What do you want to harvest?
God created the church to be a body and each member of the body was created for a special purpose. Some are given gifts of teaching, others evangelizing, some are pastors, others are prophets, and so on. All necessary and all needed. This design is why the Lord did not deposit all gifts into any single person. He wanted us to work together, recognizing that in unity there is not only a blessing, but there is actually more fruit. In truth, we need one another.
But in order for the body to function as designed we need to operate in unity. So how does that happen?
Ephesians 4 says that unity can only come by way of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives of peace, joy, love, gentleness, self-control, and more. Alternatively, our flesh produces hostility, quarrelling, jealously, anger, division, and so forth. (Ref: Galatians 5)
Additionally, the Word makes it clear that whatever we sow we will also reap. (Ref: Psalms 62:11-12, Galatians 6:7, and 2 Corinthians 9:6) If we sow seeds of unforgiveness, we will reap judgement. If we sow seeds of anger, we will in turn reap anger. However, if we choose to sow seeds of love, we will in turn reap love.
Think of it like this. Everything you do plants a seed. You can choose to sow seeds of kindness, generosity, unity, forgiveness, and love. Alternatively, you can choose to sow unforgiveness, judgement, harsh words, exclusion, gossip, and so on. Now imagine those seeds grow into a tree and produce fruit from what type of seed was planted. You can have a garden of more generosity, peace, unity, and love. Or you can have a garden full of gossip, exclusion, and unforgiveness.
If others come to partake of the fruit in your garden what do you want them to taste? Bitterness or kindness? Peace or division? Love or unforgiveness? Will the fruit in your garden cause others to want to work in unison with you or apart from you?
The Holy Spirit’s role in our lives is to help us water the seeds of peace and unity and uproot seeds of division and strife. If we walk out our faith in relationship with Him we can function in unison as one body and together we can advance the kingdom much further.
Let’s remember one person can put a thousand to flight, but two can put ten thousand to flight.
So the question is…what do you want to harvest?
