“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.”
Galatians 5:16-18 NLT
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”
Galatians 5:22-26 NLT
Paul makes a perfect comparison of sanctification and spiritual maturity to farming and cultivating fruit. In modern western culture, it is not uncommon for people to take foregranted the process of farm to table. But farming is hard and laborious work for the farmer. The fruit goes through metamorphosis from seed into plant into nourishment into seed again. The hope is that the one seed will be nutritious and flavorful while also being able to down a bounty of orchards and groves in like kind. This is a labor completed by allowing the Holy Spirit to prune and pick as he will. Christian’s place a large emphasis on salvation rather than maturity, but truthfully, this should not be so. We should seek to be cultivating the high yield of flavor and bounty. This flavor and bounty is of the very character of God. This single fruit has nine important characteristics that produce the best orchard and groves from which mankind can be best in God’s image. But to do this, we must recognize the goal, the work involved, the technique and the power by which it can be accomplished. We can farm this fruit in our lives, but only in submission to the Holy Spirit. It is his fruit and we cannot steal it, buy it, or create it without his blessing.
JOSH McGARY. COM 