The Fruits of The Spirit

Galatians 5:22 & 23 ~ "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness*, and self control. Nothing in the Torah (Law of God) stands against such things."
*some versions say 'humility'. In my paper, I used 'gentleness' as that was the word used in my Bible*


     Well, this post brings back some memories, as I wrote this "Fruit of the Spirit" paper 2 years ago for school just 6 days before my 15th birthday!


     I hope you enjoy reading it, my friends! 

----------------------------------------------

If you are a believer in Yeshua then you should have these 9 manifestations of the Spirit to some extent. I want to go now and look into each of these 9 manifestations and explain a little bit about them.

LOVE -
You must have love if you are a believer, for if you have no love you are not being a shadow of Messiah. Christ not only loved His friends, He loved His enemies as well, and that is great love. We should love as our Messiah loved, that is selflessly. We should love one another so much that we do not do anything to offend or hurt each other. To really love someone we must always do what is best for that person. In our families we must love one another so much that we would die in each others place. 

Speaking of loving one's family, when we bicker and fight we are not loving each other, but rather we are acting like we are enemies of each other, to love each other we should get along and be kind to one another, and treat the others like they are special to you (and they should be if they are your siblings). To really love one another we must treat each other better than we treat ourself, and to treat others the way we want to be treated.

JOY -
Genuine joy comes from Adonai (the Lord). If we are His then we will have exceedingly great joy because we know we are His, and that no one can take us from His hand. When we have this joy we should want to share it with others, to tell them how God has touched and saved our lives. Our joy should show in the way we talk about our Lord.

Joy is a very important thing to have for a believer. If we have no joy then one could conclude that we aren't a very strong believer in Yeshua (Jesus). The Lord wants us to have joy in most everything, even in trials and persecutions He says to "rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven." 

The martyrs are fine examples of having joy in persecution. They knew where they were going to be after death so they were joyful. As Adonai's (the Lord's) children we also know where we will go when we die so we can be joyful that we will one day be eternally with our Father.

PEACE -
Peace comes from knowing that our God will always be with us and take care of us. If He knows when a sparrow dies, how much more will He know what we need or what we are going through at any given moment? 

As children of Adonai (the Lord) we should have peace knowing that He is in control of everything. He allows everything that happens to happen. We have peace to know that through whatever happens, God is still right there, by our side, helping us us through. He will always provide help to us when we need it. We can have peace and rest because we know that He loves us so much that He will always be there for us, even when no one else is. He knows our fears and is willing to replace them with His peace. 

His peace surpasses ALL understanding.

PATIENCE -
Patience is something that takes some time to learn sufficiently. At home, patience is tested day in and day out. It takes maturity to pass tests that have to do with patience. When you have patience you will wait for others and not shout "What is taking you so long?! It is my turn now!" When your sister is taking too long in the bathroom in the morning, it takes patience to wait and not bang on the door yelling "Are you ALMOST done?!!!" 

Without patience we would explode at anyone when they aggravate us in some way. Adonai gives us tests every day which test our patience and help it grow. He gives us these tests because He knows how important it is to have patience in our lives. Yeshua (Jesus) was patient with his disciples when they didn't understand his teachings. We must learn patience if we are to be successful as believers.

KINDNESS -
We must always be kind one to another, just as Yeshua (Jesus) was kind to all who came to Him. When you show kindness towards others you show them Messiah's love. 

There are many ways to show kindness to others such as, visiting prisons and giving the prisoners Bibles, giving homeless people food, helping someone when they are hurt or in need, giving clothes to abused children and women, helping your siblings with a project, and many, many other ways. 

Yeshua (Jesus) said "whatsoever you do to even the least of these you have done unto me." I can picture Messiah smiling when He sees His own bestowing kindness to everyone they meet. Being kind to others sometimes means giving up our agendas to be there for others when they want or need us. When we are kind to others, people see Yeshua (Jesus) in us.

GOODNESS -
Goodness is a little bit like kindness. But goodness is also when others choose to do wrong and you choose to do right. When you are playing with others and another person comes to play, you can show goodness by letting that person play or giving up your place to him if there are no more available spots. 

Goodness is trying you best to follow the law and do good to others. When someone asks you to stay with them because they are scared you show goodness and kindness to do as they ask. By obeying the speed limits you show goodness. And if a lady drops her change in the store and you pick it up and give it back, you are displaying goodness. When you show goodness to others it makes you feel good, because you know you have done right.

FAITHFULNESS -
To be a strong believer in Yeshua (Jesus) you must have faithfulness. Why? The main reason is because if you are not faithful to Adonai (the Lord) you will stray from His ways very easily. You must also be faithful to your spouse, even if you aren't married yet, by staying away from sinful associations with someone you aren't married to. Being a faithful friend means you won't forsake your friends when they are in need, and that you will be there for them when they need you. 

In the Bible an example of faithfulness is shown in God. It says "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" and another verse says that Yeshua (Jesus) is called "Faithful and True". He is with us always, staying faithfully by our side. In times of need we can always go to him for He is always there for us. 

Another way He is faithful to us is that He is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins". So to follow His example we should faithfully forgive those who trespass against us. Un-believers will be able to tell when we are faithful to our Lord.

GENTLENESS -
Gentleness is not only portrayed in our deeds, but also in our speech. When you speak with gentleness you do not say harsh words or raise you voice above what you need to for the person to hear you. When your brother hits you for no apparent reason and you keep your tongue from shouting "OUCH!!! That really hurt!! You are SO mean!! I'm telling mom!!" and instead you say gently, "Ouch! Little brother, that wasn't very nice. Yeshua (Jesus) doesn't want us to hit each other. Please don't hit me anymore." that is showing gentleness. 

When you act with gentleness you won't hit, bite, kick, throw, scream, shove, or push anyone to. You guard your actions carefully when you have gentleness. Instead of throwing your sister the book she asked for, you nicely hand it to her. Instead of yanking up your baby brother when he is whining, you gently pick him up and talk softly to him. 

By practicing gentleness you are actually being considerate of other peoples feeling instead of just your own. Every believer should have gentleness, especially towards other believers. When you show gentleness by guarding you actions and words, you are being an example, and others will see that and wonder why you have it.

SELF-CONTROL -
When you have self-control you control the way you act, think, and what you say and do. Self-control is a very important thing to have as a believer, for without it you act just like the world that you are supposed to be being a light to. You must have self-control in many ares of life. In areas such as, how you dress, how you move (especially to music), what & how you eat, what you look at, what you read, where you go, what you do, who you hang around, how you act, what you say, and how to know when you have talked enough.


As you can see, it is very important to have self-control. If you have no self-control when you listen to music, you might start to move your body in really bad ways. To control our anger, we REALLY need self-control, for without it we would blow up a lot. Yeshua (Jesus) definitely had self-control in this area, because he normally stayed calm when the Pharisees rebuked Him time and time again. By gaining self-control we will all be much better off.

The nine fruits of the Spirit are all found in Yeshua's (Jesus') life. So by shadowing Him we will be practicing those nine fruits. When you are a child of Messiah, others should see His character in you, including the nine fruits, which should grow more evident as you mature as a believer.  

-------------------------------------

p.s. Yes, I am working on the promised follow up to "My Modesty Journey" that talks about natural skin care. I should be spending more time on it, but, so many other things get in the way. I will try to get it up on the blog soon.... next week I hope =)