AWAKE, ARISE, AND TRIUMPH
Friday – December 23, 2022, Kislev 29, 5783
FRIDAY NUGGETS
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – PART SIX
Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Greetings dear and precious saints of God, sons and daughters of the Father, joint-heirs, co-laborers with and in the Son, taught and helped (empowered) by God the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:9 (AMP)
9 For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God; you are God’s garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [you are] God’s building.
Welcome back to our Friday teachings with the general title of “Friday Nuggets”. Two days and it is Christmas! What a privilege to have a day to commemorate the birth of our Lord and Savior. Please don’t get hung up on whether this is the exact day or not give thanks and celebrate going to Heaven and not Hell. Let me ask again, did we spend the time we were given, our most precious asset, wisely? As the Bible says, did we redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16). Before I move on, please take a moment and share this teaching as widely as possible by every means available to widen our reach with the gospel. Thank you so much for sharing.
I have been laying a foundation upon which we can study the fruits of spirit for now six weeks. As with all Scripture, context is important. Who is speaking and who are they speaking too. It is important to be reminded that the Apostle Paul is writing to Christians. He is not going back and forth addressing first Christians then the heathen and vice versa. The good, the bad, and the ugly is addressed to Christians and what was going on in the Church at Galatia and our Church today. I am not talking in the abstract, they are sitting in your or my row, behind us, or in front of us, and are even on the platform. Perhaps it is even us.
Galatians 5:19-21 (KJV)
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Last week we briefly discussed verse nineteen so let’s move to verse twenty and beyond. There is great overlap among these sins found in the world and in the Church. For example, consider the following verse.
1 Samuel 15:23 (KJV)
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
The prevalence of this in the Church really should not be surprising to any of us. Imperfect people get saved and enter the Church and bring their sins with them. Sanctification is a progressive process in many but not all and generally not overnight. Then of course we have the powerful deceptions of the devil playing into our lusts of the eye, lusts of the flesh, and pride of life. From time to time, I discuss the gender of words and I want to point out that all of these sins are female in gender just as all the fruit of the spirit are female in gender. This tells us that these are capable of increase, multiplication. The fruitfulness of the fruit of the spirit is wonderful but fruitfulness of the works of the flesh is awful, bringing stealing, killing, and destroying into the person’s life and the lives of those around them. I am not going through each of these sins now, many we know, many we know but they are not being described by familiar words. Variance for example is strife, being argumentative. Emulations are a fierce countenance and an inordinate jealousy (suspicion) a husband or wife may have regarding the other. You are of course free to study these in more detail to be sure they are not present in your life.
Lord willing, I will pick up right here and we will actually delve into the fruit of our spirit. Have a wonderful Christmas enjoying family, friends, and food but most of all giving thanks and celebrating the coming of a Savior.
2 Chronicles 20:20 b (KJV)
20 … Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Receive the blessing in Jesus’ name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (MSG)
24 GOD bless you and keep you,
25 GOD smile on you and gift you,
26 GOD look you full in the face and make you prosper.
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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