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We’re starting a new series on the Fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has given us some deep revelational wisdom and understanding of what Paul was teaching. You don’t want to miss any of these studies, especially if you prayed or tried to “produce fruits” and failed. It’s much easier than you think! Make sure to bring a notebook or device to take notes. You don’t want to miss what God is speaking to us and what scriptures and information the Holy Spirit is highlighting to you. If you feel like, “Ooo... that’s good!” write it down, because that’s one way the Holy Spirit teaches and guides you. It’s likely in the future He will have you look back on your notes for a reason.
Quick overview: We’ll start out today talking about being fruit inspectors, and why it’s important to be a skillful fruit inspector. Then we’ll talk about the first fruit, love. But it won’t be what you think! We’ll mostly study why it’s a first fruit and its function. We all know what Biblical love is and you know if you’re walking in love or not. The following week we’ll take a close look at joy and how it can actually be used as weapon against problems and how joy is revealing or manifesting Heaven on Earth. After that, we’ll see why peace seems difficult for people to hold down in their lives, when the Bible often talks about peace being available. Everyone’s favorite will be up next, Longsuffering, or patience as we call it, don’t worry it will be a great week! If you have been failing at patience, this week is for you! You will be set free and never fail again, unless you choose to do so. Finally, we’ll combine the remaining fruit and go over them quickly. I don’t believe there is a need to campout on things like faithfulness and self-control. That same week, we’ll do a quick review but the review will have new information, such as how to activate your fruit. We’ll save that day for sharing testimonies of growing fruit, because I know we’ll all be big producers. If you want to write your testimony down and bring them in, I will be happy to read through them.
Let’s jump right into this study!
Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
This fruit is God’s Character that we, as Christ Followers, should be producing in our lives. If you take each one of these characteristics (love, joy, peace, and so on) and search the Bible, you’ll find these words ALL describe God’s Character. We, being Christians, means we too should be able to use these words to describe our character.
The entire passage from Galatians 5, the scripture we just read, the subject in which this fruit is mentioned, is concerning “Walking in the Spirit.” What does that mean? Means to choose the things of God, the good fruit, above the lusts or desires of the flesh. If you have been taught to work on these fruits, you’ve been taught to be an impressionist of God and not to manifest His Character. Because working on them yourself takes the Holy Spirit out of the equation. Not only can that set you up for failure, but if you succeed, even in the smallest, your flesh can glory in the results. Please write this down, take out your phone and text your cousin or email yourself if you have to, “Working on the fruit is being an impressionist of God, not revealing His Character.” We don’t want to do impressions or try to copy God, and that’s where we can and will easily fail. We want to be the body of Christ and allow His Character to be manifest through us. Does everyone understand this point? Because it’s very important as we move on.
Think of it this way, the number one most impersonated celebrity of all time is Elvis Presley. No matter how much they look like him, dress like him, sound like him, sing like him, or act like him; they will never be him. A lady on a documentary from years ago said that Elvis Presley once entered into an Elvis Presley Contest and didn’t win. He was ashamed and decided not to reveal himself. They didn’t know him! They spoke to him and stood near him, but they couldn’t recognize him. They only thought they knew him enough to judge the contest but in reality, they just chose the most entertaining actor. They didn’t know his real mannerisms, real face, real voice, his real responses, or his heart.
We are not to be the best impressionists! Impressions look or sound like someone else on the outside, but inside they’re their own selves. We have the Word and the Holy Spirit abiding inside of us so that we can know God intimately and actually be like Him. Write this down: Acting on God’s Character in you will enhance your personality. When you’re stressed, anxious, fearful, angry, loaded with problems, worried, and can’t get answered prayer; it’s oppression and you act like a meaner version of yourself. When you love everyone, full of joy, full of peace, well rested, relaxed, and your prayers are being answered; you’re free and your personality can shine. While this might sound like wild-crazy-out-there teaching, you’ll see as we go on that’s exactly what walking in the spirit is all about. Quick example: God’s love has been poured out in our hearts, Romans 5:5 we’ll go over that next week. It’s His love, not our own. Non-Christians can’t have this type of love in their life. When we draw on the love that’s been poured out into our hearts, then we’re tapping into God’s Heart and able to know Him intimately which makes revealing His Character, the fruit, easy. God is love (1 John 4:8) and acting on His love gives us the understanding of His Nature and Character. Does that make sense to everyone? Once again, “Working on the fruit is being an impressionist of God, not revealing His Character that’s already inside you.”
