The Fruit of the Spirit
… is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22)
What is Faithfulness?
There is so much we can say about faithfulness.
Recently I heard an Evangelist: Ryan Schiavo, speak about faithfulness as being reliable toward others as a mark of Christian character. In his context, faithfulness wasn’t just about belief in GOD but also about being consistent toward one another: following through on promises, keeping our word. I like that take, perhaps because I agree and aim to be a totally reliable person: my yes is yes; I keep appointments or request to be released and reschedule if I can’t; I stick to the commitments I make…. I need to work on punctuality as part of it.
Believing, trusting, being trustworthy, godly: these are all marks of faithfulness.
In this piece from the Church Needs to Change series, I simply want to touch upon the faith we need as a church body to believe: 1. to trust the Holy Spirit’s leading as a mark of being trustworthy toward GOD and one another, 2. to behave in a more and more godly manner as we go through life. Jesus did nothing beyond what his father lead him to do or say, and he did so by the power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, he said, “Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect.” If this were not possible, he would surely not have commanded it.
The church, I believe, needs to be expectant for GOD to move
Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
- Let us expect when we pray that GOD will answer our prayers, rather than forget the prayer and continue to be anxious or concerned about the issue just prayed over.
And in Matthew 21:21, “So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea,’ it will be done.”
- Let us ask GOD for His leading and then wait for it, rather than grow impatient, doubtful, or carry on with the programme as though we never asked for His lead.
And James 1:6 says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”
- Let us dare to hope that GOD is moving and will move in our lives and that of our family’s, for salvations, for healings, for revelation, for His return.
The church needs to change its way of being
As the church truly is the body of believers and not a building or service structure, then can we make more room for GOD? Can we leave gaps in the service, or scrap the service entirely, so that our invitation to follow is proved sincere as we make room in our minds and in our lives, for GOD.
This sounds radical
We who love Jesus know that giving ourselves to GOD through a salvation prayer of confession is the start of a life following Jesus – the author and finisher of our faith. It is a wonderful start! But just as we make a fresh start at the point of salvation, perhaps it is time to allow the church organisation to be born again as well. Jesus said he would build his church — and then somewhere around 350 or 400AD we took over.
How about we let him take the same tools he uses to convict and grow us, to build his church as well.
Maranatha, Jesus come.