Life In The Spirit-part 15
Fill’er Up! The Spirit And Its Fruit!
What.s the first thing that you do my friend when you find yourself in a dilemma, or when you.re confused and you don.t know which way to go, or when you.re in a desperate hurry and you need a parking place? What do you do, how do you live? How do you handle the decisions of life? How do you know whether you.re to say yes or whether you.re to say no, whether you.re to spend this or whether you.re not to spend this? Well beloved, this is what life in the Spirit is all about and this is what we.re going to talk about today on Precepts for Life.
Walking by the Spirit: In other words, to let the Spirit govern you in every aspect of your life, and that.s what Christianity is all about. This is life in the Spirit. It.s being led by the Spirit so that you walk by the Spirit. And this was what was happening with the early church.
That.s what happens when man, who has sinned, who is without life, who is dead in his trespasses and sins receives the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes in him and then man knows how to walk, walk under the control of the Spirit. And when you do you will know it because these qualities will be present in your life. Look at it. Let.s go back to Galatians, chapter 5 where we left off. And you say, hey, I.m one of those new ones. I don.t know where you left off. Well, I want you to go to our website; its preceptsforlife.com, precepts, p-r-e-c-e-p-t-s, for life, and it.s all one word, .com and then you can find out how to get this whole series and understand life in the Spirit from the Word of God.
Galatians, chapter 5, he.s contrasted the deeds of the flesh now with the fruit of the Spirit. And when he.s talking about fruit he.s talking about what the Spirit produces. You know a tree by its fruit. You may be walking along and you may see blossoms, but several kinds of fruit trees have all white blossoms. But the minute the fruit comes you know whether it.s a pear tree, you know whether it.s a peach tree; you know whether it.s an apple tree. You know the tree by its fruit.
And so he.s saying here that you.re going to know that the Holy Spirit is there, that you.re walking by the Spirit, that you.re being led by the Spirit, because you will have a nine-fold evidence of the Spirit. Watch what he says and watch very carefully; this is observing the text and seeing who and what and when and where and why and how. It says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.” (Galatians 5:22a)
You.re saying but its multiple fruit, it should be a plural verb. It should be, “the fruits of the Spirit are.” No, what he.s saying is that every time the Spirit is being manifested, every time you.re walking by the Spirit nine things will be true, nine things will be evident. You will know that you.re walking by the Spirit because you will have love. You will have joy. You say, I.ve got cancer; I can.t have joy. Even in cancer there is a joy, not in the cancer, but in a joy that you know first of all, that God wounds and God heals, God kills and God makes alive. You know that you cannot die until God is ready. You know that if you have the Spirit of God in you, then when you are absent from the body you are present with the Lord, that the Spirit is the guarantee of heaven for you and the guarantee that some day this body that.s falling apart and cancerous and broken and hurting will become a brand new body that will never be able to be corrupted again because corruptibility will put on incorruptibility.
So there.s that joy underneath, that joy because the Spirit is reminding you of these things. So it.s love and it.s joy and there.s peace. There is a peace. There is a calm underneath.
I remember a missionary called Miss Bertha. And I remember when she was overseas and the Japanese came in and I mean it was war and they were shooting and all of a sudden fear came up into her heart and she started to be afraid and she said, I am not going to be afraid. That.s not from God. It is peace and she said I just ripped that fear out of there and I said I will walk by the Spirit. It is love, it is joy, it is peace and I appropriated that peace. She walked by the Spirit.
It says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, kindness. There.s a kindness that comes out towards other people. Haven.t you ever had someone say to you, you are so kind; you are so kind? That means hey, it.s the Spirit, it.s not the flesh because the flesh isn.t kind. Oh, sometimes the flesh can clean up its act, but it.s just not natural for the flesh to be kind. So it.s love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and it is goodness.
There.s a goodness about a person who is walking by the Spirit. And not only is there goodness, but there is faithfulness. You.re going to be faithful, faithful to what you say, faithful to God in all that you do, faithful in the way that you behave, faithful to the people that you.re supposed to be faithful to because that.s what the Spirit produces; and not only that, but there.s going to be a gentleness, a gentleness, a caring, a softness about you.
You hear people that are constantly really mean and really hard, now I come across strong. People enjoy hearing my testimony „cause I come across strong, but I never come across mean, I never come across mean. Now God has worked it so that I walk more and more in the Spirit, but there is that gentleness and also there is that self-control. So that means you.ve been able to say no. That means you.ve been able to not take it and not do it, and not say it and not react because there.s self-control. Now this is the fruit of the Spirit.
