THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT God fills our innermost being.

These same contradictions

between the human emotions found in our soul and
other scriptures about peace as Isaiah 26:3, “Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
the radiantly abundant life of God present in our new- thee: because he trusteth in thee,” and Colossians
“...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
born spirit, can be found in relation to every different 3.15, “Let (my emphasis) the peace of God rule in your
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
constituent of the fruit of the Spirit. hearts,” and co-operate with God by obeying the truth
against such there is no law”. Galatians 5:22-23
and commands revealed in them, we’ll find supernatural
Whilst our soulish emotions fluctuate wildly, ebbing and peace in our heart – and this peace is entirely unaffected
When a man or woman is born again, a fundamental change
flowing as the waves of the sea – the fruit of the Spirit does by the problems which originally caused the turmoil,
takes place in them at the very centre of their being. Their
not. Our spirit is always filled with godly fruit. It’s never whether they are resolved or not. It’s God’s peace and
old sinful spirit is removed and replaced with a new pure
depressed or worried, full of hate or unbelief, etc. When it truly does pass all understanding!
spirit and at that same instant, God Himself, in the form
of the Holy Spirit, comes to dwell within them. That new we understand that, and appreciate that it’s possible for us
to release the fruit of the Spirit from our spirit into our soul It takes discipline to renew your mind by meditating on
pure spirit becomes one with the Spirit of God, bringing
so that the emotions of our soul surrender to the inflow the Word of God and obeying its instructions, and to
spiritual unity in a similar manner to the physical unity
of the life of God, we are then faced with a choice as to see the release the fruit of the Spirit into your soul. The
created by a sexual relationship.1 These primal changes in
whether to let our soulish human feelings dominate us, manifestation of God’s love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
the deepest part of us are of such enormous significance,
or to let the Holy Spirit release His love, joy, peace etc. gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance
that Paul tells us that we become new creatures.2
through our born again spirit into the emotional realm. in greater and greater measure in our lives, is, however,
directly proportional to the extent to which we exercise
The fact that we now have God, Himself, dwelling in
How do we do this? We do it by renewing our mind this discipline. Hence, every Christian manifests
us,3 has many major consquences; not least of which,
through God’s Word. Lets take the example of peace. exactly as much of the fruit of the Spirit as He or she
is that the Holy Spirit is constantly and simultaneously,
If our mind is in turmoil and we don’t know what to do determines! It’s all there in our spirit, but that’s exactly
producing and releasing into our spirit what Paul calls
because of the circumstances we are in, we can instead, where it will stay – having no obvious impact in our
the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
choose to enjoy the supernatural peace that passes all life - unless we decide otherwise! It’s possible to live
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.4
understanding,6 which if we are born again, is already our life in abject misery and yet have the joy of the
These constitute the true nature and characteristics of
resident in our spirit. We do this by meditating on what the Lord within – just like a man who stands by a well,
God Himself, and just as light can be separated into its’
scriptures say about peace and doing what God tells us to dying of thirst, simply because he doesn’t make the
different consituent colours by use of a prism, the fruit
do in those scriptures. So in Philippians 4:6-7 Paul writes, effort to draw water from it!
(singular) of the Spirit can also be separated into its nine
constituent parts, thereby allowing us to understand more “Be careful for nothing” – i.e. don’t worry about anything
– this indicates that we actually have that possibility open Let’s look further at this fruit so we can understand just
easily, the nature of God being produced within us.
to us. Whatever our situation, we have the choice to worry what it is that God has placed within us.
This fruit is the product of the Holy Spirit, and no amount about the situation, or the choice – through a decision of
our will – not to worry. Paul instructs us that the decision First – the love that Paul speaks about as a fruit of the
of effort on our part can bring it forth.5 Nevertheless,
we should take is not to worry. Then the next step is Spirit, is ‘agape’ love, God’s love, the highest form of
because the Holy Spirit and our spirit are united,1 our
– “in everything” (ie whatever the problem is) “by prayer love there is, and interestingly, it has little or nothing
spirit is always filled with these attributes of God, though
and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests to do with feelings or affection. It’s been defined as
this may not be reflected in our feelings. The reason for
known to God” – speak to God about the problems, “seeking the welfare or betterment of others, even if
this is that the fruit of the Spirit is released directly into our
ask Him for help and thank Him that He has heard your there is not affection felt” (a paraphrase of “Happiness
spirit, not into our soul where our emotions are felt. We
prayer and will answer it. In the next verse we see the Explained” by Bob Rigdon). Jesus displayed this kind of
can therefore have the apparently contradictory position
results of doing that – “...the peace of God that passes all love by going to the cross and dying even though He
that our spirit is flooded with joy, but we feel depressed,
understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through didn’t feel like doing it.7 He did it to benefit us, contrary
or where our emotions are in turmoil, but the peace of
Christ Jesus.” If we couple this with meditation on such to His own feelings about the cross. It’s this kind of

