Jayamsih! Welcome to morning devotion.
The Purifying Cause of Love
- Among the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit presented in Galatians 5:22, love is the first; The first is the cause and the remaining eight fruits are the effects of love. The essence or substance of God is love. The quality of this element is in its effects.
Believers try to experience spiritual effects by manifesting their natural feelings of power, but during this struggle, they blind themselves to God’s purpose of revealing His plan for their lives. They place actions on faith, hoping that they will experience satisfaction in their minds and emotions. Purification is the process of draining the essence of matter. Love is our substance. Therefore, the Holy Spirit purifies in us God’s purposes for us, as a result of which we are products of His essence.
God’s essence or substance is removed from obedience to the truth of God’s holy word. The power of God’s Word is used by the Holy Spirit to draw out the essence, which confirms us in His image and perfects us in His character. When we are permeated by the first cause, Jesus, we manifest heavenly activity. The results of his personality traits reveal the effects: Ananda – calm happiness; Peace – holy progress in God’s order; Endurance – the fort that manifests patience; Mercy – the quality of God’s compassion; Goodness – a quality of God’s character; Faith – the substance of truth; Humility – Humility in the sense of humility toward resurrection life; Temperance – The ability to control our human nature. - Today’s reading passage is Exodus 8-10