Fruit of the Spirit (9)

We are nearing the end of this blog series about the fruit the Holy Spirit wants to bring forth in the lives of believers.

What the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us, is truly beautiful: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Let's take a look at gentleness.

Does 'being gentle' mean that we must be soft? That people can walk all over us? No, of course not. The Lord Jesus is gentle, but I wouldn't dare to call Him weak or cowardly. In Matthew 11:29 He says: I am gentle and humble in heart. Gentleness goes together with being humble: daring and willing to be the last or the least.

Practically, this means:

• not always wanting to be right,
• regarding someone else more important than ourselves,
• extending grace and not being judgmental...

In our efforts to be important, popular, nice and pretty we often forget that this was not the focus of Jesus' ministry. He brought gentleness into a violent world and they hated Him for it. And this is still so today. Being gentle is definitely a way to get noticed in the world today... daring to be gentle in situations where debate is rising and grace is nowhere to be found.

Personally I am not too good at this. That is why I have a big need to see this supernatural (godly) fruit become visible in my life. Gentleness is not a human virtue, it is supernatural character of God Himself... in us.

Fruit of the Spirit (8)

Throughout the ages people from all kinds of religions have done their best to be recognized; recognized from the outside that is... Just think about wearing hats, head coverings, toga's, habits, crosses and beads. However, the outside doesn't always say much about the inside, and that is really the place where God wants to bring forth fruit.

What the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us, is truly beautiful: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). In this blog series we have come to faithfulness. The King James Version says faith.

Isn't that what faith-fulness really is: being full of faith...?

The faith that we receive as a gift from God, and that needs to bear fruit in our lives, is not the faith from our parents, church or friends, but it is supernatural faith from God! Hebrews 11:1 tells us what kind of faith(fulness) that is: 

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (NIV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (NKJV)

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. (MSG)

To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. (GNT)

Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. (AMP)

Amen. I want to be recognized by that kind of faith, what about you?

Fruit of the Spirit (7)

Personally I find it useful and refreshing to take a step by step look at the fruit the Holy Spirit wants to produce in our lives. I hope you are enjoying it as well, as we are beginning to see that we cannot force these things to grow in our lives and they cannot be learned.

It is super natural character of God Himself which will grow in us when we give room, when we yield our will to His.

What the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us, is truly beautiful: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithful-ness,gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Today I want to stop and think about goodness.

Goodness, that's an interesting one... We probably all know good people and maybe they do not even believe in God. Well, yeah, some people are simply more friendlier and more generous than others. Doing good is something we can learn from our parents, or in school, or from some kind of philosophical book. Is that the goodness the Bible talks about in this context? No, that is not the kind of goodness (friendliness, generosity, goodwill, grace, honesty, integrity, kindness, mercy, righteousness, beneficence, honor, humaneness, kindheartedness) when talking about the fruit of the Spirit.

The divine fruit 'goodness' goes much, much further than a positive human characteristic. We are talking about a goodness as mentioned in Luke 6:35 (GNT), Love your enemies and do good to them; lend and expect nothing back. You will then have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God. For he is good to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Well, Jesus explains it in a way that leaves no discussion, don't you think? Doing good to our enemies. And then that last part, a real eye-opener... God is good to the ungrateful and wicked. Ouch, is that really true? I have never heard someone preach on that one...

Being good to ungrateful people... when we find ourselves doing that, we can be sure His character is being formed in us :)