So Much More: Moving Beyond Kingdom Principles to Kingdom Power (19 page)

Why is this so important for us to understand? Because if we view ourselves as servants, we will only relate to the King as a servant would relate to the King, with fear and trembling. We won’t ask for much. We won’t expect much, because we think we are simply lucky to be in the palace at all. We will dream but we won’t ask because servants don’t do that.

When I was a teenager and I wanted to borrow the family car or I wanted to have some money to go out with my friends, I had no problem asking my father. I didn’t always get the car and I didn’t always get the money, but I wasn’t afraid to ask because I was a son. I had my father’s name, and I had no problem asking my father to bless me with whatever I needed. Now let me tell you what I never did. I never went to my friend’s dad and asked for the keys to his car or money from his wallet, because in his family I was not a son.

When we start talking about living in the kingdom, about taking power and authority over demons, about healing the sick and cleansing lepers and raising the dead, about expecting signs and wonders and miracles to follow our ministry, if we don’t see ourselves as sons and daughters of the King, then we won’t ask for much. We won’t expect much, and we won’t be much of a threat to Satan’s kingdom.

So many believers are facing an identity crisis. They are like this prodigal. They believe they have gone too far and done too much. They believe they have brought shame to the King’s name. They think, “I am just lucky to be forgiven at all, let alone be a son or daughter of the King. Just let me be a servant living in the servant’s quarters.”

The church today is full of people who operate like servants. Too many Christians see their identity more as orphans who have to earn favor with their Father than sons or daughters who already have everything that belongs to the Father. They don’t know who they are. The result is they spend time and energy trying to earn a position in the Father’s house that is already theirs.

But our King says, “No way! I don’t want any talk about being a servant. You are My precious son. You are my precious daughter. You are a prince or princess in My kingdom and I want you to rule and reign and take dominion over the enemy as you advance My kingdom.” When we get our arms around our identity, it changes everything about how we function in the kingdom.

Look at some verses that remind us we are sons and daughters and not slaves.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

—J
OHN
1:12

What great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

—1 J
OHN
3:1

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

—R
OMANS
8:15

Do you understand who you are? You and I are sons and daughters of the King. We have been adopted into His royal family and have been delegated His authority. That is not just a warm fuzzy. We have been given His name. He has put the robe upon our back. He has put the signet ring of authority on our finger. He has placed sandals on our feet.

Do you understand when He wakes up in the morning you are His happy thought? He doesn’t just love you; He
likes
you. Most of us have heard that He loves us. The problem is we don’t feel very loved. But the truth is, if you are born again into His kingdom, you have been adopted into His family and you are His son or daughter and everything He has belongs to you.

Our family has learned something about adoption by personal experience. About eleven years ago, God clearly revealed to us that we were called to adopt a little girl from China. We already had four biological sons but God laid it on my wife, Tricia’s, heart that we were to adopt a girl from China.

Even before our last two biological sons, Adam and Joshua, were born, Tricia started talking to me how she had read and heard stories about how people in China were only allowed to have one child and that most wanted that to be a boy because in their culture boys stayed home and took care of the parents in their old age. Thus, there were orphanages in China full of girls waiting for homes.

When she first brought up the idea I wasn’t too excited. After we had four sons when I really only wanted to have two, I was sure that I was not interested. But Tricia did not ever give up on the idea.

Then I did something very dangerous. I agreed to pray about it and ask God whether or not it was His will for us to adopt. What I really was doing was telling my wife I would agree to pray about it to just get her off my back! But I didn’t want to be disingenuous, so I really did pray.

Almost immediately we began to get “signs” indicating to us that perhaps this was something God was calling us to do. Shortly after I started praying about this, we received a chess set in the mail that we had ordered as a Christmas gift for our oldest son. It came from somewhere in Texas. When we opened the box, we discovered a beautiful Chinese fan lying on top of the chess set. There was no rhyme or reason as to why it was in there. Tricia said, “That is our sign!” I said, “No way! It’s just a coincidence.”

A few days later, Tricia was driving and praying about the whole idea of adoption when a song, “More Than Anything,” came on with these words: “God loves people more than anything.” And the last line of the song was, “More than anything he wants us to go.” She started crying, feeling that God was speaking to her about going to China and adopting a daughter. I again said, “That’s a coincidence.”

A couple of days later in her prayer time, Tricia prayed that God would give her a sign that very day of His will regarding the adoption. Immediately after she finished that prayer, she went to a friend’s house for breakfast. When she walked in and sat down at the kitchen table, she noticed her friend had a Scripture calendar. The heading for that day on the calendar in big bold letters was the word
ADOPTION
, and the verse below it was Romans 8:23: “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship.” She saw that and started laughing, feeling God had given her another sign. Of course, I again said it was just coincidence; but had to admit I was starting to wonder.

That night we went over to the home of some friends who had adopted from China just to investigate what was even involved in the process. As the discussion turned to the cost, I immediately responded, “Well, there’s our answer to prayer! There is no way we can afford that.” And then I said, “God would have to speak to me out of a burning bush to get me to do that.”

