"FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT"
Joseph Odinikpo Ezeudu
In considering the Fruit of the Spirit, we shall consider the meaning of the words Fruit and Spirit first.
What is Fruit?
What is Spirit?
What then is the Fruit of the Spirit?
The Fruit of the Spirit could be defined as an output of an unseen seed that had been planted. For example, when a seed is planted, no one knows how it dies and then grows up again. During the time of it's dying and springing up and becoming a tree and all that, no one knows what is happening. We all see the finished work when the fruits start manifesting. So the Fruit of the Spirit as in Gal 5:22-23 is talking about the finished spiritual work of God in the life of a believer that when displayed, is being appreciated and enjoyed. This makes a believe in Christ good both before God and man.
The Fruit of the Spirit means then that for you to have the fruit, you must have the Spirit because it is from the spirit that the fruit comes out of. So no Spirit, no Fruit.
So the first thing is to have the Spirit, through new birth. You have to be born again by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. It is after this that the Spirit of God in you will begin to make you to die to the things of the flesh (man) so that you will be able to bear fruit in the Spirit. Jesus said, except a corn of wheat falleth on the ground and dieth, it abideth alone, but when it dies it bringth forth much fruit. You see, you have to die to those things in Galantians 5: 19-21. As your spirit man, soul and body gets reborn, the spiritual fruit that will manifest after this is what people will see and give them names like love, peace, joy, patience, longsuffering etc.
It is what you sow that you reap. If you sow orange, surely, you will reap orange. Any thing apart from that will be fake or might be called miracle but it is very rare. You put the seed of a mango and you get mango fruit at the end.
You see in having the fruit of the Spirit, you have to train your soul to be able to differentiate between the two so that you will know what to do at each time. An to do this you have to yield to the Spirit to be able to teach you how to do it. Always try to tune your spirit to the Spirit of God. See your spirit as a sub-Spirit that has to take instructions from the Holy Spirit of God. You have to take time to pray for it, learn how to work with Him. Let Him teach you. Do not copy others, just be yourself. Be whom you are or whom God has made you to be.
As you go on the learning journey, you have to help yourself by understanding that you are a separate being and the spirit of flesh and that of the Holy Spirit are separate from you. You have to realise that you are a trophy that is being competed for by the other two and have to be won by one. There is also a need to know the way or ways that God ministers to you and have to follow this way and develop in it.
You also need to realise that before God you are nothing and nobody. No matter how God uses you. Before Him or in His presence you have not achieved anything and even until you die you have still not achieved anything without Him. Be open before God. Hide nothing. The opposite is or should be the case when we stand before the Devil. The devil has to know that you are somebody, a redeemed soul, you used to be for him but now you are against him. You have to prove to him that you are covered by master Jesus.
When the fruit of the Spirit begins to germinate, you have to continue yielding to the Spirit so that the fruit will be matured and be made permanent. If you stop yielding to the Spirit, it is a kind of taking off the tap root of a tree that bears fruit and soon the fruit will die off. Note also that when the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit starts to diminish or stops in your life, soon, you will backslide. A saying goes: do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The matured fruit is a wonderful thing to look at and so it is a believer that has the fruit of the Spirit. He is a wonderful to behold and talk to and share things with.
To maintain the fruit of the Spirit, you have to overcome intimidation. Do not feel you are nothing or that you can do nothing. Always see yourself as somebody who can love, undergo temptation, who has joy, peace, longsuffering etc. Do not see anybody as doing good or bad but see God as doing good in such person and the devil doing evil in the other person.