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- We receive the Holy Spirit by the “hearing of faith” (3:2)
- We grow to spiritual maturity “in the Spirit” (3:3)
- We are “born after the Spirit” just like Isaac was. (4:29)
- We walk by the Spirit (5:16)
- We are led by the Spirit (5:18)
- We “plant” unto the Spirit (6:8)
We “walk”, are “led” and “plant” by the Spirit when we serve each other. “… through love be servants to each other” (5:13) and by “… loving our neighbors like we love ourselves” (5:14)
If we have these attributes of service we will harvest the “fruit of the Spirit” (5:22)…. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control (6:23)
If we don’t have these attributes in our lives then perhaps we’re planting something other than spiritual things.
Every once in a while something happens that opens a door to my past. This morning it happened when I was teaching Bible class and I saw Kyle Willis walk into the auditorium. You see Kyle and Linda (now deceased) Willis were very close friends to my parents. Kyle was a Deacon at Spring Woods Church of Christ when Dad was an Elder there. When Dad got sick and his health began to deteriorate Kyle did a lot of things to help Mom and Dad… and even after Dad died Kyle helped my Mother. I don’t know all of it but Mom and Dad loved gardening so Kyle would come over and till the garden for them. Kyle also helped Mom with accounting and other kinds of paper work. Little things I guess, but huge to us.
We always had hope and faith that God would intervene and help Dad but it wasn’t looking too good. We were up there one weekend and they asked me to lead the closing prayer. I don’t remember what I said but I prayed my heart out and Kyle came up afterwards with tears in his eyes and hugged me and said, “that was a powerful prayer”. Kyle loved Dad.
So this morning as I was sitting there trying to sing… all those memories came flooding back. I’m convinced that Dad is alive and maybe knows what’s going on with us down here. Sometimes when I pray I ask God to tell Dad that I love him and miss him… and I thank God for men like Kyle Willis.
