Fruit of the Spirit

Key verse: Ephesians 5:9

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

Galatians 5:19-26

There is a Spirit that was responsible for the conception and birth of Christ Jesus. The same was the One with whom He was baptized that was responsible for Him going about doing good. The same self-Spirit raised Him from the dead. Christ went about doing good because He bore the fruit of the Spirit which was in Him. It follows that when the same Spirit dwells in any other man also, He gives the said man ability to do good like Christ and bear fruit like that which Christ bore. The fruit which Christ bore all through His lifetime on earth culminating in His volunteering His life for man is characterized by goodness, righteousness and truth. The specific nature of the fruit is further elucidated as love, joy, peace, gentleness, longsuffering, goodness, faith and temperance. All these virtues are combined in anyone in whom the Holy Spirit is resident. A missing virtue in the lot is a misrepresentation of the Holy Spirit to the world by the one who claims He is resident in him.

When in Luke chapter 9, some people would not receive Jesus, two of His disciples were wrath with them and asked for Christ’s permission to raise down fire from heaven upon them. Jesus told them they did not know what spirit was dwelling in them. In other words, if it be the Holy Spirit that was in them, they would only have brought forth that fruit that is about goodness, righteousness and truth. There is nothing good in devouring fellow human beings by fire no matter what they may have been said to have done. Christ further told them that He did not come to destroy but to save. Meaning, the Fruit of the Spirit is about salvation and life, not destruction and death. This, without overflogging it, suggests that unless we operate in goodness and kindness we are operating outside the ministry of Christ. If that be true, then we are not His friends as we do not obey His commands. He commands us to love, and He left us the ministry of reconciliation and not separation to damnation.

We can be whom God has purposed us to be if we will allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in our lives. This happens when we stop snatching the control of our lives from the hands of the Holy Spirit. When we submit completely to Him, He helps us to bear the fruit of the Spirit and to be Christ-like truly.

Pray: Father, by your Spirit please help my infirmity in the name of Jesus Christ.