Sips from the Fountain
Learning to drink from Jesus, the Fountain of Living Water, isn’t as hard as I thought, especially when you just start with sips, and those will change everything.
Sips from the Fountain
Deep Drink: From Pain to Peace
What if the path to your deepest healing and transformation lay in surrendering your most painful battles? Today I bring you, once again, the powerful flow of wisdom, life-changing truth, and blessing that is Susan Litchford. We'll explore a journey that begins with a heartfelt prayer and a powerful scripture from Isaiah, leading into a raw and honest recount of Susan’s struggle with illness that led to an encounter with God that left her forever marked. This episode invites you to recognize your own imperfections and the incredible potential for renewal through divine intervention.
As we move forward, we'll uncover the profound impact that forgiveness and gratitude have on personal healing. Hear Susan’ story of releasing judgments against God, others, and even my religious upbringing, which led to significant physical and spiritual breakthroughs. This journey brought unexpected opportunities, including an invitation to speak at a church, where teaching on forgiveness had a life-changing effect on many attendees. By seeing ourselves as vessels for the Holy Spirit and trusting in God's plan, we can find fulfillment and purpose even amidst life's challenges.
Finally, we focus on the importance of worship, praise, and understanding our true identity in Christ. By examining the biblical story of Jehoshaphat and the concept of spiritual warfare, we'll learn how to rely on God's strength in our battles. We'll also explore the difference between an orphan mindset and living as a son or daughter of God, using personal anecdotes to highlight the importance of self-acceptance and divine love. Join us as we uncover the keys to breaking unhealthy vows, finding forgiveness, and embracing a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father, concluding with a heartfelt prayer for those seeking liberation and new spiritual growth.
Hello, welcome to this time that we get to spend together. I'm so glad that you're here. I want to start today with a prayer asking the Lord to come and be with us, to open up the eyes of our understanding, that we might behold wondrous things out of his word. To come and release us from a spirit of fear and impart to us power, love and a sound mind. And Lord and Lord.
Susan Litchford:I'm reminded as well of the book of Isaiah, where the Lord said in the word of God, in the year of King Uzziah's death, isaiah said I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his road filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. A throne lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two Seraphim covered his face and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him, who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said woe is me, for I'm ruined because I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs, and he touched my mouth with it and said behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us? Their father, son and Holy Spirit. So they are an us. Then I said Isaiah said here am I send me. So we thank you, lord, that you are cleansing us from the things that we didn't even know were sin till now Unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, pride in looking down on someone else and saying I'll never do that, I'll never be that, I'll never go through that again, lord, just kicking you out of our environment and saying we're going to be in charge of our environment, and holding it against you too, judging you, god, holding it against you that bad times have come into our lives, giving you bad character which does not line up with the word of God. You have perfect character, there's no evil in you and we thank you, father, that you're not withholding anything from us, that you're holding all things for us in Jesus's name.
Susan Litchford:So let's begin with a story, and this is about me. And basically in probably about 1994, somewhere in there actually earlier than that, maybe 1990, I had become very ill. I was afflicted which turned out to be rheumatoid arthritis. I could not walk from my house to the mailbox. I could not lift a duster to dust. I could not have done that with my arm. There was no strength, only pain. I could not grip a glass from a shelf. I would lie on the couch at night in pure agony, to the point that it was difficult to remember Jesus's name. And I would just say to myself this will pass. Either I'll get better or I'll die, but it will pass. And that's how I was making it at that time. Well, it was very difficult for me to walk, but I somehow managed.
