Gal 5:22-26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another (NKJV).
Can you feel the gentle breeze in these scriptures? We are working ourselves out of the rottenness of the flesh into the fresh aroma of the “fruit of the Spirit. The first thing we notice is that it is not “fruit” plural, but fruit singular. The fruit is not meant to be manifested as individual pieces or the parts given to different individuals. These are the characteristics of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit that should be recognized in every believer’s life.
REVIEW: In the last study, we looked at the works of the flesh. These are all rooted in the Adam nature that every human has. Paul stated: Now the works of the flesh are evident. We don’t need a review of those works.
Through the work of the cross, which is Christ’ redemptive work, we are brought into a right relationship with God. By the Spirit, we have been regenerated and made like the Christ who Paul calls the last Adam. By the work of the Spirit, we are made sons of God. Sonship with God is only possible through the Holy Spirit. Children are born to their parents, but a true son obeys his father by following his instructions. The same is true in the kingdom of God. Many have been given the power to become children of God (John 1:12). Through the work of the Spirit, the word of God, and relationship in the body of Christ, we grow into sonship. Sonship is a matter of maturity. I mentioned in the last teaching my experience as a father. A father trains his children to grow up and become responsible individuals with the hope and desire for that child. As a father of six boys and one daughter, my great joy was to watch them grow and become mature, able to handle the affairs of life with the values instilled by their mother and me.
The work of the Holy Spirit in the earth is to create a new creation out of the old. Our Heavenly Father is bringing forth sons and daughters with the character of His only begotten Son. He is producing a spiritual race that has the spiritual DNA of God’s only begotten Son. The Holy Spirit is ready to help you as Paul states, “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). You cannot gain this understanding through human reasoning. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the love of Christ, and only the Holy Spirit can fill us with the fullness of God.
Only in the love of Christ and the fullness of God can we become mature sons and daughters of God. As sons and daughters, we must carry out the Father’s will and not our own will. There is no male or female in the matter of sonship. Every person who has surrendered their life to Christ has been called to reflect Christ in and through their life. In men and women throughout the nations, God is revealing His kingdom’s purpose on earth. The Written Word is being lived out in their lives. These are lives that have been recreated in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s purpose is for the nations to come to know Him and do His will. This can only happen through sons and daughters of God that are led by the Holy Spirit.
We are always to be looking to the Holy Spirit for His help in our growing up into the stature of Christ. Ask Him to help you to come to know in deeper ways the love of Christ in an ever-deepening way. Ask Him to fill you with the fullness of God so that Christ may be revealed in every facet of your life. Ask that you might have a part in helping others come to know God and do His will.
Now let us turn our attention to Galatians 5:22-26, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. The fruit is singular. It is not fruits, but fruit. When one is born again and receives the infilling of the Holy Spirit, you receive “the fruit of the Spirit.” The fruit of the Spirit is in the very nature of the Spirit who is, the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son. In other words, you become a Godman or woman. You receive a new identity. It is the identity with Christ, God’s “only begotten Son.” By our will we chose to let Christ, as Lord and Savior, have our life to transform into His glorious life lived out through us. The evidence of His life being lived out through us is manifested in the fruit of the Spirit. This is what Jesus was speaking about in John 7.
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:37-39 NKJV).
Again in John 14 Jesus promised His disciples that Spirit is with them, but would be in them: “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you (John 14:15-18 NKJV).
The Spirit of truth has come to dwell in us. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE. I want us to understand that the fruit of the Spirit is “Spirit life.” This love He brings is the love of the Father seen in the Son. This is not natural love, but Holy Spirit life-giving love. You cannot create this kind of love. It is love that is given to us so we can be able to love as God loves.
We begin with love. God is love! The entire verse states, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). To know does not mean simply knowledge but experience. The love of God through the Holy Spirit is revealed to us as we experience His forgiveness and acceptance.
We begin to grow into belief by accepting God’s offer of salvation through forgiveness. As we receive His promises, beginning with the reception of the Holy Spirit, we come to have many experiences of His love for us. Some have only known salvation but have not pressed on into the love of the Father because of hurts and unforgiveness that yet controls their heart toward others. Not only do we receive God’s love and forgiveness, but we must also forgive others. The key to abiding in God is abiding in His love. Forgiveness is the first step toward that abiding life.
Today, if you cannot testify of the abiding love of God in your life, ask the Holy Spirit to examine your heart and see if there is any unforgiveness you are holding. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal hurts that have been covered up over time. Let Him bring those hurts to the surface. Although it might be painful for the moment, He will give you the power of His love to forgive and to let go so you can experience the fullness of God’s love in your life.
Pray: Father, I pray that You would reveal any unforgiveness I might have. Give me the grace to forgive anyone against whom I have been holding a grudge. I ask for the Holy Spirit to fill me afresh to overflowing with the love of God for that individual. This is a great time to ask the Lord if there are any others you need to forgive.
