I like fruit, don’t you? It is sweet and refreshing, and it is a blessing from God! God gives us another kind of fruit when we receive His Holy Spirit after receiving Jesus! It is not fruit that you eat. These are fruits of the Spirit I am talking about!
If you want to have true power for living and overcome sin in your life, then you need the Holy Spirit. It is through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that we overcome sin and death. Listen to how Paul explains it to the believers in Galatia:
“So I say live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.”
Galatians 5:16-18
So, the flesh and the Spirit are at war with each other. They want different things. The sinful nature wants sin. The Spirit wants holiness. They are in conflict, so that we don’t do what we want, which means sin. That is so true too! If we do exactly what we want all the time, we will most definitely end up sinning. Let’s take a look at the fruit of the sinful nature and then I will show you the fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit.
The rotten fruit of the sinful nature
“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:19-21
Man, that’s like a rotten brown banana in a pile of rotten bananas! If we are honest with ourselves, and I hope you are, then many of those acts of the sinful nature are not foreign to any of us. Those are all disgusting realities of the sinful nature found everywhere in the world. That nasty fruit comes with a warning too: notice, you won’t go to Heaven if you live like this! That rotted fruit needs to be thrown out! How do we do that? Only by the power of the Holy Spirit, that’s how!
The Beautiful Fruit of the Spirit!
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23
Man, that is beautiful! That is like a succulent perfectly ripe strawberry in the soft summer breeze! That is the kind of fruit I want inside my soul! How about you? That is what God promises you when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He will fill you with His Holy Spirit and produce that exact fruit of the Spirit in you. The perfect fruit of the Spirit will show up in your life and vanquish the old rotten fruit of the sinful nature! You will be set free from sin, and death will no longer have any hold over you!
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:24-25
Paul leaves us with one more crucial warning about the sinful nature and the Spirit at the end of his letter to the Galatians:
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Galatians 5:7-8
Choose wisely.
Grace and peace to you all!
Ryan Callahan's Blog 
Ryan — I saw the repost of “Fruit of the Spirit” on David Fischer’s site. I love the way you interspersed biblical text with commentary. The usual method is to lead with a text source, then devote the entire writing to that text. I’m now “following” you. I’ve seen a lot of substance in your posts. May God continue to bless you in your online ministry. Ward
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Thank you sir, glory to God! Grace and peace to you!
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I love the Holy Spirit and all He does for us and develops in and through us! Love the post!
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Amen Valerie, glory to God! Blessings!
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