Worship
Today as you begin your devotional, your quality quiet time with Jesus - I encourage you to start by listening to “Tend (Live Prayer)” by UPPERROOM, Michael Freeland Miller & Joel Figueroa, followed by the song “Tend (Live)”. You can find the playlist of all the music from our daily devotional with the links to your preferred platform here.
Scripture
Galatians 5:22-25
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
John 15:1-5
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Devotional
I love fruit. Big fan. Mangoes, figs, apples, dates, raisins, mandarins.. yea, it’s God’s candy. Personally, I think fruit is one of the best things the Lord has created for us.
I’ve also attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to grow fruit. I have an orange tree that I think has produced about 2-3 oranges this season - the rest was ravaged by stink bugs, and I’ve very unsuccessfully tried to grow a fig tree.
The thing with fruit is that you can’t produce the fruit you want without having the right tree. If you want oranges you’ve got to plant an orange tree, apples - an apple tree, pomegranates - a pomegranate tree. As Jesus said - “by their fruit you will recognise them”. You can tell if someone is the Lord’s by the fruit of the Spirit being shown in their life. In other words, the tangible evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person is peace, faithfulness and patience. It’s not a big ministry, or a an anointing to heal the sick or if they prophesy accurately - it’s joy, it’s self control, it’s kindness. These are the true markers of a Christian - and don’t our hearts know it. These things are the sparkle in the eye of one who loves the Lord.
There’s one important distinction here that I think so many Christians miss, and that is how the fruit of the Spirit is produced. From my experience, the knee jerk interpretation of so many is to read this list of characteristics and think that these are good things that we are supposed to produce so that we can please God. As if they were different fruits that we should try to accumulate and grow in. As if joy were a banana, love were a strawberry, and peace a mango.. and so on. However this is not really how the fruit of the Spirit is produced in us. The important differentiator is that all of these characteristics are actually one fruit - produced by the tree of the Holy Spirit. When we picture these characteristics, we should picture them as all being the same fruit, all oranges for example. Notice how the passage uses the singular for fruit and not the plural? It is about the produce of the Spirit in our lives - identifying one fruit over another - the fruit of the Spirit vs the fruit of the flesh.
The reason this is so important is because this passage actually orients our focus on the Spirit and not the fruit. When we focus on the Spirit, by keeping in step with him, then the Spirit produces fruit in our life. What this means practically is that our attention isn’t necessarily to be given to attempting to squeeze out a particular fruit such as self-control, goodness or joy, in isolation. Rather that when we submit to the Spirit and continually ask the Lord to fill us afresh with Him, then all of the fruit of the Spirit grows in us. In other words if we want to bear the fruit of the Spirit we’ve got to actually focus our attention on the Lord - who is the Spirit, and not on the fruit. This is why Jesus said in John 15 that we are to abide in him to bear fruit:
John 15:1-5
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
The work of fruit bearing in the Christian life is not about activity, but attachment. If we remain in Jesus, focus on Jesus, abide in Jesus, behold Jesus and fixate our attention, affection and adoration on him then the Spirit will produce fruit in us!
This is why I’ve laboured so much in this course to get your attention away from yourself and onto Jesus. You’ll probably notice we haven’t talked very much about pornography, even though we’re seeking to overcome it. We haven’t focussed on self control or patience and yet you’ve grown in these traits immensely. Why is this? You have attached yourself to Jesus, been filled with the Spirit and focussed your heart on him - and the fruit of the Spirit is growing in your life! Keep looking at Jesus, abiding in him and in so doing keeping in step with the Spirit and you will continue to bear fruit!
Prayer
Take some time today to pray that the Spirit would fill you afresh, lifting your eyes toward Jesus, helping you to remain in him today. Pray that the Spirit would do his wonderful work in you today and bear fruit in your life, to help you become more like Jesus.