The Spirit’s Fruit – Part 1

 

Galatians 5:22-23(NLT) states, “22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” These nine yummies are the Spirit’s fruit. They belong to him, and he produces them in us when we allow him to be at work in our lives. As believers, some of us make the mistake of thinking we must feel our way to producing these fruit. We might think we should force ourselves to emote feelings of joy, peace, or patience, but when we do this, we’re leaning on the soul and not moving in the Spirit. Emotions are fragile, but nothing about God’s Holy Spirit is fragile. What he produces in us is a match for our true identity. He goes beyond the surface to reveal our deepest, highest self.

Without the seed, fruit cannot exist. The seed is the fruit’s life, and from the seed the fruit is produced. 1Peter 1:23(NIV) declares, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” Because of the accomplishment of Jesus Christ through his sacrifice and resurrection, we are saved! We are born again and have received God’s imperishable seed. This seed is His gift of Holy Spirit that dwells within us. The Spirit lives inside our human spirit, and there, the Holy Spirit’s life-changing power will bear fruit in us.

2Corinthians 9:10(NLT) says, “For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.” God is the One that provides the seed, and He has provided His seed, the Holy Spirit, in order to make us His children. As children of the Most High God, we should know that God’s seed is powerful! The Holy Spirit is life to us! He is not latent within, but he is transforming us from the inside out, so that we will produce fruit that will last and that will increase God’s Kingdom on earth. Like fruit in nature, time is required for growth and maturity. This is the way it is for us. We are works in progress, blooming slowly as we learn more about Jesus Christ through God’s Word.

God is being very patient with us as we produce a harvest for His Kingdom. We are to lean on the Spirit and surrender to him. He is helping us to achieve God’s purpose. Walking according to his leadership and guidance and yielding to his direction, we will become more and more like the image of Christ, and this is the person God created us to be.

Love

We must grow in God’s love, and His love goes much, much further than the ooey gooey feelings most of us associate with being in love. The love that the Spirit produces in us is manifested when we renew our minds to what God says in His Word. This love is not based on feelings, it is based on the choice to be committed to demonstrate the same love for God and others that Jesus Christ did.

There are many limitations to our own personal brand of love. We decide whether we’re going to love an individual based on them meeting our conditions, and we don’t dole it out unless they do. We allow ourselves to fall in love when there’s attraction involved. And this attraction can be based on any number of things we’ve programmed ourselves to like. It is often based on whether we feel a certain spark according to the individual’s physical appearance, wealth, or charisma. This person has to float our boats, so to speak, before we make an investment of love. God’s love doesn’t work this way. His love is unconditional.

Jude 1:21(NIV) instructs, “keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” To keep ourselves in the love of God is to keep His commandments and statues by following them. 1John 2:5 affirms that whoever keeps God’s Word will show how much they love Him. Demonstrating our love for God by growing in the knowledge of Christ and following the example he has left us affirms that God is in us and we are in Him. As we continually surrender to His Spirit through His Word, God will produce His kind of love in and through us.

Joy

Romans 15:13(NLT) states, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Joy comes from God. It’s an inside job. Although it is wonderful to experience feelings of happiness, the joy of the Lord isn’t based on feelings. It isn’t contingent on the circumstances and conditions we find ourselves in.

We are programmed by society to allow our emotions to dictate who and how we will be from one moment to the next. This is very often based on the circumstances we face from one point to another. If all goes well at work and our boss is pleased, we determine to have a good day. If the opposite circumstances exist, and our boss really lets us have it, we will tell others we’re having a bad day. The same is true of home life. If there’s chaos and confusion in our homes, we are very unhappy. In these cases, our emotions control the switch. We can go from feeling good to feeling very bad in a matter of seconds based on what we allow our emotions and thoughts to feed each other.

There is a higher self within, which is our human spirit. Our human spirit is where the Holy Spirit lives and they are in continual communion and communication. You and I must be determined to bypass emotional triggers and recognize them as only a surface reality. Psalm 42:7 proclaims, “Deep calls to deep.” The Holy Spirit’s power is not dependent upon what we feel, the Holy Spirit’s power is the truth!  Nehemiah 8:10 affirms that the joy of the Lord is our strength! The joy of the Lord is the flow of living waters from which we draw upon the Spirit’s power and ability. Confidence in the power that works within us is the inner reality and outward manifestation of joy.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“The Spirit’s Fruit- Part 1”, written for Christian Encouragement and Inspiration© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.