We’ll talk more about love and each fruit in the studies to come, and how to be successful at producing not working for them. Let’s look at what Paul said about walking in the Spirit…
Galatians 5:16 NKJV
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Paul tells us to just do it, not work as a fruit farmer. Our instruction from Paul is, “Walk in the Spirit.” There is no lengthy lesson on how. Maybe in the past you were taught to check in with your emotions for the fruit. Am I loving people? Do I feel happy? Do I feel at peace? Am I sleeping at night? Am I kind to others? Do I have good self-control? Many ministers teach us to do a self-evaluation. In reality, that’s checking in with your soul. Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. These are the fruit of the spirit, and you can’t check in your soul for them. These come out of your spirit, and in turn will affect your soul, but that’s not where we look.
That leaves us with the question, how do we check our fruit? This is the most exciting part. The Lord, through prayer, revealed that the order of the fruit is very important! First, I want to point out the fruit is singular! It’s singular in English and also the Greek, because having one will produce some level of the other characteristics. We traditionally have seen the fruit depicted as multiple fruits on a tree with apples or pears just randomly hanging here and there. More recently, people have been showing fruits scattered and labeling strawberries, lemons, watermelon, and other fruits. Some write all the fruits on a single fruit. These are all inaccurate depictions (see image and draw it yourself for everyone). We can’t pick and chose to work on this fruit or that fruit. This means that if you’re not walking in love, you don’t have the fruit of joy or the fruit of peace. The test is done by scriptural definition.
After understanding the order of this fruit is very important, then months of mediation and prayer, the Holy Spirit revealed these are offshoots of each other; one characteristic has the ability to produce the next. For example: strong love will naturally produce joy. When you mediate on this point, it makes perfect sense. Think about this point: Why can’t Christians produce longsuffering, patiently enduring lasting offense or hardship, as defined by Merriam Webster? At the first sign of trouble, most Christians head for the hills. People often say, “When you go through tough times, you find out who your friends really are.” Longsuffering, or patiently enduring hardship, is a little higher up in the shoots. If your friends weren’t producing love, joy, and peace, there is no way they would ever produce longsuffering. This happens to all of us! We forget to be Fruit Inspectors, and become surprised when “praying sister love” can’t be found when you got a scary report from the doctor or you don’t have money for an unexpected bill. They tell you, and sometimes even victim blame or scold you, “You need to trust God because you aren’t trusting God like I told you!” And off they go to run away. But they’re not running away, they’re just giving you space to trust God, right? We’ve all had that happen. If not you’re very blessed! If they didn’t run away, they’re sometimes just clueless, right? Anyone who has done street evangelism knows one of the number one prayer requests is always the same, peace. Often, they’ll make a list of prayers and throw in a “peace” at the end. It’s the biggest request with Christians and non-Christians alike. Peace is also described as your sandals in your armor. Peace is a very important topic in the Bible. It’s written 397 times in the New King James version, and 412 in the Amplified. But, why does it often times feel so difficult and illusive? The answer to that is in the order of the scripture, the offshoots. Write this down: The amount of love and joy we have working through us determines the amount of peace we can hold down in our lives. We’ll discuss that more as we move forward in this study, but knowing this information from the Holy Spirit makes it much easier to understand why we, as Christians, sometimes get upset and toss and turn in bed, or feel out of control and explode with anger. From today on, we won’t have to wish and hope for what may have felt unattainable in the past. We’re going to learn to walk in the Spirit easily.
Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
God loves us so very much He made a way to protect us from the “ravenous wolves.” We are told twice in this passage from Jesus that we will know people by their fruits. This means that we are to be Fruit Inspectors! It’s our job to fruit inspect. That is our safety with pastors, teachers, evangelists, all ministers, and even our Christian friends. When it comes to a minister not producing fruit, you don’t want to align yourself, give money, or place yourself under them. You don’t want to reap the rewards of their bad fruit, or produce bad fruit yourself. Some Christians have been aligning themselves with non-fruit baring ministries, they reap the reward of death/sickness, and they wonder what lesson God is teaching them. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but knowledge of the working of the Word keeps us safe, healthier, and gives us long life. You might wonder, “How? That’s so dramatic!” Romans 6:23 NKJV, For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If the minister is walking in the flesh, skip over two chapters, Romans 8:6 NKJV, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Not so dramatic, huh? I’ll say it again, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” This isn’t figurative life and death, but a real warning! If Christians are aligned with a minister that is carnally minded and sinning, outside of love and walking in the flesh, they’re going to reap a harvest of sin and death right with the minister. That’s exactly why Jesus calls them “ravenous wolves” twice! The closer a Christian lets them in, the more they will wreck their spiritual life and peace. As for the flesh minister, no matter how intelligent they are, they won’t grow in the spirit until they yield to God’s love inside them.
As for people not in the ministry, because Jesus was talking about ministers in this verse, it’s not that we can’t be friends to someone who isn’t producing fruit, it’s a test of safety and trust. Would you stick your hand in the cage with a “ravenous wolf” who is laying down looking so cute and furry to pet it? Some people do!! Some people get out of their car to see the cute baby bear cub and to take pictures. The bear looks so cute and cuddly, but reality is the mother bear is close by and will protect her young from you and your camera! If you bypass your emotions towards the cute cuddly bear, you see a wild animal with sharp claws and know not to go near it for your safety. Stay in the car(!!), the safety zone. That should be our same instinct when we focus on being Fruit Inspectors. Don’t get out of the car! Don’t put your hand in the cage! Don’t let the animal in the house to attack your family! Some people do and then get upset when the wolf attacks, “God why did you let this happen?” I’m not making fun; this is a serious matter. There are Christians that have Christian friends and family that are selfish and use them. It’s between them and the Lord if they should keep blessing and helping them, or letting them close to their family. The important part is that as long as they know the reality of the matter, that individual isn’t a safe person and can attack at any time, especially at vulnerable moments. When it comes to a minister, stay in the car and keep your hand out of the cage!! When it comes non-ministering Christians, seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance how close you should let them get to your family and your life. This is great advice to give single Christians, Fruit Inspect!
Write this Holy Spirit quote down. It’s so good, so I know it’s not from me!
Little fruit, big problems. Big fruit, little problems.
That’s the Biblical test concerning Christians for your own safety! All too often I’ve heard the test of false prophets, preachers, teachers, or just believers turn into, “Do you believe the gifts are for today? Do you believe in prosperity?” And the biggest unbiblical test of them all, “Do you believe you can lose your salvation?” These questions are in no way a Biblical test for truth verses false, although, for certain religions they are taught that’s the perfect test. Why can’t these be the test? Because Jesus, Himself, said, “You will know them by their FRUITS,” not by their revelational knowledge or their revelational understanding of the Bible. We are not taught that test in the Bible! We are not taught it’s ok to judge a baby Christian. We’re supposed to help them grow when they veer off the path! Pushing them away as false or questioning their salvation only divides the body of Christ. The stronger need to help the weaker in love. Let’s see our Biblical example:
Acts 18:26 NKJV
So he (a Jew named Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
Does our love, joy, peace, faith, answered prayer, and so on depend on how we treat the misguided? Yes! Here’s how we’re supposed to handle Christians overtaken by sin…
Galatians 6:1 NKJV
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
These scriptures are important to remember. Cutting people off as false or saying they’re going to hell, and especially doing it publicly is hurting our own selves before the Lord. If we’re supposed to be using a “spirit of gentleness” FRUIT to restore a brother, so much more should we be kind to the misguided and baby Christians.
