Are you experiencing the Fruit of the Spirit?
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
When we are born again, the Holy Spirit enters our spirit and gives us new life.
But He also brings us faith: the ability to believe God, trust Him, and follow Him.
It requires us to use what He gives, but He has given it. If we yield, He gives and empowers us more.
The method of this is to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit within us.
When He says to wait, we wait. Patience is given and we can wait as long as He wants.
When He says to love, not hate……then that love is given by the Holy Spirit within,…..and as we yield to Him, we can experience that, in place of the anger and bitterness, which would come in certain circumstances.
When He says to quiet yourself in peace. His peace can take over the maddening shouts, the chaos, and the fear in your soul, and His quiet restful peace reigns in any circumstances.
But if we hesitate,….for any reason (and how many reasons we have!);….or hold out for our own way,……giving into self-expressions of anger, bitterness, fear, or self glorification:
We quench the Holy Spirit, and His power is withheld.
Then we stand in the precarious position of facing the circumstances, (not alone, for He is always with us)….
…..but without the needed power, for we have “put out the fire”……the power the Holy Spirit wants to give. (“Quench not the Spirit” 1 Thessalonians 5:19)
(I talk of “yielding” a lot. It is the term Paul used in Romans when he spoke of Christ freeing us from sin.
Romans 6:13, 16 “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members of instruments of righteousness unto God.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whither of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
With these simple verses Paul stresses that “yielding to God” is the means of victory.)
Galatians 5:25-26 “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”
When Paul says “we live in the Spirit”, he means that we are born again, alive to the newness of Christ’s life within us.
So he says we should walk in the Spirit; or experience that life of Christ’s in our everyday walk.
Paul says that we should not be desirous of vain glory.
The world looks out for #1……so you will be noticed, appreciated, respected above others.
Is that so bad?
When the heart is full of myself,….my place in society,…my goals,….my attainments;…..we are not full of the Holy Spirit,…..we have left Him no room.
Paul says we are not to provoke one another. Simply seek the peaceable things to talk about. Try not to start a fight
(There is defending the faith, but that is not contentious, but:
2 Timothy 2:24-25 “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient;
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;”)
And Paul says we are not to envy one another.
Envy is often thought light of in this day;…..but “envy” in the Greek means to shrivel away,……or pine for something someone else has.
When we do that,…..the Adversary of our souls can tempt us to think harshly of God’s Will and Way for us.
(Why can’t I have, what they have?)
Are you yielding to the Spirit of God within you?
You can have all He wants to give,…..all the fruit of the Holy Spirit within you….and through you…..if you will.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 