THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Matthew 7:15

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 7:16

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?

Matthew 7:17

"So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

Matthew 7:18

"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Matthew 7:19

"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 7:20

"So then, you will know them by their fruits.

The Bible is very clear about the way to discern what is from or not from God coming out a persons life.

Matthew 7:20

"So then, you will know them by their fruits.

Having been involved in the Charismatic renewal for many years, I know that many in that movement use the evidence of miracles, signs and wonders to be the sign of a persons walk with God.

It seems that Jesus did not agree:

Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? 23 And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.

Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)

In the Pentecostal Movement having the ability to speak in tongues is often seen as the main sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Paul the apostle did not think so.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

1 Corinthians 13:1

In the Word Faith movement having great faith to see great things done is the primary evidence of true relationship with the Father.

However the Apostle Paul tells us even great faith is not the true sign of a life-giving relationship with God.

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:2b

In the prophetic movements of the last few years prophecy has been seen as the crucial test of true authority in the Spirit.

Paul says no.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge. . . . but do not have love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:2

In many Protestant and Catholic traditions doing good works is the sign of being a true believer.

Again Paul tells us that doing good works or even martyrdom is not to be the sign of someone having a vital relationship with God.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:3

In all these verses from 1 Corinthians 13 Paul tells us what the sign of a living relationship with God is Love.

The word love is so misused in our present society that it can be hard to recover what the Bible is talking about when it uses the word.

The Bible uses one Hebrew and two Greek words for Love.

The Hebrew word AHAV is used much like our English word. It covers all five of the Greek words used for love at the time of the writing of the New Testament.

It can be used for Familial love, romantic love, friendship, appreciation for things or the ultimate love for God required by the Shema:

Sh'ma Yis-ra-eil, A-do-nai Elo-hei-nu, A-do-nai E-chad. Ba-ruch sheim k'vod mal-chuto l'o-lam va-ed. V'a-hav-ta et A-do-nai E-lohe-cha, B'chawl l'va-v'cha, u-v'chawl naf-sh'cha, u-v'chawl m'o-de-cha.

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! (Blessed be the name of his glorious kingdom forever and ever) 5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:4

Jesus quoted from this passage to answer a question about what was the greatest commandment.

Jesus answered, The foremost is, HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. 31 The second is this, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:29-31 (NASB)

The Greek language is much more specific. It has at least five words that describe what English and Hebrew use one for.

The Greek word used throughout the New Testament for the supreme love we are to have for God and the one Jesus used here is Agape.

Its primary meaning is to be committed without reserve to another person or to God.

In the Bible it describes a selfless giving of our whole being to God in response to His Agape for us. To love Him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might.

We see from other scriptures that this love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love (Agape), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Jesus tells us that the fruit of our lives demonstrates our relationship with Him. Nothing else does. So lets look again at what our lives are to be filled with:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

When our lives are filled with these things it is a beautiful life. . . . Beautiful to live and beautiful to those we live it with.

Think for a moment about the people in your life who manifest these fruit. The quality of their lives is extraordinary.

Think about when you experience these fruit in your life. Does it not make life wonderful?

Fruit bearing was always Gods idea. He created the world to be fruitful. In fact it is fruitfulness that is the vehicle of reproduction.

Genesis 1:11 (NASB) Then God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them; and it was so.

Genesis 1:21-22 (NASB) God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

Genesis 1:27-28 (NASB)

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female 28 He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply,

It would have been our first parents eating the fruit of the tree of life in the garden that would have given them eternal life. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:9 (NASB)

Then the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever
Genesis 3:22 (NASB)

It was eating of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that brought death.

Now the serpent . . . said to the woman, Indeed, has God said, You shall not eat from any tree 2 of the garden? The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

Genesis 3:1-3 (NASB)

but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. 4 The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:-5 (NASB)

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Genesis 3:6 (NASB)

At the end of days, in heaven, the way will be restored to the Tree of Life. Eating of its fruit will give us that eternal life God had always desired for us to have.

in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.
Revelation 22:14

The covenant God made with Abraham which led to our salvation was based on fruitfulness.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.

