Isaiah 61 Ministries

We’ve looked at both the Old and New Testaments. Let’s take a look at Holy Spirit in our lives today.

We’ve only scratched the surface of all that we can have with Holy Spirit. There’s just so much! But let’s look at two of the many things spelled out in scripture: the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit (in my next post).

First, the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

I love how Jesus teaches us spiritual concepts with tangible, relatable stories, word pictures and every day concepts. In John 15, Jesus is giving His disciples some final lessons as He about to be arrested and crucified. They are in a vineyard and Jesus uses what is around them to teach a spiritual truth of what it means to abide in Him and to bear much fruit. He says His Father is the Vinedresser or Gardner, He Himself is the True Vine and we are the branches. It is God the Father Who has provided the Vine (Jesus, His Own Son), God Who binds the branches to the vine (when we accept Jesus as our Savior) and God Who tends the Vine and the branches, including any necessary pruning. Now forgive my kindergarten mentality, but then Holy Spirit is kinda like the sap that runs through branches enabling them to flourish and bear fruit. John 15:5 says “much” fruit:

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Once again we see the Trinity working together, this time in order that we would bear much fruit that He would be glorified, that others would see Him at work in us and that we would be enabled to live the life that Jesus died to give us. However we have to remember it is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit that produce this fruit. There is one prerequisite: we must accept Jesus as our Savior and His death on the cross for our sin. Then we have one job and one job only if we want to bear much fruit: abide in Him. The word “abide” in the Greek means “to remain, to stay, to continue, to dwell, to endure” and implies “relationship; fellowship; obedience.”

None of us have the power or ability to simply will ourselves to produce the fruit of the Spirit that we find in those verses from Galatians 5. It simply cannot be done! However, if we will abide in Jesus and allow Holy Spirit to do His work in us, we have no choice but to produce fruit. The deeper the abiding and the greater the surrender to the working of the Spirit not just “some” fruit but MUCH fruit.

Oh Lord God! Let it be so for me! I surrender to You, to YOUR will and to the working of Holy Spirit that I would bear MUCH fruit for Your glory and for Your Kingdom here on earth! In Jesus ‘Name, Amen.