Susan Litchford:But I wanted to go to hear the Baltziglers out at Mount Gilead Baptist Church, and this was a family, last name Baltzigler. They sang and they had preaching and it was a very special, special thing I wanted to see. Well, because I was so afflicted it was difficult for me to be fast. I was very slow. So by the time we got to the church we were late. There were only two seats remaining and they were in the balcony. Jim looked at me and said, can you get up those steps? And I knew it would be a miracle. And I said, yes, can you get up those steps? And I knew it would be a miracle. And I said, yes, I'm going up those steps. So up the steps we went. It was difficult. And then those two seats were right in the middle of the front row of seats of the balcony. So we crawled over people and got into those two seats. We sat down and immediately I knew I could not stay there. You see, god, I had asked God to show me my sin. He had, and I actually could not have told you one sin I had.
Susan Litchford:I watched the Asbury revival of 1970. And those students and professors and men and women were going to the altar or getting behind the microphone and repenting of all kinds of sin. And I told the Lord well, if I was at that altar or behind that microphone, I can't think of one single sin I have. I knew the word of God. I knew there was no way. There was no way I didn't have sin, way, there was no way I didn't have sin. So I had said, lord, I am blind, I cannot see. Show me me. I mean, I couldn't, could not have been it. So I said, show me me.
Susan Litchford:And when he started showing me, I started taking communion every day. It was so painful, the bitterness and it hurt in my chest, it was so rough. So I was hurting on the inside and then I was hurting on the outside. I'm sitting in that seat in the balcony and the old Mr Baltsiegel with white hair had started preaching already and I'm thinking, looking down that aisle, thinking I can't get out of here, I can't get out down that aisle, thinking I can't get out of here, I can't get out, I'm trapped and I cannot stay. I am in way too much pain.
Susan Litchford:But I became aware of Mr Baltzeler and he was a little man and he was standing behind that pulpit and he took his hands and he went and the potter takes that clay and he throws it on the potter's wheel and he puts pressure on the outside, pressure on the outside, pressure on the outside. And he said then that potter takes his hand and he puts it down in the middle of that clay and he puts pressure on the inside, pressure on the outside, pressure on the inside, so he can make a pot that God could pour through. So it says in Isaiah 64, verse 8, but now, o Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay and thou our potter, and all of us are the work of thy hand. So, giving up my rights to be angry, bitter, have hate, unforgiveness, judgmentalism, have hate, unforgiveness, judgmentalism. Me giving up my rights to all of that, like Jesus forgave me of a massive debt, him showing me the significance of him, releasing me from the bitterness, and so forth, was one of the most pivotal things in my entire life. So I saw that he was making me a pot through whom he could pour. Says in the word of God that in whatever way we, or whatever we sow, will reap. Whatever we judge. Jesus said that in those ways we will be judged.
Susan Litchford:So I remember when the Lord it was later in my journey and I will say, as I turned from the sin in my life, my body actually responded. Now I still go to the doctor. I've been afflicted for 35 years and I still get help through health care. I love health care. It's wonderful, but nothing helped me until I began to repent of holding things against God, holding things against people in my life or making my life miserable. So my body began to respond, fast forward, oh, just a few years.
Susan Litchford:And during this journey I saw the Lord, showed me that I had judged my Methodist roots. I grew up a Methodist. My mother was an organist in the church. I would think somehow I got a message in that little church that if you had sin in your life and you died, you'd go to hell. So every night I would repent of every sin I could think of. And I remember on several occasions waking up in the morning as a child and thinking I forgot to pray and ask God to forgive me for my sins and if I died last night I would have gone to hell. Well, I know that's not true, that once we become a child of God, we don't just stop being a child of God. We're always his child. He doesn't abort us. No, he doesn't. So there were things like that. I don't know that if it was my church, or and there was a lot of screaming and yelling from the pulpit in my church. So I judged my Methodist roots, the roots that God gave me.
