Fruitage of Holy Spirit

“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.”—Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

The preceding verses speak of the flesh’s pursuits which all stand in stark contrast to that of the Fruitage of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever sat and meditated on this scripture and allowed your spirit to identify the fruitage Holy Spirit has deposited in your renewed heart? Typically, a Christian will look at this list and humbly long for each of these to dominate their life. Perhaps it is because we have always agreed anything done by God must be done to the superlative degree and we are not incorrect for GOD is PERFECT. Yet, we are not. These words were not written FOR GOD but ABOUT GOD for HUMANS. Therefore, as we look a this we will temper the fruitage through our imperfect filter which tones down the unreachable heights we tend to believe all of God’s goals seem to represent.

You have no doubt experienced at least some of these if not all of them. If we allow our spirit to recall our lives before our believing and sanctified walk, or perhaps if like most our sinful nature has caused us to misstep and remember how our spirit rejoiced in the return to God? For me, it was ‘peace’. I had lived so many years falsely believing I must continue to ‘work’ for my salvation and that if I wasn’t ‘whole soul devoted’ or not ‘giving 100 per cent of the time’ to accomplish goals I did not set for myself but were set by my ‘church’ for me it led to being insecure in my ‘status’ with God. Would HE love me? Would HE understand my inability to measure up to the work I thought HE wanted me to do? Even if I missed the goal by an hour, I was stressed that I’d let HIM down and did not maintain the ‘vow’ I had made to ‘serve HIM’. I was captive to that belief for nearly 30 years before the ‘release’ preached in the ‘Good News’ truly liberated me as it was meant to do. When I accepted the Lord, invited HIM in, from that very moment, PEACE filled my life, my heart, my soul, my spirit! Interestingly, what happened within a few weeks was I innately noticed the stress was gone but I had so long associated the stress with God’s Spirit that I immediately began to doubt what I had done in accepting the Lord was the right thing to do! The old belief system lingering from years of inculcation had begun to manipulate my spirit with doubt.

God is good though! That doubt, those feelings, were now recognized as the foreign, the flesh and after prayer and study of God’s Word, I sat in my chair one day and realized what I was feeling was honestly ‘THE PEACE OF GOD that surpasses all thought!’ What a moment for joy [another fruit of the Holy Spirit] and faith [another fruit of the Holy Spirit] to be simply elevated both in my spirit and my soul!

I spent several weeks really meditating on the passage above together with the passage in 1 Corinthians 12-1-11 and the manifestation or ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit.

Do you believe you have them? Do you recognize them? Do you honor them? Do you allow them to work through you for the good of God and others?

Why not list the fruitages individually then one by one, identify how they are present in your spirit and manifest in your life to God, yourself and others? Do you have ‘love’, ‘joy’, ‘peace’, ‘patience’, ‘kindness’, ‘goodness’, ‘faithfulness’, ‘long suffering’, ‘self control’? Of course, to some degree you do but are they readily recognized by yourself? Why not take one like ‘patience’ or ‘faithfulness’ and pray, meditate and allow the Spirit of God to magnify them in you. Your heart, your soul, your spirit will know true joy and peace, that which comes from GOD, and it will be a ‘faith trigger™’

Faith Trigger™ is a term coined by myself in 1999 while writing my book ‘Faith Triggers’©1999. I will share the concept at a later post. But until then, why not focus a few moments of your daily worship on this one: “FAITHFULNESS”? It is a significant fruitage that enables us to be mindful of our ‘spirit’ walk and to assist us in ‘routine’ worship. Prayer time, study time, praise time, all times to worship and we truly want to be faithful to that goal. Yes, we fail at times to remember how daily we should include a discussion with our heavenly FATHER or to PRAISE HIM, but HE understands. Pray to remember! And if all else fails, why not ‘schedule’ time with God as you would any other important MEETING you have! I have a daily task reminder to spend an hour in praise and worship and it has been such a wonderful blessing!!

Next week the fruitage: Temporance

Homework: find a ‘fruitage’ appealing to you…find out if you recognize it in yourself; find ways to understand it Biblically and personally; make it a matter of earnest prayer.

Leave Evil Alone!

”Never pay back evil to anyone. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible. Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, "I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it," says the Lord.”

Romans 12:17-19 NLT

Today’s message:

On a positive note…Or, do you think this is a negative presentation? I agree, some might view it as negative, but think about it.

If you were to leave vengeance alone, not pay back evil for evil, you move on, you leave ‘wickedness’ alone for someone else to deal with and someone by the way far more capable of a just resolution than any vigilante spirit we may possess.

Is it human to want to get even? Absolutely

Is it superhuman to bless our enemy, really bless them? Not just mouth the words, maybe? Even if we mouth the words and believe them often enough they will become our hymn and eventually, a rewarding habit.

The angst we carry with us when we bear someone ill takes far more out of us than it will ever take out of the person deserving of God’s Wrath. If we can only accept that God is in a far better position to ‘see’ everything and ‘know’ everything then we will find that HIS justice is easily our justice and it is good to wait on HIM.

In the greatest evil ever perpetrated imagine the sense of righteous indignation God could have possessed -- yet HE turned that awful event in HIS life into a full blown blessing for all mankind! To many, having your son brutalized, tortured, humiliated in full public view and then murdered is the worst thing they could ever imagine and surely an event that would warrant vengeance, retribution, JUSTICE! Frankly, it is quite normal to feel all of those feelings. But, as God moved differently in the case of HIS own son’s heinous death we will eventually fare better if we were to leave the kind of Justice ONLY GOD could mete out to God. This is an extreme analogy of course, the day to day injustices rarely meet this sort of intensity, and for that we need give thanks to God! But, as in all things, to train to do your best for any trial or event, you need to build up your stamina and your arsenal of coping mechanisms by smaller contests, which is where the rising above the day to day battles for which you may want justice and letting God be the JUDGE of all builds the endurance necessary, God forbid, there should be something of the magnitude of above to deal with.

Who is not familiar with our Lord’s words in Luke 6: “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:.”

While it is truly a struggle to hold back the strong emotions attendant to injustice if we truly believe in God, truly believe in salvation through HIS Son, we will then understand as a child of God, ‘Father knows best!’

Today’s homework, no matter the injustice, be it directly related to you, or something you hear or see that emboldens your sense of injustice, please, PRAY about it; leave the injustice for God to correct!

Reflect on HIS manifold attributes, like for instance, Wonderful, Marvelous, Glorious, Righteous and Just. Let those wash through your spirit and soul as fresh waters replacing the injustice with faith and patience and joy in God. May God’s Peace be with you!