The Flow of the Spirit

“…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”

Ephesians 3:17

Dear Friends,

During this iteration of our Jesus Radio Superstar series, our theme has been the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23:

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

As a visual to track our progress on this journey, I have been creating a Spirit Tree at the front of the sanctuary. Originally, I played with the idea of coming up with a fruit and matching it to one of the fruits of the Spirit. (I even briefly considered giving my message dressed up as that fruit!) As I continued to try to find a suitable visual, I ran across some paintings of trees where the leaves/fruit were different colours and they corresponded with different coloured roots. I found the image visually appealing and began planning the way that I was going to implement it in the sanctuary. In this creation process, I started dealing with such basic questions as: what does the “ground” stand for and what does the “sky” represent. The above verse from Ephesians 3:17 came to mind and it became clear that the “ground” represented our being grounded in God and the above ground is the way that that faith is expressed in our lives.

The more I dwelt in this idea, the more it grew on me… The way we live our lives is an expression of what we believe and what we are committed to. From a little different viewpoint, the way that we live reveals who we believe God to be. When Paul says that the fruits of the Spirit (which, by the way, is NOT a complete list of the fruits) are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, he is not just claiming that that is what is present when the Spirit is at work. He is also claiming that this is the nature of God. God is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle and disciplined. When we allow the Spirit to guide our thoughts and actions, then the nature of God flows through us and the fruits are present.

For some reason, this struck me anew. It seems like always before, the fruits of the Spirit occurred to me as something outside myself. They were something that occurred in the “ether” whenever I made the right choice or chose the right way to be. The pondering of this “Spirit Tree” helped me to get at another level that when we allow the Spirit to flow through us, these characteristics of God are allowed to manifest themselves through us. In a very real way, we are participating in the Spirit’s (i.e. God’s) work and presence in the world.

As we continue our journey with the Fruits of the Spirit (and the associated JRS songs), I invite you to ponder the times that you experienced God’s Spirit flowing through you, what it provided for you and those around you, and what it looks like to allow this to happen more often!

Peace… and love and joy and patience and kindness and generosity and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control,

Pastor Phil