The Holy Spirit in my communion time pointed out to me this morning three fruits of sin that we need to deal with because they keep surfacing in our daily lives. I was shocked as I always try to do my best to stay away from sin and commit myself to His care and grace to live pleasing to Him each day.
I always endeavor to die to my opinions, my desires and anything in me that can hinder the Lord flowing freely through me. So I paid close attention as I know the Lord does not just speak accusingly and I was ready to make the corrections and make whatever adjustments I needed to in order to be free from any sin lurking in my sphere and life.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me from Proverbs:21.4 which simply says Arrogance, superiority, and pride are the fruits of sin. As I engaged with Him I realized that it spoke about the fruit of sin which means there is a tree there which needs to be dealt with before complete deliverance can be achieved. I was needing to deal with how the tree was planted in the first place and pull out the roots from my life.
My eyes were open to see the reality of these three trees which are constantly producing fruit and I noted that I am constantly dealing with the fruit of those trees rather than uprooting the tree. I understood from this dialogue that as long as the tree remains I will continue to partake of the fruit.
The Holy Spirit reminded me of what Jesus had said that every tree My Father had not planted would be uprooted. Not every fruit of the tree and that’s a huge difference. We humans always want to deal with the fruit and avoid the time and energy it would take to uproot the tree.Luke.3:9.
However the Holy Spirit always goes to the roots of the tree in order to prevent it happening again because as long as the tree remains there will always be fruit. So let me share today a little on the tree of Arrogance that the Holy Spirit brought to light. He first made me look at what arrogance truly is so I could not hide in what my understanding of the definition of the word is .
So let us look at the definition of arrogance from Webster’s Dictionary: an exaggerated sense of one’s importance that shows itself in the making of excessive or unjustified claims. Well who can say I am not guilty of that.
We even exaggerate our importance to God and what we did is what we generally want people to look at. Remember Joseph when he pointed out to the Butler the importance of mentioning what he had done for him, his right interpretation of the dream, by recommending him to Pharoah.
Now the Holy Spirit is very deep and goes right to the point of what we don’t want to think is in your heart. While God is working through us to root out those thoughts, because that is where the seeds of arrogance are sown. Most times because we do not process those thoughts we never deal with them as being evil. This is because we believe we have the mind of Christ and don’t cast them down as high things that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God.
They are then able to take root in us and soon a huge tree of arrogance is built in us. The result being that we now have the fruits showing up and we wonder how this came into being. Well the Holy Spirit has just revealed how simple and easily this can happen when we don’t listen to the voice of correction when the Lord is speaking that our attitude in various situations is wrong, or why do you feel jealous, or why do you want the person correcting us to be hurt. The reasons for why we accept and take thought are the seeds that create the tree.
The Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus always saying to the people in situations of life when good happens for others why do you take the thought saying? Each time we take that thought, saying and succumb to it, that’s what we will become.
Now I have shared much and feel constrained to let this sink into your hearts and will share the other parts as the Holy Spirit leads about superiority and pride. For the present what you need to do is accept the truth and recognise you are wrong, repent and turn. Then ask God to help you now live out this truth.
We are on our own unable to live out the truth on our own and this is why the Holy Spirit gives grace so we can live it out. As you acknowledge the truth and accept it you will find the grace to live this out and enjoy the freedom from what God hates being the obstacle in your life and hindering your forward movement.
Blessings to you today in Jesus Name and may the fragrance of His knowledge be manifested through you today in Jesus Name. Amen.