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Today we’re going to quickly study the four-remaining fruit, then study how to throw fertilizer on the fruit for faster production, and finally how to use your fruit. I’ve enjoyed going through this study with the Holy Spirit and with all of you. I can’t wait to see what the Holy Spirit has for us next.
Before we read our fruit scripture for the last time, let’s talk about Homework!
- Who is ready to share how they overcame their pet peeves this week?
- This is one, I’d prefer you not share anything too personal, but did anyone check in the Lord about Anger Grenades? Unless we’re regularly checking, we have all taken in Anger Grenades. Some of us had them explode and some of us haven’t had it happen yet.
- How did meditating on kind acts verses love play out for you this week?
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.
Goodness.
Goodness in Greek means goodness in all four uses. In Hebrew, using…
Exodus 34:6 NKJV
And the Lord passed before him (Moses) and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
We have 3 fruit in this one scripture. Goodness in Hebrew is tuwb (toob) Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon gives us an easy understanding of this word:
1. Good things, as in items (that would be the prosperity); also figuratively as in spiritual blessings
2. Goods, as in property
3. Beauty, joy of heart, prosperity of the righteous, discernment
4. Abstract sense, goodness of God as in bestowing good things
The definition of goodness in Hebrew, to me in the light of fruit bearing, is a result of God’s prosperous blessing being on your life, whether it’s items, property, or spiritual blessings for yourself and to share. You cannot give what you don’t have. Write this down: producing love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and kindness will bring a physical and spiritual blessing into your life to share with others. Bearing the previous fruit makes you trustworthy to receive the goodness of the Lord.
I do not want anyone to get this mistaken for a “prosperity doctrine!” The goodness of God is “blessed to be a blessing.” That means you have enough to share. Unless you have a supply, you can’t bless anyone!
This is an example of blessed to be a blessing
This is something that happened over 20 years ago, and it’s well worth remembering. A Christian woman who spent a lot of time in the Word and prayer received a gift, an expensive diamond ring. She loved the ring and wore it for a while. Then one day she felt it burning in her heart to give the ring away. She didn’t want to part with it; because it was expensive and beautiful, but she did. The young woman that she gave it to broke down crying. She told her that she wanted to get married, but her and her fiancé didn’t have money for rings. He had been working a second job trying to pay for them first, because he wanted to properly propose to her. Because she had the diamond, they had enough to buy the bands. She was so happy thanking her and the Lord, because they could get married. Do you know what that is? The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous (Proverbs 13:22NKJV), and the woman who first received the ring acting on the goodness of God.
If this lady who first received the ring was in need, she may have thought it was for her blessing then hurried to sell the ring to pay her bills. There is a reason why God not only wants to, but needs to, bless you first, so you can comfortably let go. When He bounces money or items through your hands to bless another person, He doesn’t want it to constantly be a painful sacrifice for you.
Blessed to be a blessing isn’t about a prosperity doctrine at all! It’s about being able to easily buy a week’s worth of quality groceries for a family in need. Through the years, I’ve seen people want to give to the poor and buy the absolute cheapest groceries to stretch their dollar. It breaks my heart, because people who are experiencing lack still have a loving heart to give. It’s time “to preach the gospel to the poor.” (Luke 4:18) They can be blessed to be a blessing and not hurt themselves to bless.
James uses not giving to the poor as an example to show the absurdity of not understanding “faith without works is dead.”
James 2:14-17 NKJV
14What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Unfortunately, a lot of Christians can’t help each other, because they’re financially suffering due to the wealth of the world being with the wicked. Much prayer went up for this issue of the Goodness of God. Discernment is part of the definition of this word in Hebrew. I feel like the Lord has given us good discernment to understand we’re not talking about if you should be wearing $300 shoes, driving a $50,000 car, spending $100 on one meal, and other luxuries. This is about having enough to buy Christmas gifts for families that can’t afford it. This is about being able to give your vehicle away to a family that theirs is about to fall apart. This is about being able to help fund wells being dug in other countries that don’t even have clean water to drink.
