The Fruits of the Spirit Series: Understanding they are from the Spirit

 By: Rebekah Hargraves

Photo Courtesy of: Johannes Plenio

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."

~Galatians 5:22-23

I have so enjoyed journeying with you all through our names of God series! That series has now come to an end, and as I contemplated what to write on next, I felt the Lord impress upon my heart the idea to write a series on the fruits of the Spirit. I am really excited about this, as this topic is near and dear to my heart.

We are all likely quite familiar with what the fruits of the Spirit are. But there is something here in this talk on the fruits of the Spirit that we often get wrong - we fail to correctly understand how we acquire the fruits of the Spirit.

That was my problem for many years. I would get up in the morning and determine that I would be the most patient, gentle, and self-controlled mom ever that day. Within ten minutes of my feet hitting the floor, that would all go out the window as I would get frustrated with one of my children or say something in a less than self-controlled way. I would get frustrated on a daily basis because I couldn't figure out what my problem was. Why couldn't I seem to be patient? Why couldn't I be gentle? Why wasn't I self-controlled? Why did it seem as if the fruits of the Spirit were accessible to me?

It was because I didn't understand how to acquire them in the first place. 

I was acting as if the fruits of the Spirit came about by me pulling myself up by my bootstraps and determining to be full of those fruits, by striving, by depending on myself. And nothing could be further from the truth. 

What we often fail to notice is the wording - these are the fruits of THE SPIRIT. That, my friends, is the key here! And it was right there in Galatians 5 all along. But what I had to do to fully understand how this all worked was back up to verses 16-17, which say this:

"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish."

What do we see here is the key to being able to live out the fruits of the Spirit in our lives? Walking by the Spirit. That is the key to living the victorious Christian life and living in such a way as to emulate Him. The fruits of the Spirit are just that - His fruits that He produces in us. And those are produced as we walk with Him - as we are in the Word, spend time in prayer, listen for His voice, etc. 

The good, refreshing news here is that living out the fruits of the Spirit doesn't depend on us - the Spirit Himself produces them in us as we depend on and walk with Him. 

Thank You, Lord, for that! 

Reflection Questions:

1) Have you ever lived under the mistaken idea that it is up to you to produce the fruits of the Spirit in your life?

2) What changes do you need to make in order to walk by the Spirit more? What would that look like for you?

3) How does it take a load off your shoulders to realize it isn't your job to produce the fruits of the Spirit yourself? How is it encouraging to know that is something the Lord does in us as we walk with Him?