September 21, 2011 HOw deep does my taproot go?

Gal. 5:22-23 When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. New Living Translation

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. NASB

The Spirit however, produces in human life fruits such as these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance and self-control—and no law exists against any of them. Phillips

In Africa, where we lived, we had a mango tree in our yard. It bore wonderfully juicy mangoes near the end of dry season, after we had gone six to seven months without rain. The tree was able to do that because it had a tap root that went up to 1/4 of a mile deep into the earth to a water source. Rooted in that water source, the tree bore a thick foliage of brilliant green leaves and heavy peach colored fruit when all the trees around it were either barren or hung with dried out palm fronds.

The mango tree is a good picture of what it looks like to be rooted in the Holy Spirit or controlled by the Holy Spirit. It is true that you don't eat the fruit we bear, but life would not be fruitful or pleasing or satisfactory without this fruit - love, joy, peace, patience...and well, you can read the rest.

The mango tree cannot remove its roots from the water source, but if it could, it certainly would neither bear fruit nor even survive. I don't think, we as believers, are much different. When we pull back from giving the Holy Spirit control of our lives, when we refuse to allow the Spirit to nourish our lives, we are no more useful nor pleasant to be around than those leafless and fruitless trees in Africa or anywhere else.

As I reflected on the fruit available to us, I wondered how the deeper we go with the Holy Spirit, the more yielded we are to Him, impacts us. I wondered if self-control or temperance is such a battle for most of us because we pull our roots out of the water, out of the Spirit's control. And I wondered what it would take for me to get those roots completely immersed in the Holy Spirit.