The Fruit of the Spirit IS

Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

The Christian life is not a static life, but an active life. To live a true Christian life you must be actively serving the Lord. When you understand the principle that the Christian life is an active life, it helps you to understand all that the Lord tries to get the believer to do in His Word.

One of those areas this principle helps us to understand is the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit always produces love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance in the life of the believer who is serving God. However, these are not needed if you are not serving the Lord. You will notice the fruit of the Spirit is. The word is is talking about activity. “Is” is present tense, which means it is active. The fruit of the Spirit becomes evident in my life when I serve the Lord; there is no need for the fruit of the Spirit if I am not serving the Lord. This is why so few believers are filled with the Spirit. A believer cannot be filled with the Spirit if they are not actively serving the Lord. The purpose of the Holy Spirit working through the believer is so they can do the works of God. You see, the works of God require a greater power than the flesh can produce; therefore, Christ gave us the Holy Spirit to do those works.

When we are actively serving the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will find the fruit of the Spirit. Let me explain. It is hard for me to love the unloveable, but when I am serving the Lord and meet someone who needs love, it is the Holy Spirit that produces Christ’s love in me to help another. There is no way I can make them feel that love, but the fruit of the Spirit gives God’s love through me to them. This could be said about all of the fruit of the Spirit. When you meet someone who needs joy, the Holy Spirit gives joy through you to them. Likewise, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are given through me to others when I serve the Lord.

Let me explain this another way. When I preach, there is no way I can meet the needs of the hundreds under my voice. However, because I am actively serving the Lord, the Holy Spirit meets the needs of each individual under my voice and gives them whatever fruit of the Spirit they need in their life at that moment. I cannot do this, but by actively serving the Lord in the Holy Spirit’s power, each person's need is met.

The sad part is that because many are not actively serving the Lord, many do not taste the fruit of the Spirit. I wonder how many people go without a taste of the fruit of the Spirit because of believers whose Christian life is static. If every believer got busy serving the Lord, we would find the needs of many would be met.

Is there a need for the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit through your life? Are you doing any work for the Lord that requires the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Always understand the purpose of the fruit of the Spirit is not so you can hold it as a possession, but its purpose is so you can be a conduit from God to others so they can taste of that fruit and have their needs met. The good part about being the conduit is you get to taste of this fruit yourself. Get busy serving the Lord by reaching the lost and helping others, and you will create the need for the Holy Spirit to let you be the conduit of His fruit to others.