The Fruit of Intimacy with God

I love a good gift.

Growing up, receiving gifts from my dad was part of our dynamic. I didn’t realise it wasn’t normal for every daughter to receive love from her dad through affirmation and gifts.

So when it came to receiving good (and perfect) gifts from my heavenly Father, I didn’t hesitate. I still don’t. I know He gives gifts to me not because I deserve them, but because He loves me.

That’s why I also love giving gifts to others as an expression of the love of God flowing from within me – especially when I get to put thought into the gift I’m giving.

There’s something special about receiving a gift from someone who truly knows you. It’s extra special when the gift shows they know you better than you realised.

But gifts don’t define a relationship.

There’s a saying about becoming like the people you spend the most time with. And the Bible also says something to that effect:

“Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.”

Proverbs 13:20 NIV

The more time we spend with a person, the more we begin to think, speak and do as they would. Have you gone on a holiday with a friend for a few weeks, returned to daily life and then randomly said a word that echoes your friend to a tee? It’s all that concentrated time you spent together – their vocabulary was rubbing off on you!

It’s the same in our relationship with God. The more we read His Word, the more we think and speak His words. The more we dwell with Him, the more our hearts become like His.

Yet we look at people who are operating in the gifts of the Spirit – words of knowledge, prophecy, healing, interpreting tongues, etc – and we see it as a measure of their relationship with God. We believe that someone so gifted in the Spirit must be closer to God than we are.

That’s not necessarily true.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard testimonies from people who’ve admitted they discovered their significant giftings before they came to Jesus. It was through their relationship with Jesus that Holy Spirit showed them how to steward the gift for the glory of God and to edify the body of Christ.

Here’s the truth:

The gifts of the Spirit don’t reflect intimacy with God.

The fruit of the Spirit do.

Let’s explore the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit a bit more and see what they’re about.

The gifts of the Spirit

We’re all given a measure of gifts by Holy Spirit.

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 NIV

It’s not up to us which gifts we receive or how much, but we can ask for them out of the pure desire for God to use us as a vessel to love and bless others. And if we steward the gifts we receive faithfully and diligently, He may choose to give us a greater measure. But that’s up to God.

Growing in the gifts of the Spirit isn’t contingent on an intimate relationship with God. Sure, staying close to God can help us ensure we’re using the gifts in His way and pleasing Him. But we also see people moving in the power of God for self-glory. They’re still being used by God to minister, heal and deliver, though their hearts aren’t in the right place.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Matthew 7:21-23 NIV

How confronting.

But what this scripture shows us is that God cares more about what’s in our hearts than our hands. Above all, His desire is for us to love Him and love people.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40 NIV

What we do for God will then flow from our love for Him. And the love we receive from God increases our capacity to love others. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 to say that even the greatest gifts don’t compare to God’s top priority: love.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-2 NIV

We go on to read what true love looks like from verse 4. And then verse 8 reminds us that gifts like words of prophecy and knowledge are temporal – we’ll no longer need them when Christ returns. But love, that’s eternal – we get to experience its fullness when we meet with Jesus, face to face. How beautiful!

God’s heart is completely bent towards love because He is love.

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

1 John 4:7-8 NLT