But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such, there is no law. Galatians 5:22‭-‬23 (KJV). ‬‬‬

REFLECT:
It is such a beautiful thing to see a vineyard or orchard filled with luscious good fruits. This picture is always an attraction to many people. One can imagine the looks of envy, admiration, greed, and every kind of conceivable emotion on the faces of passers-by and the wonder of how very fortunate the owner of this property must be.

Of course, with all of this, what people would like to concentrate on is the outward appearance and success of such a venture. What they do not readily consider are the long years, time, patience, commitment, hard work, and money that was put into cultivating the land that may have contributed to the success everyone now sees and admires.

When we get to know the back story and the level of input that produced such an enormous output, then we begin to appreciate better what we see before our eyes. Added to our appreciation is respect and love, and a desire to want to learn to emulate such good and commendable traits.

The scenario presented above can be seen as similar to our lives and us being willing to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit. Our Bible verse for today gives us a run-down of what is termed the ‘Fruits of the Spirit.’ These fruits stated in our Bible verse sum up a properly cultivated Christian life. Meaning that this is what the character of a believer in Christ Jesus should look like. So that when people come by us, they can encounter the luscious and good fruits of the Spirit.

However, to get to this point where our fruits can be distinctively noticed there must be cultivation. The process of cultivation would depend mostly on us and how we engage ourselves with God. If we do not engage ourselves with God the way we ought to, we will not produce the kind of yield that we are meant to. So, how do we achieve this?

First and foremost, we must surrender our lives to God in His Son Jesus. This is always the starting point. It does not matter if we are coming to know Jesus for the first time or if we already have a relationship with Him. Rather what is meant here is that at every point in our walk and encounter with Jesus we must be seen as surrendering to Him as we enter the revelations, He intends for us.

Secondly, when we surrender to God in Christ Jesus, we automatically open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we should learn to be more conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and how He leads, guides, and instructs us. It is the Holy Spirit leading, directing, and teaching us using the Word of God as the instructional tool or manual, our reference point for character building and molding that will help us in this cultivation process.

Finally, we must be willing to obey the Word of God as the Holy Spirit instructs and teaches. Hence, as we continue to spend time with the Holy Spirit, whose designation is to teach and guide us in all the ways of God our hearts become the fertile and rich ground for cultivating the wonderful, luscious, and good fruits of the Spirit.

Our total surrender to God in His Son Jesus, and our ability to allow the Holy Spirit to do a good work in our hearts will guarantee, and create a great yield of the Fruits of the Spirit in our lives.

Ebimobo W. Obasi

PLEASE PRAY ALONG:

A Prayer to Know God More Deeply.

FATHER GOD, thank You for loving me! You have changed my life. Thank You for giving me Your HOLY SPIRIT the cultivator and changer of my life and allowing me the Grace to live a life that shows how I have been changed by You. Please help me to continue to grow and bear good fruit so that others can know You more intimately. In JESUS MIGHTY NAME I pray AMEN.