Tag: Fruit

The Seeds Are Your Job

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                When a believer finds the joy and abundance of a life filled with the Holy Spirit, they can’t help but share that with everyone. They have good hearts but that doesn’t always mean the best method. Their passion is beautiful but pushes them beyond what they are called by God to do. I wanted to share a small metaphor to help those filled with the wonderful joy and passion that fills us to overflowing so that we might share, in the right way.

                Although each situation varies and should be led by the Holy Spirit acting through the believer, I want to share a thought that requires patience and faith, both of which the Lord gives to any who ask. We must recognize that we are meant to plant the seeds of the Lord. All too many time we try and give a lost soul or a new believer fruit from our orchard. We want them to see the blessings and abundance of God, but they won’t understand. In fact they may be put off by an idea that only the Holy Spirit can fully communicate. We could stand by and load them with the fruits of God, but those fruits will spoil and fail to glorify God the way He desires. We must focus on sowing the seeds of God so that the Holy Spirit can grow an orchard in the hearts of the new believer. The Spirit can grow the fruits that person is designed to grow in and glorify with. The good fruit grown in the spirit will never spoil because it will be located in the orchard of the believer’s heart, that they will know how to care for, and allow the Spirit to multiply that fruit.

                The worst thing a believer can do is push past their role and try to grow fruit. God’s provision is always better than ours, so His fruit must be also. We must make sure that our love for those around us spurs us to patience, faith and trust. Not allowing God to work in another’s heart will have the opposite effect and drive them away in fear of the unimaginable and infinite God. Remember back when you were saved. If all of the knowledge and joy found in God would have been poured upon you, it would not have found a place to grow. The Lord looks to grow you in His way and His time. Just the way He designed you.

Fruits of the Spirit (Conclusion)

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Conclusion

Life all boils down to the realization that we are on this earth to represent the Father who adopted us and gave us an inheritance that we could never earn and will never deserve. It’s through love that we serve Him, through knowledge of His word that we understand how, and through perseverance we see the lasting effects of following His light. We can look at all of the qualities (fruits) of the Holy Spirit as a reflection of our Father and His treatment of His children. We do unto others as God does to us. That’s the action of The Holy Spirit moving in our hearts and guiding our life. Many resort to legalism (the following of rules) to serve God. The laws created an outward order, the Spirit creates order from within the components. Rules and laws cannot bring about a changed heart, in fact they only magnify the problems. The need for the Spirit is clear in the inability to meet the holy standard of God. It takes the Spirit of God to be planted in the hearts of believers in order to grow, produce fruit, and reflect the sovereign God.

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Fruits of the Spirit (Self-Control)

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Self-control

Self-controls is the proper direction of your energy. Emotion is a human trait, responsible for overtaking logical and controlled thought. Being a follower of Jesus means: (2 Corinthians 10:5-6)  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every (personal) disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Self-control involves aligning yourself with the will of God as a reflection of your savior. Your heart must be made clean in the Holy Spirit and your thoughts made obedient to Christ. Only then can you bring your actions and words into the light so that you might be recognizable as a child of God to those around you. If you act in a manor contrary to God, what distinguishes you from the lost souls of this earth who need to be guided toward the light of God? Being a follower of Jesus includes sanctification which is a transition toward holiness. Holiness is being set apart from the darkness as you reflect the light of your savior. This is only possible as you develop the self-control to work against your fallen human nature and the temptations of the deceiver.

