The Fruit part 4
Good fruit comes from the good tree. The Tree of Life. Jesus. The good fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. Which, since a seed can only produce after it's own kind... and the incorruptible seed is God... and God is love... the fruit of the Spirit is love. Period. Love, of course, is a multi-faceted prism. Shining the light in different ways produces different colors. If that makes sense. Love is the answer. But love comes in all shapes and sizes. That, friends, is WHY love is the answer. That's HOW love is the answer. You can always love people no matter what. You can always let what's inside you come out. You can be a thermostat instead of a thermometer. You can SET the temperature instead of just TAKING the temperature. What I'm trying to say, in my normal roundabout way, is that the fire in you is always hotter than the fire you're in. When the three Hebrew boys were cast into the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar looked into the flames and saw FOUR men. And one of them was the Son of God! Because, guess what, God IS the fire. When we are totally consumed by Him, the only thing that gets burned off is our bonds, and we come out smelling like roses. So, to go back to my original metaphor, or picture, you are what you eat. Garbage in, garbage out. What is inside you--what you believe is inside you--WILL come out. It has to. Because it's too big and too powerful not to. Whatever you believe, that's what you empower. Don't give power to things that don't have power. Let the love of God--which is all-powerful, which doesn't mean MOST powerful, but means HAS all the power and IS all the power--swallow up and consume everything else. What you feed is what will grow. Make sure you're feeding it the right diet. The bread and the wine. The Lamb and the living water. These are the things that sustain us. These are the things that will help us grow and make us healthy. So feed on love. Let God love you and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. Receive and release His love. The Spirit and the bride say come. Come and get it. Come to the table that Jesus has prepared for you in the presence of your enemies. And then, guess what else, if you invite your enemies to eat with you... they might not keep being your enemies. You can destroy your enemies by making them your friends. Eating the right food--the fruit of the Spirit... love--is vitally important. But SHARING that fruit is equally important. You are what you eat. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. So give it away. Share it. God is love--a love feast. Feasts are for the multitude. Don't be stingy with what you've got. Give it away. Share it. And in that way, truly experience it. Love is giving. If you want to feel love... love somebody. Give what you've got, by knowing and believing that you've got it. Let what's inside come out, by knowing and believing that it's in there. Fill yourself with what God has already filled you with. Make sure that you are focused on what really matters. What you magnify in your life is what manifests in your life. What you feed is what will grow. I'm going to keep saying it. Feed on love, and love will grow in your life. Starve the things that don't matter. Don't fight with them, just starve them of your attention and let them wither and die. Fruit is healthy. We can all agree on that. So make sure it's an essential part of your daily diet. Make sure you are eating the thing that will help you be healthy, wealthy, and wise!