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“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Philippians 1:9-11
Notice first that Paul prays for abounding love among the Philippians. He prays their love would specifically abound in knowledge and discernment, with the outcome of wise decision-making and a holy life. The goal of Paul’s prayer and his ministry with churches like this is beautifully summed up in the phrase, “filled with the fruit of righteousness.”
Significantly that righteousness only comes “through Jesus Christ” and is entirely “to the glory and praise of God,” so this is the opposite of self-righteousness or works-based law-keeping. It is all grace and all credit goes to the Lord. But clearly there are things Paul expects the Philippians to do to cooperate with God’s grace and to join him in this posture of prayer.
If you study Paul’s writings and the New Testament in general you cannot come away with the idea that Christians should be passive, just sitting around waiting for God to do something to make them grow and be productive for the kingdom. Yes, it is God’s grace and God’s work in us that enables us to grow and bear fruit, but there are steps we need to take to actively join in this work.
- Understand and believe the GOSPEL. Paul prays here in Philippians 1 and also in Ephesians 1 for supernatural insight into the glory and grace of God. In Ephesians 3 Paul prays the believers will so experience the love of Christ that they are “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the overwhelming reality of all Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. And when that gospel truth takes root in our hearts in begins to bear fruit in our lives.
- Prayerfully Pursue the Spirit’s Filling. Ephesians 5:18 expressly commands believers to “be filled with the Spirit.” We cannot fill ourselves, and God will not fill us automatically. We must place ourselves before God so He can fill us. Picture an empty cup being placed in an overflowing fountain. The way we do this is through the classic spiritual disciplines: reading the Bible, meditating on specific verses and passages, prayerfully resting in the presence of God in times of silence and solitude to actively seek His face, fasting from food and other distractions, worshiping and gathering in other forms with other believers.
- Actively Respond to the Spirit’s Leading. The Holy Spirit speaks to us both negatively (preventing and correcting sin) and positively (guiding us into a life that is more pleasing to God). Many believers only know the corrective voice of the Spirit and have not learned to discern and follow the “still, small voice” of His day by day and moment by moment direction. It is very possible, even likely that we will “quench” the Holy Spirit and harden our hearts to His leading through longstanding habits of denying or resisting His voice.
How is your relationship with the Holy Spirit? For many in the church today He is “The Forgotten God.”
Consider just these three verses.
“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:10
- God is unknowable and the Gospel is incomprehensible apart from the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit to open blind eyes and illumine a darkened mind.
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:11
- Not only does the Holy Spirit live in the heart of the believer in Jesus, the Spirit is the One who connects us with the life and power and love of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the One who fills us “with the fullness of God.”
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Galatians 5:18
The Holy Spirit not only transforms our hearts, giving us new desires and new ability to obey the Law of God, He also leads us – every second of every day – into a life that pleases and honors God. IF we are led by Him. IF we listen to His voice and follow His leading.
We all want our lives to be fruitful – to matter for this life and for eternity. We know that “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5) must come from the Holy Spirit. And yet we tend to neglect the very One who can fill us with the fruit of righteousness that has already been credited to us in Christ.
How can you listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit today?
What is one step you sense the Spirit prompting you to take?