Too much wealth of the world is with the wicked. The Lord opened my understanding this way… The reason Jeffery Epstein got away with his crimes for as long as he did was because of his tremendous amount of wealth and connections to the powerful elites of the world. Other men did these same things, but not on such as grand scale. They bought and sold “bodies and souls of men,” and we see in Revelations (18:13) that’s one of the reasons why the merchants were upset. Sins of the wealthy are being exposed in this season, and re-reading “The Fall of Babylon the Great” in Revelations has a new meaning!
(Revelations is likely referring to sex trafficking and slave labor as bodies. Buying souls of men, which is the mind, will, and emotions is purchasing their submission- which could be silence or aiding their sins in doing things they wouldn’t if not paid excessively, like installing cameras inside of toilets or ignore people being abused. Decide what your audience can handle hearing. I’m not a fan of naming names of people sinning, but in this case, I think the point needs driven home why it’s dangerous for sinners to hold the wealth.)
Now that we have a better understanding of what buying “the bodies and souls of men” is referring to in Revelations, because of current events, we must, absolutely must, take this next scripture more seriously than we have in times past…
Proverbs 13:22 NKJV
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
It’s time all the ungodly celebrities, musicians, athletes, politicians, bankers, other public figures and influence be broke!! The flow of money should be in Christian entertainment, Christian colleges, Christian politics/interests, and other Christian leadership. We should view blessed to be a blessing as moving towards our youth camps and VBSs becoming so extravagant that non-Christian youth and children can’t wait to attend. Blessed to be a blessing should look like bringing one regular print Bible into the county prison for every inmate and officer to own, not just the New Testament with the print being difficult to read. Blessed to be a blessing looks like making Jesus candy bags with Bible tracts, a Bible story book, stickers, and a handful of quality candy to represent Jesus on satan’s day (Halloween).
I hope everyone’s heart is moldable before the Lord to welcome this fruit in their life. The Goodness of God isn’t about stockpiling treasures for our own selves, but more about not losing the youth to world because they have better movies and shows, better concerts, better music, better video games, better parties; or lose the poor to the world system that they can’t climb out of because they don’t know the good news (Luke 4:18). We should always be praying and looking for revival. But we need to consider this… Once it comes, if the Christians are broke the youth will return to looking up to the ungodly holding the wealth. This isn’t just about your kids, but the kids of today will be making decision for you when you’re older. They will run this country, and we should do everything we can to not only preach the good news of Jesus, but to fund it.
We didn’t go over the spiritual side of the Goodness of God. I think we understand what it means to have a spiritual supply built up in your life to share. When you’ve been spending in the Word, praise and worship, prayer, and listening to teachings; you have something spiritual to share when someone has a question or has a need that requires prayer. I feel like we understand that well, right? Christians aren’t to be greedy with blessings.
Faithfulness.
In Greek faithfulness means assurance, belief, believe, faith, and fidelity.
Psalm 36:5 NKJV
Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Hebrew means set office, stability, steady, truly, truth, and verily. The Hebrew has a little more of an intense meaning, but I feel like we all have a good grasp on what this word means.
Gentleness.
In Greek, gentleness means meekness and power with reserve. Sometimes people get the impression gentleness means weak. What it really means is that I could tell you off and make you cry, but I won’t even consider it. I could kick your butt so hard that you take flight, but I wouldn’t even dream of it. Let’s look at the Hebrew and see how it compares to English and Greek.
2 Samuel 22:36 NKJV
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great.
The meaning in Hebrew is more descriptive. It means self-degrading, self-affliction, self-discipline, humble yourself, hurt, ravish, submit yourself, weaken. Ah, what a wonderful word. Your first thoughts might be, “How in the world does this apply to God?” Glad you asked. People blame things on The Father, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit all the time. Someone was looking for hamburger they dropped while driving, and they had a car accident, “Why did you let this happen, God?” That hurts The Father, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit. In His Gentleness, Elohim (God in 3 parts) allows you to say hurtful things and accuse Them (God in 3 parts). He’s not doing anything back to His accusers, and He expects us to do the same! Jesus didn’t defend Himself when they spit on Him, slapped Him, accused Him, beat Him, and crucified Him.
