By Ruxandra Ionce | @ruxandradoxiada | TRINICY.org THE ARTIST'S STATEMENTThe Father's instruction to His beloved children is for them to acquire the most important of all possessions: wisdom (Proverbs 4:5). It is to be obtained by all means and with any sacrifice required, for wisdom rewards us more than a thousandfold. Even though wisdom is always near and always inviting, it is never loud nor imposing, but awaits to be taken by those who value her purpose. It is wisdom that is promised to us in great abundance and without measure, as long as we are determined soldiers with minds set on our glorious duty and honor our Father's commands in full trust (James 1:5). Wisdom shows us how to live, how to understand, how to use the knowledge we gain, how to love and be patient, to abstain, to be abundant, and how to rejoice at all times.
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DEVOTIONAL SERIES: THE NINE-FLAVORED FRUITBut the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB) Paul tells us in Galatians chapter five that if we are walking in the Spirit we will be manifesting the fruit of the Holy Spirit who dwells within all those who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. It is not that we are called to “try harder” to produce this fruit in our lives. It is that we are to walk by faith in the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit and He will produce this fruit, supernaturally, in our lives. The nine characteristics of this fruit include the ‘flavor’ Love. All you need is Love, so say The Beatles, and every other love song, in their own way! Love is spoken of so often, and misunderstood and ignored so badly. The next time you tell someone or write on your Instagram or Facebook entry, “Love ya!,” “Love you!,” or “I love yooooou!,” ask yourself, “Do I?!” Depending on the version you use, it is mentioned in the Bible well over 300 times. To measure our understanding of, commitment to and whether Spirit-produced Love is present in our lives, let’s look at it in “3-D”! 1st “D” - DESIGN If you have ever attended a wedding, chances are you have heard someone read from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, “Love is patient, love is kind. It [Love] does not envy; it [Love] does not boast, it [Love] is not proud. It [Love] does not dishonor others; it [Love] does not self-seeking, it [Love] is not easily angered, it [Love] keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but [Love] rejoices with the truth. It [Love] always protects, [Love] always trusts, [Love] always hopes, [Love] always perseveres. Love never fails.” A challenge: First read this passage out loud with the word “Love” used where it ought to be in the text. Next read the passage with the word “Jesus” used where the word “Love” ought to appear. Then finally, read the passage with “your name” where the word “Love” ought to appear. How did you measure up?! 2nd “D” - DEFINITION My working definition of Love is that “Love is wanting God’s best for someone, expecting nothing in return, believing it will probably cost you something.” Love is not about you. It is about the one you choose to love. You can love your enemy this way. You can love your sibling or friend this way. You can love your sweetheart this way! 3rd “D” - DISTORTION Beware! There is much and there are many out there that would fool you into thinking that it is Love that they are peddling! To like someone is not necessarily to love them. You can like someone and not love them. You can love someone and not like them. They might not be likeable! You can want someone and not love them, either! Ultimately it is the example Christ showed us of how we are to love. “This is Love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10 Like, want, and trust are not unconditional. Love is. Suggested prayer: “Father, remind me today of how much you loved me by giving me Jesus. Help me to love someone like that, today! I pray in the lovely name of Jesus. Amen”
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB) Photo by Trang Doan One of the great misunderstandings concerning the Christian life is, if we are ‘good,’ then we will be ‘spiritual’ people and will please the God who seems never to be happy with us! True Christians are those who have appropriated, by faith, the substitutionary payment for sin Jesus Christ purchased for them by His death, burial, and resurrection. He never insisted we should attempt to keep the law, which we know to be futile. They often wonder that, if salvation has purchased for them a new life in Christ, then why does victory over sin seem so difficult, and actually impossible? “If only I were a good child, then my parents would love me.” So goes the backwards assumption that only leads to discouragement, a sense of despair, and to defection that leaves the Christian uttering the words of surrender to their spiritual mirage. “If the life of victory is always before me, but never attainable, then why bother?!” If we try to live by the letter of the law, we are doomed to die by it. The solution to this dilemma is very simple, but because this failed approach of merit is so ingrained into our view of life and living, it is not very easy. In Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia, an area located in modern day Turkey, in Chapter 5, he tells the believers there the formula for what he describes as our Walk in the Spirit. I include the text for verses 16-25 here, because it is the text that imparts truth, power, and the possibility of the victorious Christian life. I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. The formula for fullness in the Christian life is this: Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust, passion, and empty striving of the flesh. It does not say we must try to avoid and triumph over the flesh, and by that, enter into and enjoy the Spirit life. So many who read the words in verse 16, read it in reverse. They understand Paul to be saying that if we do not fulfill the passions of the flesh, then we will walk in the Spirit. No! Paul says the very opposite. He says if we walk, move, and have our lives in the very Spirit of God who indwells every believer from the moment of salvation, it is then that we can have freedom from the sin that so easily controls us. “God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” 2 Corinthians 3:5-6. If we try to live by the letter of the Law, we will fail and die by the law. If we choose to live by the Law of the Spirit, He will succeed and we will live truly spiritual lives. To refer to the child analogy, a child does not need to try to be good so that the parent will love him. When the parent loves the child well, the child’s passion and power come from that love, and the child will then be motivated and equipped to live a life that pleases their parent! It is not that the flesh is evil. It is neutral, yet tainted by the inherited sin nature that Adam passed down to all people...the Ultimate Pandemic! People like to be hopeful and magnanimous and say what is patently false, that man is “basically good.” No, man is basically a sinner and does not need to learn how to be selfish. No newborn child has to learn how to make themself the center of their universe. At salvation the sin nature is not eradicated, although it will be in the future. But for now, we should know that the power and sway of sin over the believer has been broken, as chains off of a prisoner who has been set free. He does not need to live like a prisoner any more. Once bound by shackles, he has been set free. The struggle is described in Galatians 5:17 where the Word says that the battle rages. However, the outcome has been won and the ultimate victory is sure. As it says in verse 25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” How did we receive eternal life and become born again by the Spirit at salvation? By faith (John 3:3-6)! How should we walk about and move and live in the Spirit? Also by faith! It is not by the keeping of the law that makes us spiritual. It is by realizing that we are spiritual creations and living by faith in the power of the Spirit who indwells every believer that we will experience and enjoy victory. In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul describes the Fruit of the Spirit. It is not that we have to strive to produce this fruit in our lives. It is that, as we walk by faith in the realm and power of the Holy Spirit of God who resides in us, that He will produce the evidence of His presence by displaying this ‘nine-flavored fruit.’ It is not Yin & Yang battling it out...it is not good versus evil that leads to the victory of the stronger entity...it is not ‘good’ spirit trying to beat ‘bad’ flesh...it is not even God wrestling with Satan! The battle has already been won. Live like it! We have been loved with an infinite love. Respond to it! We have been victorious, through Christ, over sin. Celebrate it! The Fruit of the Spirit is not something for us to strive for. Because of our salvation in Jesus Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is in fact the evidence that we have ceased from striving, and started truly living! “This I say then: Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
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