But the fruit of the Spirit is JOY. Joy follows love. When we have experienced the love of God, and His love begins to take root in our inner man, the natural outflow is joy. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). His joy is promised to all those who serve Him as Lord. “Enter into the joy of your Master” (Matthew 25:23). Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, reminding them, “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). After David had sinned greatly and sought the Lord with a heart of repentance, his one request was, “Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12). When God’s salvation and rule over the whole earth is finally established, His rule becomes the “joy of the whole earth” (Psalm 48:2). The Psalmist is exalting the Lord and declaring His ultimate purpose.It is the joy that attracts others to the believer who has truly embraced God’s love. The work of the Holy Spirit becomes manifest in a believer’s life when righteousness and peace are established. Joy comes from these two works of the Spirit (Romans 14:17). Joy is not external but flows from the innermost being of a person. It is part of what Jesus is saying when He declared, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38). Although the word joy is not used here, it is thereby an implication as one reads the references from which Jesus drew His teaching. The literal translation reads, “let him keep coming to Me, and let him keep drinking.” It does not take much to lose one’s joy, so we must keep coming to Jesus through the Holy Spirit and keep drinking this spiritual water that only He can supply.
The joy of the Lord is a supernatural joy and not the happiness that the world promises. Earthly happiness fades ever so quickly, but the Lord supplies a continual reservoir of His joy. If you need to repent for anything, do it now. Ask for the righteousness of Christ to rule in you, receive His peace and let the joy that is in the Holy Spirit flow from your life.
Today, why not take a deep drink of the Holy Spirit? Allow Him to establish you in His righteousness, and then let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. The result will be to be strengthened in the joy of the Lord! Ask the Holy Spirit for His joy.
But the fruit of the Spirit is PEACE. In Romans 14:17, Paul puts peace before joy, but here in Galatians, he lists joy before peace. In Romans 14:17, righteousness is mentioned preceding peace. Peace comes as a result of becoming righteous in Christ Jesus. Joy flows from that peace. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he is speaking of the attributes of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings His joy out of His love. When that joy is experienced, supernatural peace becomes the result.
The world is constantly trying to find peace, whether individually or among the nations. The efforts are futile if they are not predicated upon God’s righteousness. Only God’s righteousness can produce lasting peace. The Scriptures declare that “the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). Peace is not static but dynamic in nature. The peace of God guards our hearts from the intrusion of the subtle deceptions of the enemy and allows us freedom to live freely in Christ.
A number of questions are worth considering: Do you enjoy the peace of your salvation? Do you have peace in your life that the righteousness of Christ is sufficient to cause you to be accepted in the beloved? Do you experience the peace of God guarding your heart? If you have that supernatural peace, rejoice in the Lord and give Him thanks because many people do not have what you have. Make sure you share God’s love with those you meet who do not enjoy the peace you enjoy. Allow them to receive and experience the peace you have received.
If you do not have the peace of which the Scriptures speak, that can change today. Invite the Holy Spirit to show you what you must do to receive the peace of God’s kingdom. Wait upon Him for His counsel. Give up whatever He shows you and receive what He desires to give you.
Father, I thank You for Your peace that is available to me in the Holy Spirit. Teach me how to daily enter into Your peace that surpasses all comprehension and guards my heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Help me to be able to lead others to that peace.
But the fruit of the Spirit is LONGSUFFERING. Galatians 5:22
Longsuffering or patience is a direct result of peace. You really cannot have patience unless you’re walking in peace. We begin to see how the fruit of the Spirit is singular and cumulative. In other words, one part of the fruit leads to another.
James said, “Count it all joy when you encounter various trials” (James 1:2). True character is formed in the trenches. An older minister friend was listening to a younger man talk about his own ministry experiences. The older minister was intently looking at the younger man. The young minister asked, “What are you looking at?” My friend answered, “I am looking for the scars.”
The Scriptures teach, “The testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:3). In the King James Version, endurance is translated as patience. I am grateful for all the difficult times I have known in my life, although, at the time, I did not like it one bit. Today, I can see how the Lord used tests beyond my strength and wounds too deep to heal without His grace. Each trial became a new challenge to overcome, an instrument of the discipline of God’s great love. I now know each trial and wound helped to form Christ in me. I like what Paul said, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-15). In this verse, Paul captures the essence of what patience is truly about.
Paul was a man who knew rejection, imprisonment, and beatings. He was misunderstood and was even left for dead. Yet, he never lost sight of the goal; he never turned back and gave up. He cried out to the Lord three times for help. After the third time, Jesus spoke to Paul and assured him that His grace was sufficient. The Lord told Paul that “His power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Today, those words are for us as well. Determine to be a man or woman of patience. Ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen you as you walk through the various trials of your faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you grace sufficient for each situation that comes your way.
Pray, thanking the Holy Spirit for being your helper in all things. Verbalize that you submit your weaknesses to Him. Ask Him to help you receive patience out of every trial so that His character would be manifested in your life.