Resumo de The Heart's Desire (a)

The Fruits of the Spirit

Take a moment and think about your life and the things that you pursue. This could be a job at the top of the corporate ladder, a companion, or something as simple as a new pair of shoes. Think about why you pursue them and what you are trying to accomplish. These things are all in pursuit for the ultimate possession of love, joy, and peace; sometimes one or the other or perhaps, all three together. These are the things we all desire the most.

Incidentally, love, joy, and peace are the first fruits of the Holy Spirit. ??when the Holy Spirit controls our lives He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? (Galatians 5:22,23). Although there are six other fruits of the Spirit, it is important to focus on these first three in order to satisfy the others. These three are placed first for they are the core of our very heart?s desire.

We all long for love, joy, and peace in one form or another. What is found is comfort, which we all desire. Comfort: a condition or feeling of pleasurable ease, well-being, and contentment. This is found in the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter. The true heart?s desire is the Holy Spirit because it is from the Holy Spirit that we can satisfy our heart?s desire.

God, ?the Lord who gives us sunlight in the daytime and the moon and stars to light the night,? gives us the Holy Spirit as a gift, which is Himself. The source of love, joy, and peace is God and God can only be reached by means of Jesus Christ whose words are recorded as such: ?But I will send you the Comforter ? the Holy Spirit, the source of all truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me? (John 15:26). The Comforter is offered freely by God the Father to absorb into our lives.

The process of absorption and adoption of the Holy Spirit is experienced in our periods of difficulty. It is in our struggles and suffering where we must willingly follow after the Holy Spirit for love, joy, and peace. It is an adoption into His family because of the acceptance of His way of life and His involvement in your life. ?His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And He did this because He wanted to!? (Ephesians 1:5). And just like any adoption, the child must adjust to the family?s lifestyle. Adjustment involves reminding, embracing, and acceptance by both the adopted child, and the family. This is the greatest gift of all because it shows the Almighty One?s grace and mercy for us.

If love, joy, and peace were forced or if they came naturally then we would never know the true value of these gifts; the Holy Spirit would no longer be a gift nonetheless a valuable gift. We just have to hear His call by learning about Him and learning about Him is accomplished by reading His Word.

Then, by reading His word you can embrace the gift of the Holy Spirit and follow Him. In order to follow Him you must walk in His footsteps, which is the best way to get to know someone. Jesus Christ walked in the fruits of the Holy Spirit in perfection and has led the way for each of us to follow.

Christ died to take the burden of maintaining these fruits on our own and gives them to us freely. Instead of trusting oneself to maintain love, joy, and peace, God is trusted to give them. Herein lies the difference between the believer and the non-believer. It is not that the believer never does wrong or feels hurt, nor have they perfected life. Difficulties are not escaped. It is that the dependency of the believer?s life is turned to Christ Jesus.

There is a new life (a seed planted) inside the believer waiting to grow by means of either following the Holy Spirit?s instructions or letting one?s lower nature take control. It is a life filled with love, joy, and peace. It is a life free from trying to be good enough or right all of the time. Christdied to relieve us of this burden and resurrected in order for us to learn to live freely.

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