Genesis 17:6 (NASB)

If you simply seach for the words fruit, fruitful and fruitfulness in the Bible you will see that the bearing of fruit is a central concept in creation, in the plan of God for the world and in life in the Spirit.

Of course we would not be having this discussion if these fruits occurred without any involvement on our part. My purpose today is to help all of us bear more abundant fruit for God.

Bearing Holy Spirit fruit is both a supernatural and natural process. We are given the actual process in the book of Second Peter.

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 2 Peter 1:5

and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 2 Peter 1:6

and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love (agape). 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor

unfruitful in the true

knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:7-8

For he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 2 Peter 1:9

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 2 Peter 1:10

To fully understand the concept of bearing fruit we have to understand about the natural process involved in fruit bearing plants.

Jesus helps us in this as well. There are two ways Jesus indicates we will bear fruit in our lives from Him.

The first comes from the clear picture of death to self that occurs in a seed dying to bring forth life. This is what Jesus did for us first.

John 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies,

it bears much fruit.

John 12:25 "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

The first act of bearing fruit for God is to give up seeking the fulfillment of our own lives. It is dying to the selfish nature within us. It is only in this first act that fruitfulness will begin to happen in our lives.

The question arises about what it means to die to ourselves. Does it mean, as many say, that everything I want is to die? I do not believe so. I believe it means that which is in us that will take for ourselves what God gives us to bless others with must die.

Narcissistic selfishness best describes the self life. It is having ourselves as the first love of our lives. Dying to ourselves is described by the simple phrase:

God first, others before self.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2:3-5 (NASB)

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be 7 grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:6-7 (NASB

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:8 (NASB

We were created to be Like Jesus. We were created to live our lives for God first and others before ourselves. It is only when we live in this balance that we begin to produce the fruit of Holy Spirit life within us.

We produce the fruit of death as we become more and more consumed with ourselves.

We become more and more aware of the pain of our lives which tempts us to the lust of the flesh. We become more and more aware of what we do not have which tempts us to covetousness. We become more and more aware of wrongs done to us which tempts us to pride.

The fruit of Self Pity generating the lust of the flesh, Coveteousness which is the lust of the eyes and Pride begin to bring forth a harvest of depression, unfulfilled desires and the misery of isolation. We begin to move in the inward spiral towards mental illness.

On the other hand the more and more we become God and other centered the more and more we understand and fulfill our purpose to love God and others. In this outward spiral we become less and less aware of our own pain. We become more aware of their pain and how we might minster Gods love to them. We find thankfulness overtaking our heart which leads us away from the lust of the flesh.

The closer we get to God the more content we are. Having Him in our lives fills the gapping hole that we tried so hard to fill with material things. We experience hope which brings us to a place of humility as we understand that we can give Him pleasure and bless others with His love. The fruit of Holy Spirit life brings forth a harvest of Thankful Joy, Contentment and Humility. It is the outward spiral to greater and greater mental health.

The second way Jesus told us we would obtain fruitfulness is taken directly from the vineyards surrounding Jerusalem. While dying like a seed does when it goes into the earth to develop a whole new plant expresses how we begin the process of fruitfulness, the parable of the vine tells us the life long process we will go through to be fruitful for a lifetime.

John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 15:8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11 "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 "You are My friends if you do what I command you.

We must understand that Holy Spirit fruitfulness is a process. We see it demonstrated in the world of nature. Jesus defined that process by equating it to the life of a grape vine. The vine is the source of earthly life. The Sun is the source of heavenly life. Both provide vital things to the branches. To stay alive a branch must remain in the vine. This is where the metaphor varies slightly from real life. We as the branches have the choice to abide - a word meaning to make a continual home we get our word abode from this.

Fruit has many elements that relate directly to the life of the Spirit in us. If we want to know more about how fruitfulness works we can look at creation. As I was meditating on fruitfulness this week I thought about how two years ago almost every fruit tree in Southern Ontario had no fruit that year. Why? It was because when the flowers that would soon grow into fruit were blooming a frost came and killed them.

