I am seeing so many different fruit in the body of Christ. The fruit of jealousy. The fruit of unforgiveness. The fruit of bitterness. The fruit of covetousness. The fruit of gossip. The fruit of envy. The fruit of exaggeration. The fruit of manipulation. The fruit of control. The fruit of anger.
The body is feeding these trees and they have grown. These unhealthy trees are overshadowing the trees of the fruit of the spirit. This enables the enemy to play them emotionally. A lot of crows end up in those branches and that racket drowns out the Father's voice.
So many people do not realize that the fruit of the spirit is their garden to care for in life. A lot of people just “hope” that their fruit magically appears. They do not actually cultivate that fruit. The fruit is for anyone they come in contact with not for their own consumption. It is for family, friends, the body of Christ and strangers in the streets. Once they eat of the fruit of your fruit trees they have seed implanted that will grow their own trees. This is the same as the secular “Random acts of kindness” movement.
The thing is, we overlook is bad fruit. The church has decided that disagreeing with anyone is unloving or being judgmental.
Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13:20
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” I Corinthians 15:33
When you compromise who you are by who you “hang” out with it is to your detriment. Just like you share your Godly fruit with others, you also partake of the fruit of your friends. If they have bad fruit you end up with bad seed.
I see so many Christians in turmoil and they do not realize they have eaten bad fruit and they are reproducing. They are emotional, tossed to and fro by their moods, any negative mental suggestion. They become judgmental, critical, verbally abusive, victimized…..and so on.
One of the problems in this (just one mind you) is that the Christian friend, sheep, family etc. who is the recipient of these outbursts begin to wonder what is wrong with them. Why do they trigger these outbursts?
Here is an example: I got an email once (ok, more than once but we will just talk about the one) that was VILE. At that point, I realized VILE and EVIL are the same word….Selah. In this email I was told I was unloving, cold, calculating, abusive, bold, arrogant, ungodly, a liar, a thief….you get the drift. When I read it the first time I heard the Lord say, “This is not you.” So, I read it logically like I do most things. I read the first accusation and took it to the throne. “Do I do this? Do I need to repent from anything in this?” I did this with every item.
The enemy is deceptive. He NEVER hits you straight on. He is not creative. God is creative. He is not created in the image of God. You are. He does the same thing he did in the garden. He brings in one tiny grain of truth—it may even be an old truth that is no longer true! Something you have already been set free from.
None of the email was about me. It was about the fruit of unhappiness, of jealousy, of victimization, of selfishness etc. that the writer had eaten in her life and that fruit was producing BIG fruit.
I did not have to be wounded by that. It was not my fruit to eat. I did not have to let that fruit plant doubt within my heart. I know who I am in Christ. I did not have to allow the fear of man invade my life.
When I go into the spirit I see so much more turmoil going on that there has been in the past. Christians are tired. They are being tossed to and fro in so many areas. They are eating of any tree that presents its fruit to them. The enemy is sabotaging the acceptable, the normal, the common with his poison.
Do not be deceived. Protect yourself. Recognize that speaking truth is not unloving but intact it is loving.
If you see someone acting in a way that would not please the savior. Someone who is hurting others. Someone who is a Christian but is reacting in emotional turmoil it is time to intercede.
Titus 2:15 These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
It is time to be faithful. It is time to be diligent. It is time to be more observant. It is time to be aggressive in prayer—not gossip but prayer—not anger but prayer.
Everyday we walk the streets, we pray. We talk to people, we pray. We sit in a coffee shop, we pray. We sit in the metro, we pray.
Prepare for the harvest…time to pray.