So, how do we get to a place where we can weaken our position, submit ourself to what we interpret as an idiot, humble ourselves when we did nothing wrong, let ourselves be degraded, and things of the sort? We already know the answer, produce love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and then “taking one for the team,” Team Jesus, isn’t very difficult. Most of us have been publicly corrected by an idiot, right? The flesh instinct is to defend, and the Christian flesh instinct is to defend nicely, am I right? As we progress through the fruit, or Breath of God, these seem more challenging to your mind; but following the order of fruit makes them easy. Don’t feel like, “I’d never be able to do that!” You can, and with joy!! You’ll eventually get to a place where you learn when to speak and when not to speak.
Self-Control.
Lastly, and everyone’s least favorite, but hopefully not after today!
The King James uses the word temperance, which means self-restraint. The Greek and the English meaning match perfectly. We don’t have a Hebrew equivalent for this word, because it takes walking in the spirit and the Holy Spirit to have restraint.
I don’t think we need to study this word. It could mean anything from controlling yourself from extra pie you didn’t need, poisonous words coming from your mouth, to overspending money you really didn’t have to spend. The biggest take away I want you to see from this fruit is that it’s not taught in the Old Testament, because it requires other fruit and the Holy Spirit’s help. Don’t beat yourself up if you keep failing at self-control, go back to the other fruit, and this one will show up when you need it.
Now that you’re familiar with all the fruit, and why you cannot pray for it… Let’s jump right in on how to fertilize your fruits, then we’ll take a quick look at all the fruits. Write this down:
“Listening to sermons is you working on yourself. Singing praise and worship is God working on you. Reading the Bible is both.”
Let’s break this down:
Sermons and teachings. Preaching should have one thing in common, and that is to take action! Preachers stir you up to change, pray, believe, learn, spend time with God, read the Bible, or multiple things. This is all YOU doing something, the action is based on YOU. Teaching should have one thing in common, YOU learning something. Again, the action is YOU.
Singing Praise and Worship.
(Link in the PDF)
For our purpose, we’re looking at spending time in praise and worship is God changing you.
Isaiah 61:3 NKJV
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
The Hebrew word for garment is ma`ateh. It’s only used once in the Bible, and it’s from the word ateh meaning wrap or mantle. When you enter into praise and worship you’re making an exchange, the heaviness of this world that gets on all of us for a wrapping or mantle from God. A wrapping and mantle represents a divine authority and spiritual position from God along with signifying His protection over you. When you get stressed out, you feel a heaviness and sense of being out of control… If you could control the situation, you wouldn’t be stressed, right? …so in exchange for that heaviness or stress, as we call it, He’s wrapping you with an authoritative strengthen. Praise in this scripture, thillah, means to boast in song. That’s our key to activating this scripture, put on some praise and worship music and show up for this wrapping. It’s already promised to us, so we just have to show up in boastful praise for it. In my experience, sometimes it takes one song and other times five songs. Stay in His presence until you get your mantle that you were promised! But back to our purposes, praise and worship is God strengthening you. He is doing the action. He is fertilizing your fruit. This garment of praise will empower you to be joying (your strength), peaceful (deep understanding), slow to anger, kindness flowing (instead of snapping at people), the goodness keeping you lined up with God to receive His blessing, and so on down the line.
Bible reading. This is both you and God taking action. One of the things that the Word does is wash you.
