Although the Apostle Paul didn’t explicitly mention gardens in his letters to the early called-out Assembly of God, they must’ve been on his mind to some extent when he wrote to the Galatians. He didn’t use any garden imagery to describe the negative aspects of sinful human nature, but the moment he switched to what the Holy Spirit’s presence should do to their lives, the allusion to a garden emerged.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to the Messiah Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:19-24).
The most difficult part of this garden illustration is that the fruit is only made possible by Yehovah - God. However, we are not out of the picture, we have a part to play in all of this. Why? We can’t produce the fruit by ourselves. We have no seed for such planting, but once God - Yehovah plants the seed in us when we hear the message of the good news about His soon coming Kingdom, we must cultivate it.
This cultivation process is not always easy. It involves dedicating ourselves to prayer, studying the word of Yehovah, and paying attention to the results we are getting in our lives in a slow, and steady way. Sometimes the spiritual fruit grows gradually in our lives, and we may not notice the small differences in our day-in, day-out lives.
We don’t produce the fruit of the Spirit by ourselves
The one danger of the garden metaphor is that many people in the Western world tend to view gardening as individual work. They go alone into their garden to putter around, pulling weeds and trimming vines.
If we want to be filled with the Spirit of Yehovah we need to be completely committed to walking in faithful obedience to the will of Yehovah, to obey the words he gave to His son Jesus to give to us. We need to cry out to Him to be filled with His Spirit and when that happens, we will realize the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
What happens when we fail to commit our lives totally to Yehovah?
“There will be no true giving with love. There will be no real joy in our lives. There will be no real peace in our lives. There will be no real patience in our lives. There will be no showing of real kindness to others in our lives. There will be no true goodness – godliness in our lives. There will be no real faithfulness in our lives. There will be no real gentleness in our lives. Finally, there will be no self-control in our lives.
“There will be no true giving with love. There will be no real joy in our lives. There will be no real peace in our lives. There will be no real patience in our lives. There will be no showing of real kindness to others in our lives. There will be no true goodness – godliness in our lives. There will be no real faithfulness in our lives. There will be no real gentleness in our lives. Finally, there will be no self-control in our lives.
Note: The possibility exists that we might listen to the many blinded religious voices that are peddling the lie of supernatural fruit without sacrifice or service. Glory without generosity. Power without personal power. Redefining church. Promising revival and renewal without repentance. How to become wealthy. To avoid any of that from taking place we need to be totally committed to our God and Father Yehovah loving Him with all our hearts, minds, entire beings, and strength. To love God is to obey Him and allow His Spirit to guide you on the difficult path that leads to the narrow gate. Few find that gate. Be one of the few!
Adam and Eve were not in the garden of Eden alone, Yehovah was with them. The bride in Solomon’s poetry describes herself as a garden to entice her husband inside. The land will be healed for the entire people of God when Yehovah their God sends His son down to this earth to take his place on the throne of David at Zion. Jesus took his closest disciples with him into Gethsemane where he prayed to his Father. No one is alone, ever. God is as close to us as our own breath!
The fruit of the Spirit is brought to us by our God and Father Yehovah through the power of His Spirit through His Anointed One, Jesus, whom He has appointed Lord of the called-out Assembly. The fruit of the Spirit is best cultivated in each one of our lives through our participation in the called-out Assembly of Yehovah. Scriptural revealed commands like “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And "let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another even more as you see the Day [the end of this age] drawing near” (Hebrews 10:23-25).
How do we cultivate love, patience, or self-control unless we are tested and tried by broken sinners like we once were? How will we know if we’re growing in true gentleness or kindness until we must display these traits while correcting a brother or sister in the Messiah? We need to meditate on the way we can incorporate the fruits of the spirit into our lives when dealing with all the people we encounter.
Remember to daily call out to our God and Father Yehovah to be filled with His Spirit so that we can exercise the fruits of His Spirit with His enabling power working in us and through us toward everyone we meet along the difficult path we are walking on through this sin-sick world.
Adam and Eve were not in the garden of Eden alone, Yehovah was with them. The bride in Solomon’s poetry describes herself as a garden to entice her husband inside. The land will be healed for the entire people of God when Yehovah their God sends His son down to this earth to take his place on the throne of David at Zion. Jesus took his closest disciples with him into Gethsemane where he prayed to his Father. No one is alone, ever. God is as close to us as our own breath!
The fruit of the Spirit is brought to us by our God and Father Yehovah through the power of His Spirit through His Anointed One, Jesus, whom He has appointed Lord of the called-out Assembly. The fruit of the Spirit is best cultivated in each one of our lives through our participation in the called-out Assembly of Yehovah. Scriptural revealed commands like “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And "let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another even more as you see the Day [the end of this age] drawing near” (Hebrews 10:23-25).
How do we cultivate love, patience, or self-control unless we are tested and tried by broken sinners like we once were? How will we know if we’re growing in true gentleness or kindness until we must display these traits while correcting a brother or sister in the Messiah? We need to meditate on the way we can incorporate the fruits of the spirit into our lives when dealing with all the people we encounter.
Remember to daily call out to our God and Father Yehovah to be filled with His Spirit so that we can exercise the fruits of His Spirit with His enabling power working in us and through us toward everyone we meet along the difficult path we are walking on through this sin-sick world.
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