| FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (Series) | |
| Lesson Click to hear | Title Click to view |
| 1205a | "This Book... Shall Not Depart" |
| As Christians, we possess all that is needed to live the Christian life. It has been given to us in the form of God's Spirit who indwells us and enables us, and God's Word which directs us. The issue is not whether or not we will have what it takes to live in victory. The issue is whether or not we will take what He has given us. So we begin a new series of lessons on taking the land that is ours through developing the fruits of the Spirit. | |
| 1205b | Day and Night |
| Meditation is the most overlooked source of spiritual power in the Christian world. It is not aan option, but a command by God. Just how do you do it? Is there a pattern to follow? Learn from this lesson how to meditate on a portion of Scripture until it becomes a part of you. This is God's plan for transformation. | |
| 1206a | The Fruit of the Spirit Is... |
| The need of the hour in a nutshell is transformation. The objective of this lesson will be to look intently through the lens of the Scriptures at the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit that God tells us is a perfect reflection of His life as it flows through the believer. As we begin meditating on the fruit of the Spirit, our lives will be transformed with the power of God into His likeness. | |
| 1206b | The Fruit of the Spirit Is... Love |
| To seek to define love is either the most impossible task known to man, or it is the simplest, depending on your perspective. Apart from Calvary, love cannot be defined. However, as we look at Calvary God has defined love for us. Love is the essence of who God is , and the foundation for all God does. It can best be defined by a Cross. You say, "But I can't love like that." True. But God in you cannot love any other way. | |
| 1207a | The Fruit of the Spirit Is... Joy |
| Are joy and happiness synonymous? The world would think so, but Scripture says differently. Joy is a heart attitude that reflects excitement and pleasure over things eternal. If we know what joy is, then how do we appropriate it; or if it is already resident within us, how do we release it? Begin today to meditate day and night on the Worth, the Words, the Works, and the Ways of your God. | |
| 1207b | The Joy of Who He Is |
| How would you like to be filled with the joy of the Lord?... constantly, consistently, enthusiastically even in the storms of life? One way is to meditate day and night on the nature of God, who He is. The joy of the Lord is God's nature revealed in the Christian in the all things of life. It is seeing God in man's circumstances and thus rejoicing even when those circumstances give no cause for happiness. We need to take the Word of God and see what it says about the Worth of God until we see through our circumstances a chance for God to be God. | |
| 1208a | The Joy of What He's Done |
| Sometimes we forget what life was like before Christ came into our lives. We forget how gracious He has been in the past. We forget what it's like to be content with virtually nothing, once we have lived with virtually everything. But as we forget, we lose our joy. We lose the joy of what He's done. We need to keep reminders of the works God has done in our lives and the joy that those works have brought. | |
| 1208b | Praise for His Ways |
| What is meant by the ways of God, is "the incredibly different means He uses to accomplish His purposes, so only He can receive the Glory." The "ways of God" are cause for great joy. Meditating on how decidedly different are His ways will comfort you and encourage you and fill your heart with gladness and rejoicing. As you begin expressing your joy through praise and go singing into battle, your heart will be transformed and the fruit of the Spirit will become evident. | |
| 1209a | Let Heaven and Nature Sing |
| How do you react to life's intrusions? Do you respond with joy or do you wait until you feel joyful. Occasionally, you will feel joyful, and because you feel joyful, you will rejoice. But more often than not, the times you need most to express joy will be times when you feel anything but joyful. It is those times when the Scripture clearly instructs you to rejoice: to express joy by praise to God, and by a quiet, consistent response before men. | |
| 1209b | Peace I Leave With You |
| The peace of God. It is a tri-faceted miracle of the nature of God. It allows you to have peace with God by surrendering to God and accepting His terms for eternal peace. It allows you to have peace with man by surrendering your rights and letting God be responsible for the outcome. It allows you to live in a world beset by trials and pain and hostility with an inner rest that defies description. It allows you to live above the tensions of life by living life under the control of the One who is the Prince of Peace. | |
| 1210a | Perfect Peace |
| The peace of God. We were instructed by Jesus never to let our hearts be troubled and never to be afraid. Jesus is saying to us that since He in us is perfect peace, we simply must not ever, under any circumstances, allow ourselves to fall into a state of agitation or unrest; nor under any conditions are we permitted to fall into a state of fear. What this lesson looks at is how we can walk in the Spirit, and because the Spirit is perfect peace we can rest in God's sovereignty. | |
