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Wouldn't it be wonderful if the power of God were flowing through you all the time? Wouldn't it be marvelous if you could walk in His supernatural might every day of your life?

There's no question about it. That would be a glorious way to live. But most Christians don't believe it's possible. That's because they think God's supernatural power comes only through the gifts of the Spirit and the Bible says those gifts are given only as God wills.

While it's true that we can't operate in the gifts of the Spirit such as words of wisdom and knowledge or gifts of healings and miracles, twenty-four hours a day, God has given us a well of supernatural power that is continually bubbling up within us. He has made resident within our born-again spirit mighty forces that can enable us to overcome anything the devil might throw our way any moment of the day or night.

Galatians 5:22-23 calls these unbeatable forces the fruit of the Spirit. They include love, joy, peace, longsuffering (or patience), gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (or self-control).

Contrary to popular belief, the fruit of the spirit aren't just nice qualities we should adopt so we'll be pleasant company, although people who have those fruit are delightfully pleasant! The fruit of the spirit actually release the supernatural power of God in our lives.

Love, for example, is God's power to overcome every obstacle, for as 1 Corinthians 13:8 says, "Love never fails." Joy fortifies you with supernatural power when you start to weaken, for Nehemiah 8:10 says, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."

Peace undergirds you and helps you make supernaturally correct decisions, for Colossians 3:15 says, "Let the peace...from the Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts, deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds" (AMP).

Although space does not permit here, I could go right on down the line listing every single fruit of the spirit and show you how each one releases the power of God to make you victorious in some area of your life. I could also show you how failing to release even one of those fruit in your life can make you vulnerable to the enemy's attacks.

Your Natural Supernatural Disposition
The fruit of the spirit are so vital and so powerful that if I had to choose between the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit (which, thank heavens, I don't!), I'd choose the fruit. Why? Because it's possible to have spectacular gifts of the Spirit manifesting in your life yet still get so far off course you end up shipwrecked, a spiritual failure.

When you have the fruit of the spirit flowing in your life, however, you can be assured you will never fall!

That may sound extreme, but it's true. I know it is because the Bible makes that very promise:

"Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ...give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall" (2 Peter 1: 5-8, 10).

When I realized what that verse was saying, I made up my mind. I determined to have these powerful forces called the fruit of the spirit flowing in my life because I don't want to fall. I don't want to stumble around and miss my destiny. I want to run my God-appointed course and finish it in victory!

"I do too, Gloria," you may say. "But I have a problem. I'm just not a very patient person. My personality is harsh, not gentle. And I have a major lack of self-discipline. In other words, these fruit of the spirit just don't come naturally to me."

Yes they do.

If you're born again, the fruit of the spirit are a part of your new nature. They're your natural "supernatural" disposition!

When you made Jesus the Lord of your life, you became "a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17). Your spirit was reborn in the image of your Heavenly Father. You were made a partaker of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

God is loving by nature. The Bible says, "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

God is joyful by nature. The Bible says, "In thy presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11).

God is good by nature. The Bible says, "The Lord is abundant in goodness" (Ex. 34:6).

God is peaceful by nature. The Bible calls Him "The God of peace" (Phil. 4:9).

God is patient by nature. Numbers 14:18 says, "The Lord is longsuffering (patient) and of great mercy."

God is gentle by nature. David said to Him, "Thy gentleness has made me great" (Ps. 18:35).

God is faithful by nature. Psalm 119:90 says, "Thy faithfulness is unto all generations."

God is meek by nature. Jesus, who is exactly like the Father, said, "I am meek" (Matt. 11:29).

We know God is temperate by nature because if He were not temperate, none of us would be here anymore!

The reason I went through the whole list of the fruit is because I wanted to impress firmly on your mind that they are all attributes of God. And since you've been born again in His image, they are also your attributes! Because God is love, you are love. Because God is patient, you are patient. Because all the fruit of the spirit are His by nature, they are yours too! You are born of God!

How to Win the Battle
In light of that fact, you may now be wondering why believers so often act like they do. If they are loving by nature, why do they sometimes act like the meanest thing on two legs?

It's because, for the most part, they haven't cultivated the new nature. They haven't learned to allow what's on the inside of them flow to the outside. They haven't learned to yield to the fruit of the spirit.

Instead, they continue to yield to fleshly habits they've developed over the years. They give into the devil's badgering, doing what their old sin-trained body wants to do instead of what the new man (or what 1 Peter 3:4 calls "the hidden man of the heart") wants to do.

When we decide to obey the desires and promptings of our reborn spirit, our flesh starts to fight us.

The way to keep from losing that battle and giving in to the flesh is found in Galatians 5:16. It says, "Walk and live habitually in the spirit, responsive to and controlled and guided by the spirit; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh."

Many times people do just the reverse. They work and struggle trying to overcome the flesh, thinking if they can just quit acting ugly...if they can just stop smoking...if they can just get over their depression, they'll be able to walk in the spirit. But it just doesn't work like that.

Maintain the Fellowship
Sometimes when I tell people that walking in the spirit is the secret to having the fruit in your life; people think I'm telling them to do something mysterious and difficult. But actually, walking in the spirit is quite simple. You do it by putting God first place in your life. You do it by maintaining fellowship with Him through His Word and through prayer.

Reading, studying and listening to the Word of God is vital to walking in the spirit. Fellowship with God through His Word opens the door to your heart so the fruit of the spirit can flow out of it.

The opposite is also true. If you spend your time feeding on soap operas, romance novels and the 6 o'clock news, your flesh will grow stronger and your spirit will weaken. And though you'll still have the inner desire to be loving and kind, the flesh will bully you into acting like the devil!

If you specifically want to strengthen your spirit in the area of one particular fruit of the spirit, one of the wisest things you can do is feed on what the Word has to say about that particular fruit. If you've been running short of joy lately, for example, make it a point each day to read and meditate on what the Bible has to say about joy and rejoicing. Build up your spirit in that particular area.

Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32). Continuing in the Word will make you free from the bondages of the flesh so the fruit of the spirit can flow!

Contrary to what many people seem to think, you cannot live from Sunday to Sunday. You can't fellowship with the Lord once a week at church, ignore Him the rest of the time and still have the new man on the inside be the dominant part of you. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered" (John 15:6).

The word wither means, "to shrivel, to lose or cause to lose energy, force or freshness". That's a vivid picture of what happens to us when we aren't living in vital contact with the Lord. We still belong to Him. We still have His life within us, but His energy is not flowing through us so we can't produce anything.

We lose our capacity for spiritual action. We may know what to do, but we find ourselves lacking the power to do it. We haven't the strength to bear fruit!

Make the Choice
On the other hand, when you do abide in the Vine, you are certain to bear fruit. In fact, it is inevitable! The power of the Holy Spirit flowing through you will just naturally bring forth that which God has placed within you. And you will begin to act like the loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle, good, faithful, meek and self-controlled person you really are!

Personally, I've learned to start every day by taking on the right heart attitude. As I begin my day in prayer, I say, "Father, I make the decision right now that I'm going to yield to the fruit of the spirit today." Then I do everything I can to act on that decision all day long.

I urge you to do the same. It won't always be easy...but it will always be worth the effort because when the fruit of the spirit is flowing in your life, you'll be walking in the power of God. You'll be living like the overcomer you were born again to be!

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries


Author Biography

Gloria Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
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