[Lesson 7 in a series on juggling roles, responsibilities and relationships.]
So many of our roles, responsibilities and
relationships are visibly obvious: mom, wife, caregiver, nurse, chauffer, maid,
cook, etc. Like a flower on a hat you
cannot miss seeing them. We do them because
that is who we are and where we are in life.
It is our job, our lot in life.
But if they do not flow from the heart, again like a flower on a hat,
that is as deep as it goes. It is just
doing what it was put there to do, nothing more. If the flower is fake, it won’t change, grow
or produce new flowers. Over time it
will become pretty obvious that it is not real.
If by chance the flower is real, but there are no roots, it won’t be
long until it fades and falls to pieces.
Does the flowers in your hat have roots in
your heart? Is there a constant source
of life and strength that makes the roles, responsibilities and relationships
in your life real, dynamic and fruitful?
Are they deeply rooted in a growth conducive heart?
Life is hard and the Lord never intended you
to go it alone. He came for a time to
walk side by side with those He loved, but humanity limited where He could
be. So after He did what required flesh
and blood, namely suffering and dying in our place for our sins, He returned to
His rightful place in heaven. But, He
left His Spirit to complete the Father’s work in us – grow deep roots so
everything we are and do flows from and manifests the evidence of His Lordship,
presence and love that He pours into our hearts.
For this reason I kneel before
the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through
his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have
power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and
deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge
--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
Don’t miss the part “through His
Spirit.” Christ constantly dwells in the
life of those who willingly open their hearts to Him through His indwelling Spirit. In John 14:17, He promises that His Spirit,
the Holy Spirit “lives with you and will
be in you.” Without the Holy Spirit
in and working in our lives there are too many hindrances to growing roots
necessary for fruitfulness (or in our illustration ever-blooming flowers). He needs to get inside and do some tilling
and cultivating so the seeds of love and truth can bloom with the Fruit of the
Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Galatians 5:22,23
According to the Parable of the Soils
(Matthew 13:3-8), there are four “soil” conditions that either discourage or
encourage “flowering” or fruitfulness.
Then he told them many things in
parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering
the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell
on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because
the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and
they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which
grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it
produced a crop --a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Matthew 13:3-8
1.
Hard and
compacted
2.
Rocky
3.
Weed choked
4.
Cultivated
Ground gets hard where everyone walks. The parable compared it to a path or
road. When the world has full access to
your heart, or any given part, it will get hard. This world loves to stomp on joy, steam roll
over peace, walk all over commitment and speed race through leaving no time for
patience, faithfulness or gentleness.
Not much can bloom in the middle of a freeway.
With rocky soil, the potential is there, but
rocks of willfulness still remain. These
have to be broken up or removed in order to assure that what is planted (God’s
love and truth) can take root and grow.
Rocks that are left damage delicate roots as these are the first to
respond to the conditions around them.
When your heart is filled with self-serving rocks of willfulness,
trials, stresses and challenges raise the emotional temperature. Those “in it for me” rocks of willfulness
sizzle. Disappointments and delays turn
those same rocks cold. Hot, cold, hot,
cold, and the roots either bake or freeze.
The blossoms don’t have a chance.
The seeds planted in the third soil actually
had a great start.
Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is
time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12
The hard soil had been plowed up. The rocks pulled out. The truth of God’s wonderful love had been
planted and taken root. However, a planted
heart like a planted field must be made continually accessible to the gardener so
it can be maintained. Jesus explained
the reason in another parable He gave right after the Parable of the
Soils.
Jesus told them another parable:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But
while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat,
and went away. Matthew 13:24,25
In the Greek, these weeds are identified as tares, a weed that looks just like wheat
but does not produce grain. It is not
until the grain heads out that you can tell that those other plants are
phonies. Weeds are deceptions subtly
planted in your mind that do not produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. They look good; they sound good; they can
even look spiritually sound. They do
come from a spiritual source, but it is not God. The enemy of God specializes in
counterfeit. He makes you think you have
something of value when you don’t. The
worse thing about these deceptive tares is they crowd out and hinder the right
stuff from growing.
Deep rooted, ever-blooming evidence of God’s
love and truth can only grow in a well cultivated, constantly tended
heart. I heard a wonderful quote that
said, “The Fruit of the Spirit only grows in the Garden of Obedience.”
Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum
wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. 1 Corinthians
3:8,9a MSG
It requires obedience and submission on our
part in order for the Holy Spirit to characterize all our roles, relationships
and responsibilities with His identifying trademark of love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It takes an attitude of cooperation to let
the Holy Spirit do what He was sent to do in and through us.