Susan Litchford:And I said, lord, I judged my upbringing in my Methodist church in little teeny town in North Carolina compared against the foundational religion and exposure to God that you gave me. I take the judgment that you couldn't get saved or that you weren't taught right or it was very legalistic and religious. I think I was religious. I take all those judgments to the cross and I proclaim them dead religious. I take all those judgments to the cross and I proclaim them dead and I forgive myself for being so rude, crude and unattractive. And, lord, I thank you for my religious upbringing. I thank you for it. Lord, I thank you. Well, within seven days I am so serious I got a call from the director of the first United Methodist Church in our town and she said Susan, I'd like to ask you to come and speak to our ladies Sunday school on Sunday morning, one Sunday morning.
Susan Litchford:And so I said, sure, I'd be glad to. Well, what had happened? I had stopped judging the Methodist church. Now God can use me at the Methodist church, and he wanted to prove it. He wanted to show me within seven days. He had that director call me.
Susan Litchford:I showed up at that church on a Sunday morning, as scheduled. It was a low hanging cloud day. The clouds were so low and it was rainy and cold and I remember looking up at the spire on that church and it went so high. It went up above the clouds and I said, oh, I put my head on the steering wheel and I said what have I done? I was so filled with remorse over having said yes and the Lord spoke to me and he said Susan, all I need in the front of that room is a tube. So I set up and I went oh well, I can be a tube. And I picked up my books and my little handouts and things and I went right in that class and I taught on forgiving. I told him about how I judged my dad and held it against him for traveling and how that formed my picture of God, that he was basically distant, on the road gone. You know, it's so interesting that the Lord showed me I was a pot and a tube.
Susan Litchford:That pretty much says I'm nothing without the Holy Spirit who fills me up and pours out of me and you're the same. And so when wonderful things happen in my environment because the Holy Spirit gurgles and bubbles up out of this old brain. It doesn't give me significance, it doesn't tell me I'm great. I don't take that little event and put it in my pocket and go. That makes me important. That makes me significant because God spoke to me and that means I'm in, I'm in, you are in, you are in, I'm in, you are in, you are in. Our meaning and significance has nothing to do with what we do. It is our essence, it's who we are.
Susan Litchford:So I went in and I began to teach on forgiveness. Well, there were about five ladies sitting over here. They were mad as a hornet Lordy If they could have run me out of there, they would have. But the whole rest of the 25 ladies crying, dabbing their noses, blowing their noses, and they prayed out loud with me to forgive whoever. God showed them that. They had their hands around that person's throat, saying pay me what you owe me. You could have done me better than this when I was growing up, or when I was in the workplace, or when I was married to you or whatever it is place, or when I was married to you or whatever it is. So God could use me when I quit being God and judge and jury and jailer regarding my Methodist roots. So, having said that, we're the potter, we're the clay, he's the potter. And I also wanted to mention that one of the things that I saw when I was praying with somebody one time was how in her world, in her environment, all of these circumstances were happening and they were not good and she was miserable and she just couldn't believe God didn't care about her and he cared about everybody else. He cared about them and them and them. She didn't realize.
Susan Litchford:In every life, life, trouble comes and we decide what we're going to do. With trouble, the Lord says to say Lord, I don't understand this, but I don't have to. What's my next step? What do you want me to do?
Susan Litchford:Disappointment is one of the three tactics of Satan, the first one being or three of the tactics, the first one being bitterness. The second one, jealousy. Everybody else has got this and that, and the other, I don't Jealousy. And then disappointment. And disappointment's looking off, just rehashing the past. Well, if I'd never done that and I can't believe I made that decision and that would have turned out this way, that would have turned out that way had I done something differently or they'd done something differently. That's disappointment. We don't do that.
Susan Litchford:What we say is is this is happening and why? Me knowing why doesn't make any difference. I don't know if it's Satan or generational sin and curses I don't know what it is or that guy's bad day. I'm sure a lot of people thought that about Hitler. So all that to say? What I say is Lord, what is my next step? This is going on. Okay, what now? What do I do? What do I say? And then we don't do anything. We don't say anything until he gives it to us. So that's disappointment. So what I saw was circumstances were coming against her and then she was letting those circumstances tell her who God is. And that is one way to process circumstances in our lives.