1. 1 Corinthians 6:17 4. Galatians 5:19-20 6. Philippians 4:7 7. Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36;
2. 2 Corinthians 5:17 5. Romans 12:2 Luke 22:41-43; John 18:11
3. 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 John 3:24
love which God places within us and which enables
us to love our enemies and to seek their best interests,
regardless of how we feel.8
Next - Joy - Nehemiah made it clear that the joy of the
Lord is what makes us strong.9 This joy is not dependent
on circumstances and as many have proved, it’s quite
possible to be joyful in the midst of tribulation10 by
having your mind and heart fixed on things above and
not on the things of this world.11 All the problems of
this life grow very dim when compared to the glory of
God that has become ours through Jesus - and as we
focus upon and rejoice in these things, the joy of the
Lord is drawn from our spirit into our emotional realm.
Contrarywise, if we focus on the things of the world, our
godly joy will quickly drain away like water into sand.
The Greek word translated “peace” embraces the
meaning of well-being and includes rest, safety,
freedom from care and trustfulness, and as Jesus said to
His disciples,12 it differs from the peace which the world
offers, which is simply an absence of problems. As we
have already mentioned, Isaiah tells us that when our
mind is fixed on God and we have faith in Him, we will
enjoy perfect peace.13
Longsuffering – or patience as it is rendered in some
translations, is “the capacity of calm endurance.”
Patience is not passive as many people think, but
active. It’s actually faith sustained over a long period
of time. We display patience when we actively believe
for the manifestation of God’s promise against all odds,
regardless of how long it takes. As with all spiritual
fruit, patience is released from our spirit into our soul
by meditating on the scriptures.14 The scriptures give us
hope, and patience is a by product of hope.15
Gentleness and meekness are closely related and often
regarded as rather weak qualities. The opposite is true.
Gentleness is actually kindness exercised without
roughness or harshness, and the Greek word used,
means moral excellence in character or demeanour,
8. Luke 6:35; Romans 12:20-21 Galatians 5:23; 6:1;
9. Nehemiah 8:10-12 Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:12;
10. John 16:33 1 Timothy 6:11;
11. Colossians 3:1-2 2 Timothy 2:25; Titus 3:2
12. John 14:27 17. Matthew 11:29
13. Isaiah 26:3 18. Matthew 5:5
14. Romans 15:4 19. Matthew 19:17
15. Romans 8:25 20. Galatians 2:20
16. 1 Corinthians 4:21; 21. Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11;
2 Corinthians 10:1; Hebrews 10:38; Habakkuk 2:4
goodness or kindness. Meekness is closely related - it
means being kind and gentle16 and includes humility and
submission. Jesus described Himself as meek17 – He had
all power but would not use it to promote Himself. As He
The Fruit
told us, the meek shall inherit the earth!18 of the
Spirit
Jesus also made it clear that there was only one who was
good and that is God.19 So when in Galatians 5:22 we
read that goodness is part of the fruit of the Spirit, we
need to understand that the goodness being imparted
to our spirit is that same degree of goodness that God
Himself exhibits and not what passes for goodness in
normal everyday life. God imparts this, that we too may
bring His goodness into our character (soul) and put it to
work in our life.
Again, the faith which God imparts to us is His own
faith20 and He expects us to use it and live by it21 in the
same way as Jesus did.
Finally we have temperance or self control – this is a
most valuable attribute of God – God is never out of
control and as this godly chacteristic manifests itself in
us more and more, we will find that our ability to control
our emotions and behaviour grows and grows!
What next?
If you want to know more about the Holy Spirit and His
ministry to us, Andrew has written a book on the subject
and has many albums and individual messages available
on CD and DVD. You may order them by ringing the
helpline, by email or by writing to Andrew Wommack
Ministries of Europe. We can also send you a resources
catalogue which will give you further details of the many
messages which Andrew has available.
Further copies of this teaching may be obtained
from the address below:
+44(0)1922 473300
Andrew Wommack Ministries – Europe
PO Box 4392, Walsall, WS1 9AR, England
enquiries@awme.net www.awme.net
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