Welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Wealth. Suzi and I have the opportunity from time to speak places. she recently did a chapel for the upper school at Covenant Day School and I'm going to be having done a chapel at Charlotte Christian and in that talk I asked the kids to spend some time thinking about this when Paul says in Galatians 5, "But I say walk by the spirit and you'll not gratify the desires of the flesh." What's it look like to walk by the spirit? How do I how do I know the spirit is in control of my life. Well, he goes on to say what are familiar verses and beginning in verse 22 of that fifth chapter. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Jesus Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and its desires. Familiar verses, maybe ones that you memorized when you were a young kid or maybe ones that you've seen recently. the word that is the one that I think often times is overlooked but is so important and significant is the little word is the fruit of the spirit is it's fruit singular it has a multiaceted expression in those nine words that Paul goes on to talk about love joy peace faithfulness gentleness goodness kindness patience self-control but it is one fruit
so sorry babe But Gus is right here in my lab. All 80 lbs of him. Y'all can hear him breathing and he's got the worst breath. I'm so sorry. Gus, go.
Well,
you know, studio A may have to be moved to studio B cuz Studio B has a door. Studio A has no door.
All right, he's done, I think.
So, I apologize for that dog interruption, but he was right in my lap breathing heavily.
Okay. Anyway, I It's that little word is that I think oftenimes is overlooked and So we look at the nine fruit that are mentioned and see them as individual things. And so they become separate things. And so I can have love but I don't need to have patience or I don't have patience today but I have love or I have joy but I don't have self-control. It's one fruit and it is multiaceted but those nine mentions should be characteristics of how I look when I live my life.
Interesting as the verse goes on. And I'm reading from the NLT. It says, "Since we are living by the spirit, because we have the spirit within us, let us follow the spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited or provoke one another or be jealous of one another."
Yeah.
So when all those things are in place, we're not going to provoke one another. We're not going to be jealous of one another. And we're not going to be conceit become conceited. And that is the in the body of Christ. He's speaking about us bearing fruit to one another. And then that fruit is also shown to the world by which the world goes, hey, what is that? I don't have that in my life. How does that happen?
Yeah. And so when I think about living by the spirit, walking in the spirit, what does it look like to be filled by the spirit? It really isn't demonstrated to me in the gifts of the spirit, which are something separate,
right?
it's demonstrated by the fruit of the spirit. and That should be what people see in me and in my life on a day-by-day basis. And that's what is so challenging and convicting about those verses to me. Is that how I'm seen? Is that the way people view me?
Well, and when you go up further in the passage, just as you were talking, Jimmy, I got this question in my head, which you know, I always have a million questions, is okay, how does that happen? But then if you look up at verse 19, it says, When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. And then it lists out the results of following our sinful nature. So we're following something. Either we're following our sinful nature or we are following the leading of the Holy Spirit. So it's not a matter of how do I do this? It's who are you following?
Yeah. There's no there's no neutral ground,
right? Oh,
there's no neutral ground. I'm either leaning towards my own fleshly desires and those aren't necessarily always bad, ugly things, but they are not in keeping with who God is and what he wants me to portray to the world, you know, to be light wherever I go. I want to show forth him in those ways. And this is all found in how I choose to commit each day to live.
I think it's important too to be aware that my sinful nature and my the nature of being led by the spirit, having the Holy Spirit lead me as opposed to my sinful nature. Those things battle against each other. and it's like, you know, that phrase, I think we've shared it before, and I love the phrase like, the wolf that you feed wins. And does that make sense or am I just using a wrong illustration? Wolf, bear, dog, I don't care. That's fine.
It's just interesting like which one am I feeding? Yeah.
So, am I feeding my own desires? and giving into those things, then I'm going to be following those desires. Or am I feeding my soul with reading the word of God, praying, being in community? We've talked about that in the last few weeks, which will then lead me to follow him and allow the spirit to lead me.
Yeah. And I think that it's an everyday commitment that I need to make. And how you do that, it probably is different for each person, but how do I commit as I get up every day? How do I commit that day to walk in keeping with what the spirit would want. How do I how do I commit to seeing the fruit of the spirit? Those nine things, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such thing, there is no law. It's not a matter of law keeping the law. It's a matter of allowing the spirit to live through me and in me and every day saying, "Okay, I want you to be the one who I follow. day
and I give over control of my life to you.
Yeah.
And that's you said it every day and often times it's every moment of every day
is saying I want to follow the spirit's leading and boy that's where it gets hard. It's not hard to follow the spirit.
It's hard because my flesh is screaming at me to do what
whatever it wants to do.
There's a battle. Am I redeemed? Yes, I am redeemed. Christ paid the price for my sins. on the cross, I am redeemed. But I will battle the reality of my own sinful flesh until I am fully redeemed when Christ returns and comes home. So there is a battle that goes on.
It's the battle Paul talks about in Romans chapter 7. And it is a real battle. It's not external. It's internal within me. And where I begin to win that battle is daily, as you said, moment by moment turning over control of my life to the spirit. of God who lives within me.
Thank you so much for joining us once again. We appreciate your listening and your prayer support and we pray that you have a great day and that God will continue to stir your hearts.