AUDREY DICKEY MINISTRIES
Glory International Center
"A Center for God's Presence"
HOW TO CULTIVATE THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
By Joyce Meyer
“If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.]” Gal. 5. When the Holy Spirit lives inside us, we have everything He has. His fruit is in our Spirit. The seed has been planted. The closer we are to God, the more we allow the seed of the fruit to grow up and mature in us by cultivating it.
We can cultivate all the fruit of the Spirit in a very practical way – by focusing on love and self-control, the first and last in the list. All of the fruit are based in love and actually are a form of love, but they are kept in place by self-control.
If you are concentrating on developing the fruit of love, you won’t become impatient or unkind with people. You will be good to them, supportive, and faithful. You’ll determine to live your life in a way that blesses others, rather than looking out for your needs first. This is a result of love.
Self-control helps us to make those little choices throughout the day to respond with the fruit of the Spirit. As we respond with those little choices, we begin to form good, healthy, God-pleasing habits. If you continue to cultivate these habits, you will grow the fruit into an exceptional life in the Spirit.
If our fruit is “squeezed,” and we get caught off guard, we discover how developed or undeveloped our fruit is.
“But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge].” Galatians 5:22-23, Amplified Bible.