God has told us in His Word that His precious Holy Spirit has fruit! One of the occupations of the Holy Spirit is to produce His fruit in God’s people. It’s not our fruit. It’s the Holy Spirit’s fruit, and we should all consider it our greatest pleasure to align our will with the will of the Spirit, so that he can do this work within us. It is the most important work of any in all of life, because the work of the Spirit transforms us! 2Corinthians 3:18(NIV) tells us that before we accepted Christ, we walked in darkness, with a veil over our hearts. But when anyone turns to the Lord Jesus Christ, the veil is removed, because wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! Now, we can contemplate God’s glory with the veil removed. Face to face, with nothing between us, is how we relate to our Heavenly Father, and He is continually transforming us into His image with increasing glory.
This work that God is doing in us through His Holy Spirit was His plan all along. Through Christ, He’s bought us back and restored us to His original intention; the wonderful intention He had for Adam and Eve before they messed up big time. Jesus Christ restored our connection to God, so that through the Holy Spirit, God’s Kingdom could again return to the earth in the way He always wanted. This is why Jesus Christ spent so much time after his resurrection teaching and preparing the disciples for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. He wanted them and he wants us to manifest this power boldly in our lives.
Before his crucifixion, the disciples had walked and talked with Jesus daily, but he was going to leave them. They were very sad about dealing with the reality of not having him with them every day. It was hard for them to focus, but he told them to snap out of it, because the Holy Spirit was coming, and God’s Will would be fulfilled. In John 16:7(NLT), he said, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”
Considering the words and instruction to the disciples from Jesus Christ, it doesn’t take much to understand with crystal clarity how important the Holy Spirit is to our walk as believers. We cannot live a successful Christian life without the Holy Spirit. He isn’t an “it” or a mere influence. He is a person! He's more of a person than you and I could ever be, and when we accept the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us. He lives inside our body temples, just as our human-spirit lives inside our body-temples. Our human-spirit is who we are. We make a huge mistake when we base our true identities on our physical bodies. The body is a beautiful creation, fashioned by God, but it is a temporary covering and dwelling for our human-spirit and soul. It is a suit made from the dust of the ground. When it is no longer alive, this dirt suit will go back to dust, because that is its original substance.
1Corinthians 6:19(NLT) says, “Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.” Our bodies are a temple for God’s Spirit to dwell. They are to be kept holy because the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us, and there he communes with our human-spirit. Our bodies cannot contain the entire scope of who and what God has made us through Jesus Christ. We’re created in God’s image. He’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and 1Thessalonians 5:23 tells us that God created us to be three-part beings as well. We have a human-spirit, a soul, and a body. When we became born-again, our bodies and souls did not change, but our human-spirit was recreated. 2Corinthians 5:17 says that we became a new creation. At the point of our new birth, we became alive to God, because the Holy Spirit has given us life! We are eternal beings, living an eternity with God.
Again, the Holy Spirit lives inside our human-spirit, and our human-spirit is continually communing with him. Heavenly Father wants us to bring our entire being under the submission of the Spirit, because He tells us in Galatians 5:16 that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh; we won’t do what our sinful flesh wants to do—we won’t let it call the shots.
The flesh wanting only to do what pleases it is referred to in God’s Word as the carnal mind. It’s our soul nature. God’s Will is that we allow the Spirit to influence our souls, so much so that we make continual choices and decisions to put our souls in alignment with the mind and heart of Christ. This is the Spirit’s occupation, to do a work in us so that we are producing thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors that mirror Christ. This causes us to be effective for God’s Kingdom here on earth. Philippians 2:12(NIV) tells us, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Our spirit-man is perfect through Christ, and has no flaws, but our soul is another story. We must work out the salvation of our souls by making decisions and choices that follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and direction, so that He can produce in us those things that please the Father.
Religion can’t make us who God wants us to be. Jesus Christ said in John 6:63(NLT), “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Sometimes we tell ourselves a hundred times that we’re going to stop doing the things we know we shouldn’t do, and we do them anyway. The work that needs to be done in us can only be done by the Spirit. We can’t do the internal soul work alone. It is far beyond our capability. God placed His Spirit within because He will do what needs to be done. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, and he tells us in John 15:16 that it is through his Spirit that we can bear fruit that will last.
Galatians 5:25(NLT) says, “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” As Christ’s ambassadors, you and I are in the fruit producing business. There must be some evidence outwardly of what God is doing inwardly. The Spirit will produce the life of Christ in us if we allow him, and he must have leadership in every aspect of our existences; we can’t hold anything back. This life that the Spirit produces is a life full of the Spirit’s fruit, and Galatians 5:22 tells us those fruit consists of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These qualities match your true identity in Christ. Because of Christ, these fruit are at the core of our human-spirit, so let’s partner with the Lord in every way as He produces every good thing in us through the working of His precious Holy Spirit. ■
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Fruit of the Spirit” written for victoryinjesuschrist.life© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior
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