Dear Church,

We know the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit as: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).  Have you ever thought how the Holy Spirit produces the fruit in our life?  Can you just decide one day that “By my sheer willpower I am going to be patient, joyful and loving!” From experience we know that it’s not going to work. 

There is a ‘growing of the fruit’ needed in our own hearts for it to be visible as a fruit. Our love, joy, kindness etc… needs spiritual growth in our lives as we surrender our lives more and more to the Holy Spirit. This process is gradual for some of us, and some fruit will take longer. When God makes a mushroom, he takes 3 weeks. When God makes a pecan, he takes 30 years.  Some of the habits, behaviors, attitudes, and hang-ups in our life have grown deep.
 
The things we most want to change usually develop in us over the years and it will take time to change them to bear fruit. The wonderful news is the fruit we bear is not our fruit, but the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which can only come from our transformation inside. This is a gradual process: “And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT).

Remember will-power has nothing to do with the fruit produced, Holy surrender and abiding in Him produces God’s fruit in us. 

Be encouraged,
Mathews