THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
(First part)
Memory verse (Gal5: 22-23) “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law ”.
When a man marries a wife and they begin to live together, people begin to expect them to produce children. When you put a seed in the ground you expect the seed to grow and bear fruits. Likewise, when the Holy Spirit is actively living and functioning in the life of a believer there is fruit as a result of that relationship and communion.
The scripture show what kind of fruit the Holy Spirit produces in our lives i.e. love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. One of the major works of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to produce the nature of God in us, i.e. the character of God or the likeness of God or the image of Christ. The Holy Spirit helps our lives to conform to the image of Christ (Rom8: 29). God created you to be like him and that is what redemption is all about, i.e. to restore the image of God in our lives that had been lost through the fall of man. Many religions try to teach their followers how they should do works that Jesus did. And by far so many religions are doing a lot of good works; charity acts, helping the poor, the orphans, the needy, helping the invalids in the society, feeding the hungry and all sorts of humanitarian activities. They are doing all they can to imitate Christ, they are trying all they can to please God. The image of God is not imitated but produced.
No good works can produce God’s image in our lives, it’s only the Holy Spirit that produces it. Many dear loved ones do things the other way round, we don’t do the good works to become Christian and God’s children, the scripture teaches that we first repent and our sins are forgiven, then we’re baptized in water, then baptized in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit activity in our lives produces God’s attributes or image in us (Acts 2:38).
If you are a believer, you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and after that you need to have active and dynamic communion with the Holy Spirit and then the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2Cor13: 14). It’s the communion with the Holy Spirit with your spirit that produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit in you.
Tomorrow’s subject: “ The fruit of love ”
(Second part)
Memory verse (Rom5: 5): " Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us ".
We can’t imitate God’s love by trying to do all that Christ did and think that is God’s love. We can do all the good things just because we are taught that way. The Holy Spirit who lives in us pours out God’s love into our hearts. People in the world are doing all kinds of things for all kinds of motives other than love. The scripture teaches that people can prophesy, speak in tongues, do miracles, without the love of God. People can give all what they have yet not because of God’s love. Others can give their own bodies to be burnt yet not motivated by God’s love.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, (1Cor13:4-7)
God’s love makes you kind to people, God’s love makes you bear with people who are difficult to relate with, to live with, to work with, the people who are slow to learn, the people who are unthankful. God’s love makes celebrate other people’s success. God’s love makes you lift up others. God’s love is not puffed up but it makes you humble. God’s love can’t allow you to behave rudely but it makes you kind to all people. God’s love doesn’t make you seek your own interest but it makes you seek the good of others ie God’s love does not make you selfish but makes you self-less. God’s love makes you a person who is not easily provoked, people will say all they can, they try to do all wrong things to you, they will deny every right that is due to you but you’ll continue to love them like God. God’s love will make you never to think evil about other people, even those who do evil to you, you’ll cry to God so he has mercy on them and never reward them according to the way they hurt you. You’ll never desire any evil to befall any man even your worst enemies. God’s love makes you merciful to those who do evil to you. May we cry out for the outpouring of God’s love in our lives? We need a divine baptism in God’s love (Eph3: 16-17). God’s love will make a different man or woman and will cause to make the difference the world is longing for. God has managed to turn millions and millions to himself by love. Love is the only mightiest spiritual weapon we have to change the whole world. Where all things have failed, God’s love will succeed.
Tomorrow’s subject: “ The fruit of Joy ”
(Third part)
Memory verse (Rom14: 17) “ For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit ”.
One of the characteristics of a spirit filled life is joy. The Holy Spirit pours in our hearts the Joy of the Lord. David noted something about God, he said: in God’s presence there is fullness of joy (Ps16: 11). God is the source of all true and genuine joy. Nehemiah put it this way: the joy of the Lord our strength (Neh 8:10). Peter had a test of God’s joy and he described it as joy unspeakable. When God’s joy flows into your life, there are no words that can describe it fully. God’s joy is indescribable, unexplainable and unspeakable.
One day God visited his servant DL Moody, an American revivalist of many years ago. He remarked that God’s presence overwhelmed him and he cried out and said: “ God, hold up your presence or am going to die of joy”
There is a joy that people get when good things happen to them. Somebody called it happiness. God’s joy does not depend on any happenings or external things of this world; this joy comes from the river of the Holy Spirit flowing out of your spirit. This joy makes you strong spiritually. This joy fills your life with hymns, psalms and spiritual songs all the time. One thing characterizes people who are always sorrowful, miserable, depressed etc: a lifeless and dry silence.
Beloved let us learn to intensify our communion with the Holy Spirit. That communion produces the Joy of the Lord. My friend, it’s possible to rejoice all the time. Scripture says, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice (Phil4: 4). You are not to rejoice because something good has happened; rejoice because you are full of the river of God’s joy. Peter and John had been in prison and they had been beaten and threatened but the scripture says they went rejoicing. That is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Paul and silas were jailed for preaching the gospel but at midnight they began to sing praises and prayed. They were not depressed but they were joyful. They still had a song to sing and celebrate with blood and wounds on their backs.
Beloved get immersed in the River of The Holy Spirit and swim in the river all your days. When people see you, they will wonder because you’ll always be joyful. My friend there is no reason why you should live joy-less when there is the whole river of God’s joy. Open your mouth wide and drink in the joy of the Lord (Ps81: 10).
