Thursday, March 9, 2006

Spiritual fruit


"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law
." (Gal. 5:22-23)

Many people strive to ensure a life full of love, joy, peace, etc. After all, who wouldn't want all that good stuff. The problem is they want the good stuff without the Spirit. I guess a similar trait would be wanting to go to Heaven without godly repentance and a saving faith rooted in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word 'fruit' is basically, as Robertson puts it, 'the normal out-cropping of the Holy Spirit in us.' Love, joy, peace, and the rest is really the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of genuine believers. God is working in every believer's heart. He wants us to have victory over the flesh, the world and the Devil. We cannot afford to be passive in this great fight of faith, but in the end, it is the Holy Spirit that enables us to bear fruit in our lives. I just praise the Lord because He wants good things for His children!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gal 5:16 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and YE SHALL NOT fulfil the lust of the flesh."
Gal 5:25 "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

The prosperous Christian life is living in the Spirit. Any work of God that is thriving, not including those of the mega-church philosophy, is because those churches and their leaders are living in the Spirit. To be a strong Christian one must flee the flesh and walk in the Spirit.