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Fruits of the Spirit (Gentleness)

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Gentleness

Gentleness is an inward quality. The outward manifestation of gentleness is kindness. Gentleness is defined to the world in terms like: tame, timid, and weak. This is what gentleness looks like to a world that is selfish and exceedingly prideful. Gentleness isn’t weak at all, it is quite the opposite. Gentleness is the awareness of true strength. In a follower of Christ, it is the awareness that all of the power of this universe belongs to your Father who supports you with His power as you act as His representative to this world. People with true power don’t have to show it, just like people confident in their knowledge don’t feel the need for many words. Gentleness is the harnessing of your abilities and focusing them in a world that doesn’t understand that kind of power. Because you know that the things this world holds dear are fading and temporary and that your true home is with God in heaven, you can approach every situation with humility and harnessed strength, being gentle to a dark, lost and frightened people.(1 Corinthians 4:20-21) For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? (James 3:13) Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

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Fruits of the Spirit (Faithfulness)

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Faithfulness

Faithfulness is when you are able to put God before everything else in your life. Pleasing God should stand before self-gratification. This speaks to putting things in God’s hands and not trying to take control of your life from Him. You must trust that God knows the best path and that His outcome is not only better than yours but far exceeds even what you can imagine. We should be loyal to God in our commitment to Him. The Old Testament is full of examples of how God has been loyal to His chosen since creation. (Romans 5:2)  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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Fruits of the Spirit (Goodness)

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Goodness

(Exodus 33:19)  And He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. According to this passage we can understand goodness through God’s grace and mercy. In human terms we can work toward forgiveness in our pursuit of goodness. Refusing to forgive and allow God to be your vindicator bleeds dry your peace and joy. Leave your weights in the hands of God and be His example of good.  (Mark 10:18) And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. The words of Jesus tell us that true goodness is only available in God. As fallen beings we can only hope to achieve degrees of goodness, always falling short of God. By this we learn that we must rely on God’s Spirit to exemplify goodness. The conviction of the Holy Spirit will lead us to seek the things that are good in the eyes of God and not the world.

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Fruits of the Spirit (Kindness)

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Kindness

Kindness can be defined as a showing of compassion, and compassion defined as the concern for the sufferings and misfortunes of others. We must realize that everyone is fighting a battle. Everyone is struggling. Compassions is the realization that the way you see life is part of a spectrum of viewpoints that all fall short of God’s perfect viewpoint. Think of viewpoints in terms of the light spectrum. Some viewpoints can make an issue un-noticeable (radio waves) which requires someone’s interpretation (radio receiver) for understanding. On the other end of the spectrum are the views that make a situation “life or death” (gamma rays). With compassion through the Holy Spirit we can center ourselves in God’s visible light spectrum and “see” what we need to learn, grow, and help others in the best and worst of situations. Without the Holy Spirit to anchor us, we can fly all over the spectrum, unable to deal with life’s curves.

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Fruits of the Spirit (Intro)

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Galatians 5: 22-23

 NIV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

KJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

  NIV KJV ESV
1 Love Love Love
2 Joy Joy Joy
3 Peace Peace Peace
4 Forbearance Longsuffering Patience
5 Kindness Gentleness Kindness
6 Goodness Goodness Goodness
7 Faithfulness Faith Faithfulness
8 Gentleness Meekness Gentleness
9 Self-control Temperance Self-control

 Before Jesus is crucified He tells His disciples that: (John 14:15-17)   “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:25-26) “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

God tells His people: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”(Jeremiah 31:31-34)

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 God gave us His Holy Spirit so that He may be written on our hearts, and that we may be filled as vessels created by God. When we allow God to lead our lives through the guidance of the Holy Spirit a change takes place within us. We begin a process of change which focuses on Jesus Christ and becoming like Him. This process is called sanctification, and is only possible with the help of God through the Holy Spirit. The indwelling (planting) of the Holy Spirit (seed) causes us to mature (grow) and show the qualities of our savior Jesus (produce fruit). These qualities are an absolute depiction of God incarnate, His word made flesh. These qualities are what the work of the Spirit should become in a mature believer. When the word of God spells out the qualities He desires from the indwelling of His Spirit, we as believers must take notice and strive with the help of the Holy Spirit to become a fruit bearing disciple. If we imagine the fruits as colors, they create a rainbow that is Heaven. All of these qualities existing in all people is exactly what Heaven will be. A world of people made exactly in God’s image. Let’s take a look at each of the fruits given by God Himself to discover the depth of His desire for us.