Bible Lessons: 08/25/11

9 Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23

Love

Joy

Peace

Longsuffering

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-control

Why Is It called Fruit of the Spirit? Not Fruits of the Spirit?

Let's take an apple as an example. Qualities of an apple could be

Red, Round, Sweet, Edible, Seeded, Juicy
But it is still an apple. One apple. Just like the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is love, peace, joy, longsuffering, but one fruit.

Fruit of the Holy Spirit is the descriptive name given by the Apostle Paul to a nine-point list of Christ-like attributes of a true Christian life. In the Gospel that precedes this epistle, Jesus had said, "These things I command you, that you love one another. (John 15:17) Paul illustrates with these attributes the kind of love that marks a true Christian life:

1. Love

Here are some of the different definitions on what love is from the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries:

Unselfish, benevolent concern for another; brotherly concern; the object of brotherly concern or affection

The self-denying, self-sacrificing, Christ-like love which is the foundation of all other graces

Unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the well being of another

The high esteem which God has for His human children and the high regard which they, in turn, should have for Him and other people

To love, to have affection for someone; to like; to be a friend; the love of brothers for each other

One of the main messages that comes through loud and clear from studying our Bible is the extreme importance that God the Father is placing on that everyone learn how to love Him, love ourselves, love one another, and to even go as far as to be able to love our enemies and those who will try and hurt us.

However, our abilities as fallen humans to love one another is very limited. This is why it is so important for each and every Christian to work very closely with the Holy Spirit to get this fruit worked up into the core of our personalities.
It is only when the love of the Holy Spirit starts to flow and enter into our personalities can we even begin to love God, love ourselves, and love one another to the degree and to the intensity that God would like to see from each one of us.

To those of you who will be entering into this sanctification process with the Lord – this quality should be listed as the #1 quality you should really attempt to put on into the core of your soul and personality. The Holy Spirit will be moving on you very early and very quickly to get this quality imparted into your mind, soul, and emotions due to the extreme importance of it in your walk with the Lord.
You can be the greatest man of God and have some of the greatest gifts of God flowing through you – but if you are not walking with all of this in the spirit of love and humility, it will have all been for naught.

2. Joy

In the rough and tough world we live in with all of the crime, disorder, and bad things that can happen to anyone of us at anytime, many Christians have lost a lot of their joy in the Lord as a result of some of the beatings they have taken in this life.

Again, with the imperfections of our own fallen nature, and then you combine that with how people react differently to adversity – some Christians have literally had most, if not all of their joy in the Lord, knocked right out of them.

This is why the above verse from Galatians is so powerful and so needed by every single Christian today. In this verse, God is telling us that He can transmit some of His godly and divine qualities right up into the middle of us like filling up a new car with its first tank of gasoline. Many of God’s people need a fresh infusion of His divine qualities due to the leaks that have occurred as a result of some of the beatings His people have taken during the course of their lives.

And the quality of joy is a much needed quality in this day and age. No matter how bad of a beating you may have taken in this life – God can still fully heal, deliver, and restore you if you are willing to work with Him in this healing process.
And one of the things that God can fully restore in you is your joy in Him. And not only can the Lord fully restore what joy you used to have in Him, but He can also increase it to a much greater degree and intensity due to the wording in the above verse – with the quality of joy being one of the 9 specific fruits of His Holy Spirit!
Here are some of the different definitions of what real joy is all about:

Great delight; gladness of heart

The happy state that results from knowing and serving God

That deep, abiding, inner rejoicing in the Lord

To rejoice, to be glad

Happy, joyful, cheerful, rejoicing, festive

Realize that God can transmit this divine quality right up into your personality – and this will be His joy, not your joy, once it starts to flow up into you. And once God starts to release His joy into your system, you won’t be able to help but feel it. And once you are able to start feeling it again, it will become much easier for you to learn how to walk back in it in your own daily walk with the Lord.
The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is your strength. This is why it is so important that every Christian have some level of God’s joy operating through them in this life. Without God’s joy operating in your life, things can begin to dry up. Nothing is ever fun anymore. Everything can start to become a chore. Before you know it, you will want to start to withdraw from others and life in general.
The joy of the Lord can really give you an incredible surge of strength in your own daily walk with God – especially when you have to take on some really tough situations. This is why each Christian should work very closely with the Holy Spirit in not only getting Him to release His joy into their system, but to also keep it running through them on a very regular and consistent basis.
The Holy Spirit will do this for you if you are open to receiving this divine infusion from Him and are willing to work with Him to keep it properly flowing through you on a regular basis.

