New Life Already Began
In China, I hold a green card. However, I also have a spiritual passport that says Heaven. Jesus says I was reborn and began a new life. A new life already began when I believed. I Peter notes that new in our belief, we are babies who need good spiritual milk. Hebrews talks about new babies who are not thriving. It is a hard to leave our old life or even family, cultural or national culture, but Jesus died that we may live a new life. God did not call us to wait for heaven to begin this life.
We become children of the kingdom when we believe. I find that we grow as children of the Kingdom as we really believe. Un the kingdom, we dress ourselves with
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
We leave a world of
sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
In the fruit of the Spirit, each type of personality will naturally be pretty successful with a few items on list. By will power, we are very limited in showing those we are weakest in. Our families will not be fooled if we try to fake it.
Never the less, we are children of God in this world, and ought to see our behavior in light of Heaven’s culture. Our new life is already available.
Our New Life Began and Can Grow
We can grow in these by spending more time with God. We are studying Celebration of Discipline in our house church now. Finding ways to deepen our relationship with God is of great worth, and we can certainly bring our gaps to him, that He may grow us to allow the Holy Spirit to bear these weaker ones in our lives. Mastering our weaker ones is a clear work of God deep within us.
Let us seek this new life with God who leads us into His culture. Saying I lack joy as a final thing is not healthy. God seeks to rule our lives to bring us to fulfillment in this life and the next. He knows the best path for us and knows how to make us fruitful.
