9: A Fruitful Relationship

Promises, Prayers, Presence

It begins with God. Therefore, it makes sense that it should end with God.

The garden of Eden is what we can call “Temple.” God made the heavens and the earth and at the end of creating said, “It is very good.”

When I consider what our planet looks like now, I can only imagine how amazing it must have been before Genesis 3 resulted in the earth being cursed.

In the midst of all that was very good, God planted a garden and in it places humanity. There was communion, learning, commitment, love, unity. No sin, no shame, to problems. Sadly, we wouldn’t allow it to last.

Sin destroyed the perfection of our relationship with God. All our own doing, all our own fault, no one to blame but ourselves.

So, God made a promise. He gave us a shot at the whole DIY thing, but we just made everything worse. Thankfully, God wasn’t intending to just let us go. People prayed and sought the Lord. Others built for themselves towers and cities and tried to make for themselves a name. How proto-typical of humanity to think we could manage without God. We still build towers and cities, and we still think we can manage without God. Just like Babel. And just like Babel, we remain confused and unintelligible to ourselves as we grasp at the dark.

We build communities, but the wrong kind of communities.

We learn, but we learn the wrong things.

We commit to everything but God.

We love but find it in all the wrong places.

We claim unity, but only if it advances our needs.

We are bewitched by the collective culture and ignorant of the presence of God.

It’s because of...

Stinking Thinking

“...we are all addicted to our own habitual way of doing anything, our own defenses, and, most especially, our patterned way of thinking, or how we process reality.”

(Richard Rohr, 15/11/2021)

https://cac.org/stinking-thinking-2021-11-15/

Rohr writes about addiction. We are addicted. It may not be drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, but we are addicted. We hear the word “sin” and even pontificate against it, perhaps even in our lives.

We need to remember...

"What caused man's banishment from the Garden was his unwillingness to accept a status inferior to that of God"

(Jon Levenson, Sinai & Zion)

Can any of us accept a status inferior to God? If we think about it, we may actually prefer thinking that grace is a bad idea because the thing with grace is, it’s all God’s idea. And God doesn’t have bad ideas.

Which is strange. He made us thinking creatures. Not only do we have minds, but we can think and ponder and consider and contemplate and choose.

We are image-bearers of God. Therefore, God can think because we can. However, we have become addicted to our own way of thinking. We need to be healed by His way of thinking.

Praying Purposefully

Jesus prayed a lot. He prayed on the mountain. He prayed in an upper room. He prayed in a garden. He prayed.

He prayed for Peter that he not be sifted like wheat.

So many prayers. One stands out for me.

“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” John 11:41.

God listened to Jesus. Jesus prayed. God listened.

Have you ever thanked God that He heard your prayers? We thank Him for our food. We thank Him for forgiveness of sins. We thank him for the nice things He has granted to us. Have you ever thanked Him for having heard your prayers?

“Father, I thank You that You have heard me.”

The longest recorded prayer of Jesus is found in John 17. If you don’t know it, you need to know it. He mentions us there. Not by name, but it is you and I He is praying for...

John 17:20–21 (NKJV)

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Jesus is praying for unity. He is basing that unity on Who God is:

“…that they may be one just as We are one” John 17:22

If you want to know how that unity works, read the gospel of John...

John 12:49 NKJV

For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.

John 16:13 NKJV

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

But...

“...we are all addicted to our own...way of thinking...”

How human is that?

Jesus is utterly restrained to speak only what the Father says can be spoken.

The Holy Spirit is utterly restrained to speak only what is said from the throne of God.

But us? Well, we can only know unity if we abandon stinking thinking and wholly submit to God’s way.

Carnal Christians

1 Corinthians 3:4 NKJV

For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

Being baptised into Christ for the forgiveness of sins means receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). The Holy Spirit is given to the Christian as a guarantee of our new relationship with God in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:22).

However, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian does not make us spiritual.

“...we are all addicted to our own...way of thinking...”

Carnal mind ≍ Division

The carnality of our Corinthian brethren is written because of division. In contrast,

“Unity is the hallmark of spirituality.”

(Niall Scobbie)

The spiritual Christian who has the presence of God restored by obedience to Christ Jesus and then surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

We have to become...

Spiritually Surrendered

How does the Holy Spirit lead?

First of all, He leads with our consent.