The next morning I was reading out of my
Daily Walk
devotional Bible. For some reason I was a day behind so I decided to catch up. The section I read was about how Moses had been adopted by Pharaoh’s family and that God had protected him because He had a plan for Moses. That seemed like another coincidence. I started thinking about that and praying. As I prayed I said, “God, you know we can’t afford this.” Then God pointed out something to me. The day before, kind of out of the blue, I had pulled into a car dealership and looked at trading my car in on a minivan. I found one I really liked and had taken it to show Tricia. She liked it and we agreed to try to work out a deal. The end result was I wanted to do it but she thought we would be raising our payment too much so we agreed to pray for a day about it. We had learned the night before from our friends that adopting from China would probably cost us around $10,000 after the tax credit for adoption. I had said that it wasn’t possible for us. But as I prayed that day God pointed out to me that the difference between what I owed on my car and what that minivan would cost was $10,000; I felt as though God was speaking to me saying, “You would spend $10,000 for a vehicle but not $10,000 to give a child a family?” I started to pay attention at that point.

The actual reading for that Saturday morning, the day after I had stated that God would have to speak to me from a burning bush was, as you’ve probably guessed, on Moses and the burning bush!

The next day, Sunday morning, I woke in the middle of the night and felt God was leading me to do a search on my computer Bible about how God feels about orphans. I found several verses about how He cares for them and how pure religion is to care for them (James 1:27).

The next night, Sunday night, I again woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep. I kept feeling like God was telling me to read this book that a guy in our church had given me a couple of weeks before that. I didn’t know anything about the book but I knew I didn’t feel like reading, so I messed around on the computer and watched some television; but I couldn’t stop thinking about the book. So finally about 4:00 a.m., I picked up the book. I had no idea what it was about but a friend had asked me to read it because he said this guy, Randy Alcorn, was his favorite author. The book was titled
Safely Home
.

As I began to read the book, I preceded to find out that it was a fictitious story based on true facts about Christians being persecuted in China; no other country, just China. I couldn’t believe it. I woke Tricia up and told her and she laughed.

Monday morning I went to the office at church and looked through our weekly communication cards that people turn in at services on Sunday. A woman I barely even know wrote on the back of her card, “Pastor, would you please preach a sermon sometime soon on how God cares for orphans.” I couldn’t believe it! No one has ever asked me to preach on orphans before.

I might be dumb but I’m not stupid! Some may wonder whether or not the King still speaks today, but I can assure you from this and other personal experiences He undoubtedly speaks in real and personal ways. Through this process God had convinced me of His heart for orphans and placed a love inside of me for a little girl I had not yet even met.

There was still much to be done. We had to locate an adoption agency, go through a home study, fill out all the dossier requirements, and wait for approval. All of this took about thirteen months, and then finally we were cleared to go adopt our daughter. We traveled to China and came home with our baby girl.

Through this process, I learned a couple of things about adoption. When a child is adopted, that child takes on the family name. When we are born again, when we place our faith in Jesus, God adopts us as sons and daughters into His family. One thing that means for us is that we take on His family name and people ought to see a family resemblance in us.

Since our daughter had been abandoned and was in an orphanage, she had no family name, no identity. When we adopted her into our family, we gave her our name. Her name at the orphanage in China was simply Yi Bei which literally meant “baby from Yi-Xing.” It was the village in which she had been born and abandoned. But when we adopted her, we gave her a new name. She is now Rachel Yi Bei Hudson. She took our family name.

When our King adopts us, He calls us His sons and daughters. We are princes and princesses in His kingdom and people ought to recognize us as children of the King.

Matthew 25:14–30 records a story Jesus told about a master who went away on a journey and entrusted some of his money to his servants to use. Some used the master’s money well and multiplied it. One buried it in the ground. When the master returned home, he had commended those who had used his money well with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant . . . .Enter into the joy of your master” (vv. 21, 23,
NAS
). Many of us quote those words as words we hope to hear from God one day. I sure want to hear those from God, but I’m really looking for more. I want to watch Him throw His arms around me and put the robe on my back and the ring on my finger and say, “Welcome home, son. You remind me a whole lot of your older brother Jesus.”

I heard a story of a middle-aged woman who had a serious heart attack and ended up in the hospital. She thought she was going to die so she asked the Lord, “Is it my time to go?” God said, “No. You have forty-three more years, eight more months, and ten more days to live.” She thought, “Wow! I have way more time left than I thought and I’m getting some mileage on me. Maybe I should get some work done while I’m here in the hospital.” So she got a tummy tuck, liposuction, a facelift, and even had her hair colored. It was one of those extreme makeovers. When she was released, she was crossing the street and got run over by a car and died. When she got to heaven she was confused; she asked God, “I thought You said I had forty-three more years left to live. Why didn’t You protect me?” God replied, “I didn’t recognize you!”

We have to ask ourselves if we are living up to the family name. Are we living as a son or daughter of the King? Would people see the resemblance between us and our older brother Jesus? Are we preaching the message He preached, the message of the kingdom, and doing the works He did, the ministry of the kingdom?

Another thing adoption does is give the adoptee an equal share in the family inheritance. When we adopted Rachel into our family, she received all the same benefits as our four biological sons. Her right to any inheritance will be the same as theirs because she is our child. When God adopted us into His family, He not only gave us the family name, He also included us in the family inheritance. We are joint heirs with Jesus. God has given us all the inheritance of His kingdom. All the riches of His kingdom are ours, both now and in the future. We are given full rights and privileges as sons and daughters of the King. As we talk about moving in power and authority; taking dominion over demons; destroying the works of the devil; moving in signs, wonders, and miracles; and healing the sick, raising the dead, and other acts that demonstrate the kingdom has come, what I find is that a lot of people are afraid to ask or to at least ask expectantly and not reluctantly because they don’t know who they are and they don’t know whose we are.