What occurred to me as I reflected on the Holy Spirit story (link below) in The Wake Up Call of Bear and Caryl Mills’ witness today was the words of 1 Corinthians 13:13.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.👍 But the greatest of these is love.”
What came to mind was the way that even the tiniest seed of faith in Christ can give hope for a future. Hope stirred in us by faith can be lived quietly, privately, expectantly, or even noisily and still not lead to germination that yields stems and shoots, leaves and roots, buds and fruit.
One may be aware enough and somewhat attuned to the presence and work of God to live by faith with hope for the eternal life.
But when the abundance of God’s love is seen and known and understood in the gift of Christ, and one’s heart yearns to return the gift of God’s love with gratitude for the gift it truly is, a whole new level of flourishing relationship with God arises…… love’s affection turns awareness and attunement to attachment, attachment to abiding and abiding to abandonment of all of one’s self to the service of God’s will above one’s own. It is trusting fully into abandonment to the will of God in love like His that brings the fruit of joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Seeds of faith and hope alone may persevere. They may lie on the path and give sustenance to another’s journey. They may lie in the soil of a shallow, rocky heart and germinate under the right conditions even in shallow soil. They may grow enough in deeper soil for their own distinct shade of green and shape of leaf to be distinguishable even when sown among thorn and thistle. But faith and hope without the flourishing love of Christ one knows in Christ, cannot produce the kingdom harvest on earth of full-bodied fruit that yields more seeds for sowing that the love of God in the seed sown in a well-worked soul-soil can produce.
Faith and hope may escort one to and through the gate of there-and-then etermal life, but God’s gift of love in Christ is the key that unlocks and throws open the gate and invites the world to join us in His kingdom in the here-and-now abundance of life in the earth but not of it.
Bear and Caryl’s faith and hope, abandoned to God’s will through the love of Christ, is yielding 100-fold fruit for the present time to feed hungry souls, as well as valuable “heritage seeds” of witness to the Word and Spirit of Christ for the generations that will come after them.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/seedbedwakeupcall/permalink/5555039881232518/