DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRIES

OF

GLOBAL CREATION MINISTRIES
REACHING AROUND THE WORLD
Apollo 17 hand-held Hasselblad

TRUTHS TO GROW BY

MEASURING PROGRESS (cont'd)

Although it is true that souls are fruit, it is not a valid fruit for measuring our spirituality. Someone who has won over a thousand souls to Christ may not be any more spiritual than someone who has only won a few. I Cor. 3:7 tells us, “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” Souls are God’s fruit, not ours. Even though they may become our spiritual children, the one who gets the credit is not us, it is God. There are fruits, however, that can be used to measure our spirituality. We become more like Jesus the more we yield to the Holy Spirit on a moment by moment basis. We have learned that it is the Holy Spirit that takes the Word of God and executes change in our lives to make us more like Jesus. What then are the fruits that relate to a life of yieldedness to the Holy Spirit? The answer is found in Galatians 5:22-23 which reads, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness (kindness), goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (self-control): against such there is no law.” We can score ourselves on each of these and see how we are doing.
The first mentioned and the most important one in the list is love. This is agapa love. To satisfactorily score high in this area our love needs to be so great that we would be willing to die to save the life of the worst criminal in history. We need to love our neighbor as our self, love our family as our self, love the telemarketers as our self, love the terrorist as our self, love all races as our self, love the handicapped as our self, love the auditor from IRS as our self, and simply prefer everyone over ourselves. As our love for God and our relationship with Him grow, so also our love for others grows.
A very marking characteristic of someone whose spiritual life is on fire is their joy. We find strength in our joy. A chorus that we often sing says, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Paul says in I Thess. 5:16, “Rejoice evermore.” Peter also in I Peter 1:8 says, “…ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” A clear mark of spiritual growth is joy all day long, everyday, and no matter what the circumstances are.
Ah, peace, the very quintessence of an open and loving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 119:165 puts it this way, “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” To have great peace is to have such glowing faith in the Lord Jesus that absolutely nothing can cause you to err in your walk with Him. Phil. 4:6-7 says, “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Wow, to have great peace is to have our hearts and minds guarded, protected from evil.