As I thought about this in my own life considering what the frost might be I thought the one thing that consistently kills Holy Spirit fruit in my life is bitterness. It seems that bitterness is like a late frost that takes the bloom away that will one day turn into wonderful fruit. That is why Jesus was so strong on us fully forgiving others. When unforgiveness lives in us we enter into a world of perpetual frost where nothing of the Spirit can live.

For me another killer of Holy Spirit fruit in me is anger. Like a raging storm full of deadly force winds that tear trees apart like a Tsunami, I find my anger strips my branches not only of fruit but of everything that resembles life. And it does the same for everyone.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, You good-fornothing, shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, You fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Matthew 5:22 (NASB)

The kind of fruit we bear speaks of Gods life within us. I have several trees on my property. I have noticed that year after year my cherry tree brings forth cherries. I have never seen an apple, pear or orange on it. It only gives cherries. This is why the evidence of fruit is what Jesus said we would use to test our lives and the lives of others for the truth of our relationship with him. We only bear the fruit that is actually in us.

From a Biblical perspective The true purpose of fruit is reproduction. We only reproduce what we are. All fruit bears the reproductive seed in it. While the fruit is wonderful to eat the purpose of the fruit is to reproduce from the seed that is in it. A cherry tree will never reproduce an apple tree.

As my friend Loys DeFleuriot often used to say, People catch what you have, not what you say you have. If you have measles but say you have mumps people will catch measles.

The only real test of any of our lives is our fruit. If we are filled with the life of Jesus we will bear the fruit of that life and in the bearing of that fruit we will reproduce it.

From my experience it is only the Fruit of the Holy Spirit that enables us to touch the world in a life giving way. When we allow this fruit to be brought to maturity it is the most important way Jesus will lead others to himself.

I once had a vision.

I was in the middle of a class in Princeton.

The vision was very real. Like I was actually in it.

I was in a cave with a group of people.

We were in a large cavern with a fire in the middle of our circle.

I so wanted to get out of it.

I bowed my head and prayed that God would show me how to get out of the cave.

As I looked around the edge of the cave there seemed to be exits.

Next to each dark spot that seemed like an exit there was a person.

I looked carefully at the first person.

They were calling, This is the way out!

As I looked at each one they all seemed to be saying the same thing and acting in the same way.

They were all so passionate.

Some were jumping up and down as they yelled.

But I knew that disaster could be waiting if I took their tunnel.

Near my childhood home in Oklahoma, are many caves.

Missouri and Arkansas have a lot more.

Our parents constantly warned us not to ever go alone into caves.

It was in Hannibal Missouri that Samuel Clemens, the writer of Tom Sawyer grew up.

He knew about caves.

In the story of Tom Sawyer, Tom and Becky were being chased in a cave by a criminal that wanted to kill them.

But the criminal got lost and fell off a cliff in the darkness.

I knew even if I did not die in a hole I could be lost forever in the labyrinth of myriads of tunnels.

The fellowship of our little group and the small fire was better than being lost in the darkness alone.

But I wanted out so badly.

I could not figure out how to tell which one of the people telling me they knew the way out did.

The last man I looked at was not even acting passionately in his proclaiming he knew the way out.

He just stood there, not moving, not shouting just quietly saying, This is the way out.

As I watched him I was overcome with a feeling of despair.

I said in my heart, This guy for sure does not know the way out.

He is not even trying hard to convince me.

I prayed again, much more desperately, that God would show me the way out

When I looked up again I was drawn to the man who was quietly saying, this is the way out.

My eyes went from his face to his hand.

In his hand was a broken off branch with leaves and a ripe pear on it.

I then knew he knew the way out.

You see, pear trees dont grow in caves.

They grow in a world of sunlight, rain and fruitfulness.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, selfcontrol; against such things there is no law.

Prayer Points:
If you have never yielded your life to Jesus as Savoir and Lord do so today.

If you have specific needs bring them today to the only one who can meet them.
If you have done things that have brought fruitlessness into your life come in repentance to find forgiveness and restoration today. If you have things in your life that have hindered Holy Spirit fruit surrender them to God today. If you desire greater fruitfulness seek Him to empower you and full you with the Holy Spirit.