And he goes on to say this: “Now those who belong to Christ,” he.s given you the deeds of the flesh. He.s given you the fruit of the Spirit, and he says, “Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24) Why? Because the fruit of the Spirit is self-control and it has just said “death to the flesh.” No, I am not going to walk that way. I don.t have to walk that way. That.s the way I walked before, but not anymore. The old man, the old Kay, the old you is dead and you keep that dead body in the coffin.
This, this woman used to say, when she.d start to get upset with the children, “Get the nails, I.m coming out of the coffin.” And, and the kids knew, hey, we have really pushed mother to the limits. That old mother is coming back to us, get the nails. She knew that the old man, that the flesh, and it.s different, that the old man and the flesh need to be crucified. Keep them in the coffin. Put them to death.
All right, so he goes on to say this: “If we live by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25a) In other words, you are saved. The way that you passed from death to life was because you got the Spirit of God. All right, now you live by the Spirit, now “walk by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25b) Walk by the Spirit; let the Spirit control you. And then he says, “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.” That.s not the lifestyle of life in the Spirit.
Now, let.s go back to the book of Acts and let.s see how life in the Spirit was played out because I want you to see that the Spirit of God is there to lead you, the Spirit of God is there to guide you whenever you are in a difficult situation. So constantly you are to be in communication with the Spirit. The Spirit.s inside of you, okay, and you should be listening to the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit is directing you so you know what to do. So anytime you find yourself in a difficult situation what do you do? Who do you talk to first? I.m constantly going around the house and saying God, I don.t know where my keys are. You know where they are, please show me where my keys are. I get to a parking spot, or I have to park the car and I.m in a hurry, and I.m praying Lord, I need a parking place, just please put me in a parking place. Please open one up for me or just show me where to park. I.m constantly talking to God. That is life in the Spirit. It.s realizing that it.s not by your might and it.s not by your power, but it.s by your Spirit.
God, I.m talking to this person. Lord, they have just found out that the cancer is back, that it.s on the adrenal glands, what do I say? I remember talking to Patsy Ramsey. And Patsy Ramsey is the one whose child, little Jon Benet was killed and murdered and Patsy and John were accused of the murder. First they accused John and then they realized John didn.t do it then they accused Patsy and neither one of them did it. And evidence has been found of a foreign DNA on the body of little Jon Benet and they.re in pursuit of that. But those people lost everything because people believed a lie, because they just listened to this inept police department who tried to handle the case themselves and just immediately assumed that it was one of the parents that did it.
Well on top of that Patsy had cancer and now the cancer has come back. And now it.s on the adrenal glands. And I called her the other day. I was with a friend of mine and I said I want to talk to Patsy; I haven.t talked to her. And she just picked up the phone and called her. The timing was absolutely perfect. I.ll tell you about it right after this announcement.
I.m glad you.re back. Let.s go back to Patsy. When my friend Suzanne got her on the phone, she says Kay wants to talk to you. And I picked up the phone and I started talking to Patsy and I knew that she had been crying. And I said is it hard? And she says it.s very hard right now. And I said I know it is. And I said, you know all you.ve been through, you think Lord, how much more are You going to put me through. We stopped, we prayed, the next day, I get a phone call from her. She said you know God just had you call me. Being led by the Spirit, I.ve had people say to me when I.m speaking at a conference with thousands there and they said I prayed that God would let me run into you. And I said God has answered. This is life in the Spirit. It.s being led by the Spirit so that you walk by the Spirit. And this was what was happening with the early church.
I want you to go to Acts chapter 4, first of all and I want to look at verse 31. And it says this: “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” It says, “And they began to speak the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)
In other words, here they are and they.re praying and God fills them with His Spirit they go out and they speak the word with boldness. And with great power the apostles were giving witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and abundant grace was upon them all. When you walk in the Spirit there is God.s abundant grace. What is the grace of God? It.s everything that Jesus Christ is, everything that He has made available to you so that it.s there for you to use.
Well life in the Spirit is you walking by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, and appropriating the wisdom that the Spirit gives you: the mind of Christ, the leadership, the fullness, the power of the Holy Spirit. And as you do that here is all this grace and you.re appropriating it.
