Daily Bread - APR/07/07
Romans 6:22 - But now having been set free from sin, and being servants to God, you now have your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life.
Fruits are the expressions of one's conduct and manner of life. When we were the servants of sin our fruits were the shameful behaviors of iniquity. Now that we are the servants of God our behavior glorifies God. The fruit of holiness is in fact the same as the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, enduring patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23).
These are the evidences that our members are yielded to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who is leading and guiding us into all truth produces those things which pertain unto holiness as we voluntarily yield ourselves to His influence (John 16:13; Romans 6:13; 2 Peter 1:3). He is our teacher who has come to show us how to function in the nature of God (1 John 3:24; Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:29; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Timothy 3:17). If we will yield ourselves to Him then we are baptized in His influence (Ephesians 5:18; Romans 6:16, 19; Galatians 5:25). We are not able to bear these fruits of holiness unless we are willing to dwell in Jesus.
This life of the Spirit demands that we dwell in Jesus as a branch dwells in a vine; for without Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5; Romans 7:4; Philippians 1:11). The fruit that was in our lives before we were made a new creation were the fruits of death and of sin (Romans 7:5). But now we have the fruit of the Spirit of life which is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth (Ephesians 5:9). It is essential to recognize that these fruits of holiness are in our lives as an act of submission and obedience to God. When we recognize that we are coming under the influence of unholy emotions we must submit ourselves to God and bring it to an end. For example: the contrast between the fruit of sorrow and the fruit of joy is easy to discern. When we find our members taken over by the cares and concerns of the world and sorrow begins to dominate us we must recognize that we are not yielding ourselves to the Spirit of God. At the very moment that we recognize this we must choose to dwell in Jesus by turning to Him as our Savior and Lord. As we look unto the One who has come to provide for us, who is the author and finisher of our faith, He comes and rescues us. As we yield our members to God, the joy of the Lord begins to spring up and flow out of us as rivers of living water.
Blessings,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
abidingplace.org
About Me
- Carol L
- San Diego area, California, United States
- I started this blog back in 2005, but in 2006 began dedicating it solely for the purpose of posting email messages called, Daily Bread, sent out Monday through Saturday by my pastor, Mark Spitsbergen. These daily emails contain fresh revelation that Mark gets from the Word of God by the Holy Spirit for that day for the church that God has called him to pastor, Abiding Place. 1 Peter 4:11 says, "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God gives that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6), and He says, "The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life." (John 6:63). For the Word of God is quick (alive), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
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