It's been a while since I have written on here.. So sorry... Life has been fast pace lately! Anyways... In an effort to slow down I started this study on The Fruits of the Spirit. Everyone knows them.. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. But do you really know them? On a personal level? Maybe... Lol.. Maybe not. I thought I did but oh what God will teach you when you seek to learn and teach!
So here is a taste of the Fruits of the Spirit! These are not my words but words and scripture from She Reads Truth. I don't think anyone could put it any clearer..
In red letters Jesus says this...
In John 14.. 15-26
"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father,and I too will love them and show myself to them. Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Galatians 5:19-23 says..
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Until we repent of our sinfulness and lean wholly on the perfection of Jesus, we humans remain stuck in the cycle of that first list, powerless to break free. Even works of flesh we believers call “good” cannot gain us entrance to the Kingdom of God. But when we call out to Christ for salvation, we receive mercy, forgiveness, and freedom—and we receive the Holy Spirit, a gift promised by Christ Himself.
Jesus knows us all the way through. He knows our forgetful heartsđź’•And in His grace He leaves His very Spirit to be our helper, our comforter, our advocate. This is Christ’s gift to us, the far-off ones, bringing and keeping us close to God—not a “reach out and touch you” kind of close, but closer still. As close as our own breath is the Spirit of Christ to us. That is not mere hope or speculation, that is a promise from God’s Word!
Friends, those good things Paul lists in Galatians 5:22-23 are not borne of our best efforts. The fruit of the Spirit is borne only of the Spirit. Only by abiding in Him, resting in His goodness and trusting Him to do the hard work of redemption on our behalf, can we bear fruit.
Let's repent of every bit of goodness we’ve tried to squeeze out on our own. Let’s lay down the fruit we’ve tried to produce with good intention, self improvement and striving, and let’s see God as the source of everything good. May we hide and abide in the perfect life and love of Christ.
Peace, love and flamingos
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