Fruits Of The Spirit

As a kid, whenever I went along with friends and did something I shouldn’t have done, my mother would begin her lecture, before the laying on of hands, with “if so and so jumped off a bridge would you?”  or  “ A tree is known by its fruit..” I have to admit as a kid that last one eluded me for a while but you might want to pick up a copy of the KB lecture series; I believe they’re cataloged and numbered by the Library of Congress and it’s quite an extensive collection.

But, I digress, I want to talk about the later part of my mother’s chastisement series…. A tree is known by the fruit it bears. She came straight outta the Bible at me. That New Testament gangster!

Luke 6:43-45 New King James Version (NKJV)

43 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Look at that last part about an evil person….

So what are fruits and how do we bear them?

The Fruits of the Spirit is a term used to describe attributes of a person who is in sync and aligned with the Holy Spirit (they are a result of you walk lining up with your talk in accordance to word of God, amen! They are the blessings  (harvest) of your faith.

Galatians 5:22-23  22 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.

The only way to produce fruit is to have the Holy Spirit (God, Love) in you. You plant seeds the moment you believe ….. Ephesians 1:13-14   13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 

14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

This being said…I want to remind you that farming is a process sometimes you get a harvest and sometimes you don’t…. there have been many a time where I have sewn some things that I shouldn’t have and I received a bumper crop of NOTHINGNESS….

But at this stage in my life, I know that I have been blessed with second chances and opportunities that have not been afforded to many and I am making the most of the second chance. My farming is intentional. My farming has meaning and purpose and my farming feeds and nourishes my soul!

Are you farming on the Ponderosa ( I know it's technically a ranch but it was supposed to be big and beautiful) or are you farming on Green Acres?  (obscure tv references that kids won’t get just like I didn’t get the thing about the tree bearing fruit)