He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, [our] faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. - Isa 53:3 NKJV
Jesus had to be despised and rejected before He was promoted to the Father's right hand, making a spectacle of the enemy through the Cross. Jesus passed every test that was necessary for His ascension, and He did so without grumbling or complaining.
Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. - Col 2:15 Jesus took the victory over Satan, yet He told His disciples … that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. - Mark 8:31
When we pass a test that is meant to build our character, we make a spectacle of Satan just as Jesus did, only on a different level. When we refuse to be angry and sin, we refuse to hate, we choose to forgive and bless those who curse us, we win. When we do as Jesus commanded and love first, we disarm the principalities and powers that are working against our destiny, and other’s destiny’s God has given us. God provided all we would ever need by supplying us with His Spirit to dwell in us. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Phil 4:13 NIV
When we choose to walk by the Spirit, we will not allow the flesh to rule our responses when others treat us without respect or love. God’s Spirit has the opportunity to manifest fruit that goes against our human nature. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. - Gal 5:22-23
Why Was David So Important?
When David was chosen to be the king of Israel, he first had to go through some tests and trials. He gained a reputation as a man of war, a giant slayer, and a man after God’s own heart. Yet, he was despised and rejected by Saul who was a father figure to him, and his own men turned their backs on him. His wife Michal despised David (2 Sam 6) after he danced for the Lord in what she considered a dishonoring way.
David’s life was a mess. He had one son rape one of his daughters, another son killed the rapist and then tried to take his kingdom. David murdered, committed adultery, and had a few extra wives. In spite of all this, God kept His promises through David and his bloodline.
David was a man after God’s own heart, meaning he continually chased after the Lord through repentance and worship. David never threw away his relationship with God, though he often made some bad choices, even sinful ones, with his family and personal life. David always returned to God.
Promotion and victory came to David every time he stayed the course and passed the test of reproved character. This is not to say that he did not suffer the consequence of his sins, on the contrary, he even lost his son conceived out of adultery. Trials and tests will come, persecution will happen but God brings promotion.
A Heart After God’s Own
God desires our hearts, full of sin and sickness, grief and disappointments, God wants them anyway. God knows if we surrender our pain and rejection to Him there will be something good made from them. God takes our mourning and turns it into dancing (Ps 301), He takes our ashes and turns them into beauty, and our depression can be exchanged with a heart of worship (Isa 61). God always has a plan to pull us through.
To reject someone means to disapprove, repudiate, set aside, do away with, disregard, refuse, reject or despise them. Rejection hurts, and people act out when they are hurt. Some will become aggressive and attempt to reject another before they can be hurt. Others receive rejection as part of their identity and agree with those who hurt them, and still, others become very self-centered in an attempt to prove they are worthy of the attention of another. All of these reactions to rejection are unhealthy and demonstrate a soul in bondage.
There are numerous ways a wound of rejection can enter our lives as well as a spirit of rejection attach to us. When a spirit of rejection is manifesting, it will speak to us in such ways as to make us feel responsible for the way others treat us. Rejection will say, nobody loves us, not even God. It will try to convince you to run away and have no relationships with others and it may try to get you to do the opposite by getting you to cling to a person in an unhealthy way, trying to force them to love you.
Rejection enters through unwanted conception, being the wrong sex for our parents, any kind of birth defects that could lead to people picking on us or making us feel different, and peer rejection. Divorce, generational curses, being ignored, or growing up in a life of turbulence can result in rejection as well.
An example of rejection entering the womb may be seen by a baby’s behavior after it is born. If a child is born out of wedlock and considered an “accident” that baby could sense the mother and father’s emotions through their conversation even while in the womb. Much of the time when there is an unplanned pregnancy there is fear present; the unborn baby can sense fear as well. A child born under these circumstances may be difficult to sooth, sensitive and even have outbursts of anger. If you or someone you know has a child like this, and they were born under these circumstances then repentance, renouncing, and breaking curses can change the child’s behavior tremendously. After taking these three steps in prayer then pray the love of God to fill the child and heal any soul wounds that occurred because of the rejection.
The good news is that Jesus Christ died for the healing of our wounds, and rejection is one of the wounds. Cast your cares on the Lord and believe that He will heal you from this crippling root of rejection.
Let’s pray,
Heavenly Father, thank You for receiving me through the Spirit of adoption and making me a child instead of an orphan. I ask that You set me free from the pain of rejection and the spirits that are tormenting me through these wounds. I choose forgiveness and love. I forgive those who have rejected me, and I declare that nothing that has ever been done to me determines my identity. Thank You for making the crooked places straight in my life. In Jesus name, Amen