Ephesians 5:26 NKJV
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
While Paul is referring to a husband reading to a wife, and they now read just as well as men, the point of what the Word accomplishes is clear. The Word spiritually washes our soul; mind, will, and emotions. It cleans out past things you faced, current issues you’re dealing with, and will help you overcome future issues trying to block your path. This is God doing the Work. The Word is God speaking to us, the Holy Spirit is with you to help you understand. Our part is to believe what we’re reading, and then nothing will be impossible for us! Those of you that do read, both men and woman, know I’m quoting Matthew 17:20. But on to…
Hebrews 4:12 NKJV
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
There are a few things to unpack in this scripture. The Word is “living and powerful.” What does that mean? When you read the Word, it literally goes into your spirit and soul. We have no right to interpret the Bible figuratively, because that leaves everything up to everyone’s own judgement. There is a literal feeding of your spirit, soul, and body. You spirit receives growth and faith (Romans 10:17), your soul receives cleaning (above), and your physical body receives life (Proverbs 4:20-22). This is the work of God. “Piercing even to the division of soul and spirit.” Let’s look at what Jesus said in the garden about the disciples praying,
Matthew 26:41 NKJV
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
How do we know the difference between our own thoughts and the direction of our own spirit? The Word! Your spirit and flesh are no more or less mute than your soul. When you shed this Earthy body, your sprit body will take over and it will most certainly speak! Your spirit contacts God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and your flesh and mind contacts this world. We don’t have the ability to discern which thought is which. This is God through the Word doing this work, not us. Last part of Hebrew 4:12, “discerner of thoughts and intentions of the heart,” which is the soul. Our purpose is to only see what God will do when we read, but for a quick example, people don’t always know what’s in their own heart verses their own spirit.
Let’s say a wife intends on divorcing her husband, but hasn’t said it to anyone yet. She reads the Bible. The living Word goes inside her heart and shines light on the real problems that can be fixed. She can start to hear in her thoughts what needs to be fixed, a list. People get freaked out, but that’s your own spirit speaking truth enlightened by God! At that point the wife has the option to change or not. Which leads us to our side of the working, through reading the Word we find out Who God is, what belongs to us, and how to operate out of His Character already in us. As Jesus said (above) to the disciples, your spirit is indeed willing, but your flesh is weak. You have to push yourself to read and be persistent to believe the Word. I hope this has given you a clear picture of how reading the Word is BOTH YOU and GOD doing the work.
Don’t get me wrong, God can work on you during a sermon or teaching, but the main function of a sermon is you listening to make changes. Just like a plant, different nutrients and treatments have different main functions, but can sort of help everything.
I am not going to over spiritualize this, but things like using macro and micronutrients nutrients help the roots break down and absorb nutrients better. Lighting and certain other nutrients help the plant produce foliage and sometimes pruning helps the proper upwards growth. And other nutrients are appropriate for the plant’s fruit or flowers. The point here I am making is that different goals call for different treatments. Thinking of yourself like a plant, what do you want to be the main ingredient in your life? Praise and worship, and sermons absolutely have their place and we need them to help us grow; but the Word is very important for our foundation of growth. Some people only fertilize with sermons at church once a week. Some people only fertilize with Christian radio in their car. And only one person I met mostly fertilized with the Word, he was legalistic and weird. Just like a plant, we need to have a good balance of all the nutrients in our lives to easily grow the fruit. A good balance is equal Word and praise, sermons on the side.
Let’s quickly go over the fruits again, and close this series out.
Love, the first fruit and also the ground in which everything grows. Love grows your what you’re praying for. God is love, and everything good thing comes forth from love.
Joy, of the Lord is our strength, which means it’s actually a weapon that we can use when we release it. As Peter told us, “…rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” Inexpressible joy means dancing, leaping, twirling, and the like; using actions that words cannot express which will bring on the glory of the Lord.
Peace, stomps out stress and refuses to allow the things of this world to affect us; gives us a quiet mind free from fear, and deep understanding of what’s happening or what happened.
Longsuffering, a characteristic of God that is produced in difficult times. It gives us the ability to pass on the opportunity to be angry or agitated. If we developed our other fruits, just leaning backward on love, joy, and peace this fruit will grow.
Kindness, in Hebrew this has a cluster of meanings- love, mercy, grace, and kindness. It’s looking beyond what we see and think of someone, and viewing and treating them out of the love and potential like The Father.
Goodness, is having a supply, physically and spiritually. You’re able to easily give to someone’s need without hurting yourself or pray for someone’s need without calling someone else for help. Blessed to be a blessing, you’re God’s Storehouse.
