Yesterday at church we had a guest speaker, Nick Gough. He was very prophetic but had a pastor’s heart. One of the things I discerned about him was that he loved people well.
And while I was in awe of his prophetic gift, what I really craved was his unconditional love for people. My heart yearns to love people well.
I want to love without judging.
I want to love with my words.
I want to love with my actions.
I want to love when I’m hurt.
I want to love with no expectation of the person reciprocating.
I want my love people into the Kingdom Of God.
Paul writes, “The fruit of the Spirit is Love.” Love is a fruit. Produced naturally by the Holly Spirit.
I’m a concrete kid and know nothing about farming. But I do know this:
An apple tree will never grow an orange.
In order to produce fruit, trees must be watered, rooted and grounded in good soil and occasionally pruned.
So to yield more love fruit, maybe I should recognize I have already been grafted into God’s tree of love. Producing the fruit of love is a natural occurrence for His children.
While fruit is produced naturally, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s desire to produce much fruit in each of us.
We seek to become more established, more rooted and grounded in His love by asking the Holy Spirit to give us a greater revelation of His love.
We water our fruit by hanging out with others who love well and meditating on the stories of Jesus. Jesus Loved well.
We ask the Holy Spirit to regularly prune our thoughts and actions that are incongruent with the love of God.
We practice loving the people in our daily paths – our family, our neighbors, our coworkers.
Let us go out today and literally love the hell out of people.
“For love completes the laws of God. All of the law can be summarized in one grand statement: “Demonstrate love to your neighbor, even as you care for and love yourself.””
Galatians 5:14 TPT