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.