Top Ten

I got to hear two of the most wonderful things ever the other day. Our nine year old daughter came home after a rough day at school and though it took awhile, she finally let me in on what had gone on. Essentially circumstance and a couple of isolated encounters had her believing lies about herself and how others feel about her. We then had a really special talk about the things that are true about her and how perfectly loved and lovable she is. That’s when she said, “Dad can we spend a whole day together?” Later that night I went in to kiss her goodnight after she and her Mom had prayed and the first thing she said was, “Thank you for saying what you did Dad.” Raising someone’s spirit has a wonderful way of raising yours.

So…

He’s risen, they waited and God came through on His promise of sending The Spirit, not just for them but for us also, and we have the advantage of looking back on the things Jesus said before and applying them in light of this amazing gift. One of my favorites is: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

Wow! Please Lord.

The Spirit of Truth

1John 2:27
But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

The Holy Spirit is our teacher and He teaches that we need to allow Him to reveal the truth of scripture, to not depend on others for this and for us stay close to Jesus.

Liberty

Scripture says, “Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” We don’t have to let the same old things keep us from the freedom God intends for us. Standing fast means putting the burden in His hands and leaving it there.

Self Control

It’s great that with this fruit comes the ability to remove self not just control it. It is the demonstration of all of the fruit listed in the previous ten posts. Another description might be that it is the ability to recognize when we are stepping away from The Lord and making the correction by quickly turning back to Him.

Faithfulness

Full of faith, trusting God with all that we are and all that we have. Knowing that in the big picture, no matter what today may look like, somewhere down the road we will understand and appreciate all that we experienced today.

Gentleness

Mildness might be another way of saying gentleness. This sometimes gets confused with avoidance or being the kind of person that stays away from difficulty. That’s not what this fruit is about. The confidence that comes from the Spirit within us allows us to confront the things that need to be addressed but we are able to do that with gentleness, being considerate of others.

Goodness

I like to think the explanation of this fruit is like the foods we say are full of goodness, in other words, of great benefit. People filled with the Spirit and thus the fruit of goodness, are beneficial to those around them.

Kindness

We demonstrate kindness when we put aside the things that are important to us at the moment and give our focus to what is important to another.

Patience

Patience is a huge indicator of God’s Spirit working in us. I can’t think of an instance when impatience isn’t self-centered. We want things our way; on our schedule and when it doesn’t go that way we get mad about it and make others feel inferior to us by losing our patience.