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Today, we're going to take a posture of peace

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by fully enjoying the fruit of the spirit

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that has grown in the soil of our difficulties.

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Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale.

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Posture is a podcast that serves a short, audible fist bump

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to remind you that God is in everything.

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Together, we're gonna be emboldened

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to take a daily posture of perfect peace.

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In Galatians chapter five, verses 22 through 25, it says,

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but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

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kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

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gentleness, and self-control.

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Against such things, there is no law.

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Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh

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with its passions and desires.

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Since we live by the spirit,

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let us keep in step with the spirit.

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This week, I've been sharing clips of a conversation

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I had with one of my spiritual mentors, Graham Cook,

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and one of my favorite things that Graham teaches on

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is the fruit of the spirit.

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It's these fruits that reveal the nature of God to us.

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Now, please don't let that truth pass you by.

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God is not telling you to be gentle.

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God is telling you, I am gentle,

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and because of who he is,

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you have access to all of those things as well.

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Do you ever have seasons where you're just desperate

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for people to be gentle with you?

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I have, and unfortunately,

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people and circumstances are not always gentle,

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but God, he is always gentle with you,

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no matter the people or the circumstances

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that you're having to face,

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and he's also kind and joyful.

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Have you ever heard God laugh?

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Here's something that adds to the beauty of all of this.

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As we talked about in episode 44,

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we are becoming transformed into who he is in this world.

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Gentle, kind, faithful, joyful, patient,

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just to name a few.

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Now, a question that Graham often asks

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those that he's mentoring is,

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which fruit do you think the Lord

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is wanting to develop you into right now,

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in this season or in this circumstance?

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And I'll share with you at the end of this episode

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what I think the Lord is developing me into right now,

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but first, here's a clip of Graham sharing more

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about this transformational truth.

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You know, he's always concerned

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about bringing you into a fuller experience of who he is.

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So that's really important to him

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because he knows what's best for us.

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And they're living in us because they wanna bring out

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the best of them in us.

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So the important thing is always to go in

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before you go out.

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So my favorite question is, Lord,

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what is it you wanna do in me right now?

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Because I don't wanna miss that.

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That is relational learning at its best.

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All your life situations are about empowering you

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to become like Jesus.

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You know, so if you have a really annoying person

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in your life, you're probably learning patience, right?

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Here's the thing is, you can't learn patience

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when everything is going well.

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A lot of the fruits of the Spirit are grown

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in the soil of a situation that's difficult.

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So how do you grow in kindness?

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Kindness grows in the soil of a situation

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where somebody says something really unkind to you

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and you have a choice.

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You can either move in the same spirit and like,

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well, I know something about you, pal.

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Or you can recognize, I need to respond

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in the fruit of kindness.

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So you have a great opportunity.

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When everything you feel is against you,

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the three people inside you are for you

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and they overwhelm everything

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because they're that incredible.

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They will overwhelm everything outside,

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but first, they need to overwhelm you

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with how kind they are, with how good they are,

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with how loving they are.

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So Jesus, when he's teaching us love,

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he teaches us love in the context of us loving God

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and then loving other people the way that he loves us.

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So he's saying, this thing is a cycle.

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You receive love, you give love, and then you get more love.

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You know, whatever you give to God comes back to you.

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Whatever you pray for comes back to you.

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practice in him stays with you. So yeah, it's a relational cycle that God uses. And I think

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maybe one of the problems is we don't really get taught the ways of God often. You know,

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how God thinks, how he sees, how he works, how he likes to do things. And he always has

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a purpose in what he's doing. And sometimes when you're fixed on the situation, you're

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not seeing the purpose first. So often you don't know how to respond. So we get scared,

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we get worried, we get anxious, we get fearful, we get angry. We do all of that stuff. And

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we're not practicing the presence of God in the fruit of the Spirit. I love that God has

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brought everything inside of us. It's all available 24-7, right now.

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God is always focused on bringing you into a fuller experience of who he is. Now currently,

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I believe God is depositing and cultivating his joy in me, which is really exciting because

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the Bible says that his joy is my strength. So I'm not only becoming more joyful, breaking

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free of a somber existence and embracing wonder-filled delight. While that's happening, I'm also

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becoming stronger. I so feel that right now. What about you? I would love to hear your

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answer, so please leave a comment on which fruit God is highlighting to you in the season

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that you're in. Which fruit do you believe that he's wanting to develop you into right

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now? The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26-3. And in Hebrew, it is shalom

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shalom, meaning complete wholeness. Nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are

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in Jesus. Let's declare this together. Today, I am kept in perfect peace. With my whole

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heart, I trust the Lord. I am strong. I am victorious. I am whole. Remember, friend,

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you are a living testimony of Jesus' ultimate win. Not because of anything you did, but

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because of what he did for you. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus'

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victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.