Here's a real example of why a line of questioning can never be the true test!
Let’s say you ask two people what they believe about the Holy Spirit gifts, prosperity, and losing salvation. One man is a teacher that completely agrees with you on the issue of Holy Spirit gifts, prosperity, and salvation. He quotes the Bible and expands a little on why. You say to yourself, “I agree with your beliefs. I feel safe and comfortable around you.” On the other hand, you have a businessman who doesn’t quite agree with your beliefs on the Holy Spirit, prosperity, or losing salvation. You think to yourself, “I don’t agree, you’re fooled, and I can’t trust you.” You throw a wall up. Sounds all well and good. If you used the Bible test and looked for the fruit on the teacher, you’d have a completely different perspective. You’d find the teacher is full of pride, bitter about the past, and has been reduced to teaching a tiny class during the week where he only teaches obvious points. It’s true! He’s a real teacher that once taught a large congregation! He’s making himself a lost sheep not to be trusted! He insults people as he’s teaching! If you fruit inspect the businessman, you’d find out he was called to start a business to use it as a means to evangelize and share Jesus with his clients. The money he makes he uses for missionary trips to South America for himself and his family. He’s producing love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. He is always happy to share his call, and the love of God working through him. The teacher has no respect for what the businessman believes. This fruit test is a test of love from God to keep you from getting hurt. I would go out street evangelizing any day with someone I don’t agree with who is producing fruit, rather than someone who 100% agrees with me and has no fruit. The no fruit Christians HURT others. Back to scripture we just read, Matthew 7:15 Jesus calls these people “ravenous wolves.”
This confusion happens all the time with ministers, especially with so many platforms available! People think a pastor or minister is great, because they preach a great message, pray, and quote a lot of scripture, but they never do a fruit inspection!
A video popped up on YouTube not too long ago. The video was a minister trashing a prosperity preaching minister of some sort for a watch he was wearing. We’re not talking about prosperity today, but Fruit Inspection. A quick Google search of this anti-prosperity minister’s lifestyle revealed that he had a home worth one million dollars, US dollars. Another quick Google search says that 95% of all Americans have homes under one million dollars. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like prosperity to me! This anti-prosperity preacher has fruit of prosperity and hypocrisy. How did this happen? Christians keep grouping by belief instead of fruit. They’re funding his hypocrisy by watching the video, some sending money, and unknowingly reaping the rewards of hypocrisy.
Many people have made entire YouTube channels based on correcting ministers, a lot of them even sell merchandise! They’ve been around for years pretending to protect Christians (because we’re so stupid?) and “preserve the integrity of the Bible” by correcting popular pastors’ sermons or just complains about them in general. One man in particular stepped down as a local pastor to be a celebrity YouTuber that corrects popular ministers. He too complains about prosperity ministers and corrects their doctrine. A quick Google search reveals he’s worth over $2 million US dollars. If anyone just bothers to look back through his old videos verses the new, the expensive upgrades on his set, microphone, camera, and editing, which are very apparent, will give him away. That’s not good fruit!! There is no ministry of corrections. Corrections are made behind closed doors from minister to minister out of love, not going public and turning on YouTube ads for money! Christians are constantly funding this bad fruit and reaping bad harvests, because they’re funding it by watching, liking it, and/or sharing it. That’s why we shouldn’t even recognize these people’s names so we’re not tempted to join in their bad harvest to “just see what they’re saying.” I just want to point out, it doesn’t matter if we agree with their corrections or not, ministries and gatherings are supposed in Jesus’ Name (Matthew 18:20), the Head of the Church, and based on love so we can be blessed. Don’t fall into their offense trap and hypocrisy! It's not safe for you!