3. Peace

This is another major quality that we all need operating in our lives, especially with all of the uncertainty of this life and never knowing what is going to happen next.
Jobs are no longer as secure as they used to be. You never know when the company you work for may be bought out and your job will be gone in a flash. Half of all marriages are still ending up in divorce. We are all forced to constantly live under the threat of future terrorist activity, never knowing when or where the next attack will come from.
With all of this kind of heightened activity that we are all forced to deal with on a daily basis, it becomes very easy to lose your sense of peace, especially your peace in the Lord. Again, this is one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit can really help you pick up the slack if you start losing your own sense of peace over some of the storm clouds that could come against you in this life.

Realize that the Holy Spirit has His peace to give to you and that He can give it to you in great abundance.

I have found that once His peace starts to flow up into your mind, soul, and emotions, it really is as the Bible says – a peace that surpasses all human understanding – especially when that peace comes in right in the middle of a severe storm cloud that you may be going through.
Here is how the quality of peace is described in some of the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries:

The presence and experience of right relationships

The tranquility of soul

Sense of well-being and fulfillment that comes from God and is dependent on His presence

The inner tranquility and poise of the Christian whose trust is in God through Christ

Tranquility, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord

The quality of peace should be one of the main qualities that you should try and get worked up into your soul through the Holy Spirit in the sanctification process. Without the peace of God operating in your life, you could become very easily rattled, shaken, tormented, and knocked right off of your game in the Lord the first time any type of adversity should ever come your way.

4. Longsuffering

One of the main definitions of the word longsuffering is that it is referring to patience. And patience is another sorely needed quality in the fast paced world in which we live in today.
Just watch people standing in line at the grocery store or at your local fast food restaurant and watch how short some people’s fuses are today. Road rage is still a major problem on some of our highways. Look at someone the wrong way and they will want to try and take your head off. Many people have been killed or seriously injured because someone lost his temper over something that was very trivial.
With the fast-paced ways of our society, many people have had their fuses shortened up and it thus takes very little to set them off. As a result, many people have very little patience operating in their personalities today.
For Christians, this poses a major dilemma. One of the ways of our God is that He is a very patient and longsuffering God. His ways are not our ways. And one of the things you will find out very early on about His ways is that He works on a much slower time frame than we do. And unless you learn to adjust to His slower way of working things out, you will find yourself easily losing your patience with Him and how He wants to work things out in your life.
God operates on a much longer and slower time frame than we are used to operating in the fast paced world in which we live in. You will really have to work with the Holy Spirit on this particular quality to get it properly worked up into your personality. The reason for this is that your own impatience will start to act up and try to override the patience and longsuffering that the Holy Spirit will try and transmit to you. At times, it may become of battle of wills – your will against His will.
But once the Holy Spirit starts to try and manifest this quality up into your personality, then you have to try and move with it and allow it to get worked into your mind and emotions. If you do, then His patience will start to override your impatience, and before you know it, your fuses will start to lengthen and you will not lose your patience like you used to do.
Here are the different definitions for the word longsuffering:

Forbearance, patience

Patient endurance and steadfastness under provocation

Forbearance under ill-will, with no thought of retaliation

Patience, endurance, steadfastness and forbearance

Forbearance under suffering and endurance in the face of adversity

Ability to endure persecution and ill-treatment

With the way all of these definitions are reading, you can really see why we all need the patience and longsuffering of the Holy Spirit to start operating in our souls and personalities – especially when we are forced to face any kind of adversity. Sometimes it will be the patience and longsuffering of the Holy Spirit that will be the only thing that will give you the ability to last the entire length of a bad trial.

Learn how to ride and flow with the patience of the Holy Spirit in your daily life and walk with the Lord – and you will then be able to enter into a much more restful, peaceful state within your mind and emotions.

