The Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Scripture: Galatians 5 v 22 - 23

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

 When you are born again the measure of faith to believe in God which every human is born with gets expanded by the Holy Spirit. He uses it like yeast in dough to accelerate your growth. He has a mandate from the Father to turn you into the likeness of Jesus. (Romans 8v29).

What is the "likeness of Jesus"? It is so that we may have His character fully formed in us as members of His Body. His character is the fruit of the. Holy Spirit. Jesus is LOVE; is JOY; is PEACE; is PATIENCE; etc. As we grow in grace we love more, have more joy, self-control and peace, are kind, patient, humble and good. Jesus manifests through us when we become selfless and the dominant ego is crucified.

People see Jesus in you by your actions towards them. If your unsaved personality was a fault-finding, grumpy miser,  the new you in Christ Jesus will be filled with joy and peace. Will people notice? For sure and they may even ask "what you're on"! And you can respond "in not on"! I am in Jesus and He is in me and my old nature died under the waters of baptism. The measure of faith waiting for a drop of Living Water in them will respond in due time.

Jesus said that His peace would pass all understanding. Our souls comprise of our WILL, INTELLECT and EMOTIONS. So Jesus' peace bypasses the soul straight to your heart. Your soul distorts spiritual things and would rather have a tranquilliser to pacify your nerves than peace that you cannot see. Let the peace and joy of Jesus flow into your heart and throw away man-made counterfeits because the peace never stops flowing and the joy never stops bubbling.

Temperance is another word for self-control. The Holy Spirit takes your wild, tempestuous nature and tames it like a cowboy on a rodeo beast. And He will stay aboard a lot longer than a cowboy! He brings you under the Lordship of Jesus who made you, lost you and bought you back with the Ransom of His own life. He owns you and everything you possess. You become a steward of His property and must care for yourself and it as perfectly as possible. He let's you drive His car, live in His house and eat His food. You care for His children, swim in His pool and work in His business.

He will provide your upkeep as long as you look after His property. You will know if you are slacking in obedience when things get bumpy, awkward, embarrassing.

On a wider scale the parts of the world not under stress and in a mess are being governed His way. He created the whole universe and we have this one planet to be good stewards of. Are we going to get blessed or blamed? We need the Holy Spirit to work on everybody to get the self-control, humility, goodness and peace right. Unfortunately not too many people want the fullness of the Spirit of God.

Those of us who do have much work to do to be sure that Jesus shines through us into those around us.

We must open up our hearts and let the Son shine in. He is the Light of the World and will dazzle the eyes of the spiritually blind and use you to open those unseeing eyes. Just be willing to share with others what Jesus has done to save you and bless you since you believed.

Prayer: Heavenly Father being translated into Your Kingdom and changed into the likeness of Jesus is joy unspeakable and full of glory and the half has never yet been told. We long to be with You forever. Help us to manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit in every place to draw those in darkness into the eternal light. In Jesus' name. Amen.