Tomorrow’s subject: “ The fruit of peace ”
(Fourth part)
Memory verse (John14: 27) " Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid ".
There is the peace of the world and there is the peace of the Lord our God. World peace means absence of war, absence of troubles, absence of things that cause anxiety. Worldly peace means that all things are going well, all people are good to you, all your children are well behaved, all your workers don’t give you trouble. God’s peace is above this worldly peace. God’s peace does not depend on what is happening, it does not depend on what you have or not. It does not depend on whether the people are good or not. Jesus went through all kinds of life’ troubles, tempted in every way, rejected by men, accused by Pharisees but he remained the prince of peace. He had so much peace that he told his disciples, my peace I give unto you.
Jesus slept comfortably in the midst of the storm while the disciples were troubled. This peace is available; it is the Peace of God and can flow into your life like a river by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. We are peacemakers. We are peace givers (Is66: 12, Phil4: 6). There is a fruit this world is seeking and they can’t get it anywhere in this world, this fruit is the peace of God. You are carrying the fruit and it is in your spirit. You don’t contain only a cup but a river of peace. Let the world come and drink of the peace of God from your life. This commodity is needed in our families, marriages, business places, ministries, and work places and in schools. Be a peace supplier in any place where God has placed you. Yourself need this peace for your well-being. The lack of it cause lack of peace brings confusion, fear, restlessness, anxiety, stress and so many other stress-related sicknesses.
Never neglect your communion with the Holy Spirit in your life; it’s your source of peace. The Holy Spirit in our lives should not be dormant but active, vibrant and should produce peace. All people who see and relate with you should experience the peace in your life. There is peace for you my friend, just fall in love with the Holy Spirit and you’ll never be the same again.
Tomorrow’s subject: “ The fruit of self-control ”
(Fifth part)
Memory verse (Gal5; 22-23): “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law ”.
The activity and communion with the Holy Spirit in our lives empowers our spirit man to destroy selfishness and produces in us the self-less nature of God. The Holy Spirit produces in us the ability to have dominion over the flesh. The Holy Spirit produces in us the desire to depend on God instead of self-dependence. The Holy Spirit produces in us the desire for God’s will instead of our selfish ambitions. The Holy Spirit helps us to become spirit controlled instead of fleshly controlled. Paul made this amazing victory over self: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal2: 20). Christianity is about God delivering us from being controlled by our fleshly lusts like beasts and desires of our minds to follow the world and begin to be led and controlled by his Spirit. The scripture teaches that when the Holy Spirit leads us, we begin to enjoy life and peace of God (Rom8: 6). Worldly and carnal believers cannot know the life, joy and peace of God.
The Holy Spirit brings our thoughts, emotions, decisions and feelings to be subject to the will of God. Only the Holy Spirit can help you to put to death the works of the flesh (Rom8: 13). What a life to live my friends, when the emotions no longer control us! When anger, lust, our thoughts, laziness is under our feet! We can then do what our spirits know to do as God’s will. Without the activity of the Holy Sprit in our lives, life can be confusing, frustrating and full of accidents just because the desires of the flesh and the drives of you minds can’t let you do what you know as right to do. When you allow your flesh to control you and your mind to be controlled by the world, your destiny will be high jacked. You will miss out on the joy and peace of God. Your marriage and family will be full of troubles because of the untamed flesh. You will lose vital people in your life because your self left uncontrolled will try to control other people. Beloved, thank God, you can put your flesh under subjection of your spirit by the Holy Spirit.
Tomorrow’s subject: “Communion with the Holy Spirit
(Sixth part)
Memory verse (Cor13: 14) " The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen ".
Fruit is a product of the living, vibrant and dynamic communion between your spirit and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of a believer and the Holy Spirit are one (1Cor6: 17). When you put a seed into the ground and the ground lacks water and the desired mineral salts to support plant life, that seed will not bring forth fruit. Like wise if you desire more fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life, then you need to work on the way you relate with him.
Your relationship with the Holy Spirit should be vibrant; it should be living and a dynamic experience. The Holy Spirit is not smoke, He is not wind, He is not cloud, he is not fire, He is God, He is a heavenly Spirit person, He is real and tangible, He is a heavenly substance and material. He has eyes and he sees, he has a mind and heart, He feels and thinks, He speaks, He has emotions, He can be grieved, He has wisdom and understanding etc. Your spirit was created by God in way that it can sense the Holy Spirit, your spirit can hear him, your spirit can talk with him, your spirit can feels him etc. Every believer needs to build that relationship between your spirit and the Holy Spirit. He needs your time, He needs your attention, He needs your love, He always wants to talk to you and he enjoys you when you talk to him in prayers and worship. There supposed to be a continuous and consistent communion and communication between you and the Holy Spirit.
As your relationship between your spirit and the Holy Spirit grows stronger and deeper, you begin to follow him, you begin to learn how to listen to him. You begin to recognize his voice; you begin to be inspired by him and the deeper it becomes the more enjoyable and fulfilling it becomes.
The deeper this relationship becomes, the more the Holy Spirit fills you with God’s life, power, joy and peace. His presence can possess your life and being so powerfully that sometimes you feel absent from this world. You can become so lost in him and his power. He begins to feel you with God’s kind of life until you are filled with the fullness of God’s kind of life (Eph3: 16-17). God’s nature and life becomes so powerful in you that the trace of the old nature disappears. The fruit of the Holy Spirit manifests to all and everyone can testify of the change in your life. NICE WEEKEND.
