A person, who follows Jesus, lives a life empowered by his Spirit. The Spirit pumps life into our spirits. And fruit is borne from this “irrigation” of our hearts.
Some of the fruit seems unusual. We expect the Spirit to work in our lives to transform it. We understand that to mean we will act in ways that please God more. We will sin less. We will be more holy. Some of the fruit does agree with that. We will be kinder, more loving as this fruit is borne out in our lives. But some of the fruit seems counter-intuitive. There will also be greater peace and joy.
God works for our transformation to produce holiness in our lives. But we were designed to be holy from the beginning. Transformation is a process of restoration, of bringing us back into alignment with our original design. As this process of restoration continues, we also become more intimate with God.
Transformation leads to greater holiness. Holiness leads to greater connection. Greater connection leads to more fruit – more love, more joy, more impact on others. More fruit leads to greater glory for God. Holiness was never intended to be a drag. Holiness and joy are tied together.
Spiritual warfare takes on new meaning in this context. Satan works to steal glory away from God. So, he works to break this process that leads to God’s glory. Break the transformation, holiness, connection, fruit, and God’s glory cycle. If he can get the children of God to focus on money, sex, problems, failures, work or anything else but God, he can break the connection and the cycle.
We are probably not able of maintaining the connection with God 100% of the time. But we all know how we can become pretty much obsessed with everything else. Maybe we need to learn how to hang out with god more. Maybe God likes football. Imagine viewing football through God’s eyes.
Some of the fruit seems unusual. We expect the Spirit to work in our lives to transform it. We understand that to mean we will act in ways that please God more. We will sin less. We will be more holy. Some of the fruit does agree with that. We will be kinder, more loving as this fruit is borne out in our lives. But some of the fruit seems counter-intuitive. There will also be greater peace and joy.
God works for our transformation to produce holiness in our lives. But we were designed to be holy from the beginning. Transformation is a process of restoration, of bringing us back into alignment with our original design. As this process of restoration continues, we also become more intimate with God.
Transformation leads to greater holiness. Holiness leads to greater connection. Greater connection leads to more fruit – more love, more joy, more impact on others. More fruit leads to greater glory for God. Holiness was never intended to be a drag. Holiness and joy are tied together.
Spiritual warfare takes on new meaning in this context. Satan works to steal glory away from God. So, he works to break this process that leads to God’s glory. Break the transformation, holiness, connection, fruit, and God’s glory cycle. If he can get the children of God to focus on money, sex, problems, failures, work or anything else but God, he can break the connection and the cycle.
We are probably not able of maintaining the connection with God 100% of the time. But we all know how we can become pretty much obsessed with everything else. Maybe we need to learn how to hang out with god more. Maybe God likes football. Imagine viewing football through God’s eyes.
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