Who is the HolySpirit-Part Four

Fruit of the Spirit

Most of us who are Christians have heard about the Fruit of the Spirit. We have heard it said that we need to look for the fruit in people’s lives, as well as our own. So what does this mean? Jesus says it like this in Matthew 7:16-20,

‘You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions’. (NLT)

We said previously, that when we asked Jesus Christ into our lives and our hearts and become born again, the Holy Spirit came to live within our spirit and it became renewed (Romans 8:9). I believe that one of the main reasons and purposes of the Holy Spirit is to change us, to make us more like Jesus.

I think that each of us, as we look back to how we were before we became a Christian, we can see the changes that have taken place in our lives for the better. Therefore, having the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives is the result of the Holy Spirit’s presence within us.

Let us look at Galatians 5:22-23, which tells us what these fruit are – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

What exactly does all of this mean? Well, we can ask ourselves a question. How do we know that a particular tree is an apple tree, or an orange tree? The answer would be that it produces apples or oranges. That is the fruit that grows on that tree, which makes it an apple or orange tree. Therefore, the evidence that we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us is that we become more and more like Him in nature, and the Fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23 becomes more and more evident in us.

It is a process of course, for all of us to grow and mature in these things and take on the nature of God. However, I know that in my own life, for instance, I have grown tremendously in patience. This was something I didn’t have a lot of. I was not patient with people, but looking back, even I am amazed how the Lord has grown patience in me.

I am sure that all of you can say the same in some or all of these Fruit. This is our old nature changing into our new nature in the Lord. In other words, we can see how we are being renewed from the inside out, and it is encouraging for us to be able to see this in ourselves. These changes happen almost automatically. However, we need to be surrendered to the Lord in our heart and our attitude, spending time with Him in prayer and in worship, and of course by reading our Bible daily.

As we do these things, our relationship with God grows and we get to know Him as our Father. We learn to trust Him and know that what He has shown us in His word or by a spoken word, He is faithful always to do it.

Over time, our spirit man grows bigger within us and will eventually dominate our human spirit. When this happens, our soul, which was the rebel in our old nature, will no longer be so and our mind, will and emotions will follow the leading of the Holy Spirit within our spirit man. Let us pray together and ask the Lord to help us on this journey:

Father God, we thank You for loving us and for always being with us. We thank You for gently helping us to grow in You. We ask Lord that the Fruit of Your Spirit would become evident in our lives and that You would keep us forever humble. Thank You Lord that You hear our prayer in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

Who is the Holy Spirit-Part One

Who is the Holy Spirit-Part Two

Who is the Holy Spirit-Part Three

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