July 23, 2006 · Galatians 6:8

Galatians 6 7-9

“They are in conflict with each other. So that you do not do what you want. The way of life in the world is like launching rockets continuously at the Spirit, hitting the Spirit. The Spirit is continuously striving to push its forces further into the hostile territory of our soul's soil. The Spirit gives freedom. But this type of freedom, it's not freedom to be under control of your own physical nature. Your simple nature, whenever you talk about your freedom, I think that you need to see it as freedom guided by the Holy Spirit. That's real freedom. Any freedom which equals freedom from God is not freedom. It's bondage. It replaces freedom with fiefdom, with servitude to sin. We become slaves to our lust. We are not sowing to please the Spirit. Okay, so what does it mean to sow to please the Spirit then? How do we sow to please the Spirit? Literally in Greek, the phrase actually is basically sow to the Spirit or so according to the Spirit. It basically means planning the seeds which we receive from the Spirit. The Spirit is giving us the seeds. We need to make sure they're planted and watered. The Spirit will actually water the seeds for us. What are the seeds? Well, the seeds that are offered in Christ, they're the freedom offered in Christ. When you accept the Christ, when you receive the Spirit, the seeds come with it. They are the seeds which bloom into what we call the fruits of the Spirit. Now, if you remember the fruits of the Spirit, Paul listed them just a little bit earlier, in Galatians 5, 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”