The fruit of the Spirit is an intriguing concept. Some thoughts on cultivating the Spirit’s work in us.

First, the text:
Galatians 5:19-25
I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

What does it mean for the Spirit to work within us? After all, didn’t he create life and resurrection from death and decay? Didn’t he create light from darkness? Ordered creation from nothingness? Peace from chaos? The very idea of the Spirit of God being “in us” is phenomenal. Yet Jesus told His disciples the Spirit was the comforter. Let’s explore more about a rich and sweet concept.

It occurs to me that when we many people read this passage of scripture, what is conjured up in their mind is the idea of going to “the Wal-Marts” or Krogers and picking up ripened fruit, if you’ll forgive the southernisms. These matured fruit are carefully harvested for the END RESULT: sweet, mature, ripened fruit. Good for salads. GREAT for pies, or a glaze or a drizzle… mmmmm fresh strawberry shortcake w/ Blue Bell homemade vanilla.

But that’s not how the Spirit of God works in an aspiring disciple of Jesus. First, we declare our allegiance to Him, and attune ourselves to His words, His actions, His methods… and as scripture promises, the Spirit of God inhabits us when we surrender to Jesus in baptism. But we are fools if we believe he will FLIP THE SPIRITUAL SWITCH and overturn our desires, our flaws, our shortcomings overnight. If that happens, it is the result of an extraordinary new-creation mindset by a person. A lot of times, that may depend on how horrible their life was before that surrender to the Messiah.

The Spirit matures in us. That’s not to say that the Spirit of God isn’t already “mature” – or that by His authority all things were created, and even Jesus was raised from the dead (Romans 8). If the Spirit is indeed God, then what do we expect him to do with us? It all remains contingent on the free will of the person. That is to say that the Spirit of God can be resisted, or sequestered to a corner of our lives if we’re not careful. We must labor to deny the lusts of our carnal hearts, and embrace the new creation for which our King, Jesus, died and established all things new. We are redeemed by the BLOOD OF GOD HIMSELF, not by something you might throw away like leftover, cold coffee.

The Spirit of God must germinate, he must flower in us because we welcome the seed of the Spirit (oddly enough, it’s noteworthy here that the Spirit Himself “seeded” Jesus in Mary’s womb). We must WATER the blossom, and celebrate when the bees come to pollinate the flower. God’s creation shows a vivid metaphor for how the Spirit works in us. Germination, pollination, feeding, watering, sunlight… and a baby fruit begins. But if you’ve ever tended to flowers or plants, you know this takes TIME and EFFORT, and PATIENCE… which is one of these fruits!

The Spirit of God will yield in us things that are immeasurably miraculous (I would call everyday change, multiplied like compound interest miraculous), but we often want to keep it in it’s own lane. We don’t want to surrender it all to the Spirit of God for formation.

Can you even imagine? Fruit would NEVER MATURE if it grew like our SPIRITual lives. We’d see far less maturity, and far less deep red strawberries (or gentleness, love, self-control, if you will). We prune off those branches because we don’t like the bees, we don’t like the pollen, and we don’t like the sneezes that happen in the process of growth. That is, the hard work of cultivating SPIRIT-ual formation into the image of the Messiah is something we have often pruned like those annoying, dusty pollenizing blooms. But you can’t buy self-control at Walmart, and Kroger points won’t buy you gentleness, kindness, and brotherly-love.

Paul said this in a few verses in Galatians. But oh my, how rich a concept it truly is. Deny the flesh, put it to death (mortify it, as the old King James says), and usher in the Spirit to raise us from the dead in the glory of the Father.

Where is our Spirit fruit on this diagram?

In stead, what we ought to do is relentlessly pursue holiness. Press toward the mark of the high calling of God in the Messiah, Jesus. Make every effort to make our calling and election sure, and do everything we can to add to our faith all the virtues and qualities Peter discusses in his first epistle.

Three things we can do to facilitate the Holy Spirit’s work in us:
1) PRAY EVERY DAY. Pray multiple times a day. Pray for God’s work in us. Pray for His Spirit’s habitation in our hearts. Pray for the eradication of bad blooms, the sins and snags that so easily beset us.
2) EMBRACE THE HUNGER TO REPRODUCE SPIRIT FRUIT. Make efforts to pursue knowledge of God. Read scripture. Not to KNOW scripture, but to come to know God Himself. To know who He is, what He intended for humanity, and what he wants us to become.
3) PURPOSEFULLY SET ASIDE WATERING AND FEEDING TIME. Fertilization is taking place if we will only allow it to occur. Like Paul said about teaching the gospel: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-8)

It is my prayer today that all who read this will take it to heart and embrace God’s work in you. It will only happen if we allow it to happen, and if we pursue it with relentless vigor.