You know, this is a book that has absolutely blessed me and I met Stanley Tam and his wonderful precious wife and I thought you guys are absolutely incredible; this is a book of the practical ways of God working in an individual.s life. After Stan came to know the Lord he got this business and it was a silver refining business where you take old photographs and when they do the chemicals, silver comes off of them. So he got this business where he would have like a magnet, that would pull that silver together and then he could go and he could sell that silver. Well he lived from hand to mouth and he was going around trying to collect these silver things and a lot of people didn.t even bother with it. They thought it was stupid. But finally he got enough that it was eighty dollars worth of silver that he had collected. And he had enough money to drive to this town, but he didn.t have enough money to drive back and he didn.t have enough money for food. But he knew that when he got there he would get eighty dollars, because every time he walked in they.d cut him a check and he.d go cash the check at the bank and then he.d have his money.
So he drives and he.s singing and he.s praising the Lord, he.s walking, he.s filled with the Spirit, singing and making melody in his heart to the Lord, in everything giving thanks. He gets there, he turns in the silver and he says I need my check. And she said I.m going to have to send it to you, Mr. Tam. I am so sorry. He says you can.t send it to me. I.ve got to have it now. She says well, I can.t give it to you now because only the boss can sign the checks and he.s not here and you.ll just have to wait. He won.t be home for several more days and as soon as he gets home, Mr. Tam, we will send you the check. He says, but you don.t understand, I don.t have any money. She says Mr. Tam, I am sorry; I cannot sign the check.
He said he walked out and he thought God, what am I am I going to do? As he was listening to all this, by the way, he stuck his hand in his pocket; he pulled out the money he had; he had thirteen cents. Now you.ve got to remember this is a long time ago when a nickel would buy a hamburger and he thought God, what am I going to do? He said I was so hungry that I went over and I bought a hamburger for a nickel. That left me 8 cents. So he said I just bowed my head and I said God, what do I do? What do I do? I don.t know what to do.
Now this is what life in the Spirit is all about, it.s what do I do God. And God says hey, I.ll let you know what to do. Commit your way unto the Lord, trust in Him and He will bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5) It is that simple.
So if any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, who upbraids not. Let him ask in faith, not doubting, not wavering; because he that doubts is like a wave of the sea tossed to and fro and that kind of man is a double-minded man and it does not please God. (James 1:5-8)
So he said, okay God, what do I do? And God spoke to his heart, not audibly, He just said go home. And he said God, this is all I have, is this gas in the tank and it is not going to take me all the way home and all I have is 8 cents. And God said go home. So he goes to the gas station. He says can you give me 8 cents worth of gas? Now today it wouldn.t have put a drop in there. But it was 8 cents worth of gas. He put it in. The guy says you.re not going to go very far on that. And he said I know and he gets in the car and he starts driving. And as he gets on this country road he sees a man ahead in his head lights and the man is hitchhiking. His father has taught him you never pick up hitchhikers. But he said I just felt like I was to stop and pick the man up. He said I rolled down the window, and said, where you going? And the man said you know I.ve been to Chicago and it.s so expensive that to save money I hitchhiked all the way up and now I.ve been standing here for hours and nobody.s stopped to pick me up until you did. He said I.m going to Marion, Ohio. And he said okay. He said there.s a problem. And the man says well, what.s the problem. I want you to take me. And he said well you see, I don.t have enough gas in my tank to get us there. And I don.t have any money. And he said listen, he says I.m not a poor man. He said I was just saving money. He says drive to the closest gas station and I.ll fill your tank. Now this is what Stan said that he learned. He says that night God taught me the greatest lesson of spiritual success I have ever been taught. He had His hitchhiker down along my pathway to meet all my needs if I would do one thing, the most important thing, if I would step out in faith and trust God every time that He spoke to my heart.
What is life in the Spirit all about beloved? It is Christ in you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to lead you and to guide you until you see Him face to face. And that.s the way that He wants you to live. So how do you do that? Well I would suggest that you get Stanley Tams Incredible Adventures with God and you.ll see the story of how an ordinary man lived an extraordinary life and how he did it with a wife that also trusted God.
But may I just make this suggestion? That you go to God everyday before you ever get out of bed and you say God, You.re my Father and Father today, all I want to do is to please You, whether in my body or in heaven, I just have one ambition, and that.s to please You. And I know that I can only please You by walking in Your Spirit. And so I.m asking You now to fill me with Your Spirit.
And I want Him to direct my steps. I want Him to teach me. I want Him to lead me. I want Him to govern me. I want to experience that love and that joy and that peace and that goodness and that faithfulness and that kindness and that gentleness and that self-control. I want to be everything You want me to be. You have me lock, stock and barrel. And beloved, when you do that, you will sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord. And it will not be you; it will be you living in relationships with others the way God wants and especially with God.
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