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By Joyce Meyer
Are you spending all your time and energy trying to get something from God? Are you trying to get peace, get joy, get wisdom? Have I got some good news for you!
You and I don’t need to struggle or strain to get anything from God. Instead, we need to learn how to cooperate with Him and allow what He’s deposited in our spirits to become a reality in our lives.
The truth is, everything we need to develop the character of Christ is already ours. It’s in our spirits in seed form. First John 3:9 says that as believers, …God’s nature abides in [us] [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within [us]; and [we] cannot practice sinning because [we are] born (begotten) of God. The more we understand how God has deposited everything we need inside us, the less we will struggle and strain to try and get something from Him. Instead, we can begin to simply believe for Him to develop and release in us what we need.
Pregnant with God's Nature
When you and I accept Christ into our lives, we become pregnant with God’s nature—we carry the seed of “Christlikeness” in our spirits. Think about it. God is our spiritual Father. He has planted the seed of His nature, or DNA, in us. Everything we need to be more like Christ is in us. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that He …has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (NASB). Over time, as we learn to yield to Him and receive His grace for situations we face, we “grow up” and begin looking and acting like Him.
We are new creatures in Christ the moment we are born again.(1) However, we don’t immediately begin to walk, talk and act like Him. This is a process that happens over time. For instance, my husband, Dave, and I have a daughter who looks a lot like me and acts a lot like him. She has our looks and our nature because she is our child. Now when she was first born, we couldn’t tell who she looked like. But over many years of growth, our DNA clearly began to show up in her looks and personality.
If you and I want to see the fruit of God’s nature become a reality in our lives, then we need to nurture the divine seed He has planted in us. Just as a seed in the ground needs water and sunlight to grow, as believers we need the water of God’s Word and the “Sonlight” of His presence on a regular basis to mature in Christ.
Believing Is Seeing
In the world, people don’t believe they have something until they see it. The law of faith, however, is just the opposite. God says we have to believe first and then we will see it. How is our faith strengthened to see the fruit of God’s character in our lives? I believe that as you and I set our minds in agreement with God’s Word, we will begin to look and act like our heavenly Father.
Colossians 3:1,2 says that since we have been raised to a new life in Christ we are to …aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is… And set [our] minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. How do we set our minds on the right things? I believe we do it by memorizing, meditating and saying what the Bible says. Instead of thinking and saying negative words of discouragement, despair and defeat, we should think and say positive things like, “The power of God is in me. I’m peaceful and patient. Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. I can do whatever I need to through Christ who strengthens me!”
When I first started walking with God, I struggled to get many things from Him. I struggled to get peace and joy because those were things I never had in my life. I also struggled to have faith, patience, kindness, goodness, etc. I finally got so tired of struggling that I made up my mind that if every spiritual blessing in heavenly places was mine, I was going to have them. So I started to read, write and confess God’s Word regularly. Eventually, His truth moved from my head to my heart and became an eye-opening revelation that began transforming my life. For the first time, I actually began experiencing the blessings available to me in Christ.
Whether it’s walking in the reality of God’s love for you, knowing that you can do all things through Christ, or any other blessing God has for you, when you water what’s in your spirit with the Word, it grows and gets rooted deeper in your soul. The fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, etc.—is in you. It just takes time for it to grow and become visible in your life.
So keep watering God’s seed with the Word. Keep going through the growth process, yielding to God as He deals with you and refusing to give up. Don’t think and say you need things like love or patience. Instead, say, “I’ve got love and patience. It’s in me and I’m going to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and believe the Word until I see it become a reality in my life.” As the roots of His truth go deeper and deeper in your soul, the fruit of His nature will grow up and become more and more evident for everyone to see. 
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1) See 2 Corinthians 5:17.
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