From: Compelled by Love by Heidi Baker

This is an excerpt from a book I am reading. I feel that I have to share it.

Spirit of Adoption

And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours." 
-Luke 15:31, NKJV

If we are childlike, we will know God as our Father and see Him as He is. I have a tradition in Mozambique; I never call our children's centers, like our center in Pemba that we call the Village of Joy, "orphanages," because the children are no longer orphans. We see them as ones who have been adopted by their Father in heaven.


Once while in a church in Canada, I was actually stuck to the floor for seven days and seven nights. During this time, Rolland read to me from the Book of Ephesians while God gave me a major revelation about sonship and told me to take in every dying child he placed before us.


Taking in thousands and thousands of orphaned and abandoned children has taught us so much about the nature of the Father heart of God. Just as the father promises in Luke 15, all that God has is ours for the receiving of our inheritance.


God has blessed us in the heavenly realm with every blessing of Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:4). We were chosen and handpicked and have full access to the heavenly realm because of the finished work of the cross. This is key for accessing the heavenly realms of faith.


Your Picture Is On God's Fridge

I do not think it was Arsenio's  purity of heart that made him so irresistible to God; it was his childlike faith. I believe he understands the spirit of adoption and seal of the Holy Spirit so he can run forward in faith to his Father in heaven with no fear of rejection. Arsenio is completely adored by us, he has been taken into our family, and he knows what it means to be adopted by his heavenly Father too.

It is an orphan spirit that causes people to shrink back, peer around the corners, and not believe that there is room enough on their Father God's lap. When we first take in children from the street, they are usually little bandits whose bodies are full of lice and scabies, and they are generally really rotten rascals. 

They are not nice, sweet little children! They are not cuddly little angels. But we welcome them with open arms into our villages. On the weekends, we have sleepovers with eight of our children who have been with us for years and eight of our new children. At first, the new ones are so timid they won't even eat anything from the fridge. They feel that they have to work for what they want-- or they have to steal it. The children who know who they are with us open the fridge and help themselves to everything!

The new children do not yet understand that they were chosen before the foundation of the world; they were predestined to be God's children. They do not yet understand His grace or know that they were adopted as sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will (Eph 1).

They are still afraid, and they often steal or think they must earn everything and strive for acceptance, They have to learn about adoption into God's family and then trust that they really are wanted. It is a delight to see when they really have a true experience of adoption. They truly do change and find joy! This can only happen as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

The spirit of adoption means we were hand chosen by our heavenly Father. With that choosing comes our rights as sons and daughters of our Father. Let me offer you an illustration. I have two children, Elisha and Crystalyn. I did not get to pick them; I gave birth to them, but I think they are absolutely awesome. I never say, "Hey, I wish you were more like... " No, they are flesh of my flesh and truly amazing people. They make my heart sing. But when we adopt children, we actually go out and look for them-- we choose them.

After fourteen years of ministering to children in the streets and villages of Mozambique, I am beginning to understand more about the spirit of adoption. God is looking for spiritual fathers and mothers who know who they are to Him, who will go into the darkness, look for lost children (spiritual orphans) of all ages, and bring them home to the Father's house.


Our attempts to minister to others may be feeble to some, but they are precious to God. We may minister like a three-year-old drawing their first picture, but we try as hard as we can, and with great joy we scribble our picture for God. We may mess it up or rip the page. But when God our Father looks at what we have done for Him, He says, "It's amazing; it's fabulous!" If God had a fridge in heaven, our pictures would be on it.


As the Father heals the abandoned and orphaned spirits of these children, they start realizing that the kingdom is theirs too. The children who once stole from us are now totally transformed and are leaders at the new children's villages. They no longer have to hide in the shadows and sneak around; their hearts have been made pure by God, and now they have seen His goodness.