Holy Spirit Produces Good Fruit
There is no greater life than living in the Spirit. Once you learn the process by which you walk daily, throughout the day, under the influence of the Holy Spirit you won’t want to go back to living normal human life.
Many of us who are Christian and go to church every week still have not found that place in our walk where we are living in the Spirit. O, I know we are born again, but we have not yet allowed Holy Spirit to fully transform us so that the fruit of our life is the fruit of the Spirit.
In verses 19-21 of this chapter Paul gives four categories of sins. There is sexual sin, not difficult to identify. There is God-substitute sins, a little more difficult to recognize. There are Attitude sins, often not thought of as sin. Finally, there are lifestyle sins like drunkenness, orgies and the like (Paul’s words not mine).
The category which seems to most affect us is attitude sins. In fact, these sins are so common that we don’t often think of them as sins. We look at ambition as just wanting to get ahead and envy as simply wanting the better things in life. Our anger is justified and I can’t help it if others don’t fit into my clique. All of those justifications are the result of not living in the Spirit.
So, how does one “live by the Spirit?” First, to live by the Spirit we must be filled with the Spirit. Becoming filled with the Spirit is achieved by seeking God and submitting ourselves to his lordship. Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” I promise that if you ask, seek and knock you will be filled with Holy Spirit.
When you are filled with Holy Spirit you will then live by the Spirit and the fruit of your life.
Prayer: Fill me Holy Spirit so that I may live in the Spirit so the fruit of my life will be the fruit of the Spirit. Amen.
You Can Go Further With This Devotion
Every one of the inspiring devotions in the Daily God Walk seem to stimulate us to grow in our journey of faith. To facilitate that growth we offer the Study Guide Edition which includes:
- A section that pinpoints the message of that devotion
- An affirmation to affirm the message in prayer and meditation
- A section of reflection which is good for personal development as well as being good to use for discussion material in a small group setting.
- Also there is a a section called, "My Notes." This is an excellent tool to help you journal your thoughts daily.
Message: So, how does one "Live by the Spirit?" First, to live by the Spirit we must be filled with the Spirit. Becoming filled with the Spirit is achieved by seeking God and submitting ourselves to his Lordship.
Affirmation: I have the fruit of the Spirit in my life because I have chosen to live by the Spirit.
Reflection: The sure test of whether you are living a Spirit led life is to examine the fruit of your life. Does your life exemplify the fruitfulness Paul describes? Ir is it manifesting the works of the flesh Paul describes in just a few verses before our Scripture text for this devotion?
My Thoughts: