Fruit of the Spirit Diet

It is month four of me and David and what I can say is that God is faithful (Hebrews 10: 23), He never leaves nor forsakes you(Hebrews 13: 5), His promises are yes and amen (2Corinthians 1: 20), He holds you by the hand and guides you in your path of life (Psalm 16: 11), He leads you to all truth there is (John 16: 13), God will never leave you hanging 

Someone I know once said: Faith is like water running from a tap, everyone has been given the same measure, in actual fact the same as measure as Jesus's when He walked this earth, however some use up little faith by openning the tap just a little allowing for little drops of faith and therefore little or progressive results but some choose to let that faith tap run wild using up all their faith and getting instant results and living their life out of amazing faith. I believe we all want to let that faith run wild and that's what God wants for us aswell and I believe that is why He is constantly calling to greater things so we can step up our level of faith and trust in Him, cause to achieve greater things we need to more faith, well this is certainly the case in my relationship with Dave 

Our relationship survives, thrives and grows only on our faith and trust in God, His love and grace over us. So you can imagine how hard it gets on days where our faith is running low, when God is calling us to greater things but our level of faith needs a step up, when we havn't stepped on to the level of faith God is calling us to -lol it can get quite frustrating 

The honeymoon phase, a period normally known to be in the beginning of a relationship, when the relationship feels the freshest and most exciting. Estimated by experts to be the first six months to a year of a new relationship, this is also termed "new love". It is evident by the couple's crazy feelings for each other; during this time they are crazy 'inlove', absolutely inseperable and I mean, you just can't tell them anything, they are totally sure about each other and won't hear anything contrary to these amazing beautiful feelings they have for each other. I'm talking butterflies, weak knees, meaningless giggles, skipping heartbeats, matching T-shirts, the joined name, lol guys you name it, these two in their minds are married with kids running around their beautiful house their little feet making cute noises as they smack the heated tiles, I mean total bliss

Lol, total bliss I tell you absolutely beautiful but quite the contrary in me and mine's case. Having taken the decision to be together only based on the Holy Spirit's whisper and faith that we are meant for each other our honeymoon phase seems to have not yet kicked in. Reality took it's course and once or twice (or more lol) we've faced the decision to hold on to the beautiful promise we had that day on the 14th of October 2017, a promise which truthfully seems too good to be true, or will we reason it out, stop being crazy and "snap out of it"

Lol I guess we are crazy, crazy enough to hold on to the beautiful promise that looks impossible. Many times I came so close to snapping out of it but just then when I'm about to, right in the middle of my melt down, the Holy Spirit whispers a word in my heart or in Dave's heart and he'd tell me exactly what I need to hear right then to hold on a little longer and vice versa, he'd have a melt down and I'd have a word from the Holy Spirit and he'd hold on a little longer. And that's why I believe that a Godly relationship is not made up of two but three, and the most important person isn't me and Dave it's the third person of the Trinity, Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit holds us together and He's the only one who knows the way to make this work and without Him I doubt me and Dave would have survived even one week of this lol

"Crazy faith" I said ... "typa relationship where you take crazy faith steps together and have the same understanding that God is for you and never against you, where you draw love and forgiveness for each other from God Himself, where you both don't depend on each other's strenghth or wisdom or sanity for the wellbeing of the relationship but depend on the Holy Spirit to guide the both of you (individually and as a couple)". If you read my 'God, How do I Girlfriend?' post then you know this is the kind of relationship me and Dave agreed was ideal for us, God had worked up a desire for this kind of relationship in us. Four months later I'm glad to say it's exactly that, however it's actually easier said than done, it ain't easy at all, but it's beautiful, this is the best yet most challenging relationship I've ever been in.

What's beautiful is the growth, all  the things we are learning and have learned these past four months, the levels of faith that we have unlocked, the doubts we have overcome, the amount of love we have drawn from God for each other. Lol I promise you this relationship has me on a Fruit of the Spirit diet (Galatians 5); over and over I've had to chose to love David and grab the fruit of love, I've had to choose to be happy and grab the fruit of Joy, I've had to choose to be faithful, to be patient, to be gentle, to be kind towards David, yes I had to CHOOSE, it didn't come naturally, I had to decide, I had to be intentional about it.

Being intentional is something I've never had to be, well certainly not when it comes to relationships, it always came naturally, from the get go it just always seemed to flow, we just got along "it just made sense", but lol how easy it came always seemed to be how it easy it went hahahaaaa. God taught me, in quite a funny way, that love wasn't just feelings and maybe feelings wasn't even a fraction of it, yet it was more beautiful than those butterflies, and weak knees, and meaningless giggles and "it just makes sense". That's how he got me to get up from my crumbled down world (refer to the "I'm a God" post), that's how he got me to get up and try again, I knew there was more and I knew this "more" was more beautiful than my idea of love. However I also knew this 'more' meant letting go of my understanding of love and relationships which anyway had seemed to fail me multiple times, lol, first of all I knew I had to be intentional in my love, this reminds me of something I wrote after my last breakup:

"Decisions, not feelings, feelings come and go feelings are weak

 We feel all the time, often times feel things we shouldn't be feeling and sometimes for people we shouldn't be feeling those feelings for

It's about decisions, choosing to do what's right"

I've realised that feelings will follow any decision you make and be intentional about. Any decision you make and follow up with an action, your feelings or mood will follow through, this is the same logic behind choosing to be happy, by getting up and stop being sad and feeling sorry for yourself. My mom once told me "smile, your mood will follow"

I'm not saying it's easy but four months later I can say it's doable, and I can say it streghthened our relationship. It's faith isn't it? When Jesus prayed for the lame to walk He'd always say "now get up and walk" or heal the blind and say they should see.

