Leif is the Founder and President of Global Mission Awareness, as well as Leif Hetland Ministries. Through 28 years of ministry in 76 nations, Leif is known as an “Ambassador of Love” and is a spiritual father to an apostolic network of churches, ministries, and missionaries.

This beautifully written memoir-essay explores the realities of Papa God’s love for you, your identity as His beloved child and heir, and will transform your vision of yourself, others, and world events.

In that moment of creation Adam experienced the first of firsts:

The same thing can be said of Eve. She was created in like manner, however, the material used was more sophisticated. It was not mud, but a single rib coming from Adam, Yet the same process was followed. God took special care in creating Eve. The Bible also says God brought the first woman to her husband. So, just like Adam, the first face she saw, the first voice she heard, and the first emotion she felt was not of man, but of her loving Father. She was also created to have a face-to-face encounter with Father God.

I live my life for a face-to-face encounter with my Heavenly Father. When I become overwhelmed with the pressure and demands of life, I crawl up into my Father’s lap and gaze into His eyes. I live life by the principal that I am a little boy with a big Papa. We can live from one of two perspectives – big problems…little Papa, or big Papa…little problems.

The Father’s great love and embrace was the real cradle of civilization. It was in the hands of a loving Father that the first man and woman came forth.

This is a tremendous revelation! Regrettably, when we look around the world today, it is hard to believe the original spirit God gave to His children was a spirit of Sonship and not the spirit of an orphan. Watching the six o’clock news brings us another reality. Man’s appetite for violence, greed, and corruption makes us want to think the world is full of orphans. It seems this planet is full of children without fathers – abandoned, abused, maltreated, and forgotten. On top of that, many children are being trained by man-made religions, which are “fatherless” at the core. Orphan thinking is the reason there is a high crime rate and a psychosis that drives terrorists to blow up buildings and crash airplanes. It cannot be simply explained through the lack of parenting skills or the absence of biological fathers. It can only be understood through supernatural insight – that at the root of our problems is the orphan spirit.

The orphan spirit is a foul spirit that was introduced by Satan, the destroyer, murderer, and liar. The great irony of it all is that this same spirit was released to the world through one man, Adam, the Son of God (see Luke 3:37 and Romans 5:12). Let us go back to the Garden once again and see how the curse of the orphan spirit was brought down to earth.

Satan was there in the Garden watching through envious eyes. He was also absorbing everything through an insecure heart. It probably drove Satan mad that his former Lord and King wanted children. He, who was once the ultimate insider, had been booted out of heaven and was now an outsider looking in. The devil watched as the happy family took a stroll in the Garden of Eden. In the cool of the day they walked together – Father, son, and daughter. Satan thought he should have been invited to this party. Since he had not received a formal invitation, the only thing

Before Lucifer became Satan, he was an archangel who had the same level of importance as Gabriel, the messenger, and as Michael, the warrior. He was formerly known as Lucifer, the Angel of Light. He must have been very beautiful and full of wisdom because light signifies not only visual delight, but also symbolizes truth. Unfortunately, Lucifer thought he could be like God.

His splendor and great knowledge corrupted him and deluded him into thinking that he, and a third of heaven’s angels, could defeat the forces of God. Simply put, pride came before the great fall. Lucifer said, “I will ascend to the great heights and wrest authority and dominion from the Almighty.”

The following sections will help explain how Satan defiled himself in the Presence of God (see Isaiah 14:13-14).

Self-Will. Lucifer said, “I will ascend to heaven.” A self- centered mind-set was fully displayed here, and it is a spirit familiar to many of us. It is interesting to note that even children have this tendency – to do whatever they want to do, not considering whether it is, indeed, the will of their Father. They have no time to find out if their ambitions will bring real happiness or deep sorrow. The devil became the devil because he was headstrong and did not care what the Father had to say about his plans and activities.

