Thank you for coming back this week. Last week we looked at the fruits being the characteristics of God, and how He loves us so much that He gave us the Fruit Inspection Test to know if people are safe. This week we’re going to talk about how love is the groundwork for all the good fruits, tie in what Jesus said about it, and even Ezekiel.
Let’s quickly review Galatians 5:22-23 and the picture that the Lord has shown me.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
The Fruits of the Spirit are the breath of God on your life. These fruits don’t just stay inside you, but they emanate from God, through your spirit, and out to others. These fruits are to share with others, not just something you grow for yourself. Have you ever been around someone or listened to someone on the internet and you just feel uplifted, encouraged, strengthened, or ready to conquer your mountain? That’s the breath of God’s Life, the fruits of the Spirit, inside them emanating out of them. That’s what we’re to be producing. The fruit isn’t imaginary strawberries, bananas, or an orange watermelon to make you think and reflect; these are real traits of The Father that He breathes in us, and it flows out to minister for others.
The first fruit is love. The Holy Spirit shared with me that love is the ground in which all fruits grow. Let’s look at one of the most important scriptures concerning God’s character.
1 John 4:8 NKJV
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
That’s a very powerful scripture. We can change God in scripture with the word Love. Let’s use the well-known
John 3:16 NKJV
For Love so loved the world that Love gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Love Jr. should not perish but have everlasting life.
I have to constantly remind myself that love is the very nature of God, and one step out of love is one step away from Him. I know that sounds harsh, and hard to live by, but with the help of The Holy Spirit, we can do it. We must stop TRYING to love people, because it will never work. Let’s look at what the Word says.
Romans 5:5 NKJV
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
He already poured His love out in each Christian. It’s not that you’re going to get it one day, you already have it. Going back to last week, Paul told us to just do it in Galatians 5 and called it walking in the spirit. That’s exactly how we do it, choose it. Choose Love, it’s choosing God. The more you choose God’s Love, the greater He can breathe His breath into your life. Let’s take a couple quick looks at some scripture, because this is a new thought and might feel too far out for you.
Romans 6:23 NKJV
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let’s read it this way, “For the payment of sin is death, but The Gift of Love is eternal life in The Anointed One, Love Jr., Our Lord.” Love is life, sin is death. We won’t go there, but Jesus gave us a new commandment to love (John 13:34). When we choose not to love, we’re asking for a payment of death; reaping a bad harvest. When we choose love, we’re asking for Him to breathe that eternal life in our ground and mortal bodies. There’s always a reward here on Earth and in Heaven for choosing love; when you don’t want to and especially when you’ve been innocent and wrong has been done to you. Take in the healing gift of love as opposed to repaying sin for sin and losing that Breath of Life from the Heavenly Father.
I know we’re bouncing here and there quick, because this study can go on and on. For time’s sake, let’s jump over to see what Jesus had to say about our dirt. He started to teach us, and Paul later explained. You can go back when you have time and read The Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-9. We’re going straight to Jesus’ explanation to the disciples.
Matthew 13:18-23 Original Hebrew
18Therefore you must hear (meaning hear and understand) the parable of him who sows. 19He who sows is the preacher. And the seed is the word of YHWH (Yahweh, Jehovah, The Father). He who hears the word of YHWH but does not understand it – Ha-Satan (the devil) comes and uproots it from his heart. And this is the seed that fell close to the road. 20And that which fell between the stones is he who hears the word of YHWH and receives it with joy, 21however, he does not have a root and dries up quickly, for through indignant (cursing) speech they are immediately confused. 22That which fell between the thorns, is he who hears the word of YHWH, but he has sighings (worries) about this world – to gather, and it strangles some of the word of YHWH which was sown in his heart, and it does not produce fruit. 23But that which fell in the good ground, is he who understands the word of YHWH, and obeys it, and produces fruit and good works, one has a hundred, and one fifty, and one thirty.”
I really like the Original Hebrew writing, because we can see exactly what Jesus is teaching. For our purposes, we want to focus just on the GROUND. I want you to note in these verses that Jesus called the ground the heart, because it’s all connected. Paul later builds on the ground teachings of Jesus.
The first ground had the seed fall by the road. The road here represents various people coming and going, different messages/opinions which can cause confusion or the preacher himself being confused. This allows the enemy to come along, steal the message of the Word, and make sure it doesn’t produce fruit. The cause of this confusion is strife, which is poisoned love.
Paul addresses this ground’s explanation later, when the Jews became Christians had the Holy Spirit and could understand what Jesus was teaching.
