When we allow the Holy Spirit to increase Christ, and when we allow the Cross to do its work of decreasing Self, spiritual fruit will come forth in abundance. This makes everything we experience worthwhile.
What is the fruit of the Spirit? It is the reward, the prize, the end result of all those seasons of increasing and decreasing: the character and nature of Christ reproduced in a person. It is the precious Seed finally coming into maturity.
Galtians 5 says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control. Fruit is not how much work we can accomplish or how many things we can do for God. Fruit is: “How much of Christ can be seen in me instead of me?”
The fruit of the Spirit is found in the transformed character of someone who walks with Jesus in the Difficult Path.
And the key ingredient is LOVE.
In this series of teachings, we’ll look at all nine characteristics of spiritual fruit, and we’ll discuss the difference between the “plastic fruit” that is just for show and the real fruit that is evidence of a transformed character.
(These messages were recorded live during a series of online webinars.)