5. Kindness

As a result of more people being impatient, having short fuses, and with everyone always being in a hurry – many people have lost the ability to treat others with kindness and respect. A kind word, a kind action to another person can really do wonders for them.
When you really study the life of Jesus in the New Testament, you can really tell how kind He always was with other people in His dealings with them. Jesus is without question, the ultimate role model for all of us of someone who was fully walking and operating in all 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The quality of kindness will go hand in hand with the quality of love. Once the Holy Spirit starts to transmit His love up into you, the quality of kindness will follow right along with it. It will then become much easier for you to be able to be kind to others once the love of God starts to flow more into your personality.
You cannot help but be more kind to others if God’s love is flowing through you. This is why the quality of love has to be the main quality that you really concentrate on getting more of from the Holy Spirit. Once the love of God starts to flow and operate through you to touch others, many of the other fruits of the Holy Spirit will then start to follow right after it in domino fashion.
Here are some of the different definitions of what real kindness is all about:

Quality or state of being kind

The steadfast love that maintains relationships through gracious aid in times of need

Goodness of heart, serviceable, good, gracious, pleasant

Love for mankind, hospitality, acts of kindness, readiness to help, human friendship, benevolence, taking thought of others

Goodness in action, sweetness of disposition, gentleness in dealing with others, affability

The ability to act for the welfare of those taxing your patience

As you can see from some of these different definitions, this is a very beautiful quality to have transmitted up into your soul and personality by the Holy Spirit. Not only will you be able to touch others with this godly quality, but you will also be able to touch yourself – because you will feel so much better about yourself if you can learn how to treat others with much more kindness and respect in your daily dealings and affairs with them.

6. Goodness

The Bible says that it is the goodness of God that will lead sinners to repentance and salvation. The quality of goodness is another real powerful quality to have operating through you.
This particular quality has a real drawing power to it. Not only does the goodness of God draw people direct to Him, but this fruit of goodness operating in a believer can also draw people direct to God through the actual believer.
Spirit-filled saints who are walking with many of these fruits operating through them are like a magnet. Many people who have been saved through an individual believer say that what drew them in was the love and goodness they saw shining through that believer.
Jesus says that we are to carry His light and let that light shine before men and not attempt to hide it. Part of His light are these 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit shining through an anointed believer. Nonbelievers are really drawn to someone who has some degree of these nine fruits manifesting through their personalities.
However, there is something extra special about the quality of goodness. Many Christians can effectively witness to others by just living right and being a good example and role model for others to follow. Many nonbelievers carefully watch and study some Christians because they know there is something really different about them.
One of the key qualities a nonbeliever will pick up on in a solid Christian is this quality of goodness. This quality has an ability to really get down deep into the core of a believer’s personality. To those who really have this quality, you can tell that it is something operating deep down inside of them. This quality is not something that waivers like some of the other qualities can do. These people are good down to their very cores of their personalities. You can see it and feel it when you get around these types of people.
As a result of seeing this God-like goodness deeply ingrained into their personalities, there is an immediate drawing towards them. You feel totally safe being around them because you know you can totally trust them, and you know they would never deliberately hurt you.
Children are quick to sense and pick up on this quality in people who really have it. These types of Christians draw children and adults to them like magnets. This is why this particular fruit and quality is so important for each Christian to have. Because with it, you can easily draw many more people to the Lord.
If the goodness of God will lead people to repentance and salvation with Him – then the goodness of God operating through an anointed believer will have the ability to draw nonbelievers into salvation. And the goodness of God can be transmitted and worked up into your personality through the power of the Holy Spirit. You can have the actual goodness of God shining through you to reach others if you are willing to work with the Holy Spirit in this sanctification process.
Now here are some of the different definitions of what this quality is all about:

Beneficence, ready to do good, love in action

Kindness in actual manifestation, virtue equipped for action, a bountiful propensity both to will and to do what is good, intrinsic goodness producing a generosity and a Godlike state or being

The word beneficence means the fact or quality of being kind or doing good

This particular quality is a very powerful fruit to have operating in your personality because of the drawing power it has in it. And the beautiful part about this fruit is that this quality is so pure in its goodness – it does not have any manipulative qualities within it.
In other words, a truly good person could not even begin to try and use you or manipulate you for their own personal gain because they are too good and too righteous to even begin to think along those lines. This is why these kinds of people are so trustworthy and why so many people are drawn to them – because you feel so safe by just being around them.

7. Faithfulness

In the times we live in with half of all marriages still ending up in divorce, and with many people getting back-stabbed in the workplaces with people they thought they could initially trust – this particular quality is one that is really needed in our day and age. This quality is not only needed in our own personal relationship with God, but it is also needed in our own personal relationships with our friends and our families.
Once you are saved and have entered into a true, personal relationship with the Lord – one of the first things you will really have to grab a hold of is holding fast to the Lord and staying faithful to Him for the rest of your eternal life. Once you are saved and have entered into a true, personal relationship with the Lord, there is no turning back – ever!
This is what got the Jewish people in major trouble with God the Father back in the Old Testament. They could not stay faithful and loyal to Him on a consistent and regular basis. There were times that God the Father was literally calling them harlots and adulterers because they would not stay faithful to Him, especially when they kept chasing after other gods.
God the Father really holds this particular quality in high esteem, and this is one quality that He will really expect you to operate very strongly in – not only in your own personal relationship with Him, but also in your other personal relationships with your family and friends. In other words, He wants you to be faithful and loyal to your spouses, to your children, to your parents, and to your good friends.
Too many people are bailing out from their spouses and their children if they hit a few minor speed bumps in their marriages. Too many spouses are having affairs behind their spouse’s back, thereby destroying all of the trust and faithfulness that may have been built up in the early years of their marriages. Too many fathers are bailing out of their marriages, and then forgetting and forsaking their own children – and sometimes for good, never wanting to see any of them ever again!
If God brings you a wonderful mate, wonderful children, and good and wonderful friends – then He will expect you to stay loyal and faithful to all of them in your own personal relationships with them. A true friend will stay by your side for life – through thick and thin and for better or for worse. Just as God will stay faithful to you in His own personal relationship with you – He will expect you to stay loyal and faithful in your own personal relationships with the other people in your life.
Now here are what some of the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries have to say about this particular quality:

Fidelity which makes one true to his promise and faithful to his task

Steadfast, dedicated, dependable and worthy of trust

Steadfast, unchanging and thoroughly grounded in relation to the other

Dependability, loyalty and stability

With the self-centered and materialistic world in which we now live in, where many people’s only goals and ambitions are to get as much as they can out of this life while they still can – I am afraid this is one quality that is in very short supply. Most people are lucky if they manage to make 2 or 3 good, loyal, and faithful friends in this lifetime.
This is one quality that God the Father is really watching all of us on. He is watching who is going to stay true, loyal, and faithful to Him – and who will stay true, loyal, and faithful to the friends and family that are brought into our lives.
The flesh is strong – especially in the area of wanting to satisfy its lust for the material things of this life. This is why this quality is one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit. We all need the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit worked into us to help us keep loyal to God, family, and friends.

8. Gentleness

Many men may draw back a bit from this next fruit, which is the quality of gentleness. Whether some of the liberals like it or not, Jesus was fully incarnated into a human, flesh body – but this incarnation was done as a man – fully Man and fully God. He was not incarnated into the body of a woman, no matter how any liberal tries to spin this basic fact, with many liberals trying to make God gender neutral.
Since Jesus walked our earth as a man – the Son of Man – study His actions very carefully when you read the gospels and how He handled different types of people. There were times that He would engage and set people straight, like He did with some of the Scribes and Pharisees. But there were other times that He dealt with people very gently, with kindness and love. His gentle way of handling some of these people is what really jumps out at you when you really study how He handled different types of people.
Again, Jesus is the perfect role model for all of us to study and learn from – especially with how He handled people while He was walking down here on our earth. For men in particular, His actions and behavior towards others should be a major study for all of us and we should seek to pattern our own daily walk after Him. And one of the divine qualities that He had operating in Him with great abundance was the quality of gentleness.
The quality of gentleness is another major quality needed in our world today. So many people have been beat up and hurt in their dealings with other people – that just a gentle word, a gentle touch from another Christian can really open up the door for that person to be able to receive Jesus and His healing, saving, and deliverance power into their lives.
Once you really start walking in the Holy Spirit with His divine fruits operating and flowing through you – you will really be able to feel and sense when you should handle a certain person or a certain type of situation with more of a touch of gentleness rather than with any kind of stern rebuke or condemnation. There is a time for tough love – but there are also times that just a gentle and loving touch is all that is really needed to properly handle a certain situation.
The Holy Spirit will guide you in all of this. Just realize that the quality of gentleness is one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit, and this is one of the fruits that He would really like to get worked into your personality, especially in being able to use it when dealing with and helping out others.
Parents especially need this fruit operating through them, as it is very easy to get out of balance with the way you are correcting your children. Sometimes more of a tough love approach is needed, but at other times more of a gentle approach will be better suited for the situation.
If all your children ever hear from you are stern words of rebuke and criticism, and it is never properly balanced out with words and actions of love, kindness, and gentleness – then after a certain period of time your children will start to pull away from you, and they then will have no more desire to want to establish any type of good, solid, loving relationship with you.
Now here are some of the different definitions on the quality of gentleness:

Mildness combined with tenderness

Gracious, kindly disposition, controlled strength

A disposition that is even-tempered, tranquil, balanced in spirit, unpretentious and that has passions under control

A character that is equitable, reasonable, forbearing, moderate, fair and considerate

Power and strength under control

Willing to pardon injuries, correct faults. One who rules his spirit well

Not only will other people love and gravitate towards you more if you learn how to walk in this quality – but you will be at much more peace with yourself since you won’t always have to be fighting and striving with others when trying to help them out.