Susan Litchford:But what God's plan for us is that we know God, our father. We know him as our father. He is not like an earthly man. He's never cruel, he's always loving us, he's always ready to hug us and hold us and heal us Always. He doesn't hurt us, he never hurts us. So he's our father and we get to know him, we get to be with him, we thank him. You recall from Romans 1, I think it's about 21, 19, 20, 21, right in there that the importance of a thankful heart. In fact, in Psalm 100, it says that we enter into his gates with thanksgiving and move on into his courts with praise. That's the way it works.
Susan Litchford:In 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, what we see there is Jehoshaphat, who was the king of Judah. The Ammonites and Amalekites were coming up against him and he prayed, and one of Jehoshaphat, I believe, is the one that got a word from the Lord that said well, actually, jehoshaphat went down on his bound and put his face on the ground and cried out to God. And so Jehaziel got a word and prayer and basically said that the worship, the musicians, the worshipers, the musicians were to put on holy attire and go out ahead of the army I said ahead of the army their weapons were their instruments, their praise. And then it goes on to tell about how the enemy was routed. But those musicians, they didn't have a sword or anything. Their sword was their worship, their praise. And that is why I gave you that. I mentioned the armor of God and we want to pray on the armor of God every day.
Susan Litchford:Ephesians, chapter six, verses 10 to the end, ephesians six. So that's the armor of God. So I know God, I know him, and then I look at my circumstances through my father's eyes like this so my circumstances don't dominate me and they don't terminate me. I've got father's eyes about it and they don't terminate me. I've got Father's eyes about it. And even in Ephesians 6, where it mentions the armor of God, the last piece of armor is the sword of the spirit and prayer. Well, the word for it says the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God and prayer. The Greek word for word of God is rhema, r-h-e-m-a, and the rhema word is that word of God that we call forth in time of need. I know the rhema word, I know that this hard thing is coming against me and I'm going to go out with worship and praise ahead of my battling because of 2 Chronicles, 20 and other places. So we fill ourselves up with the word of God, the truth of God, and that can be like memorizing scriptures, reading scriptures, listening to scriptures. These are the things that we do.
Susan Litchford:So another thing that I wanted to bring up here is how we are acclimated to God. We're not acclimated to people. People are not going to give me that which only God can give, and what we call this is pulling on others to meet my needs, and so we'll often find that there will be gaps in our younger days, growing up, and then as adults, those gaps were never filled. I know of one man whose dad abandoned them and the mother was incredibly abusive Actually, this is more than one story and the mother was so abusive Actually this is more than one story and the mother was so abusive and I knew when that mother died that he would have just a breakdown because now he would never be able to get from her the things that she had never given him.
Susan Litchford:But we will also pull on people in our world to get those unmet needs met, and one example was a pastor's wife with whom I prayed many, many years ago, and she said that her husband would come in for work and he would say hello and call out her name and he'd say I love you, I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, hello, and call out her name and he'd say I love you, I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love you. And she said, susan, I just wanted to turn around and look at him and go well, I love you too. She said I just couldn't stand it and you would think, whoo, this girl's got a problem. Nope, she didn't have a problem.
Susan Litchford:This man, young man, had never wanted to be a pastor. He wanted to do other kind of work. But he became a pastor in order to get his dad's approval. A pastor in order to get his dad's approval. And guess what his dad had never said to him in his whole decades of life? I love you Never. So he was saying I love you to his wife, so that she would what? Turn around and say, well, I love you too, and meet his unmet need. So he was pulling on her to meet his unmet need. This did not flow out of a fountain of love and giving and kindness and joy and this was not intended to bless her. This was intended to get his needs met.
