Sometime in May 15, 2017 (gosh! How time flies – over a year now…), I published “The Fruit of the Spirit – LOVE” on ashsaltcom.wordpress.com, and today I’m summarising the nine aspects of the singular fruit of the Spirit in this blog post. Enjoy!
“A fruit is the seed-bearing part of a plant, often edible, colourful and fragrant, produced from a floral ovary after fertilization” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2018). This can be rephrased to say that the fruit of the Spirit is the demonstrable part of a Christian’s life and character that is edifying, graceful, distinct and pleasant, produced as a result of his/her fusion with the Spirit of God after salvation.
These nine fruits are love displayed in all of its aspects.” Someone has described them like this:
Joy is love’s cheerfulness.
Peace is love’s confidence
Patience/Long-suffering is love’s composure
Kindness/Gentleness is love’s consideration
Goodness is love’s character
Faithfulness/Faith is love’s constancy
Gentleness/Meekness is love’s comeliness
Self-control/Temperance is love’s conquest.
It is a fruit, (not fruits) as the Spirit bears only a type of fruit, though with nine different parts; each part being interdependent, and not mutually exclusive of each other. These nine parts are LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONG-SUFFERING/PATIENCE, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS, FAITH/FAITHFULNESS, MEEKNESS and TEMPERANCE.
The natural man cannot manifest the fruit of The Spirit because of his unregenerated heart. Therefore, the following steps are required to be able to exhibit the fruit of The Spirit in one’s character- salvation from sin, sanctification of heart, Spirit (Holy Ghost) baptism, sincere prayers and constant dependence on God.
There is nothing like a selective manifestation of any part of this fruit, as they exist like the assemblage of the seven colours of the rainbow. Just as it ceases to be called the rainbow when either the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo or violet colour is not evident in that beautiful semi-circle, so also a Christian ceases to be one when he/she refuses to exhibit any of the nine parts of THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT…(John 15:1-8; Romans 6:22; Romans 7:4).
So are you a Christian hungry for the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in your life? This fruit is all yours for the asking. Sincerely cry to the Lord to sanctify you and remove from within you the root of sin, and make you His glorious image through the manifestation of these wonderful fruit of the Spirit. But if you have not yet known Christ, why tarry, today is your day, NOW is the acceptable time – receive Christ’s love, renounce your sins and repent. Then seek Him for the manifestation of these fruit of the Spirit.
For now, we’ve come to the end of the fruit of the Spirit series, and we’re moving on to the “Blessed are ye series…” You can see more write-ups on the individual aspects of the fruit of the Spirit on ashsaltcom.wordpress.com
My earnest prayer is that as you read, you will receive a vision for holy living, and strengthen your foundation in Christ’s saving truth. In Jesus name.