Ephesians 3:17-19 NKJV
17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
If you’re rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, you’ll be able to understand, AND NOT LOSE YOUR WORD SEED, with the other Christians the deep love of God which will intern give you knowledge and the ability to be filled to the top with God’s Character, His anointing, His ability, His Gifts, and so on. LOVE keeps the seed from being stolen. Let me put this more simply: Choosing love stops the strife and confusion. Choosing to listen to a love preacher stops your ground from being sifted through by an enemy. Recognizing love on the seed sower, and only listening to love sowers prevents confusion. LOVE understands LOVE. Love doesn’t confuse. Back up to Jesus speaking…
The second ground is stoney ground. Notice that these people have stones in their ground from cursing, so the Word doesn’t produce fruit. He’s talking about cursing, not cussing. What’s cursing your own ground? Speaking contrary to the Word of God, which John reveals to us that Jesus is the Word and Paul reveals to us that Jesus is the Head of the Church. We ought not speak against Him.
Bible: God loves you. Jesus took stripes for your healing. (love)
Person: I wonder if God cares I’m sick. He’s teaching me a lesson. (against love)
Bible: Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. Ask and it will be given to you. (love)
Person: God made me poor. He won’t help me fix my car. (against love)
We can NEVER out believe God.
Merriam-Webster defines curse as, “a prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one.” That’s exactly what speaking against love is all about, cursing yourself, others, and Jesus. In the spiritual realm, it’s either of God or of the enemy. There is no grey area; idle words aren’t ok (Matthew 12:36). How often do we accidently curse ourselves or other people? We were all guilty of this at some point. It made stones in our love ground and choked the Word out. We probably didn’t even realize it.
The third ground is described as worry, a form of fear, that grows thorns very well. I had a pastor that taught, “a little fear is ok.” No! Fear is the opposite of love; a little anti-love is not ok.
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
All these scriptures are connected. We’re given a love ground to grow good things, instead of fear that produces thorns to the point you can’t receive the Word. I used to be so full of fear over loose dogs that I could feel my heart not beating properly. Yes, I had some incidents, but I was completely gripped by fear that I couldn’t even breathe. That’s torment! In my mind, every dog wanted to bite me and kill me. I couldn’t see a happy playful dog. All I could see was a murdering beast running at me with teeth. You could have quoted scripture to me, you could have preached to me, prayed for me, drew pictures, told testimonies, but I couldn’t see anything different and refused to even listen! I had a thorn garden that choked the Word and even choked out reality. I’ve been set free from fear. Now, as I type, I am petting a very cute doggy that’s trying to nap after his smoked turkey and bulgur wheat breakfast. Yes, he’s very spoiled. The point is… Fear hijacks your ground and uses it to produce thorns. Fear is a squatter!
The fourth and final ground is the love ground. Let’s go back to…
Ephesians 3:17-19 NKJV
17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Love will give you the ability to understand the Word and produce fruit AND good works 100 times, 50 times, and 30 times. Again, order is important. What Jesus is saying is if you have a ground of love, and hear a message about the Word it’s easy to produce 100 times fruit with good works. The key here is the love ground, understanding the Word, and obeying the Word that will determine your production. Good ground with the planted Word will always produce something good!
Let’s jump back to the Old Testament to see this love ground has been a plan of God’s all along, and then we’ll end for the week.
Remember that Jesus in Matthew 13 was referring the heart as grounds,
Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV
26I will give- you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
The word flesh in Hebrew is basar and also means person or body. The heart of stone Jesus talked about was cursing; anti-love, or speaking against the Word. That’s exactly what Israel kept doing to sin against God, speaking against God and Moses in the dessert, going after idols (demons), and even defiling the temple. The Lord reveals to Ezekiel that He will put the Holy Spirit within us, which gives us the ability to walk in the Spirit. When we got a new heart, born again, we received His Love being poured out in our heart by The Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Of course you can still put stones in your heart, but you won’t have a heart of stone like the Old Testament Israelites did.
I really wanted to spend this time showing you that the ground is your heart which is actually love. Love will grow the fruit and other seeds that you plant. Galatians says that faith works by love (Galatians 5:6), because it’s planting your faith mustard seed into your love ground so your faith will grow (Matthew 17:20). It’s all connected.
I want to close with this last scripture, which we all know, so we’ll look in the Amplified.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 AMP
4Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].
Love, simply put, is joyfully choosing to take the best action to promote the welfare of others.
I was very humbled by this revelation from the Holy Spirit. For years I have read through these scriptures and never put them together or heard anyone else teach quite like this. I hope this blessed you as much as it blessed me. Next week we will go over the fruits and how to produce them.
Father, we ask in the name of Jesus, that you show us how to clean up our grounds. If we have any seeds, roots, weeds, or rocks in our ground, please show us how to remove them immediately. Father, we asked that you forgive us for any step outside of love that we have taken. We forgive everyone, even those we claimed we would never forgive. Please forgive us for cursings that we remember and even the ones that we don’t. Cancel any bad harvest of thorns that we might have been growing. Wash us in the blood of Jesus. Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Fire, we ask that you burn up everything bad in our ground so that we can produce fruit 100 times with good works. Thank You Father for loving us, giving us Jesus, and The Holy Spirit. Thank You for continuing to show us how to be the 100 times fruit producers. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Christi
My Prayer Notebook 
Leave a comment