Walking in the Spirit

Well friends, another week has passed, and I hope that this week has been kind to you. I pray that you have taken up a new or energized your walk with God by spending time with Him each day. There is so much going on these days many people saying that this virus is ushering in end times. People flooding social media with sermons and talks about how this plays right into the plans for a one world order. As people are sharing this and watching these videos various things are taking place. Things like false religious revivals, revivals that are based on fear rather than on a knowledge of who God is. Fear, people are becoming overwhelmed with their own uncertainty of their relationship with God. The question that we might want to ask ourselves is, do we want people to come to a relationship with God based on fear of what is going to happen, or do we want people to come to a relationship with God because of character of God?

Ellen White give some very sound advice regarding a message that is not supposed to be preached, she says in Selected Messages book 1 p188-189 in 1884, The times and the seasons God has put in His own power. And why has not God given us this knowledge? —Because we would not make a right use of it if He did...We are not to live upon times of excitement. We are not to be engrossed with speculations in regard to the times and the seasons which God has not revealed. His followers are to be in the position of those who are listening for the orders of their Captain; they are to watch, wait, pray, and work, as they approach the time for the coming of the Lord; but no one will be able to predict just when that time will come; for “of that day and hour knoweth no man.” You will not be able to say that He will come in one, two, or five years, neither are you to put off His coming by stating that it may not be for ten or twenty years.

Ellen White is clearly saying that we need to be careful of what message we are preaching to ourselves and to the rest of the world. What are we called to do? This is a good question. The last two weeks I have shared with you what we are supposed to do in times of a storm. I mentioned that one we need to know who our Captain is, meaning do we know and trust God. We also need to batten things down in our lives, we need to look at our relationship with God and ask do I know Him, can I trust Him.

To be brutally honest with you today. As a Seventh-day Adventist church we are not only sitting in a virus epidemic chaos, but we are also sitting with a potential theological and prophetical chaos. Both these can cause great damage to the work of God and to ourselves. We are called watch for His coming in other words to be ready for it, but we are not called to speculate on dates and events. If we follow the dates and speculations Ellen White tells us that these will cause damage to the message that God wants preached. Another theological challenge that we face is perfection in the last days. Fully expressing the character of Christ. This sadly has received the focus on lifestyle choices. But is Christ’s character about lifestyle choices only?

If God does not want us to focus on date setting and perfectionism what are we supposed to be doing? Ellen White calls us to inquire of God what we are supposed to be doing and to know what our present duties are. In the last days if this is where we are, or in every day of our life we are called to seek God for that day. We are not called to worry about what will happen tomorrow or a week. We are called to focus on today.

What are we called to focus on? Galatians 5: 22-26 is what we are called to. We are called to have the Spirit in our lives resulting then into Him developing His fruit in our lives. Have you noticed that the fruit of the Spirit is in the singular even though there is a list of nine. Why then is it in the singular? A Christian will have the fruit. Although it is one fruit is comprises of these nine characteristics. All nine of these are to be present in the life of a Christian. If one in the list is missing the text is suggesting that we do not have the Spirit. This is contrasted with the many forms of evil in Galatians 5:19-21. It is implied that it takes all the Christian graces to be a true follower of Christ while it takes only one of the works of the flesh to make man a follower of evil.

Let us jump into this. What would be the springboard for these few verses? To find the springboard we need to go back a few verses to Galatians 5:13 for you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Paul says that we have been called to liberty, freedom and we must not use this freedom to live a life running after sin, but we are called to serve one another in love. Love then seems to be the motivating or enabling factor for the expression of the fruit of the Spirit to others. This love for others is spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 12:37,38 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” We might want to say then that love is God’s law however Ellen White gives us clarity on this by saying in Manuscript releases vol 21, p 410 eternal life is the reward that will be given to all who obey the two great principles of God’s law—love to God and love to man. The expression then of love to God and to man in the principle of God’s law. Love for God and love for man is what Jesus lived out in His life. He lived out the principles of God’s law or rules. These principles Christ’s people are called to live out.

We are not called to preach a message of fear and date setting nor are we called to judge and discriminate others due to their choices. In these times God wants the world to see His character shine through us. Those who do not know God will respond better to love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control than to a message of fear or a judging attitude.