For the devil, the most important thing is “self”, nothing else matters. Contrast this to the example of Jesus, who was always in the attitude of prayer. He spent time on his knees and did not make any major decision without first consulting the will of His Father. This is because Jesus had the heart of a Son, and it was always aligned with His Father in heaven. The orphan spirit, on the other hand, sets itself against the Father’s love.

Self-Exaltation. Lucifer said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” The devil wanted to be higher than God. This is in direct opposition to the spirit of Jesus, who loved nothing more than to come under submission to the will of the Father. Jesus was willing to submit even to the point of death. The devil, on the other hand, believed it was no longer necessary to follow God. To make sure his message was loud and clear, he decided to overthrow the Lord’s kingdom. Therefore, instead of working in submission to the Father, the Father would be in submission to Lucifer.

Self-Enthronement. Lucifer said, “I will sit on the mount of the congregation.” God wants to be Lord over our lives because He knows He is the only one who can do it righteously. But the orphan mind has a different value system and insists it can do a much better job. When the children of Adam – carrying the orphan spirit – were scattered all over the planet, they desired to build their own kingdoms and their own systems of governance, without considering if they were in alignment with their Father in heaven. When Jesus came to earth, the devil brought Him to a high peak and showed Him the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Satan said he would give all of those kingdoms to Jesus on the condition that the Son of God would bow down and worship him. However, Jesus, knowing what the serpent was up to, said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:10, NIV)

Self-Deification. Finally, Lucifer said, “I will be like the Most High.” This is the highest form of self-glorification. This is the attitude that fuels Satan’s rebellion against the Almighty. Again, this is in direct contrast to the attitude of the Son of the Living God. The Father was pleased with His Son because, although Jesus possessed power and glory, He was willing to be under His Father’s authority. The following is an expression of the Father’s heart towards His Son and our attitude should be the same as that of Christ:

Satan did not have the same mind-set as Jesus. Satan wanted to be equal with God and resented the idea of serving the King. Therefore, instead of being obedient, he decided to start an uprising. Unfortunately for Lucifer, he was dead wrong. When the Lord’s former chief minister, worship leader, and anointed cherub, who walked among the fiery stones in the sacred realms of God, fell from heaven, it was a great fall (see Ezekiel 28:14).

When the dust of war settled, a terrible sight was revealed. There, in the center of the battlefield, stood a dark, brooding army. Their leader was defiant even in defeat. From that day forward, Lucifer was given a new name and would be known as Satan, the destroyer, accuser, and slanderer. He was also kicked out of heaven, for he had made his spirit so repugnant he could never be reconciled to his Maker. He would become the dragon who swore enmity against God and against everything He loves. Before Satan fell like lightning from heaven, he came face-to-face with the LORD, and he made a chilling promise that he would devote his remaining time on earth to steal, kill, and destroy.

His heart was filled with all kinds of wickedness and all his thoughts were evil; he was the ultimate adversary to a God who is full of goodness, kindness, mercy, and truth. Further more, when Satan decided to live outside God’s realm and believed that he could thrive independently of God’s love and sustenance, he became an orphan. By doing so, he also released the orphan spirit to the whole world.

We have been taught that God loves us. We also know that Jesus cares for us. Somehow, the way we understood it was that if we had a problem, we could go to Jesus, and Jesus would go to Daddy God and talk to Him about it. Jesus would make it okay. We also knew that when we came to the cross, we received forgiveness for our sins. We received healing. We received deliverance. But we have never realized the ultimate goal of Christ was to take us from the cross to our home with the Father. Our mind could never see it that way because we had no idea that before the Fall of Man, we were all part of God’s family. We are God’s children.

God opened the eyes of Luke and brought him to the Book of Beginnings where he saw Adam walking with God as a son (see Luke 3:8). When God created Eve, we were given undeniable proof that, in the very beginning, the Father wanted family – sons and daughters who would eventually give birth to future generations of godly human beings made in the image of God. They would be like their Father in heaven and rule their respective domains (see Genesis 1:28). He also gave them a home.

