Go With The Flow part 4
I know I use this example all the time but I absolutely love it. Here's the picture: We are a garden inclosed. Everything we need is already inside of us. But, in a sense, it's trapped inside. Because we don't know what's in there. We don't know who we are so we constantly struggle to be somebody else. But then something miraculous happens. Look at Song of Solomon 4:16, "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices therof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits." It's not until the wind of the Holy Spirit blows that we begin to understand all the truth that we know. The Holy Spirit leads and guides us into all truth. He is the river of life that is flowing. And remember, the river is flowing no matter what. But when we jump in the river--with that proverbial leap of faith--then WE begin to flow. Then everything that's inside of us--the love of God... the love that IS God--flows out of us. Jesus said when we BELIEVE the river of life flows out of our belly. And how do we believe? Because the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus! Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God! We BE transformed (into what we have already been transformed in) by the renewing of our mind. By hearing the truth and the truth setting (and making) us free! Here's the important part with all of it too: We don't make the wind blow. Jesus said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). We don't make the wind blow, we are blown by the wind. We are led by the Spirit. And, again, not in the sense that the Spirit tells us to do something and we have to do it or else. Being led by the Spirit means hearing and believing the Word. Those who are led of the Spirit are the sons (Son) of God. The Spirit doesn't lead us into behavior. It leads us into identity. And then our behavior FLOWS from our identity. What we do is directly linked to what we believe. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And I like that our verse in Song of Solomon ends with, "Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits." Because in the same way that we don't make the wind blow, we don't plant the fruit either. I preached a message years ago called, "Be the ground, not the farmer." And the point is this: Jesus did the work. We simply enjoy the fruit of His labor. Jesus planted the garden, the Holy Spirit blows in order to get the spices flowing. AND Jesus eats the fruit. Remember the Kingdom economy: God doesn't require anything that He doesn't provide. Jesus plants the fruit (love) and eats the fruit (love) even as we eat the fruit (love) and share the fruit (love). It's Him in us and us in Him and Him in the Father. It's a relationship. It's a love connection. It's a river that flows into us and out of us!