Susan Litchford:I know of another situation where the husband would walk in and she would be doing something at the table and he would wrap his arms around her and kiss her and say I love you so much and we are so lucky to have you as a mother in this home and the children are. I'm so can't believe I get to have you as a mother in this home and the children are, uh, I'm so can't believe I get to have you as my wife. And she said, susan, I want to take his hands and say get your hands off of me. Well, when he was growing up, he never had words of affirmation, he never had meaningful touch, he had never been told how valuable he was. So he was going to say this to her so that she would turn around and do what, say how valuable he was and how they were so fortunate to have him as the husband in the family and how he was such a great provider and then give him hugs and kisses. He was such a great provider and then give him hugs and kisses. But he was pulling on her, pulling, pulling to get his needs met.
Susan Litchford:And I know, for me I didn't have an active, involved dad, so all those things that dads do for their little girls didn't happen in my life for their little girls didn't happen in my life. So in dating and in relationships I was always looking for that person who could meet my unmet needs. I didn't know it, but once Jesus met my needs, once I let go and received from him to say that I was significant, that I was a beautiful girl, that he loved me. Once that happened then when my husband received Christ as his Savior. When that happened and he became very, very nice to me, well, it wasn't filling an unmet need. It became like teamwork and partnership and camaraderie and walking life together, rather than me pulling on him to meet my unmet needs, to meet my unmet needs. So one of the things that to consider in this is that, for anyone who is thinking about what does that mean? About? Because I said I gave my life to the Lord and I gave over more and more as I've grown older, but our sin separated us from God.
Susan Litchford:In the Garden of Eden, adam and Eve walked with God and talked with him. Then, when she ate the apple, they didn't get to do that anymore. In fact, he got them out of the Garden of Eden because if they ate from the tree of life, they would have lived forever in sin, and he knew he could send his son to die for their sins if he could get them out of the garden, away from that tree, because they had eaten the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So they switched believing God to believing Satan. They switched masters. They switched believing God to believing Satan. They switched masters. They switched languages. They spoke love with God. Now with Satan, they speak fear and punishment. But now we can come to God because Jesus lived a sinless life.
Susan Litchford:Death is required for a sinful life, but Jesus took our sin upon himself and he died for it on the cross. But he paid that debt we could never pay. He forgave us a debt we could never pay, as he told in the parable of the unforgiving servant, the last half of Matthew, chapter 18. And then he was raised from the dead, he well, he descended into hell and he overcame hell. Then he overcame death when he appeared back on earth and then he ascended into heaven and took his place at the right hand of God. So when I receive Christ, I am born again into a brand new family. God is my father, jesus is my brother or my joint heir. Let's put it that way. Jesus is my brother or my joint heir. Let's put it that way. Jesus is my joint heir. And the Holy Spirit fills me up to teach me, to guide me, to lead me forward in my new born again life. So we are no longer orphans, but now we are sons of God. And I want to point out something.
Susan Litchford:When God told Abraham in the book of Genesis that he was going to have a son. Abraham indeed finally had one at the age of 100 years old, when Isaac, his son was 25 and now Abraham's 125. God told Abraham I want you to sacrifice your son Isaac. So they took camels and servants and so forth and went to this mountain, and I don't know if they took one servant or a bunch, I can't remember, but anyway they go to the mountain where the sacrifice is to occur and the servants were told stay at the bottom of the mountain. We're told, stay at the bottom of the mountain, but the son and the father and the sons carrying the wood for the sacrifice on his back, they go up that mountain. Now, of course we know that as Abraham was getting ready to sacrifice his son Isaac and I don't know what Abraham was thinking I'm kind of thinking God had promised him this son, so he knew if he stabbed him God would raise him from the dead. I mean, he just believed God and Hebrews said Abraham believed God and God counted it to him as righteousness. That was rhema word, word that was hidden in my heart for a time like this. So anyway, I want you to pay attention to the fact that the servant stayed at the foot of the mountain. The son went up the mountain with the father.