We have a Father in heaven whose chief joy is to give us love, peace, joy, security, and abundance. We can only find these things in a home. Therefore, the Garden of Eden was the first home created for man and woman. It was the most special place ever created, a place where heaven intersects with earth. The garden was the home that He had created for His first son and daughter. It was a perfect place where there was love, peace, and abundance. Food was everywhere, and no one had to labor in order to eat. It was a blessed place, a mini-version of heaven. Yet, the only reason it was a home was because there was a connection between the Father and His children. Without the Father’s love, the Garden of Eden would have been just an ordinary place.

Home is where the presence of our Father is. As long as Adam and Eve stayed connected, everything was perfect. But something terrible happened. The Devil came in to disrupt the bond between Father, son, and daughter. The Devil, the first liberal theologian said, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1, NIV) Adam and Eve doubted the goodness of God and disobeyed His command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Afterwards, they felt fear and shame. Finally, they had to leave their home in the same way Lucifer had to leave his original home in heaven.

We can see here that the orphan spirit was released and activated after the loss of a home. A home is not only a physical structure, but a place where there is the assurance of unconditional love. Thus, in a real home, there is warmth, security, provision, guidance, joy, peace, and abundant life. The person with an orphan spirit does not have access to these things. He lives life as if he has nowhere to go, as if he has no home.

It must also be made clear that the connection to the Father can be cut-off when we sin and when sin is committed against us. When I was twelve years old, an abuse took place in my life. I could not talk to anybody about it, so I started to hide and cover it up. Does this sound familiar? Adam and Eve hastily assembled a covering made of fig leaves because they were ashamed of their nakedness. I, too, felt ashamed and very insecure. This started my path to living the orphan life-style, doing things on my own and existing as if no one was there for me. The next five years of my life were spent in rebellion against my parents, the school, and other authority figures.

Those years were spent in the “pig pen” as I struggled to be free from addictions and other things. My parents sent me to a boarding school in Gjovik, Norway, but it did not take long before I was kicked out of that school. During that time, my name was in two national newspapers explaining that I had been forced to leave school because of drug abuse. There also followed a time when I lived in a park in Oslo, Norway – just like the prodigal son in the Bible. After that I decided to come home. When I came in through the door of my parent’s house, I was surprised to find that my fifteen-year-old brother had prepared a big cake for me, which said, “Welcome Home Leif”. Not only did I come home to my family and my parents, but it was also during this time I came home to Father God, as well.

Robert Robinson had been saved out of a tempestuous life of sin through George Whitfield’s ministry in England. Shortly after that, at the age of twenty-three, Robinson wrote the hymn, “Come, Thou Fount. Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing, Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise”. Sadly, Robinson wandered far from those streams and like the Prodigal Son, journeyed into the distant country of carnality. Until one day—he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman engrossed in her book. She ran across a verse she thought was beautiful and asked him what he thought of it. “Prone to wander— Lord, I feel it— Prone to leave the God I love”. Bursting into tears Robinson said, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the “streams of mercy” mentioned in his song still flowed. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched. Turning his “wandering heart” to the Lord, he was restored to full fellowship.

(Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories, p. 52 Contributed by: Ted Sutherland)

The orphan spirit cannot be cast out. It cannot be forced out of our systems. It can only be healed. Healing can only be found in our Father’s house. We need to learn to find our way home. Father is waiting there for us. Let us come home to Him and experience His love.

Take time to reflect on what the original atmosphere of our home was like in the Garden, a place of perfect peace, security, beauty, creativity and love.

Father, are there any areas in my life where I live outside that perfect place of peace, security, beauty, creativity, and love?

Father, are there any areas in my life where I reject or am uncomfortable with your love?

Father, from the very beginning your plan was for me to be your son/daughter. You are my place of perfect peace and love. I am completely safe and secure in your presence. Your presence is where I find and know who I am. I will rest in your arms my loving Father.