The Lord is saying to you today – “Don’t underestimate what I am doing in maturing you through developing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Many desire the gifts of the Spirit but they neglect to also see the importance of growing in the fruit of the Spirit. Those who display abundant fruit of the Spirit display Me to the world and others are impacted by their character and the testimony of their life. Those who display the fruit of the Spirit and operate in the gifts of the Spirit impact others with My love and power. Many have gone through a time of preparation in past seasons to prepare them to carry what I am entrusting to them in this season. They have grown in the fruit they display and have faithfully stewarded the gifts they have been given and are now able to carry the increase – the new assignments and increase in anointing I am releasing to them.”

 

Galatians 5:22-23 (NSAB) – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

 

Galatians 5:22-23 (the Passion translation) – But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its various expressions. This love is revealed through: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit.

 

The Lord then showed me a garden before each child of God with nine rows of seeds that had been planted with a different seed in each row. I also saw the Lord as a gardener, walking through the gardens nurturing all the rows of seeds that had been planted. I knew each row represented a different fruit of the Spirit and together made a garden, representing what we display to others. I then saw that each person’s garden was different as some gardens had rows of fruit trees with only small growth from the seeds that had been planted while other gardens had grown huge fruit trees in the rows, with abundant fruit on the trees. I knew the Lord was showing me that some people have grown a small amount in the fruit of the Spirit, while others have matured and display an abundance of the fruit of the Spirit. Also some people had different growth across the different rows of fruit within the garden with some of the rows with small saplings while other rows had large, mature fruit trees. I knew the Lord was showing me that often people have grown more in some fruit of the Spirit than in others and there are some fruit the Lord is wanting us to grow and develop at this time. I could really smell the aroma from the gardens that had mature fruit trees with abundant fruit and the aroma was so sweet, fragrant and beautiful. The people of God who display abundant fruit of the Spirit in their lives release the aroma of Jesus to others which impacts those they come in contact with.

 

To most effectively impact others and transform the sphere around us we need to display fruit of the Spirit and operate in the gifts of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit sets forth the manner in which we utilise the gifts of the Spirit in that we are to minister the gifts in love. Paul expressed that the church should have a desire for spiritual gifts, but it should foremost follow the pursuit of love – Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:1). Since the gifts of the Spirit are gifts of grace, they must be used in love with a pure motive of love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The gifts of the Spirit are tools with which we can articulate the love of God to others.

 

Like physical fruit needs time to grow, the fruit of the Spirit will not ripen in our lives overnight. As we give the Spirit more control over our lives, He begins to do in and through us what only He can do which is to transform us to be more like Jesus as we move from glory to glory. The word of God tells us that we can’t develop godly character without the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. The presence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is evidence that our character is becoming more Christ like. The fruit of the Spirit is a physical manifestation of a transformed life. Developing the fruit of the Spirit comes from a relationship with the Lord and yielding to Him. According to Matthew 7:20, people can be recognised by their fruit. If we display the qualities of Galatians 5:22 others will impacted by God’s work in us.

 

The Lord is reminding us of the importance of yielding to Him and developing an intimate relationship with Him so we can be continue to be transformed to be more like Him. He wants us to display abundant fruit of the Spirit so we display His character. We should recognise the need for the gifts and the fruit of the Holy Spirit to be working together.