There well may be signs that we are living in the last days. Unless human beings can turn away from unbridled selfishness then there can be little hope that we can survive long into the future. There is only one planet Earth and its resources are finite. If we put our life support system under too much strain then it will cease to be life supporting.
The prophet Joel, who is quoted in the Acts of the Apostles by Peter at Pentecost, says: “In the last days, it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” It is in these ‘last days’ that we need the guidance and the wisdom of God’s Spirit. We must pray and seek out that deep wisdom of God. It is a wisdom that goes beyond this world and our life here, but it is a wisdom that can guide us now in our earthly lives. As Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’.
Our purpose as human beings on earth is to bring into the earthly realm, the divine realm, which is here present all the time, and is the reality that lasts on into eternity. There is a lovely Quaker saying that says, ‘Seek to know one another in the things that are eternal’. Can we look to the eternal values and seek to be guided by them while we live out the rest of our time here on earth? Can those values and their deep wisdom guide us here and now?
What are those deep fruits of the Spirit, which God promises to pour out upon all flesh? Paul’s list in the letter to the Galatians is not a bad starting point. He writes that, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’.
All these fruits of the Spirit have the effect of bringing into unity things that are divided. The creative Spirit of God, that has always been there, since the dawn of time and before, seeks to bring the whole created order into a unity. And of the future, Paul the Apostle writes, ‘that the whole creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God’.
The pattern of death and resurrection speaks, perhaps, most deeply of the wisdom of God. Jesus shows us through his death and resurrection that the fruits of the Spirit are stronger than the things of destruction and death.
Love is stronger than hate.
Peace will prevail where war now destroys.
The forgiveness that Jesus showed on the cross when he said, ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do’, speaks to us today as we ignorantly turn away from doing good.
Solomon, when he became King of Israel, prayed that he would be given wisdom. Let us today pray for wisdom for ourselves, and our leaders, so that we can use the fruits of the Spirit to bring healing and new life to our world.
‘Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.’
Rev Philip Young is vicar at St Thomas Heigham in Norwich. www.stthomasheigham.org
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