| 1210b | The Patience of Job |
| Patience is a virtue that cannot be measured, except by eternal standards. It is a quality of life that grows richer, the longer it exists, and yet even the process of becoming patient requires patience. If you are a Christian, you have within you the capacity to be patient. The reason is, that God is in you, and God is... perfect patience. | |
| 1211a | The Fruit of The Spirit is... Kindness |
| Kindness is God with arms that reach around the hurting; legs that run to their defense; eyes that see their very needs even before they surface. Because God so loved, when we were still dead in sin, totally unable to return that love, and totally undeserving of receiving the love, He demonstrated His grace in kindness. How does that translate to our responsibility to society? How does it apply to the body of Christ as it takes care of its own? What about that guy you never liked? We should obey the Word where kindness is concerned. | |
| 1211b | The Fruit of The Spirit is... Goodness |
| Do you know what God wants from you? He wants you to be "good". Do you know how He wants to do it? He wants you to get out of the way and let Jesus Christ walk in your shoes, talk with your mouth, work with your hands, and respond with your heart. He wants you to stop trying to imitate goodness and set the real Goodness of God free in its place. You will have done nothing. God will have done everything, and you will have been good. | |
| 1212a | Faithful is He |
| Faithfulness is the lost art of remaining in place, no matter what, because the one who promised never to leave you or forsake you lives in you, and He will remain faithful to the end. The faithful man or woman is not trusting in his circumstances to determine what to do, but is trusting in the word of the one in whom he has faith. Our study, then, should take a look at this God who is faithful, for it is He that lives in us and produces faithfulness in us. For "faithful is He who has called you. He will also do it". | |
| 1212b | Meek and Lowly in Heart |
| We live in a world where bigness is the norm, and performance is the yardstick by which all of life is measured. However, we see that what God is looking for are men and women who know they can do nothing . He is looking for believers who are so aware of their frailties that they become totally unaware of their strengths. The world calls it weakness. God calls it meekness. What is meekness and why does God value it so highly? In this lesson we will discover the three-fold progression of meekness and how God transforms our lives through it. | |
| 1213a | A Gentle Life |
| You and I were designed by our God to walk this earth as He did; not clothed in the pious arrogance of the Pharisees, but wrapped in the cloak of servitude, worn by God Himself. Is that how God sees you? The single most absent ingredient in the church today may well be a spirit of meekness; a gentle spirit towards man, reflecting a humble spirit towards self, because of a meek spirit towards God. God is after men and women of humility. He delights when His children live in the home with such gentleness that the word of the day is "how can I serve you". He delights when we correct those who are captured in sin with such a gentle heart that they are drawn irresistibly to resist that sin and repent. He delights when we let the world see the amazing difference that only Jesus can make in a life. | |
| 1213b | Self Under Control |
| The final fruit of the spirit is the steering wheel that keeps the others on course. Self-control is the will responding to the Spirit of God over the objections of the emotions or appetites. It is a life of balanced restraint. How do you deal with the emotions and appetites that attempt to rule your life? Test your anger. Test your envy. Test your gluttony. Test what you watch. Is it a calculated decision based on what is Scripturally best for your eyes to see? Or do you watch what your appetites draw you to ? Do you decide based on what is best, or do your appetites cry out to be satisfied, and rather that hurt their feelings, you comply? Is your self under control? | |
| 1214a | The Fruit of the Spirit Is... Jesus |
| Christ in us. . .our only hope of glory. That means that it isn't up to us to live the Christian life; it's up to God. The choice, minute by minute is ours. We live in a world filled with frustrated Christians trying to live a life they were never intended to live. The fruits of the Spirit serve as a measuring stick to demonstrate whether or not we are living this life or God. The fruit of the spirit is nothing more, nothing less, than the life of God revealed. Therefore, The bottom line is this: The fruit of the Spirit is Jesus.. When Jesus is allowed to be Lord, He flows through our lives with a supernatural power that demonstrates itself to a lost world with such love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control that they will no longer see us. We will be less and less aware of ourselves, as well. We will be caught up together in the theater of eternity watching the God of eternity behave in the confines of time. | |