The Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness

The Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe 

Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)
^“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

       From Strong’s Concordance: the Greek word pístis is translated as “faithfulness.”  The root word means “persuasion or to be persuaded, and to come to trust.”  We walk in faith because we can trust the Lord and His word.  We can trust the Lord and His word because God Himself is faithful.  Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV):  “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness”

   “Faith is always a gift from God, (Ephesians 2:8) and never something that can be produced by people. In short, pistis ("faith") for the believer is "God's divine persuasion" – and therefore distinct from human belief or confidence, yet involving it.” The Lord continuously births faith in yielded believers so we can know what He prefers.  He prefers what is best for us. In the gift of faith, we become persuaded of the superiority of His will. [i]

   Faithfulness, like every aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, is founded on God’s agape, His unconditional love.  Psalm 89:1-2 (NIV) “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make Your faithfulness known through all generations.
I will declare that Your love stands firm forever, that You have established Your faithfulness in heaven itself.”  I sing first of His love and then of His faithfulness.

   Our faith and faithfulness must also be founded in love.  I Corinthians 13:1-2 (NKJV) ”Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

      It is not faithfulness if I am obedient out of fear of retribution.  It is faith when I choose to be obedient because I am aware of, understanding of and walking in God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness.

     “Thomas Chisholm wrote “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” as a testament to God’s faithfulness through his very ordinary life.  Born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, Chisholm became a Christian when he was twenty-seven and entered the ministry when he was thirty-six, though poor health forced him to retire after just one year. During the rest of his life, Chisholm spent many years living in New Jersey and working as a life insurance agent.  Still, even with a desk job, he wrote nearly 1,200 poems throughout his life, including several published hymns.

      ”Chisholm explained toward the end of his life, “My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now.  Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”[ii]

Great Is Thy Faithfulness
By Thomas Chisholm
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee,
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not,
As Thou hast been,Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above;
Join with all nature in manifold witness,
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own great presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

---

[i] http://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm

[ii] http://gaither.com/news/%E2%80%9Cgreat-thy-faithfulness%E2%80%9D-story-behind-hymn

Soaring on Eagle Wings

Soaring on Eagle Wings

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Lord, we are willing to let our spirits soar.  Teach us how and why.

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV2011)
^“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

God does all things decently and in order.  When He engages us in process of growth, that process begins with a firm foundation.  In other words, we must first be equipped to soar before we can soar.  

In the process to soaring, the foundation is hope. In translating Isaiah 40:31, most versions of the Bible say, “those who wait on the Lord.”  The NIV reads, “Those who hope on the Lord.”  The Hebrew word is kaw-vaw which means to wait for, to expect.  When we wait upon the Lord, we expect Him act. 

Hebrews 11:1 puts hope in the context of faith.  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV) The first step in allowing our spirit to soar is to stand in hope of the promises of God. Standing in hope is standing in the knowledge that God is faithful to His word and will fulfill that word.  

We must come to expect that God will intervene in our lives.  God’s intervention will most often involve changing us rather than changing our circumstances.  Paul wrote to the church at Philippi from the confines of prison and said, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:   I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Paul, even in the confines of the dungeon, stood in hope.  He did not allow his circumstances to interfere with his relationship with his Lord.

Our circumstances should not prevent us from soaring because our relationship with the Lord enables us to wait in hopeful expectation.   Waiting in hopeful expectation renews our strength.  Nehemiah, speaking to the discouraged Israelites who had returned from the Babylonia exile to rebuild the temple and the city walls, declared, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10).  Waiting in hopeful expectation for the Lord renews our joy and, therefore, our strength.

The second step in the soaring process is to enter into the joy of the Lord.  We know that joy is part of the fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23, but we seldom think of God as being joyful.  Have we even considered that just as we find joy in our relationship with the Lord, that He, too, finds joy in that relationship?  Consider Zephaniah 3:17 (NKJV): “The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."  God enjoys fellowshipping with us.  

Filled with His joy, we will soar on wings like eagles; we will run and not grow weary, we will walk and not be faint.  We must soar on wings like eagles or we will grow weary and faint.  How does an eagle soar?  Eagles’ wings are long and wide enough to carry their own body weight plus the weight of most of the prey that they capture. It takes energy to flap such large wings.  That is why when eagles are flying long distances, they often soar on an updraft until they reach high altitude, and then glide and soar to fly long distances using less energy than flapping their wings would require.

Several years ago, when I was driving across the state, the Lord allowed me to see a mother eagle teaching her two eaglets to fly.  Each time the little ones grew weary and began to descend, Mama flew beneath them flapping her wings and creating an updraft on which they could soar and glide.  She, literally, became the wind beneath their wings.

We can weary ourselves in trying to flap through this life.  However, we don’t have to do it alone.  We can, like Paul, declare that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  When we accept that Jesus Christ died to pay the price for our sins, that He rose again in victory, the Holy Spirit comes to reside in our hearts.  It is the Holy Spirit within Who enables us to run and not grow weary, to walk and not be faint. He is the wind beneath our wings. 

Lord God, thank You for filling me with Your Spirit, for allowing my cup to overflow in joy and enabling me to soar like an eagle. You, Lord, are the wind beneath my wings.

The Fruit of the Spirit: Goodness

The Fruit of the Spirit:  Goodness

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe 

Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)
^“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Spirit-directed goodness is more than just outwardly adhering to a set of rules.  The Greek word translated here as “goodness” is agathōsynē.  It means uprightness of heart and life.    Goodness emanates from our inner most being, from our heart.  It must become part of our spiritual DNA.  Goodness, as a fruit of the Spirit, must be an integral part of our spiritually.   

Goodness is not limited to something that we do.  It is something that we are. 

Jesus had an encounter with a man who understood the importance of doing good, but did not understand the essence of goodness:

Luke 18:18-23 (NKJV)
^“Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother.' "And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth."
So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”

We can do good under our own strength and with our own purposes in mind.  We can be good only in the power of the Holy Spirit and with God’s purposes in mind.  It is that transforming power that enables us to be like Jesus, not just act like Jesus.  It is a radical transformation that reaches down to the very core of our being and rips out the root of self-centeredness and frees us to become more and more like our Lord. 

Then out of our new man, out of our Christ-nature, we begin to walk in goodness, in beneficence.  Our good works must arise out of our Holy Spirit endowed goodness, not out of a sense of duty or obligation or desire for recognition.  Titus 3:8 (NKJV) “This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.”   

In the Kingdom of God manifested on earth, we are called first to be good and then to do good. 

Oh! to Be Like Thee

Thomas O. Chisholm

Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.