Why is this important? Why does God want us to live with these attributes? For starters people will see in us a unique character. A character that enables us to be in a state of happiness and contentment despite the chaos surrounding us. People will be drawn to God because they will see that our relationship with Him gives us a peace that they have not received while separated from God. But this life lived in and through the Spirit does something for us.

I do not think that time will allow us to deal with all nine aspects of the fruit Spirit so if you will permit me to pick some that I think will have great benefit for or lives today and for the future.

Joy: Greco-Roman world what defined joy was being highly dependent on pleasant circumstances. If you found yourself where life was going well, and life was pleasant then you were filled with joy because you were happy. For the Greeks and Romans joy was connected to happiness. But can it be possible to still have joy even though things are not going well? For the Christian joy is not dependent on the circumstances of life but rather it is associated with righteousness, peace, and hope. A Christian can live with joy because they know that they belong to Christ and that His perfect life, righteousness, atones for them. Our joy is found in God, in His salvation to know that we are saved. But joy looks to the future, it looks the coming of Christ. Our joy is then rooted not in the stability of the world or the good circumstances we find ourselves in, but joy is in God because of what He has done for us and for what He is doing for us every day.

Peace is something that we all need at this time. Peace for the Greeks and for the world today mean tranquility, or a quite mind from all that causes trouble. Peace for the Jews on the other hand point to a perfection of a relationship in whatever the situation. God is the God of peace this points to God’s perfect relationship with us which is something positive to have in our lives. When we have the peace of God in our lives it points to the fact that God garrisons, surrounds, protects our hearts and minds. The New Testament speaks of peace with background of being reconciled with God this then in turn points to a peace of mind as we look forward to the Second Coming. We can have this peace because we can know that our eternal life rests in Jesus. It is an all-sufficient peace.

Long-suffering: this is a challenge I would guess for most of us. We might describe this word as patiences or tolerance of others. God calls us to this. No matter how frustrated we can get with others God calls us to be patient with them. When we look at God and His long-suffering we see a gracious restraint from Him. We see God be patient 2 Peter 3:9 the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Gods actions towards us the whole world is that He has not judged the world yet because He loves us all so much that He actively waits for as many to be saved as possible. God actively waiting means that He is wanting to work through us and with us as the message of salvation is preached. When we are patient with others regardless of their attitude to us we are sharing a picture of God to them. We are expressing His very action to them in regards to the plan of salvation.

Kindness: the kindness we are able to show others is because of the kindness that God has shown and continues to show to us. We have been recipients of God’s kindness because we were all lost and Luke 15 tells us the He has come to seek and save the lost. What is God’s kindness to us? We see His kindness through Him helping us in the difficulties of life and more specifically through His willingness to save us. As a result of receiving His kindness, help God desires us to do the same to others.

Goodness: this is the content of the Christian life. It has a very broad meaning and can be understood as a person being equipped at every point. A person filled with goodness is always willing to take of others in a useful and beneficial way. Goodness is not so much a moral action but can be seen as a sweet, caressing, quite virtue also ways willing to share and give of all that is good. This is a beautiful picture of God He is always willing to give all of Himself to us. All that is good He wants to lavish on us. In turn God desire is to be filled with goodness. To always be willing to help others in a way that will benefit them.

We have see in these six elements of the fruit of the Spirit that they are the elements of the Christian character but first and foremost we see them as God’s character. We see that Christ expressed all these while He lived here on earth. Our world needs to see more of this. As we go through this crisis what will we and this world look like. Will people be able to see in us the fruit of the Spirit. In these times people need to see God and the only way that this can be achieved is through us and our willingness to let God shine through us. God shinning through us starts with us spending time with Him each day battening down our lives with Him, knowing that He is our Captain. This in turn will change who we are and will change the communities we live in. God is desiring us to let our lights shine on the hill tops so that people who have no hope by find hope and life in Christ. May we then let our light, the light of God, then shine through us to a world in darkness.

Amen

But all the peace and joy that we receive from God does not mean all that much if there is no impact on those around us. Our joy and peace in God should impact others. This impact could be seen through the other aspects of the fruit of the spirit.