One way to define what “grown up” looks like is the list of the fruit from The Spirit of Christ living in us:
“Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control…” (Gal 5:22)
Certainly the lack of these elements has caused pain as the ‘childishness’ in all of us is sometimes seen more clearly then what the Spirit in us could have produced if we had yielded to Him instead of our flesh.
If the Fruit of the Spirit CAN flow through us, revealing the character of Christ in every situation, why don’t we see more of that character bleeding through us and other believers we know?
One reason may be an overall lack of awareness in the middle of any given situation that the Spirit in us actually wants to actively address our situations through us.
We can definitely heighten our awareness of His Spirit in us as we take time throughout our daily routine to focus on The Lord in instant-prayer, continuous worship, and meditation on His Word.
One by-product of regular interaction with The Lord throughout each day is that we can more readily hear His voice when He speaks.
Another reason the fruit of His Spirit isn’t seen in us as much as it could is that we don’t YIELD to His promptings when we are actually aware of them!
Often His prompting in me is the opposite of what I want to do… so am I going to ignore Him, or yield to what He wants to do?
When 2 lanes of traffic converge, one lane is told to yield to the other. The yielding lane merely slows or stops to allow the other lane to “go first.”
Knowing how and when to yield to the Holy Spirit’s direction in situations is as easy as stopping or slowing down our reaction long enough to allow the Holy Spirit to “go ahead” of what you would do without Him.
Before stepping out or speaking out, yielding or allowing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us to “go first” is the key.
We classically train our children to open the door and allow others to enter first.
Think about how many situations we have faced whose outcome would have been quite different if we would have simply stopped and allowed The Holy Spirit the time to enter and then follow His lead.
There are obvious advantages to a life that is full of the character and power of Christ flowing through it.
Catch a glimpse of what He can do through you as you read the list of the Fruit of the Spirit again, and then ever-grow in Christ by yielding to His promptings!
His promptings can actually remove resistance to His presence and character flowing through our lives, if we let it.
Some materials like copper don’t resist electricity like other materials tend to do, like rubber.
As we stop resisting the Spirit’s promptings in our lives, we can be better conductors of His Spirit!
The better “conductor” we are of the Spirit of God through our lives, the more His Spirit will flow!
The more His Spirit flows, the sweeter HIS FRUIT will be produced in our lives.
The more His Fruit is evident in our lives, the more we “grow up” into the stature of Christ Himself.
