Gifts or Fruit

How do or did preceding events lead, or prod us to where we find ourselves today?  Where are we?  More importantly where are we going?  The crucial question for our times - what condition are we going to be in when we get there?   

What is "there"? For most, it seems to be ministry, based on giftedness.  What will we have manifest along the way? As a child, we always ask, are we there yet?  A tragedy in the church today is that most assume getting there is the race. I think we as individuals, a society, and as Christians have lost sight of the race. Yes, the goal is to finish but more importantly is how we run.  Can one run the race and reach the destination based on calling and giftedness?  Where does the Fruit of the Spirit enter into the picture?  The word says a man’s gift will make room for him.  The Word says we will be known by our fruit.  What do we have if we have a place but do not manifest fruit?

We’ve all been faced with situations and circumstances that have led or prodded us to where we are right now.  When I was younger, I went one way and then another all by my own choices.  Even if circumstance and situations had been perfect, due to my heart, my will, and conditions in which I was surrounded or based on what I had experienced, seen, or thought I knew - I made choices.  Well, today I find myself sometimes in places I really don’t want to be, wondering - how did I get here?  Sound familiar? We really do reap what we’ve sown. 

As I look objectively at my grown children, what I think may be insight sometimes is in fact, hindsight.  As a parent, we try the best with what we have, and many times, it looks as though we have success and failure in the same child.  We see children in the same environment with different responses.  So it is with us in the Kingdom, or in our church family. 

Will the coming change be for positive or negative?  There are times one must make an accurate assessment of what is real, what is true, what is fact, and what is the Lord saying or doing.  Without divine intervention, we will find ourselves living a life that is out of focus as we see according to our perspective, and the Lord’s perspective is from a different view.         

Jesus said in Matthew, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'  Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'