make the leap from being an orphan to becoming a beloved adopted child.

Did you know that adopted children cannot be disinherited? They can not have their adopted name taken from them ever. It's a law in England, Austrailia and the US.

It's God's law too. It's the law of his heart. He has adopted us and we are forever his. He wants us to know so much that he gave us himself to live in us. The name is Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us makes us even reflect our new parents. How cool is that.

At the end of huddle, we went around and prayed for one another. We got up and put our hands on one another's shoulders so that we could experience the heart of our adopted Daddy on us.

Nobody left untouched tonight. To me all of this really is the VERY GOOD NEWS!