After an altercation with a church member, we both said things in the heat of the moment that we wish we could take back. I was accused of not displaying the fruit of the Spirit. The words hurt, and I took them to heart. I began to analyze what it means to display the fruit of the Spirit.
Although I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Holy Spirit lives within me, just because we have conflict doesn't necessarily mean I'm not displaying the fruit of the Spirit. But what does it really mean to show those fruits in daily life? Galatians 5 tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
What does it mean to show gentleness to someone who has cut you off in traffic? How do you hold a church member accountable for their sin while still being kind and faithful to God's word?
These are hard questions to navigate in today's world. While the world tells us we are not allowed to judge, Scripture tells us it is important to judge the actions of those within the church to protect their purity and support their spiritual growth. Every Christian needs to evaluate whether they are displaying the Spirit in their daily life. Here are five ways to know you are truly doing that:
Seek the Holy Spirit
A person who is displaying the fruit of the Spirit must have a robust prayer life. We should seek to be in God's presence, listening for his spirit, and letting him guide and direct our daily tasks. A person who goes forth without consulting God will be hard-pressed to find that the Holy Spirit comes to their aid when they are busy doing work that was not meant for them to do. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit orders our steps.
This means we allow the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us each day. While we may have tasks we can't avoid, like going to work, caring for family, and doing household chores, we can ask the Holy Spirit to guide and direct whom we speak to, how we use our time, and how we manage our resources. All these actions, even the most mundane ones, require the Holy Spirit's work in our lives.
By seeking the father's heart, we exchange our hardened hearts for his soft heart. We can then enlist the Holy Spirit’s help when times get tough, knowing the Holy Spirit is guiding us.
Others Confirm It
Not only is it important to display the fruit of the Spirit, but it is also important to have people in our lives who can confirm that they see these types of fruit in our lives. The people we worship with each week would be a good indicator of the fruit of the Spirit. They can confirm which ones are strongest in our lives, and which are our weakest. By seeking their counsel, we are not only working on ourselves but also on the inward parts of ourselves that are weak.
To be people who display the fruit of the Spirit more readily in daily life, we need to seek those who know us better than we know ourselves. It is easy to believe we are doing better than we are. However, people who know us best and are not motivated to tell us what we want to hear are good for us, and they can help us see ourselves for who we truly are, our strengths and weaknesses.
We See It in Ourselves
When we find we interact with that same cranky neighbor without blowing up in anger, without talking about them behind their backs, and even going out of our way to do kind acts of service for them, we know we are becoming more Christlike. If we are truly enlisting the help of the Holy Spirit to manifest his fruit in our lives, we will find that we say and do things differently from the way we would have in the past.
Above all, we can love others better. There's always room in our hearts to love people better than we have in the past. Discover the person whom you like the least and find that we interact with them in more loving ways, we know we are displaying through the spirit in our lives.
Although it's not always easy to assess how we're doing in life, if we’re self-aware enough, we can compare how we treated that neighbor last year with how we treated them this year. Are we more loving? Do we find ourselves thinking of them more often? Do we do kind gestures with them in mind? If the answer to these questions is Yes, we are likely displaying the spirit in us in ways we may not have before.
Your Emotions are Regulated
The quickest indicator that the fruit of the Spirit is absent is when anger and rage explode quickly during conflict. For example, do you find yourself participating in juicy gossip about that person who once gave you problems, too, or do you find you are less likely to enjoy hearing that and more likely to want to be part of the solution?
Do you find yourself mediating the conflict or initiating peacemaking by sitting down for an open, honest conversation with them? The only way peace is present is if the fruit of the Spirit is present as well. Be a person who is a peacemaker by developing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. You may find not only that your relationships are more peaceful, but you are a more peaceful person as a result.
Your Actions Align with Scripture
While it is important for every Christian's spiritual growth to read the word of God regularly, it is also important that we apply it to our lives. If your actions align with what you know about Jesus and his actions, the fruit of the Spirit is present, because Jesus is part of the Trinity and is in constant communion with the Holy Spirit. If you find your actions to be more Christlike, you are more likely in communion with the Holy Spirit than you have been in the past.
Write down some verses that you want to work on. These verses should be those in which Jesus demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit, directly or indirectly, to others. Put them all over your home and be reminded that you want to work on being more like what those verses dictate. Get a journal, write down your goals, and see how you're doing each week. Evaluate your actions, your thoughts, and your feelings based on those Scriptures. Do you find that your thoughts, actions, or feelings are different because of the Scriptures?
As humans, it is impossible to display the fruit of the Spirit all the time in every situation. However, this is not an excuse to work on being more Christlike. When we are more in communion with the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit will be displayed in our lives. Let us align our lives with him both in word and deed so that the fruit of the Spirit can be evident not only to us but also to others.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Krisanapong Detraphiphat
