Spiritual fruit does not immediately crop up but requires time and its own season (Psalm 1:3). The process of spiritual growth is mysterious and comes from heaven’s creative power, as Yeshua said: “The Kingdom of God (מַלְכוּת הָאֱלהִים) is like someone who spreads seed on the ground. He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. By itself (αὐτομάτη, i.e., “automatically”) the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. And when the grain is ripe, he comes in with his sickle because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29). The wonder of faith understands the “ordinary” process of the growth of a seed as genuinely miraculous… With God all things are possible – and that includes the miracle of our newness of life. It is the fruit of the Spirit, after all, and that means that its source and end is found in God’s love…
Thank God it is a process, that we are not perfected in a day, otherwise we might die in despair over ourselves… As it is, God helps us endure ourselves, reminding us to lay down and die so that the power hidden in the “seed” can be released (John 12:24).
