I had the privilege to hear a Jewish missionary from Israel speak recently. He spoke on the NINE
fruits of the spirit in Galatians 6 in correlation to the NINE spices listed in
Song of Solomon 4. I had never heard of
these two groupings of scriptures referencing one another before. I have not done the study myself, but
definitely found it intriguing and something to look further into. I walked away with a stronger desire to be proactive
in cultivating the fruit in my life and becoming a person of strong character.
There was far too much to it to mentally capture or physically jot
down and give it justice. So I am just going
to type as I remember it and add in personal thoughts as they come. J
The young woman in Song of Solomon was at that time
considered to be an unlearned, peasant girl and the man was a
king. In the very beginning of the book she was awakened to love; just
like we become awakened to the love of God before we come to Him. The
king had to teach and show her what it is she needed in order to reign with
him.
When you move to the 4th chapter it speaks of the woman
being a garden. We are also the garden; a garden that is meant to live
and thrive and grow good fruit that is pleasing to our King.
The fruit that jumped out to me
was meekness. The origin of the
word means “to suffer without retaliation.”
Wow. That sure broadened a word
for me that I thought simply meant “teachable.”
David was a meek man. He did not
retaliate against Saul when he had opportunities to do so. Both Saul and David were anointed.
What set David apart is he was a man with character (fruits of the
spirit). He likened Saul to a church who is called and anointed but
has not developed character. We can settle with being like Saul. We will still be used by God. We may even slay our thousands. However, if we develop our character like
David did, we will slay ten thousands, so to speak. (1 Samuel 18:7) We will have greater
power and presence of God working in our lives and in our ministries.
Someone asked how important the gifts of the Spirit were.
He said they are essential, but not foundational. He said we need to
desire them and want to be used in them, but without character, our influence
and our relationship with the Lord will be limited. Anointing builds
the church but needs to be built on character.
The fruit of the spirit attracts God's presence. We
become a sweet smelling aroma to Him and He is drawn to that. (2 Corinthians
2:15, Ephesians 5:2) When we react the right way, it brings God's
presence. When we react wrong, we nauseate Him. (Psalm 95:10)
The word grieved in that scripture
literally means disgusted, nauseated, to make vomit. :(
Jesus Christ. Christ
is not His last name, as we know. Christ
means anointing. Satan, anti-Christ =
anti-anointing. He hates the anointing that
builds the church. Made me think that this is why he fights our spirit
walk so hard to get us to defer to walking in the flesh. Flesh produces
death. Flesh never produces life and
anointing.
Another question asked was how to overcome anger.
He said we need to get to the root of it so God can heal us, but even apart from doing that, if we
learn to walk in the fruit of peace, anger will be diminished. It is like
a buffer. Imagine someone walking with a full cup of
water to the brim. Someone bumps them, it spills. That's how it is when someone
has pent up anger. However, if we are walking in peace, even if the anger
is underneath, there's a buffer there; a covering that allows for us a little
extra time to not react in anger. It reminded me of Philippians 4:7, "Then you will experience God’s
peace [when you pray and give thanks, verse 6], which exceeds anything we can
understand. His peace will GUARD your hearts and minds as you live in Christ
Jesus." His peace guards and keeps us.
When our peace is disturbed, we need to stop
and identify the fear attached to that moment. In finding the root, we can be set
free to walk in faith and not fear. Fear is the default mode for our flesh. Faith allows us to walk in the spirit and not default to our natural flesh reactions. Faith shields us. (1 Peter
1:5)
He shared he unknowingly had fear of abandonment his whole life due
to being away from his mother for nearly a year after her suicide attempt when he
was a young boy. Once he got to the root of that fear, he learned to walk in the fruit of peace so he has
that "buffer" to react properly. He said without peace, he is
sure his reactions would not be pleasant. I found it interesting that he
said lavender in Song of Solomon 4 was peace.
As we know, we use lavender for relaxation J
Final thoughts: As I
pondered on all of this today, I got to thinking about the gifts brought to Jesus after his birth.
Gold = Associated with kings and kingdoms
Frankincense = Faith/faithfulness
Myrrh = Meekness
The King of kings (gold), who suffered for us without
retaliation (myrrh), was faithful even unto death (frankincense)! J