(Share a story where Fruit Inspection would stop bad events from taking place, my true story is below if you need it.)
I want to share this story from a minister about their church experience growing up:
When I was a teenager, the pastor of the church was constantly mouthing off about people who didn’t agree with our belief. He taught us to fight with people. This pastor was walking out of love and teaching us to do the same. His wife was seemingly so kind and caring, but had an outstanding gossip ministry. A few years after we left the church, he divorced his wife and found a new partner. People were gossiping in shock. I wasn’t surprised, because I couldn’t tolerate her constant quest to mind everyone’s business. Even worse, when my sister and I were older teens, the pastor hired a youth pastor. My sister and I didn’t attend his class, because he was creepy and his teaching was horrible. Him and his wife struck my sister and me as fake people. The main pastor forced us into his class a couple times on Wednesday night and he was rude to us. About a year later, he was immediately fired for hugging a crying 15-year-old girl on his couch late at night for a few hours, because she broke up with her boyfriend. His wife was upstairs sleeping and she claimed not to know about it. The teen’s mother found out when she returned home at almost 1AM. She called the police and the pastor. Good for her!!
Fruits! Fruits! Fruits! Fruit inspections keep us safe!
Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV
19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
If a Christian isn’t producing good fruit, then they are producing bad fruit. Write this down: Everyone’s ground is always producing something. That’s why Fruit Inspection is where you’ll find who you can and can’t trust. We can’t rely on revelational knowledge and revelational wisdom of the Bible as the test, because it can be like a person with a master’s degree out smarting a child. But the child could easily teach the person with the master’s degree about love and especially about joy. It’s not just our safety, this way we can war in the spirit and hold hands with the right people, the people that are truly following Jesus, and stop dividing ourselves over knowledge and understanding. I heard a pastor make a statement recently, “Some Christian religions think they know everything and they don’t! Catholics will burn toast and think they see Jesus.” Catholics are very misguided and often times seeking God even more than we are. They desperately need our help in love.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3 NKJV
1…Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 2And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
Paul makes it very clear, if you think you know more than anyone else, you know nothing! Why does Paul say this? He’s saying the person is arrogant and ignorant! The Bible is FULL of hidden treasures of knowledge that we don’t yet know or understand. Just because one person is strong in Word knowledge doesn’t mean that outweighs another person who is strong in evangelizing, or that either are better or worse than a prayer warrior. We all have something! Some people are good at providing patience lessons, but hey, they are important too! Remember, we measure up by our amount of God’s love flowing through us.
Here's an example as to why we’re not supposed to judge on knowledge:
(Tell a story. If you need my true example, it’s below.)
This example is from a person with a teaching gift:
I truly feel ignorant at times when the Lord reveals things to me from the Word. I can clearly see where I have been reading/quoting the same passage for many years and had the wrong impression, didn’t understand a thing, and didn’t make a connection to other scriptures. I used to judge people based off their knowledge of the Word, but I realized we can’t do that! I’m quite ignorant too! We’re blessed with different giftings and callings. I know a baby Christian that can’t quote scripture, but he has a firm grasp on love and compassion. His love and compassion exceeds mine. I just took him to a prayer convention in hopes that he would grow. At the end, everyone was welcomed up front to prayer. While everyone was pushing to the front, this man I brought was busy going to the back getting a bottle of water for the minister that he had never seen or heard of in his life. He went up front on a mission to hand him that bottle of water, because he had been talking a lot. I’m in awe of his thoughtfulness and willingness to help anyone, and he’s in awe of my ability to quote scripture and teach. We truly can learn from each other in love.
This brings us to the question; how do we inspect fruit? (Take answers if you can)
Fruit is produced in the face of adversity. How hard is it to love those that love you? How difficult is it to be happy when all is well? Peace isn’t something you seek when nothing is missing or broken!
