Flourish: Grace-Centered Practices to Protect and Grow a Fruitful Life in Christ
If the fruit of the Spirit is promised to every Christian, then why do so many believers wish they were filled with more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Learn how to reclaim the qualities you were meant to have in abundance!
Flourish: Grace-Centered Practices to Protect and Grow a Fruitful Life in Christ reveals how we can overcome Satan’s attempts to block the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. When Satan is at work, the result can be a discouraging sense of unripe or half-eaten fruit of the Spirit hanging on the branches of our life. We are cheated out of the full blessing of watching these characteristics fully ripen in us as we live out our Christian walk. Call it stolen or stunted, diminished, damaged, or spoiled, the result is the same. We fail to experience all the Holy Spirit prepares for us to enjoy.
So what’s a Christian to do? We fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons:
- Recognize the enemy’s tactics: Successful warfare requires an awareness of our own vulnerabilities and an understanding of the opponent’s tactics.
- Nurture a right perspective: Satan operates successfully because all too often he has a better understanding than we do of how God grows His fruit in our life. Nurturing a right perspective requires understanding God’s perspective, which is often different from ours.
- Recover and grow: A recovery mission is the next step after we experience defeat. As we apply biblical principles in surrender to the Holy Spirit, we are better equipped to guard our heart, recover what the thief has attacked, and nurture new growth.
- Share the harvest: The Holy Spirit cultivates His fruit in our life not just to bless us, but for us to be a blessing to countless others. The fourth step examines practical ways to share His fruit and explore ways to encourage others to nurture this fruit in their own life.
Get ready to protect and grow the inheritance God has promised His children!
At last! A work on the fruit of the Spirit that takes you past mere definitions to simple and yet profound application. In Flourish, Ava Pennington walks us through the garden of faith to examine the fruits of the Spirit. Like a master gardener, she combines the tools of Scripture, story, and application to help us cultivate the fruit by which we become more like Christ. With each chapter she helps you to recapture your sense of awe and wonder in the fruit God deeply desires us to have and to share with others. After twenty-plus years of pastoral ministry experience, I am excited to recommend this book for anyone wishing to grow and mature in the Fruits of the Spirit. Pick up the book and invite in the Holy Spirit.
Ava Pennington’s work never fails to draw me in with its story, humor, and depth. She easily takes us to the deepest places where God waits for us to know Him, know more about Him, and love Him in ways we’ve yet to discover. Sitting with Ava’s work is one of life’s pleasures.
After years of serving as a pastor, I came to the uncomfortable realization that while the gifts of the Spirit were emphasized constantly, the fruit of the Spirit was woefully neglected. As both a spiritual shepherd and an individual Christ follower, I began pursuing a greater understanding and application of that fruit. The pursuit included searching for resources that helped me nurture its growth in both my life and my congregation’s. Ava Pennington’s Flourish is exactly that kind of resource. In her easy-to-read style, Ava brings understanding and practical application to her readers as they partner with the Holy Spirit to see abundant fruitfulness in their lives. I look forward to sharing this wonderful book with many fellow Christians in years to come.
In Flourish, author Ava Pennington gives us an incredible gift―a road map to an abundant life. Set in a strong foundation of biblical truth, her practical tips and relatable stories provide both hope and solid help as we navigate through life. I already know this book will become dog-eared with loving use. And it’s a treasure I’ll share with others to help them along the way.
I have read many books on the fruit of the Spirit, and can easily name the nine attributes we receive from the Holy Spirit to become more like Christ. Ava Pennington, however, goes deeper and shows how the enemy attempts to stunt our spiritual growth to keep us from experiencing the full blessing of our Christ-like characteristics. The author doesn’t leave us hanging with hopelessness, but rather, she gives us the spiritual weapons we need to stand strong and firm against the thief who comes to steal and destroy.