“Celebrate yearly the 14th and 15th days of the month of Adar, as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy.” (Esther 9:21)
Purim celebrates God’s miraculous rescue of the Jewish people when an evil enemy attempted to annihilate us. Our heavenly Father and King was and is faithful, sovereign and victorious!
Normally our Purim message focuses on the parallels between the original story in the book of Esther and Israel’s current situation. You can read an article about the events of Purim and their relevance today, along with prayer points, on our website. If you’re not familiar with the story, please do look at it—because the message below builds on it. We share about the “personal Purim” God is supernaturally accomplishing in His children today. (Thank you to our dear friend in Israel, Yeshoshafat, to whom we owe many of these insights.)
Purim: Overcoming the Orphan Spirit
As sons and daughters of Father God, created in His image, you and I have been commissioned to exercise, in humble love, “dominion” over the earth and to “subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). This Genesis mandate represents God’s original design for humankind. Esther (Hadassah in Hebrew) serves as a vivid prototype of the godly exercise of dominion and subduing of the enemy in our personal lives.
Esther was an orphan, bereft of both mother and father at a very young age. But the queen did not harbor an “orphan spirit.” An orphan spirit can result from a real or perceived lack of godly and protective fathering or nurturative mothering. People with unhealed, parent-related wounds and orphan spirits continually strive to prove themselves—to God, to others or to themselves. They never quite feel they “belong.” They lack the security of deeply, experientially knowing that in Yeshua, they are accepted and beloved by the Father. Because their core identity is not yet fully in Him, they are not able to exercise the full authority He has given them to subdue the enemy’s work in their lives. This does not mean they don’t try; often they try very hard but struggle chronically with the same issues. There is hope for them at Purim!
Though Esther was orphaned circumstantially, she was not orphaned spiritually. Her Uncle Mordechai thoroughly embraced her into his household. He lovingly raised her as his own daughter and the apple of his eye, guarding, guiding and affirming her identity and her calling. He did not quit after she became queen. Continuing to watch over her by hanging around the royal castle, Mordecai never left or forsook Esther. Therefore, at the core of her being, she knew she was deeply loved. She knew how to submit to the authority of her adoptive father—and her heavenly Father. As a result, she also knew how to exercise rightful authority when the time came. When Esther was faced with the hardest decision of her l ife, she was ready. Called upon to put her life at risk (before King Ahaseurus) and directly confront the enemy (Haman), Esther put her trust in God and courageously rose to the occasion.
Unlike Esther, God’s children who still struggle with an orphan spirit find it difficult to relate properly to authority. Undercurrents of fear cause them either to cower in intimidation or rebel in anger, dishonor and pain. They are unable to exercise God-given authority in humble, yet firm, Messianic love. To varying degrees, many believers today are beset by an orphan spirit. But God is orchestrating circumstances designed to deliver us from it! He is incomparably kind and good. He knows how to uniquely heal and deliver each one of us—and loves us too much not to do it. In times ahead, we we will be called upon to move in Kingdom authority as never before.
The “Haman” in your personal life will be defeated as you experience and trust in your Father’s love at new levels. He has adopted you into His household of faith as a full son or daughter. God wants to use you in this fast-changing and very lost world in ways you may never have dreamed. This Purim, let the Father love on you powerfully. He may lavish His affections on you; He may convict you of sin; He knows how to love you best. Then surrender anew to His Kingship—and watch what happens in the coming season. Happy Purim!