When he [the Holy Spirit] comes,
he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and
judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to
righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no
longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands
condemned. John 16:8-11
If He is going to do it in the world, I
guarantee He is going to begin in those who have invited Him into their
lives.
First of all, He convicts regarding sin. The Greek word is hamartia, which means “to miss the mark.” We do just that when we don’t believe. The Greek word there is pistereo – “the application of faith and/or trust.” If you are not trusting the Lord, you are
trusting something else – either the world (which is always making more roads)
or yourself (haul in the rocks). In the
Garden of Obedience, you humbly allow the Holy Spirit to point out where you
are missing the mark and willingly do whatever is necessary to correct it.
The Holy Spirit also convicts regarding
righteousness. The reason why is because
Jesus is no longer here on earth as a living example of what is right and
holy. That is now our job as His body.
Make every effort to live in
peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14
If people do not see holiness and what it
means to be right with God in our lives, they are seeing nothing but
weeds. We are deceiving them (including
our children) as well as ourselves.
He also convicts regarding judgment. When we
hear “judgment” we tend to think accountability and condemnation. The word Jesus used (krisis) means “to separate, evaluate and assign value or
worth.” It refers to making a
decision. His convictions motivate discernment
so we identify the encroaching footprints, growing pebbles of willfulness and
lies being sown as truth. The Holy
Spirit moves within us to stop and evaluate our attitude and reactions so we
correctly discern the real source behind it.
The power behind bloom-busters has been thoroughly defeated. Cooperating with the Holy Spirit makes us
aware when the defeated enemy is trying to gain one more victory in his losing
war effort.
I don’t need to tell you how important having
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control are in our relationships and as we carry out our roles and
responsibilities. It would be wonderful
if it was a once for all thing: when you are given the Holy Spirit to dwell in
your life at the moment you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, zap you are
constantly blossoming with the Fruit of the Spirit. Sorry!
It is not because the Lord is holding back on you. The problem is that we hold parts back from
Him. It is not how much Holy Spirit you
have, but how much of you the Holy Spirit has.
He is there ready and willing to grow His wonderful prize winning
flower, but He can only do so in the terrain of your life you make completely
available to Him.
Evidence that the Holy Spirit has that part
of your life is the manifestation of the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Not some, all! It is fruit, not fruits. All the characteristics must be
evident to be the real thing blooming out of the Garden of Obedience. If patience is missing, the fruit is
missing. If gentleness eludes you, the
fruit is missing. If there is no
self-control taking place, the fruit is missing. In that area, in that specific situation,
there is either world impacted - compacted soil, rocks of willfulness or weeds
of deception. If any element that
characterizes the Fruit of the Spirit is missing, Christ does not have lordship
of that area or situation. Piece by
piece, plot by plot, you have to surrender your heart and life to the Master
Gardener.
In addition to full access, you also need to
let Him get in and do whatever He deems necessary to make your entire heart a
fruit bearing, blossom blooming garden.
Having Him break up hard spots, and dig deep to rip out well imbedded
rocks of willfulness and deeply rooted weeds of deception is not at all
easy. What He uses to fertilize and
restore nourishment to the soil of our hearts can be downright unpleasant. His work can be vigorous… if you let Him.
If you don’t, there will be no fruit or
flowers. You attitude and reactions
won’t change. There still will be a lack
of patience when you are waiting in line.
There still will be no self-control when it comes to cookies or
time-eatters. It will still be
impossible to respond with kindness, goodness and gentleness towards that hard
to love, irritating coworker, neighbor or relative.
Oh, it may be possible to do it for a
time. Pin a flower on your hat - be
calm, cool pleasant and look like you got it together. As the saying goes: “You can fool some of the
people all the time, all the people some of the time, but not all the people
all the time.” You can even fool yourself
for a while. But, you can never fool God.
He wants our lives to bloom with the real thing and according to 2
Corinthians 2:14,15NAS “manifest
through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are the fragrance of Christ to God
among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
Those impacted by you as you carry out your
roles, relationship and responsibilities – your family, your friends, your
church, your job, your world, need you to consistently bloom with love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Your life can be a
wonderful garden that brings glory and praise to an awesome God. Every hat you juggle can be beautifully
adorned with a well-rooted fragrant flower.
In the Parable of the Soil, the sower sowed
extravagently. The Lord continues to freely cast the seeds of the Kingdom.
Where are they landing in your life: road, rocks, weeds or ready soil? What is
the true soil condition of your soul? The Holy Spirit is ready and willing to do some gardening.
Are you ready and willing to let Him?