Many Christians today do not know that they are already oppressed by what is called and "orphan spirit."

Since sin has separated us from God, we have all at one time became spiritual orphans, taken away from and unable to know our true Father in heaven.

Thus, sin made us all orphans.

Thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, showing us who the Father really is. He said with His own lips,

"All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (Matthew 11:27)

And,

"He who has seen Me has seen the Father..." (see John 14:9)

Whoever knows the Lord Jesus Christ gets to know the Father, for He is the exact representation of the Father who, sadly, all the world cannot know without Jesus.

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works." (John 14:10)

Signs of an orphan spirit

Nevertheless, many of us don't know God despite having the word of God and the Holy Spirit available to us. Jesus came to show the Father, yet we fail to see God even as we look at Him, read about Him, and think of what He says and does.

Why is this? It's because of the orphan spirit.

To help us recognize if we're under the oppression of an orphan spirit, we will do well to check ourselves for these signs:

1) A difficulty to believe that God can love us as we are -- sinners and all

The Bible tells us that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Why was Christ sent?

It's because God loves us.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Friends, the truth is that God loved us even before we knew Him. He loved us even before we were born. The orphan spirit hinders us from believing that.

2) A mindset that thinks we must work to earn salvation and sonship

The Bible tells us that salvation is by grace and grace alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us,

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Many of us, even after years of becoming a Christian, still fail to realize that salvation and being made into a child of God is only by God's grace through Jesus Christ.

We can't earn God's forgiveness by atoning for our own sins. We only need to sincerely repent and ask for His forgiveness (see 1 John 1:9).

We can't make God love us and consider us as worthy of being called His own children. He already loved us and gave us the only way to become His children: Jesus Christ.

"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)

A religious salvation-and-sonship-by-works mentality is clearly from an orphan spirit.

3) When we feel ashamed to ask God for good things

Many of us, thinking that we are not worthy to be God's children, don't ask Him anything.

While it's both a fact and a truth that we are not worthy to be called God's children apart from Christ, it's a lie to believe that we shouldn't ask God for anything good.

Those who are used to receiving hand-me-downs and have never asked for anything in their lives, for example, will find it hard to believe that:

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (see 1 Corinthians 2:9)

The Lord Jesus Himself told us,

"...what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (see Matthew 7:9-11)

A poverty mindset that thinks he should not ask anything from God because he does not deserve it is from an orphan spirit.