James 2:26 says "...faith without works is dead". This is often misunderstood and translated to the famous religious line "God helps those who help themselves" / "modimo o thusa bae thusang". Quite the contrary, He actually helps those who don't help themselves, grace works where we rest, us working  actually always messes things up, like Abraham with Hagar (Genesis 16), everytime we try and help God we mess up even more. If you are choosing to allow God's help then you need to step out of the way, things will work His way and you won't get it, Faith can't be reasoned out by our canal mind, it's like a 3 year old trying to help you mop the dirty floor ... ima leave that up to your imagination lol

"Faith without works is dead" literally and logically means that if your faith doesn't have a corresponding act then it is pointless. If you have faith for healing you have to get up and "fake it till you make it" lol for real though, if you aren't getting up and walking then you don't believe that you are healed and I mean, it's not faith because the Bible says in Hebrews 11 :1 that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". The bible says "Faith is now" that action accompanying your faith , it must be now

Me and Dave have faith for some crazy things lol, if I tell yall you'll think we are insane, and you wouldn't be wrong lol we sure are crazy to believe all this is possible, but I believe this is the kind of faith we need to have if we want to achieve great things. If the things you have faith for is possible in your canal mind then in my understanding that isn't faith in God, it's really faith in your understanding and reason, or faith in your understanding of God's power which I've learned we can never comprehend

1 Corinthians 1:20 "But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty"

We see a seed -God sees a tree

We see a rock in the desert -God saw water gushing out of it (Exodus 17:5)

We see five smooth stones and young David -God sees them kill a giant (1 Samuel 17: 40)

We see a 99 year old Abram and his barren 90 year old wife -God saw parents of Isaac and made Abram- Abraham -Father of many nations

We see a baby in a manger -God sees saviour of the world

These are but the few times God made sense of the senseless and living in this kind of faith is a constant battle and renewal of ones mind. This kind of faith takes constant reconstracting of reality, a reality constracted for the past 23 years of my life and this is through constant meditation on the word.

Hebrews 11:3 "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible"

This right here is the ancour of my relationship with David, our faith. Faith in our God, God our father who loves us enough to make it all happen and actually already has blessed us abundantly by sending his son Jesus to die for us to have it all. His son who says "I come so that you may have life, and have life in all its fullness"

This crazy faith ...that we will reach our honeymoon phase hahahaaa and so much more... this is what makes up our relationship entirely -faith. This faith is held up by many building blocks of scripture, lol guys I promise you scripture has never been so romantic to me hahaaaa, everytime me and David share the word which is practically all the time lol, I fall even more inlove with him. Romans 10:17 "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" our relationship has made me really understand this verse, everytime we share the word, we reach a new level of faith ancouring or relationship even deeper, growing our love more stronger, it's absolutely beautiful, a beautiful experience

I'm having to learn to boast in our weakness, like  Paul in  2Corinthians 12: 9 "And He said to me 'My grace is sufficiant for you, for my strenghth is made perfect in your weakness". Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me". I'm learning to see all the weaknesses in our relationship as an opportunity for Jesus' power to be made manifest, God uses our weaknesses to show his power -for His glory, so it's a matter of constant excercise of my faith and changing my frame of reference. Do I choose to see through the canal frame of reference or through God's, through His eyes, who sees our weaknesses as a platform to show His greatness and therefore give myself and our relationship as a vessel, a broken vessel, all for His glory

I've had to answer the question "what if it doesn't work out" and to that I say ... Me and Dave have had God completely re-define dating for us, God is teaching us so much and a lot of people are learning from our relationship and hopefully will continue throughout, learning from what He's teaching us too. That said, dating in my understanding is searching, and searching sometimes could mean you'll be sure you've found when in actual fact you havn't. God forbid but if we are wrong about this (which should be impossible seeing that we are seeing weaknesses as opportunity for God to work) one thing I know is if we broke up me and him would be able to stay friends because our intentions with each other are completely pure. In my little two cents worth of opinion I really think that's something our generation could learn, to "breakup well" we seem to get the happy times well but the bad times we are at each other's heads. It's okay to be wrong, and it sure would make being wrong feel better for both people knowing that you stayed pure, although there's still grace for those who don't.

My point and answer to the question is; just as relationship and dating is being redefined for us, if we were to break up, breaking up would also be redefined for us and for everyone learning from our relationship too, but that said "I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me"

So in conclusion the past four months of my relationship with Dave have been life changing and faith growing for me, it's been challenging I've had to legit step out of my comfort zone, I've had to learn to do things  a lot differently. I've had to learn to hear Holy Spirirt's voice the loudest, to silence all other voices and little by little Holy Spirit isn't that small voice at the back of my head anymore but I hear Him louder and hear His directions clearer. However it has also been really beautiful, we've grown together as a couple, the "romantic" love is growing, the transition from friendship to boyfriend/girlfriend is in progress and coming along quite well, lol.

We are learning so much about each other, it's funny because we aren't even on the honeymoon phase -which I'm not missing, lol I told God like "God, I'm having my honeymoon phase, do the most please" lol- we aren't there yet, and we aren't perfect either but I honestly wouldn't be doing life and this journey with anyone else right now, I wouldn't be dating anyone else. It's really amazing I'm learning so much about myself, I've had so much about me challenged that I never thought I had to deal with, many areas where I realised I'm weak and need God's grace to be better. I've learned to rule over my feelings and be intentional in choosing to love the God kind of way, and I know eventually the love in 1Corinthians 13 will be flowing natually out of me, and I'm happy to say I'm seeing it in progress

The most beautiful part of it all though, is that our relationship grows the more we seek God, it grows the more we realise God's love for us and grace over our lives and life together so we are constantly drawn to God, always seeking Him which in turn grows us more firmly together, it's beautiful. Best relationship ever, proving yet again that God's way is the best way