The Fruit of the Spirit...

[jesussaves]

I was reading something Andrew Murry wrote yesterday and wanted to share it. I hope it blesses you as it did me. It is a short exerpt from his book, Absolute Surrender.

"Has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become? In claiming the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love. Oh, if it were true in the Church of Christ how different her state would be! May God help us to get hold of this simple, heavenly truth that the fruit of the Spirit is a love which appears in the life, and that just as the Holy Spirit gets real possession of the life, the heart will be filled with real, divine universal love."

"One of the great causes why God cannot bless His Church is the want of love. When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. In the time of their great religious wars, when Holland stood out so nobly against Spain, one of her mottos was: "Unity gives strength." It is only when God's people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love, one toward one another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see-it is only then that they will have the power to secure the blessing which they ask God for. Remember that if a vessel that ought to be one whole is cracked into many peices, it cannot be filled. You can take a potsherd, one part of a vessel, and dip out a little water into that, but if you want the vessel full, the vessel must be whole. That is literally true of Christ's church, and if there is one thing we must pray for still it is this: Lord, melt us together into one by the power of the Holy Spirit; let the Holy Spirit, who at Penticost made them all of one heart and one soul, do His blessed work among us. Praise God, we can love each other in divine love, for "the fruit of the Spirit is love". Give yourselves up to love, and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit and He will teach you to love more."

"The Lord Jesus came down from heaven as the Son of God's love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." God's Son came to show us what love is, and He lived a life of love here upon the earth in fellowship with His disciples, in compassion over the poor and miserable, in love even to His enemies, and He died the death of love. And when He went to heaven, whom did He send down? The Spirit of love, to come and banish selfishness, envy and pride, and bring the love of God into the hearts of men. "The fruit of the Spirit is love."

"And what was the preparation for the promise of the Holy Spirit? You know that promise as found in the 14th chapter of John's gospel. But remember what preceeds in the 13th chapter. Before Christ promised the Holy Spirit He gave a new commandment, and about that commandment He said wonderful things. One was this: "Even as I have loved you, so love ye one another." To them His dying love was to be the only law of their conduct and intercourse with each other. What a message to those fishermen, to those men full of pride and selfishness! "Learn to love each other," said Christ, "as I have loved you." And by the grace of God they did it. When Pentecost came they were of one heart and of one soul. Christ did it for them. "

"And now He calls us to dwell and walk in love. He demands that though a man hate you, still you love him. True love cannot be conqured by anything in heaven or upon earth. The more hatred there is, the more love triumphs through it all and shows it's true nature. This is the love that Christ demanded His disciples to exercise.

What more did He say?

"By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if ye have love to one another."

[Botz]

Thanks for the post...I like Andrew Murray.I wonder what he meant by...

Has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become?

How can one have more of the Holy Spirit so to speak? Apart from being more zealous and dedicated to hearing and obeying the L-rd....but we all have the fulness of the Spirit if indeed he dwells in our hearts.

Give yourselves up to love, and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit and He will teach you to love more."

Excellent point...G-d is love.

[Guest catylynn]

Can you imagine what the "church" could do if we all set aside our petty differences and focused on God and exhibited the Fruit of the Spirit?

Agape love is definately the key.

We should pray for those we have "issues" with.

It is hard to dislike/hate someone we are genuinely praying for.

[jesussaves]

Botz, maybe if I post the entire paragraph this quote comes from it will be more clear what he is saying.

I wish now to dwell upon the passage found in Galatians 5:22: "the fruit of the Spirit is love."

We read that "Love is the fulfilling of the law," and my desire is to speak on love as a fruit of the Spirit with a twofold object. One is that this word may be a searchlight in our hearts, and give us a test by which to try our thoughts about the Holy Spirit and all our experience of the holy life. Let us try ourselves by this word. Has this been our daily habit, to seek the being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love? "The fruit of the Spirit is love." Has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become? In claiming the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as the Spirit of love.

Botz, over the years I have come to know that the more time I spend in prayer and Bible study the more I want to tarry there and the stronger the presence of the Lord is in my daily life. My character begins to change as I become more Christ like. It is a life surrendered to the Lord. It is a life of daily renewal. I often ask the Lord for more of Him and less of me.

[Botz]

Botz, over the years I have come to know that the more time I spend in prayer and Bible study the more I want to tarry there and the stronger the presence of the Lord is in my daily life. My character begins to change as I become more Christ like. It is a life surrendered to the Lord. It is a life of daily renewal. I often ask the Lord for more of Him and less of me.

Hi jesussaves.

I totally agree with your statement.

We are told to draw close to G-d and He will draw close to us.

To take up our cross daily.

To hunger and thirst after righteousness.

..and that in His presence is fullness of joy.

I think that what Murray means by having more of the Holy Spirit is that we are indeed more surrendered to the Holy Spirit and thus more aware of the dimension of the Spirit and able to function more effectively in the Kingdom of G-d.

If a person is not surrendered to the Holy Spirit they will not walk in the Spirit and they will not be able to fulfil the call of G-d on their life...this is my understanding.

It includes prayer,bible-study,fellowship,worship etc...but is as you say a life of daily renewal...a freshness and an openess to the Lover of our souls so that nothing can get in and separate us from His love...even for a moment.