Fruit
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10422 |
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January 18, 2015 |
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"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
No matter how problematic this world is, we can have confidence and peace when we walk in the Light. God, who will bless us with abundant fruit in 2015, presented the four prayer titles for 2015. Now we will look into the second title, "Fruit".
1. Being of 'Whole Spirit' is the fruit that God desires the most
What kinds of fruit do we have to pray for? The fruit that God desires the most is that we sanctify our spirit, soul, and body and preserve them complete and blameless until the Lord comes back as written in 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
The reason why God has been cultivating human beings with incalculable patience is to gain true children. For this to happen there had to be sacrifice. The only begotten Son of God, Jesus, had to take the cross to open the way for redemption and salvation of sinners. Also, the Holy Spirit has also been interceding with groanings too deep for words.
But as sin and evil increasingly prevail in this world towards the end, people try not to remember the sacrifice of the cross. Even when the Holy Spirit anxiously teaches them the truth, they don't want to listen. It's because their consciences are stained by sins, and the temptations of the world are so strong.
So, God of love established a church that shows His power at this end time. He wanted to save all peoples of the world through the fiery works of the Holy Spirit manifested in this church. Also, He wanted to gain true children who have cultivated sincere hearts and perfect faith, not just those who are barely saved. For this reason God established me as the shepherd and let me spend 33 long years in tears.
He made me dedicate myself completely following the footsteps of Jesus who sacrificed Himself completely to fulfill the will of God. He let me live with prayer, all-night prayer sessions and fasting. Through these, God clearly let me know about the spiritual realm, and He explained to me how to become sanctified in detail. To testify to the living God He let me perform works of power in the name of Jesus Christ. But although I showed such power, the fruit of spirit did not come forth easily. Rather, some went back to the world even after experiencing the power of God.
Consequently, for several years I have spent time filling up the measure of special justice. I prayed that even the sins leading to death would be forgiven; and furthermore, that those souls would not just be saved, but come forth as fruits of spirit. As I spent many days with indescribable mourning, the fruit of spirit began to be borne one by one. Finally, in 2014, we achieved 'standardization of spirit'.
2. The flow of 'Whole Spirit' for perfect fruit
Being of 'spirit' produces a clean vessel that has cast off evil, but it is not yet perfect fruit. What God really wants is the fruit of whole spirit that has been completely filled with the contents of spirit in this clean vessel. Even though you are in spirit, now you have to try even harder than before to go into deeper levels of spirit and into whole spirit. Just as you tried to realize the things found in yourself to come into spirit, now you have to try even harder for you to go into whole spirit. You must never think even for a moment, "I have tried hard to come into spirit, so let me rest just for a while." Or, "I have done enough, and I want to take it easy now." When you realize your deficiencies and shortages, you should not just cover them up.
Achieving whole spirit is not something that is easy to do. In order to enter whole spirit as Elijah, Moses, and Apostle Paul accomplished, you really have to 'die unto yourselves' completely. Philippians 3:13-14 reads, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." As written, we have to be of sober spirit, on the alert, and run towards the goal.
By the way, if the flow of whole spirit gets faster, the flow of attaining the rock and entering into the spirit will become even faster. We should all ride on that flow and quickly go into spirit and whole spirit.
3. In the flow of whole spirit, there must be your actual deeds to change yourself
What do you have to do specifically to participate in this flow? You have to learn the Word of God, and you have to pray fervently with fasting. Spiritual faith and hope of heaven are important, too. You have to love God and the Lord and also trust and love the shepherd. But what you need the most right now is that there must be your actual deeds to change yourself.
For you to cast off sins and evil and go into spirit, and for you to fill up your deficiencies and shortages and go into whole spirit, you have to obey the truth in action. You should not just pray that you may go into spirit and into whole spirit. You should long to realize your imperfections.
For example, how much of a longing heart do you have when you listen to sermons? If you are not in spirit, your basic attitude for listening to messages should be like, "Do I still have lust? Do I have adultery, anger, greed, hatred, envy, jealousy, judging and condemning, changing mind, and falsehood?" It's the same for those who are in spirit already. You should check your mind and thoughts and your words and deeds more carefully thinking, "I should have acted with more of goodness and love. What would the Lord do in the same situation?"
If you have realized your shortcomings, then what do you have to do? You have to cast away the sins and evil you realized. You also have to fill up goodness and love. James 1:23-25 says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." If you only realize but do not act, then it is of no use, nothing is changed. If you look in a mirror and see a smudge on your face and do not wash it off; or if, as a woman putting on make-up, you see one of your eyebrows is off compared to the other and just leave it, it remains as is and there will be no change made.
Some people feel blessed by the messages, but they do not have substantial acts and deeds. So, they cannot grow up in faith. They realized something about themselves and prayed about it, but after the prayer they lived just the way they had been living. If they don't like something, they are likely to just pass judgment and condemnation and show their evil. They may still hate, get irritated, and break peace. They cannot be generous, and they cannot seek others' benefit. And yet, they say they long for holiness because they are praying with fasting. They haven't even cultivated the words of truth yet, but they think they know about them and slip into idle thoughts and drowsiness.
I hope you will first look back on yourselves to realize how earnest you are to find your shortcomings. Also, I hope that when you realize your shortcomings you will check yourself to discover the amount of the deeds and truthfulness you have shown. You cannot change yourself with just human effort alone. And, God cannot make you holy just by your prayers that are not accompanied by substantial effort. If you have fasted and prayed, you have to make up your mind firmly and show it in real actions. This is how you can ride on the flow of whole spirit well.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is there anybody who thinks, "I am satisfied with just being saved"? You may think that this sounds humble, but in spiritual sense, they are not words of goodness at all. Jesus did not take the cross and suffer great pains just to casually give us salvation. Seeing your souls having gone into spirit and whole spirit and standing before God's throne, the Lord will be rewarded for His sufferings of the cross (1 Thessalonians 2:19). God will also have accomplished the purpose of human cultivation and proclaim complete victory. I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you will be borne as complete fruits of spirit.
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