9. Self-Control

Last, but not certainly least, is the quality of self-control. This one is huge, and I mean huge! Once you start to enter into a true, sanctification process with the Lord – expect the Holy Spirit to move on you very early with this specific quality.
The reason for this is that we all have a certain amount of character flaws operating in our personalities. There are some bad and negative qualities that will have to go.
The Bible tells us that our spirits and our flesh will war against each other in this life. Our flesh wants immediate self-gratification at all costs and will stop at nothing to try and get it. Our spirits know that some of our fleshly desires are not right for us and as a result, there will be a tug of war between the two – and sometimes it will be a major tug of war. And the only thing that will be able to control and curb some of the desires of our flesh is the quality of self-control.
Since we all live in a very self-centered and materialistic type world today, many people have very poor impulse control. If they see something they immediately want, they will do anything they can to try and get it. They will not be denied until they get what they are going after. These people are obviously very weak in the quality of self-control. This is why the Bible tells us that if we can learn how to really walk in the Holy Spirit, then we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh.
Due to our fallen and sinful natures, all of us are weak to some degree in the quality of self-control. This is why God the Father made sure to have this fruit listed as one of the 9 fruits of His Holy Spirit. We all need God’s self-control operating in our lives and in our personalities if we are going to have any hope in getting cleaned up and properly sanctified to the degree that He would like to get us to in this life.
If you do not have God’s self-control operating through you – you will have very little victory over such things as bad tempers, judgmental and critical spirits, an unforgiving spirit, and vices such as smoking and the abuse of alcohol.
Once the Holy Spirit starts this sanctification process within you – be prepared for some major battles and tugs of wars with Him once He starts coming after some of the negative qualities operating in your personality.
But if you are willing to yield to Him and allow Him to start to work all 9 of these fruits into your personality – then you will find yourself starting to grow in ways and in areas that you never thought were possible in this life. His supernatural power in this area will blow you away once you see how far He can really take you to become the person that God would like you to become in Him in this lifetime.
Here are some of the definitions of what the quality of self-control is all about:

Temperance, rational restraint of natural impulses

Sober, temperate, calm and dispassionate approach to life, having mastered personal desires and passions

Calls for a self-disciplined life following Christ’s example of being in the world but not of the world

Restraint or discipline exercised over one’s behavior

The above definitions perfectly describe what God is looking for once He starts to work and transmit this quality up into our personalities. This specific quality is one of the major keys in being able to get any kind of victory over some of the lusts and desires of our flesh.

Conclusion

All of the above definitions on each one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit give you a perfect description of what each one of them are all about, and why God the Father really wants to work each one of these 9 fruits into our personalities.
As you can see when reviewing each one of them, they are all very powerful – and they not only have the ability to help change, transform, and sanctify you – but they also have the ability to touch all of those around you.

Nothing will draw nonbelievers and believers alike to the Lord than a truly, sanctified saint in the Lord who is walking and operating in all 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work and transmit all 9 of these fruits up into your personality to some appreciable degree in this life – you will then become a light that will literally radiate the presence of God Himself through your soul and personality.
You have no idea how many people you will be able to save, touch, witness to, and help disciple if you have these fruits operating through you. These fruits will give you a credibility with God and with other people that no degree or title can give you in this life. This sanctification process is the ultimate, highest aim and goal with God for our lives.
For those of you who are not afraid to let God begin this deeper sanctifying work in your life – keep these 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit directly in front of you – and work very closely with the Holy Spirit once He starts to manifest these fruits up into your personality.
These fruits will be coming directly from Him. They will be His love, His goodness, His joy, and His peace that will start to flow into you. But you will still have to do your part in all of this. Once these divine attributes start to be released into your personality by the Holy Spirit – your job will then be to start to walk and operate in them.

If the Holy Spirit starts to release His quality of love into your personality, but you start refusing to walk and operate in that love in your words and actions to others – then He will start to pull it back from you after a reasonable length of time.

Bible Lessons

25.8.11

FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT