Tag: Fruits of the Spirit

Reflecting at Christmas

This is by far the busiest times of the year and it’s not because of all the shopping. Actually, according to Shopify, November is the busiest commercial month of the year. I think it’s all the end of year rush, last-minute work targets and personal goals we want to achieve all between now and the 31st 23:59 which gets us all worked up. And on top of all that we want to enjoy the festivities and rest. We will soon discover that we cannot rest if we don’t eliminate the stressors in our way. At this time though I would say that one of the most important and beneficial things you can do for yourself is to spend time in reflection. When I’m reflecting or journaling it is in these moments when I’m most aware of what God has been teaching me through the day or the year. We need to intentionally create moments where we have epiphanies based on what is happening. Significant changes do not happen with the turn of a calendar it happens when we allow our minds to receive and engage with what is happening in our environments. We are praying for God to change our stories in the new year or decade, but we must ask ourselves what God has been engraving on the tables of our hearts over the last year or even decade that we haven’t paid attention to.

Beyond the feelings and the goosebumps, we might get when we encounter God, there are notable changes that take place in less spectacular ways inside of us. Being a lot more reflective, has help me understand that I ought to look for the mundane. Looking for God in the silence and seemingly insignificant is how Elijah got his life back as he stood on the mountain of God at the brink of depression.

I’m thinking about my life and things I want to focus on improving and things that I should keep and be more consistent with. Reflectively, I can say that I have grown over the last year. One of the key areas I have experienced growth and change in is how I think about giving and receiving love. It’s important to regularly reflect on how we relate with people and things.

Earlier in the year I had a conversation with someone that helped bring the thought process to mind and I can say that on reflecting on my understanding of extending love and hearing what the other person had to say, I found myself thinking that maybe I didn’t quite have a full understanding of what love – the God kind of Love – is. Maybe my limited understanding of how vast God’s love is keeping me from receiving all the wonderful gifts of God’s awesome love. I’ve begun thinking of love in a different way which has led to changes in how I practice love. Nothing drastic or dramatic, but significant enough for me to desire and chase after more of God’s kind of love in my heart. It is the kind of love that chases you and woos you regardless of how you are or what you’ve done. That love, loves you just because and nothing you could do could make it grow or diminish. Can I be that way towards myself and the people in my life? Can I be more loving regardless of what if?

At this point, I can say that any work that you catch me doing is related to reflecting and checking that the plans I make for the coming year are in line with the work that He has already begun in me. After all, what good is a perfect gift if I don’t take out the time to enjoy and use it?

Christmas blessings!

You don’t need another Sacrifice!

In the old days people made blood sacrifices to atone for their sins and to gain the approval of God. New testament Christians do not have to do this anymore as Jesus came as the final and ultimate sacrifice, forever taken away any accusations that stand against us, paying the price for our penalty with His precious blood, once and for all.

However, we even with this awareness still seek out sacrifices that we can make to gain the approval of God, often because of the guilt of hidden sins or unintentional sins that exist in our lives. John the Baptist addresses this whilst preaching against the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had come to be baptised along with the multitude of others who also came to be baptised. John stops them and says to them,

Bring forth fruit that is consistent with repentance [let your lives prove your change of heart]. (Matthew 3:8 AMP)

His words come across as being quite harsh and uncalled for, seeing that they came for the exact same purpose everyone else came. They were not doing anything wrong so why scold them so heavily? The scolding came out of the fact that the religious leaders were simply coming to the baptism as another religious activity and by implication to win the favor of God by appearing righteous. Yet, they were not displaying a character that was consistent with repentance.

How many of us seek deliverance services, prophetic words and prayer meetings to deal with the issues in our lives and to cover the shame and guilt that eats at us inside? We often think that the solution is in coming to church regularly, participating in all the activities and shouting ‘Amen’ to every word will bring the transformation we want to see in our lives. We queue up for prayers and sign up for outreach events and volunteering, when what we really need to do is truly repent in our hearts and bear the fruits that are consistent with repentance.

All of these other things like attending prayer meetings and even seeking out deliverance and prophetic counsel are good and important. They certainly have their place. But more importantly, what God wants from us is that we bear the fruits of repentance. That means that when we repent we become aware of our position in God and walk in a way that reflects our spiritual statues. God gives us the position of sons and daughters, but it is our responsibility to represent and grow into this position as well as possible. He wants us to bear the fruits of the spirit, which is not measured by our ability to speak in tongues, but in our relationship and dealing with people.

For anything to bear fruit, it needs to be planted, watered, nurtured, the ground needs to be tilled and the plant needs to be watched and cared for as required. In other words, it takes active work and effort on our path to make sure we bear the fruits we are required to.

There is no amount of prophecy, word of knowledge, wisdom or deliverance that can make us bear the fruits of repentance that God requires to see in us to release the blessings that He has for us. A tree that is mature will bear the fruits of its type. An Apple tree that is mature will bear fruits every year according to its season. There are certain blessings God cannot give us not because, we aren’t delivered, or because we don’t participate in religious disciplines, but simply because we are not yet bearing fruits that are consistent with what we say. What we are declaring and confessing we are is not consistent with what we do and how we act towards others. God wants consistency from us.

Let us daily take sincere outward steps as signs of our inward repentance so that the fruits we bear can attract others to the knowledge of Christ. And faithful is He to keep us from falling or slipping in our demonstration of Him.