The Fruit of the Spirit

Are you known by your gifts or are you known by your fruit? Because in the kingdom, gifts may open doors, but fruit proves who you really are. Galatians chapter five, verse 22 says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Then it says against such, there is no law. This fruit isn't something you can fake or force. It's not about personality. It's about presence. The more time you spend with the Holy Spirit, the more time you begin to bear the character of Jesus. It's one fruit of the spirit. It's not fruits. So just imagine, for example, let's say this book that's coming out. What's the purpose of life? Let's say this was a fruit. There's nine parts of this fruit, and that's the nine parts of the fruit of the spirit that I just mentioned. The love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The fruit is not something you can fake or force. It's not about personality. It's about presence. Your personality cannot be the fruit of the spirit. It's the person of the Holy Spirit that gives you the power to bear the fruit of the spirit.

When you've been with Jesus, think about intimacy, right? A couple, a married couple, when they're sexually intimate, they bear fruit, right? Seed brings harvest, which is a child being born. It's the same thing, but not sexually, but intimately with the Holy Spirit. When we worship and we stay in His tangible, beautiful, loving, amazing presence that you could experience, my God, and we're gonna have another teaching on this later, another course on the presence of God. When you're in the presence of God and you're just worshiping and you're meditating on His word and praying and just glorifying His holy name, what begins to happen is you begin to bear the fruit of the spirit. Now at work, you're loving, you're joyful. Through situations where you're not supposed to be, you have peace, you have gentleness and kindness. Whenever you see things that go against this, it is demonic. God will never tell you to be angry, never tell you to be rageful, never want you to be divisive, never wants you to gossip, never wants you to be out of peace, never wants you to be sad or depressed. That is not of God at all. That's the flesh, the devil, and the world. Again, it's not about personality, it's about presence. The more time you spend with the Holy Spirit, the more you begin to bear the character of Jesus. Gifts are given instantly, but fruit grows gradually.

You can get filled with the Holy Spirit in a moment. You can pray in tongues, prophesy, or healing with one single impartation, but fruit, that's the result of intimacy, obedience, and pruning. Jesus said in John 15, five, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. Notice He didn't say, you create the fruit. He said, you bear it. That means your job is to stay connected. Let's break down the fruit of the Spirit so you understand what it really looks like. Love, this is not just emotion, it's selfless, sacrificial, unconditional, agape. That's what love really means. Joy, it's not based on circumstances, it's rooted in the presence of God. The joy of the Lord is your strength, not your joy because of a situation. It's supernatural. Peace is a steady heart in the middle of chaos. No matter what you're going through, you have peace and you're not freaking out because of the presence of God. Long suffering, which also means patience. The ability to endure without quitting or complaining that only comes from the Holy Spirit and being in His presence. Kindness, how you treat others,

especially when no one's watching, that comes as a part of the fruit of the Spirit as well. Goodness, purity in action and motive. It's just doing the right thing. Purity because of the presence of God in your life. You don't wanna do that thing that you used to do in the world because you're dead to that. And the Spirit of God gives you joy and peace to overcome it. Faithfulness is consistency and commitment, integrity, and devotion. Being faithful, being committed, integral, devoted, not giving up. It comes from the Spirit of God. So some of you have not been faithful, it's because you haven't been in God's presence. You haven't been in His Word. And God is saying, go and He'll strengthen you. Gentleness is strength under control. Knowing you have strength in a situation but being meek and gentle and lowly. The last one, self-control. The power to say no to your flesh and yes to the Spirit, very important. This fruit is how people know you belong to Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 7, 16, you will know them by their fruits, not their gifts, their fruit. It doesn't matter how gifted someone is,

if they're rude, manipulative, prideful, impatient, or out of control, the fruit exposes them. This is the truth. They don't know him like that. So how do you grow in the fruit of the spirit? Number one, stay in the word, because the word is the mirror that gives you instruction on what needs to change. Number two, stay in the spirit, because it's called the fruit of the spirit, not the fruit of self-effort. Don't try to do these things in your own strength. It's not gonna work. You're gonna fall short. Stay in the presence of God and worship and just praying in the spirit. Stay in his presence. I love to worship. I love Upper Room, Jesus Image, Mercy Culture. I love these, you know, Circuit Riders and, you know, just Jesus Culture, Bethel, like all these, you know, and I know people will say, oh, what about this? Look, I just love the presence of God, and I know when a song has God's presence on it. So when I listen to the worship and I'm worshiping from my heart and I really mean what the lyrics say, I experience the presence of God. And then because of that,

I'm birthing all the fruit of the spirit. It's not because of self-effort. It's because of the Holy Spirit. Stay in fellowship, number three, because real fruit is tested in real relationships. God will test your fruit, expose things, bring darkness to light, healing, sanctification, deliverance through relationships when you realize you're right or you're wrong. Sometimes you might be right and not righteous. See, God will put you in situations with people who are mean or people who are not the same way that the scriptures say you're supposed to be. They're not bearing the fruit of the spirit. To see if you'll do it and shine your light and shine your love. Stay humble because fruit grows. That's number four. Stay humble because fruit grows low to the ground. Humility or being humble is depending on God. That's what it means, being poor in spirit, depending on God, trusting in God. Don't just ask God for gifts. Ask him to prune you, shape you, and grow you. That's a dangerous prayer because the more fruit you carry, the more people will encounter Jesus through your life. The biggest evangelism tool is your life, the light you shine.

You weren't just saved to be powerful. You were saved to become like Christ and the fruit of the spirit is what makes you look like him. Let's keep growing and I'll see you in the next lesson.