Manifest
Around this time of the year people start to get ready for Christmas at home. It may be late November, but I have already spotted a few houses with their Christmas lights up.
As we start December this weekend, I expect a lot more houses to be decorated, weather permitting, and Christmas trees going up inside too. We don’t do that at our house yet, however I am hopeful to get a chocolate advent calendar!
As we prepare for Christmas, it is also a time to look back over the last year and see what has happened or stood out.
Recently, I read an article that said that the Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year for 2024 is ‘manifest’, meaning ‘to show something clearly, through signs or actions.’
According to the Cambridge Dictionary website, the word was looked up almost 130,000 times! However, it is reported that the word has evolved, and these days means ‘to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen’.
Celebrities, such as the pop star Dua Lipa and gymnast Simone Biles have spoken of manifesting their success in the modern sense, on social media.
It got me thinking about the original sense of the word. What do I ‘manifest’, and does the Bible have anything to say about it? Whilst pondering, this verse came to mind…
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Fruit is a visible sign of the life of the plant that produced it. These verses talk about the fruit of the Spirit. That is God the Holy Spirit, who according to the Bible, dwells in all Christian believers.
As the Holy Spirit transforms us, from the inside out, I believe we begin to ‘manifest’ this fruit. Galatians lists nine, but I suspect there are more.
I ask myself a few questions:
What do I manifest?
What do people see when they look at me and how I live my life?
Am I manifesting the fruit of the Spirit?
Like fruit from a plant, it is only achieved because of the plants DNA and if it is healthy, pruned, watered and nourished.
For me, that means, engaging with God through Bible reading, prayer, living reflectively and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform me.
Let me encourage you to take a moment and ask yourself, ‘What do I manifest?’
God bless you :)
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader