Stories of Transformation, part 3

Last week I met with a woman who was in my presence all of two minutes before she started weeping. She told me a story of her childhood and current life that felt like a knife stabbing me in the heart because of the massive challenges in both. Her mother had betrayed her in her young adult years and had never taken responsibility for it.

I began to share with her the reality of Romans 8:14-17 which tells us that we are adopted children of God, so that we must not live in the spirit of slavery which leads us again into fear. I like to equate slavery with being an orphan because it paints a very real state that many of us, Jesus followers included, live in. We may have a new Heavenly Father we follow Jesus, but we haven't yet moved into his home or sat at his banquet table. We continue to scratch out our lives in the orphanage.

This made absolutely sense to her, so we prayed and she broke off the orphan spirit on her, and took on the adoption spirit. I gave her several passages to read daily: Romans 8:14-17, Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 103, and Ephesians 3:14-21, and we made plans to meet again this week.

When I met her again, she told me the most incredible story. Her Mother called her the very next day and apologized for her responsibility. Out of the blue! She hadn't spoken to her Mother for months after she left the ball of contact in her court.

She also told her child about the orphan spirit and took responsibility for sometimes acting like an orphan instead of a parent. Her husband broke into tears when she shared this with him, telling her the story of his own brokenness in his family.

As her emotional pain dissolved so did an illness that she had for months. It just disappeared!

This is the reality of what takes place when we believe the Word of God: when we take him up on his invitation to truly live as his beloved child, rather than a pawn to accomplish his purposes. When we move into his home and eat at his banquet table (Psalm 123), we are truly free and it begins to affect everyone around us as well.