Faithfulness, the word connotates being trustworthy and reliable.
Gentleness, means you humble yourself and don’t feel the need to defend yourself or engage in wars of words. We see big name ministers have their character be drug through the mud for what they believe, and they don’t even respond. That’s gentleness in action.
Self-Control, we all know what this word means, I like to say, “police yourself.”
Now that you know exactly what the fruit is, you can share what you have grown! Remember in the first study we read what Jesus said about fruit production, some 100, some 50, and some 30. Sharing can multiple what you have grown. Let’s talk about how to share your fruit.
Love, the God kind of love, all comes from the Lord. When someone asks to have their need prayed for, ask God to surround them with His love. His love is comforting and uplifting, plus it will give them and even you something to ground prayers into. If they’re a Christian, the love is already inside; and if they haven’t yet given their life to Christ, you surely can still pray this because Christ loved us while we were sinners.
Joy, when someone asks for peace, never just pray for it. Ask they be surrounded with God’s love, then release the joy on you that God has given you. Pray it in your own way, “Lord, share the joy You have given me with them.” You can ask for the oil, “Father, the same measure of the oil of joy that I have, pour it out on them.” If they’re really grumpy and you’ve been expressing joy, “Father, give them a portion of my joy, wake them up full of joy and laughter.” This is no joke, you’re asking for Heaven to be manifested in their life like it is yours. Make sure you actually have sweet fruit to give, like apples and not crabapples (sour and make your belly hurt).
Peace, after you pray for joy, ask for peace like a river to wash over them. The same peace that rests your mind, be upon their mind. The same peaceful and restful nights that you have, be upon them. If you have peace that surpasses understanding working in your life, ask the Lord to share yours with them. You can even ask that the peace in your home rest upon their home.
I know this might seem very wild to you. But when you have been growing fruit, you can pray for people from a more mature place in Christ and they will receive it.
Longsuffering, this fruit is given to others that stir up anger. But you can also minister to others going through a problem with wisdom.
Kindness, to me this is also something that effects those around you. “Lord, minister to their hard heart as I show them kindness.” That’s sharing your fruit. Love, mercy and grace are included in this definition; this is adding a maturity to love that can easily conquer all.
Goodness, this is you showing up with a supply ready to bless everyone. This fruit doesn’t require prayer over someone, because it’s a result of you already spending time with the Lord.
Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control is fruit you can share. I know you already get the idea. Just don’t forget you have to produce something to share. God will multiply and increase you as you give what you have.
Developing fruit is truly God Breathing out His Full Breath of Life through you. When He does, you’ll become a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord. When you read the Word and regularly interact with the Lord, you’ll become a greater beacon of light and release His Glory into the Earth that used to fill the temple in the Old Testament. Just because we can’t see God’s light in us or His Glory Cloud swell when we worship, doesn’t mean that it’s not there. Once we have Heaven manifest in our lives, our prayers will easily be answered, because these fruits are teaching us how love matures.
Thank you for going through this study with me. Please don’t forget what we talked about in the beginning, maturity in Christ is based on fruit, and remember to inspect everyone’s fruit! Many people have been hurt by Christians where it could have been avoided, myself included. Always remember, “Little fruit, big problems. Big fruit, little problems.”
Homework!
- Come back next week ready to give a quick testimony how applying what we learned has changed you.
If you have extra time:
Before we close out in prayer, does anyone have a testimony they would like to share about growing fruit?
Prayer Points:
- Father, I thank You for this study and opening our eyes to a deeper understanding of the Word.
- Please keep taking us on these deep treasure hunts and adventures in Christ. We love You, and want to know You more and more. Thank You for revealing Yourself to us.
- Please help remind us of these studies on fruit as we go about our daily lives.
- Holy Spirit remind us to choose the fruit, and fertilize the fruit so that we can grow and have a greater measure of Heaven in our lives.
- Also, please remind us to become skillful Fruit Inspectors to keep ourselves and our family safe.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