You can inspect fruit best when…
- Questioning beliefs
- Disagreements
- Disappointments (people don’t get their own way)
- Mistreatments
- Pain
- Hunger
- Agitation
- Bad news
- Correction, that’s a HUGE one that reveals maturity!
What are some common life situations you can test a minister’s fruit production online and in real life?
(Take answers if you can)
- Are they always gathered in love in the name of Jesus?
- Do they preach/teach in contentions (one-sided arguments, debates, and disputes)?
- Are they using the Word and/or your emotions to motivate you against someone or into doing something?
- Are they self-promoting?
- Are they constantly trying to sell you something from their sponsors, certain donation amounts to get their personal attention?
- Does listening to them promote love, joy, and peace or are they full of doom and gloom?
- Are they condemning or uplifting and encouraging? Remember, Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world.
(If you have extra time left, tell a true story to let them fruit inspect. If you need one, use mine.)
Here’s a story for us to fruit inspect:
There is a traveling pastor with a sizable ministry. He was teaching about correction and told two stories. He rented out a place to speak that had a small kitchen area in the back. When he was answering questions at the end, a couple people got up, went into the kitchen, started taking cookies out of the cupboard, and drinks from the fridge while making a lot of noise. He stopped speaking and corrected them. He informed them those things don’t belong to them, and they’re stealing. ---Is this good fruit or bad fruit? Is this a proper public correction? (Yes, it’s ok. They’re disturbing everyone and interrupting.)
The minister went on with another story. He said that a “teenaged-hussy girl” showed up to his church for youth group. This pastor noticed this “hussy” was talking to certain boys in the church. He went on to say how pastors need to protect the congregation against such people. So, he spoke with her and told her that if she has sex with any of those boys, she has to leave the church. The girl said she wasn’t. A few weeks went by, and this “hussy” showed up at the pastor’s house asking if she could come in to see his son. He said his wife was sitting on the couch crying watching a romantic comedy and wasn’t getting up, the congregation laughed. So then, he said he went outside to speak to her. According to him, he called her out for being a hussy, told her to never come back to the house, never speak to his son, and never come back to the church again. He went on about protection from hussies. The congregation started saying, “Amen.” –Is this good fruit or bad fruit? (Bad fruit. Why is he calling her a hussy? Jesus doesn’t call her hussy. Why didn’t his wife speak to this girl at the church instead of him? Why was this wife’s movie more important than a young girl with problems? Yes, it’s perfectly ok for pastors to ask people to leave, but it seems love for this teenager was missing.) That is how we fruit inspect. We must inspect everything! This pastor is likely to treat you harshly when he doesn’t like what you’re doing, and publicly retell the story.
Thank you for kicking this study off with me. Next week we will go over love. As I said in the beginning, we’ll mostly talk about what Jesus taught and Paul’s revelation of Jesus’ teaching. It’s going to be mind-blowingly good, so bring a notebook. The Holy Spirit has shed light and connected different scriptures for us. You don’t want to miss it. Each week we’ll learn more and more about how to be a Skillful Fruit Inspector.
Homework
- Read Galatians 5:22-23 and think about how each fruit is connected to the previous one. Talk to the Holy Spirit and ask Him for more revelation.
- Fruit Inspect in your own life; those around you, the ministers that you listen to at home, and yourself too!
- Remember: Little fruit, big problems. Big fruit, little problems.
Prayer Points:
- Lord, I thank You for this very important teaching on fruits
- Remind us to inspect fruits and not be thrown off by knowledge, gifts, answered prayer, or anything else
- If there are “ravenous wolves” in our lives please immediately bring it to our attention
- If there is a bad harvest waiting for any of us, we repent, we plan on doing better with Your help, and we ask that the bad harvest be burned up and die to never produce again
- Please continue giving us revelational knowledge and wisdom of how to not only apply this to our own lives, but also how to minister to others
- Thank You for helping us grow and walk closer to You
In Jesus Name, Amen.