Susan Litchford:So God, the father, is who we are being called to know. We had an earthly father. They were to be pictures of God to us, but often because of their own woundedness, their own disturbing lives, the fact that they were shut down, they were not able to do it. But God is different and we want to know God. Now, a couple of books that I would suggest to you on that journey of knowing God Forgiveness by Rodney Hogue, h-o-g-u-e forgiveness. Another one is experiencing the father's embrace by Jack Frost. Yes, his mother named him Jack Frost, but experiencing the father's embrace by Jack Frost. And then the other one, by Jack Frost, is From Slavery to Sonship, by Jack Frost. Um, so these are things to help us see that we're no longer orphans but now sons and daughters of God. I'll tell you one more, and that is the supernatural ways of royalty by Chris Vallotton, and there are many more that show us what our father actually really is like. You know, I want to mention that Back in the early 90s I believe it was I heard a preacher.
Susan Litchford:I think he was from Uganda, but this preacher was sharing about how a woman in his congregation and I have to think somebody was sharing about this preacher and the lady in his congregation, about this preacher and the lady in his congregation. She was praying and then all of a sudden she became aware that in the room, jesus was standing right there and he was staring intently behind her. And when she turned and looked, there was a window behind her that he was gazing out of, and what she saw outside that window was a field with flowers and butterflies and trees in the background, and she was kind of on a hillside and she had on a white dress and it was soiled, wasn't a clean white dress soiled? And so the lady turned back and looked at Jesus and when she did, he's still gazing intently out those windows, and what she saw, what he said was my passion is just about to overtake my patience. There you go. So, father, god and the Lord Jesus Christ gave us the Holy Spirit to wake us up and to let old things pass away. Behold all things become new. That's rhema. It's the word of God I stored in my heart. So what I want to say is we're going to pray a prayer in a moment, but Jack Frost in one of those books he does contrast orphans and orphan versus sonship, and one of the things he says is that an orphan, that his image of God is, sees God as master.
Susan Litchford:The son or daughter sees God as a loving father. Regarding dependency, the orphan is independent and self-reliant. The weak don't make it. The strong make it, and I'm strong, that's what I used to say. Strong, make it and I'm strong, that's what I used to say. The son or daughter is interdependent and acknowledges their need.
Susan Litchford:Regarding theology, the orphan lives by the love of law. The son or daughter lives by the law of love. Regarding security, the orphan is insecure and lacks peace, whereas the son and daughter are totally in rest and peace. Regarding need for approval, the orphan strives for the praise, approval and acceptance of man, whereas the son and daughter know they're totally accepted in God's love and justified by grace. The motive for servant? For an orphan, a need for personal achievement as you seek to impress God and others, or no motivation to serve at all. The son or daughter lives in service that is motivated by deep gratitude, thankfulness for being unconditionally loved and accepted by God. The orphan the motive behind their Christian disciplines are to duty and earning God's favor or no motivation at all, whereas the son and daughter the motive behind their Christian disciplines which would be reading the word, praying, doing worship songs, reading some good books that people have shared, that their motives are pleasure and delight. Their motive for purity the orphan must be holy to have God's favor, thus increasing a sense of shame and guilt. However, the son and daughter want to be holy. They don't want anything to hinder intimate relationship with God, their self-image.
Susan Litchford:The orphan lives in self-rejection from comparing yourself to others, whereas the son and daughter are positive and affirmed because you know you have such value to God. The source of comfort for an orphan, they seek comfort in counterfeit affections, addictions, compulsions, escapism, busyness, hyper-religious activity. But for the son, seeks times of quietness and solitude to rest in the father's presence and love presence and love. Regarding peer relationships, the orphan is in competition, rivalry, jealousy toward others' successes and position, whereas the son or daughter walks in humility and unity. As you value others and are able to rejoice in their blessings and their successes, are you getting it? Handling others' faults?
