The Order of The Spirit That Frees Us

Today, I want to look at a scripture that a lot of people know and if you are new to your relationship and walk with Christ, then this is one that you will not only hear many times but is life changing when we understand the truth of it. It is in Galatians 5:22-23. The whole chapter is a full thought, a lesson that sculpts or shapes us, but I want to look at the two verses that are focused on the actual growth of our Spiritual relationship with Christ Jesus.

Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

The reality of this scripture amazes me, like my last entry, to take a moment and realize that the Lord put these "nuggets" of scripture in the order that He did for a reason. When we realize the purpose of a scripture and begin to learn it from that direction, we will not have to worry about memorization techniques or dreading to memorize. When we read the Word from the angle of learning to understand not only what it is saying, but the purpose of it; it completely changes the "light" in which we see each individual thought. 

Okay, let's look at Galatians 5: 22-23
The biggest yet set most simple point that God makes in this statement is, that we can not receive anything else from Him unless we accept the love that He has for us as His children. I know that I myself speak of His love often, and the truth and foundation of every single thing in our lives once we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior is this: EVERYTHING in our lives is based on the Love of Christ from here on out.  When we change the reason and the way we look at and interact with others because of Christ, nothing is ever the same; which is the point!

Let's look back at Galatians 5 again: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy.....
People will often say "I just want to be happy" the problem with that is that they are looking at the end result  It's kind of like looking at the end of a makeover and not the process.  Happiness is an end result of these 9 attributes of Christ, individually and collectively. Let's look further.

The Bible says that "The joy of the Lord is my strength". (Nehemiah 8:10) Can I tell you, that there is NO way that I can find joy in the Lord and it strengthen me if I have not yet understood or realized the depths of God's love for me.  It just doesn't make sense.  The same is with my relationship with my God given husband. If I do not know that he truly loves me, not only will I not be happy but I will never know joy or peace in that relationship..... Ever.  I must know that I know, that I know, that he Loves me the way he promised to love me, the day we married, or I will never have joy or peace.  It is no different with God.  God has given all for us, but until that is real and accepted in my life, I will not reap the benefits of that truth.  And I will be the one missing out.  This is not the quality of life that God has for us.  

So when we realize and let God's love begin to transform us; we will know joy and peace.  The next fruit is "longsuffering or Patience"   I have come to learn a truth that I never knew growing up in "church" most of my life.  God has a process, and if we try to skip areas or speed it up we find ourselves in a truck load of problems, and we either learn lessons the hard way or I have even witnessed people give up.  We do not have to ask God for patience when His truth and His process is in operation in our daily life.  We do not throw a truck load of problems in our children's lives and tell them to work through it.  No, we teach them step by step what to do so that they can do it for themselves in a healthy manner.  That is because Our Heavenly Father desires to do the same thing in our walk with HIM! Patience is not only a virtue, but it is learned and developed through learning the depths of God's love and purpose He has for our lives.

Okay, I pray that I have relayed God's heart in this, lets drive this home.  If we know God's love, joy and peace abides in us, and we learn to be patient as He is with us; Through this we develop the characteristics of kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. These characteristics of Christ sculpt who we are and self control is formed in us, and not in our own strength; but HIS.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I praise You today for the truth of the Fruit of Your Spirit becoming active and life changing in each of the lives that read this entry today.  I praise You for Your great plan in each one.  May we all come to know the truth of Your Love today in the name of Jesus. - Amen

It doesn't matter if you are a new christian or not.  God has so much for your life.  Seek Him and you will find Him !!

Blessings Friend Have a Great Day !

Its The Matter of The Heart

I know that it has been a while since the last entry, and I had completely different thoughts about what the next several entries would be about.  But in the midst of my busy days that I have had over the last few months, God has done some re-arranging of the subjects, titles and direction. Basically, He took some time to line things up the way He wants them. That is what will happen when we live our life for Christ, letting Him lead the way.  I used to always like the saying, "Make your plans with a pencil and give God the erase" but I learned that it is better to just give God the pencil and trust Him!

My thoughts today have been directed to matters of the Heart. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus taught us that the greatest Commandments where to 1 Love the Lord with all our heart, mind soul and strength and 2 Love our neighbor as our self.  Periodically, if we truly have a relationship with Father God, we must take a moral inventory of our actions and our motives.  It's all about matters of the heart.  The Bible says "Who can know such things?"  The answer is, the One who created us, is the only one who can truly understand.  We, ourselves, have to search these things out.

If we are completely honest with ourselves, we will realize that we will go through cycles in our life naturally.  We will not always "love" to be in the Presence of the Lord unless we cultivate that in our everyday lives.  It's a choice and it, at times, can be work.  When we set that passion for God on "Cruise", it will seem fine for a while.  But everyday that we cruise through our relationship with God, we come one day closer to the point that we may not love the way we should; or maybe we see that our motivation may have become a little dry.  Or maybe, our identity comes from what we do and not who we are doing it for.

Anytime that we find ourselves in this place, we realize that we no longer love others with pure motives, we may not be concerned for others as we should; maybe we have just stopped loving others outside of our inner circle, not really caring for others at all.  We can get to the place where we do not want to be concerned with others, tired of being our brother's keeper.  This my friend is a dangerous place to be.  If this sounds familiar to you, please do not leave this page without asking God to give you His love for others back to you.  Jesus said that this was one of the greatest commandments, for a purpose.  If we are not in a place spiritually to see others through God's eyes, then our purpose in the Kingdom and this life is officially going in a wrong direction, and at a definite crossroads.

Everything that we do,say and think should be founded on the love of Christ.  Without that, our selfish ways then begin to take over, and we go from someone else's needs being ahead of our own; to not caring about our "brother and sister" at all.  From "doing as unto others" to "I could completely care less"  That's a drastic change, isn't it?  This, at times is where we get weary in our "well doing" and we become "sick and tired of"______ You can fill in the blank.

So how do we not get to this point?  Galatians 6:9  says to " Be not weary in well doing, for you shall reap in due season if you faint not."  So how do we get out of that weary point? The point where loving others become a chore instead of a fulfilling part of our walk with Christ?
It is simple, yet takes determination to get started:

1 Become passionate about your relationship with the Heavenly Father who loves you. Ask Him to help give you His love for others again. We are supposed to ask. Matthew 21:22 says to ask in faith believing and you shall receive.
2 Fill yourself with Him and His word daily. Spend time being honest, telling Him how you feel.  Listen to what He says to you when you are meditating upon His word. Communication is a two way street. You will grow stronger everyday.  And that is the truth.  Plain and simple.
3 Begin to do it.  Put someone else's prayers before the throne, believing that God is already working your situations out.  It really does change you.
4  Look to see others as God sees them.... It may take some effort, but you will see others as God sees them when you ask. We just have to be willing.

I pray that this has helped you in some way.  Whether it be a point for us to do an inventory of our spiritual walk and check ourselves- or- maybe even a place where we can stop and turn around, turning back to the Mind and Ways of Christ.  Remember that every promise in the Word of God is true, and He is able to operate as long as we love to stay in His Presence and in His Will.  Keep Seeking Him Passionately !!

Blessings to You My Friend.  Have a Great Day !