Love is a fruit… whose product is a Gift
One day, in my Acworth Georgia home, I prayed this prayer.
“Father God, give me your perfect love, all of it, nothing less, that I may love others with this perfect love. Do not send me anywhere without this perfect love because I cannot represent you faithfully without it.”
I prayed this when I was about 29 years old. What followed was a series of relationships where my love had to be grown, tested, and tried.
Love is a fruit…whose product is a Gift. Love is not a gift given effortlessly, love is a fruit that is grown in us by the Holy Spirit from the source of God the Father.
The scripture in Romans 5:5 NLT says; “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
When I read this scripture, I thought that God had a “love bowl” somewhere hidden for people who pray and ask Him for His love. Then, He gives the Holy Spirit this bowl of love to pour out into us.
When I prayed to love as Christ does, I expected to feel this love poured out into my heart by the Holy Spirit, and then I would automatically start loving everyone just like God does.
This was far from reality! Love is displayed to someone else as a gift, but to the person who gives this gift of love, it is a tree that is produced in them. For example, if I plant a mango tree, I must take care of the seed, put it in the dirt, cover it, water it, and protect it from predators, I must take care of it as it grows from a tiny seed that dies to bring life until it becomes the massive tree that attracts people to it by its fruit.
Mango fruit is sweet, but it has to go through a process of growth to benefit the consumer and the producer of love. We must become like God. God is love. God is the tree of love and we are the branches of this tree of love. We, only by His Spirit, do we produce the fruit of love.
How then do we produce more fruit of love? By staying connected to the tree of love. God teaches us love by giving us experiences that will cause us to tap into the nutrients in the tree of love for the production of the fruit of love by the branches.
Love does not come easy or naturally. We must be intentional to produce the fruit of love. God will put us in situations where we are pruned. Here we face difficult circumstances where people hurt us unfairly, but we must love them unconditionally, so that we may bear more fruit of love.
Sometimes, our spouses will not love us like Christ does, but we must still love them just like Jesus loved us. While we were yet sinners He died for us. He had a dying kind of love that even at our worst, He loves us the same. He can never love us less no matter what. This is the unconditional love we all must have.
Haters will come our way, but just like Jesus did, so must we. He never hated them back, instead, he prayed for them, forgave them, and asked the Father to forgive and bless them.
Until love becomes a consistent fruit in your life, no matter what is thrown at you -the branch, only the fruit of love is produced, you are nothing! (See 1Cor 13)
When a stone is thrown on a mango tree’s branch, sweet mangoes fall. If someone comes gently to pluck fruit from the mango tree branches, sweet mangos are produced. The fruit doesn’t change to lemon or to a bitter mango because someone hit the branch. No one determines the fruit, only the tree (God). If you are solidly connected to Christ, you will be consistent in your fruit of love production. You will represent Christ faithfully.
We only rule from the throne of Love. Our authority I
n Christ is only valid from the place of LOVE. One day, as I was going through my divorce, I was very bitter at my ex-spouse as my heart was deeply wounded. The Holy Spirit seeing this, He showed me a vision.
In the vision, I stood at the back left of Christ’s throne and watched Him rule in love, power, and authority. He had so much glory and splendor. Then I heard the voice of God the Holy Spirit saying, “You can not sit on the throne and rule with Him apart from love. That throne is only ruled in love.” He said this as He pointed to Christ.
I immediately got the message, and I repented the sin of lack of love. I chose to love, forgive, and pray for my ex-spouse and bless him. I wanted to get back on the throne and rule with Jesus. I could not afford to be dethroned in my loveless state.
I was restored to the throne when I asked God to give me His perfect forgiveness and love that I may use it to forgive and love my x with. Only then was I able to love unconditionally. No one is worth us being dethroned for, or living a powerless life due to lack of love.
Beloved, we must represent God faithfully. This is only possible when we, by the Holy Spirit, die to self and obey God’s greatest commandment to love everyone even when our hearts convince us otherwise. Let us by the Holy Spirit put to death pride and ego, as these are the greatest enemy of love.
In Christ’s love,
GZ🤍