Susan Litchford:The orphan walks in accusation and exposure in order to make yourself look good by making others look bad. This is very common in this day and age, now the son or daughter of the Lord that their heart love covers as you seek to restore others in a spirit of love and gentleness. Their view of authority the orphan sees authority as a source of pain, distrustful toward them and lack a heart attitude of submission. But regarding authority, the son and daughter are respectful, honoring. You see them as ministers of God for good in your life. Regarding view of admonition Now, admonition is where somebody gives you correction. The orphan has difficulty receiving admonition. You must be right so you can easily get your feelings hurt and close your spirit to discipline. But the son or daughter, their heart is seeing. They see the receiving of admonition as a blessing and need in your life so that your faults and weaknesses are exposed and put to death.
Susan Litchford:Regarding the expression of love the orphan is guarded and conditional, based upon others' performance as you seek to get your own needs met. However, the heart of a son or daughter, open, patient and affectionate as you lay down your life and agendas, as you lay them down in order to meet the needs of others. Regarding a sense of God's presence presence with the orphan it's conditional and distant. With the son and daughter it's close and intimate Condition. The orphan is in bondage. The son and daughter are experiencing liberty. Regarding position, the orphan feels like a servant and a slave, whereas the son and daughter feel like a son and a daughter. Regarding vision, the orphan has spiritual ambition, the earnest desire for some spiritual achievement and distinction and the willingness to strive for it, a desire to be seen and counted among the mature. However, that's not the heart of the son or the daughter. Their vision is to daily experience the father's unconditional love and acceptance and then be sent as a representative of his love to family and others, be sent as a representative of his love to family and others. The orphan fights for what you can get regarding your future. The heart of a son and daughter, the sonship, daughtership, releases your inheritance. So these are, these are the difference in the orphan and the son.
Susan Litchford:So I want to pray for us right now. There are many other things we can look at, but I think we're going to pray First of all for those of you who have not received Christ as your Savior, as your Lord, letting him be your authority and stepping on into daughter, being a daughter or son. Let's pray like this Lord. I do choose in Jesus name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, to receive your death on that cross for my sin. I acknowledge that I was born a sinner, but now I acknowledge I desire to be born again into the kingdom of God. So your death on that cross was sufficient for my sin and your blood, shed blood and broken body paid the price for my sin and I receive it. And not only do I receive my salvation, I also make you Lord of my life. I'm tired of walking as an orphan and I want to understand what it means to be your son or daughter and Lord, I make you my Lord, I'm all yours and you're all mine, forever and ever. In Jesus's name.
Susan Litchford:Now I'd like to pray regarding the pictures of love. So, lord, also, I see that I've had distorted pictures of love of others, that I have been pulling on others to meet my needs or to come and give me the things where I'm deficient, because I never received them as a child. I misunderstood it as a child. Child. I misunderstood it as a child.
Susan Litchford:Right now, in Jesus name, I take my pictures of love, that I need to be told how great I am, or hugged or I have to perform in order to be accepted and loved, that I take my pictures of love, that I'll never be good enough. I'm not good enough. I'll never be good enough. I'm not good enough. Everybody else gets to be in the family of God, not me. I take and that people. I'm looking around for the perfect man or the perfect woman who is going to make me happy and give me everything I never got.
Susan Litchford:I take that to the cross and proclaim it dead. I let it go and I renounce a vow that I'm going to get my needs met. I'm never marrying a man like my dad or a woman like my mother. I renounce those vows in Jesus name, and so I just pray over you that those vows are broken. You no longer have to remember those vows in your body, soul and spirit, your mind, will or your emotions, and I call you forth to your DNA, your birth in time and space that only you occupy. Not only that, I declare that, all these false pictures of love and your confessions that you are forgiven. You didn't know any better, but you did today, and so you repented and you are forgiven in Jesus's name. So, oh, there's so much more, but we're going to stop there today and I'm going to bless you in every way as you absorb these thoughts, as you order your books and you continue your journey. God bless you. Much love to you and remember your father is a good, good father.