The Fruit of the Spirit – Summit Life Today: January 17, 2012
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Dave McAuley

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control...this is a pretty good list of qualities to value and apply.  In Galatians 5:22-23, this list actually describes what the Apostle Paul calls“The Fruit of the Spirit”.

 It’s important to note that the word “Fruit” is singular and not plural.  This list of qualities capture the essence of the totality of what the Holy Spirit desires to produce in and through us.  If I were to ask you to describe an apple, you might describe its color, texture, taste, juiciness, aroma, size, seeds, etc.  You would use different words to describe each aspect of the apple but it would be just one apple.  When the Holy Spirit produces “Fruit” in our lives, people who encounter us should describe it as “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control”.  Each quality is inter-reliant on the others with the intention to be expressed collectively in our lives.  So, that being said, how is your fruit measuring up?

That’s the question we tend to ask, but it is absolutely the wrong question!  Our fruit will never measure up to “The Fruit of the Spirit.”  I remember walking through an arts and crafts supply store one day and seeing a display of paraffin fruit that looked very real.  The thought occurred to me that when I try to manufacture “The Fruit of the Spirit” in my life, it may look like the real thing from a distance, but it won’t pass the “taste test”.  Only the Holy Spirit can produce God’s fruit in your life, real fruit that has all the qualities He desires to produce in and through us.

 As leaders, we are influencers.  Just imagine the positive influence you could have in people’s lives if they tasted the sweetness of Holy Spirit’s fruit because of you.  Begin the process of bearing “The Fruit of the Spirit” in your life by simply asking God to do it in you and through you by His power and not by your own effort.  You will be amazed by what the Holy Spirit can do through you as you present yourself to be used by Him.

Leading to serve,

Dave McAuley

Founder & President

 

“Let us take care that we exhibit our Master, and not ourselves, so that we can say, It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.”

~ Charles Spurgeon

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