We give our consent to His leadership when we obey the gospel and are saved. By invitation through obedience, He is given to us by God.

Daily, we continue to give our consent with these words, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Why not use the same words that Jesus used in Luke 22:42?

Secondly, He leads us when we follow Him with humility and surrender to God, just like Jesus and the Holy Spirit demonstrated as we read in John 12:49 and John 16:13. If Jesus would not speak of His own authority, and the Holy Spirit would not speak of His own authority, why would we?

1 Corinthians 3:4 (NKJV)

“...are you not carnal?”

The Holy Spirit leads when we follow God’s will. And, when we lay down our will and submit to God’s will, then the Holy Spirit produces fruit...

His Fruit

Galatians 5:22 (NKJV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is...

Did you catch that? The fruit of the Spirit...

Not my fruit…His

Not my produce…His

Not my strength…His

Not my efforts…His

NOT MY FRUIT…HIS!!

“Not thy will, but mine be done.”

“All of self and none of thee.”

“My fruit, not the Holy Spirit’s.”

“...we are all addicted to our own...way of thinking...”

Galatians 5:23 (NKJV)

Against such there is no law.

The law was given that humanity would know what sin is.

Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.””

Does God need the law to know what sin is?

Does God need instruction on how to love, express joy, have peace, demonstrate patience, show kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

There is no law against such because the law does not argue against the divine nature.

When God, through His Holy Spirit, is allowed by us to lead us, then fruit is produced.

His fruit.

I cannot love better than God.

I cannot have more joy than God.

I cannot have the peace that passes understanding unless it is God giving that peace.

I cannot show the patience God has.

I cannot have the kindness God has.

I cannot goodness God has.

I cannot express the faithfulness God has.

I cannot show the gentleness God has.

I cannot demonstrate the self-control that God does.

In various ways and at various times, any of these traits can be expressed in a person’s life, even yours or mine.

But it is cheap fruit. It is wonky fruit. It is unsustainable produce.

Here’s the thing about wonky fruit: it is an anomaly. It tastes fine, but it’s not repeatable.

I can love enough to lay down my life for another person, but I can struggle to love others, especially those who have wronged me.

I can have joy, but I know depression too and joy is easily suppressed in such times.

I can have peace, but I can have sleepless nights and anxieties.

I can have patience, but I have also had it tested by teenagers and road users.

I can have kindness, but I have been cruel at times.

I can have goodness, but I have hurt others, sometimes deliberately.

I can have faithfulness, but I can let others down.

I can have gentleness, but I can be unfair.

I can have self-control, but temptation often wins.

But here’s the thing, the Holy Spirit cannot and will not have the alternate to these wonderful expressions of the presence of God.

In Galatians 5:19 “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,” Paul uses the word “works” then contrasts it with “fruit” in Galatians 5:22.

It’s my works of the flesh contrasted the fruit of the Spirit. Work is what I do. Fruit is what He does.

I can plant, cultivate, and harvest, but I can’t will it to grow.

I long for the sermon where Adam tells us about a visit to a farm in Sparta, TN where he meets with a family he loves and has known for much of his life, and he sits with them remembering fond times working on the farm and eating walnuts. I want to know what those walnuts taste like. Surely by now there has been a harvest. Adam planted those walnut saplings. He probably watered those walnut plants in their earliest days. But I dare him to say that he made them grow. NO! It was God Who gave the increase!!

So it is with the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

God has planted the Spirit within every Christian who has obeyed the gospel.

God’s Word has been the bread and water of our growth as Christians.

And the increase, the crop, the produce is God’s too.

The Fruitful Relationship

My surrender = His success

The Spirit is mentioned in Paul’s writings in 128 verses. Of them, 87 are specifically about the Holy Spirit.

“led by the Spirit...”

“begun by the Spirit...”

“the mind of the Spirit...”

“fruit of the Spirit...”

“live in the Spirit...”

“the might of the Spirit...”

“the unity of the Spirit...”

“filled with the Spirit...”

“the sword of the Spirit…”

“supplication in the Spirit...”

“fellowship in the Spirit...”

“love in the Spirit...”

“joy of the Holy Spirit...”

“sanctification by the Spirit...”

“justified in the Spirit...”

“kept by the Holy Spirit...”

“regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit...”

I will stop being me and instead, I will surrender to letting Him be Him.

That will be a fruitful relationship.