Tag: fruit of the Spirit

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The Joy of the Lord is your Strength

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A thief is only there to steal, kill and destroy.. John 10:10 MSG.

The past couple of weeks have been challenging with the enemy unleashing an attack on my mind. All kinds of arrows shot at my soul aimed at crippling me by sowing seeds of offense and discouragement. ‘Don’t you see you are not appreciated?’.’Nobody cares, even if you kill yourself trying…’ The odds are against you..’ I noticed myself becoming overtly sensitive to every look, comment and actions of people around me. As unbelievable as it sounds a heavy weight was beginning to hover around me. I could feel the weight and somehow I just was not ready to fight it. As if to add insult to injury, I was involved in a car accident and I crashed my beloved vehicle. I was at fault, my licence and Insurance cost will be rising…. Let me spare you the long details…

I was turning down invitations and opportunities to be with people and I just did not realise the effect of what I was going through until my wife said to me ‘you are withdrawing yourself from people and you’re no longer the blessing you used to be’.

It suddenly dawned on me – this is another of the devil’s typical and tactical style of attack against the believer, to shut me in and block the flow of the nature and es

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sence of God through me.  The enemy wants to rob me of my joy and stop me from being my real self. ‘He wants you to cease being the real you’.  I wondered, could this be what is popularly referred to as depression?

I need to share this, if only it will help someone from falling into the same trap of the enemy.

One thing I know for sure the enemy comes after your joy. He bombards you with all kinds of reasons to stifle your joy from bubbling forth from within your spirit, if he is able to succeed, then he has robbed you of your strength. That exuberant flow of joy, that is divine; it is the key to the victorious and triumphant life of the believer.

Joy is different from happiness.

Happiness is largely dependent on circumstances and events around you. You may be happy for a moment if your favourite team wins the football game or you made some extra bucks from some business deals. You may be happy if you got a raise at your place of work or something good happens to you. It is great to be happy and everyone wants to be. However, feelings of happiness are temporary. Let something negative happen the next moment and you quickly forget you were happy just a moment ago. Happiness depends on happenings.

Joy on the other hand is supernatural. It is a fruit if the Spirit. Galatians 5:22. It is part of the evidence that the Spirit of God resides in your human spirit. ‘….Out of his heart shall flows rivers of living waters John7:38’. Joy is part of that divine flow.

‘The joy of the Lord is your strength’ Nehemiah 8:10.

We need to understand how important joy is to the believer. Joy is also a weapon for battle, you need strength to fight. We are admonished to fight the good fight of faith. When the enemy robs you of your joy or the manifestation of it, he weakens you and robs you of the will to fight.

Joy is a key resource in your day to day life. Joy emanates from the core of your spirit, when the darkness of negative circumstances closes in; joy is meant to be the glow that illuminates your being keeping you going.

Isaiah 12:3 says:

3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

You need strength to draw water from a well. Joy provides that inner strength needed to draw out your blessings in God. Begin to access your wells of blessing, healing, favour, prosperity and all the other advantages promised in God’s salvation package with joy providing you the strength.

Why did Paul give a candid instruction in Philippians 4:4-7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

How often did Paul say to Rejoice? Always!

It takes a conscious effort to leave the gates open and allow that flow of exuberance from within. Even in the face of trials and troubles, Paul admonishes us to count it all joy.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds.. (James 1:2)

We should never allow the enemy rob us of our joy in spite of the situation.

While the devil cannot destroy the source of your joy, he tries to rob you of the manifestation and effect of that fruit in your life. He battles and wages war in your mind to dampen your spirit where joy flows from. A free mind and a right attitude is needed to manifest joy. Joy emanates from the spirit but it needs the cooperation of the mind to come to full manifestation. ‘Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.’ Out of it are the issues of life.

Paul did not only advice us to rejoice always, he tells us the secret: It’s what you allow rest in your mind, what you are focusing on:

Paul admonished that we strain our thoughts through several sieves:

Philippians 4: 8-9

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

For those couple of days I was the target of the enemy, I was not careful of the kinds of thoughts I allowed thrive in my mind. I believed the lies of the enemy and wallowed in self pity and I can assure you that is the shortest route to depression.

God wants us to live in victory and blessings, a life that is exuberant and energetic, a life that is contagious, full of praise and worship. When we focus on God and allow his nature flow through us, others will recognise this life force in us and they will be drawn towards us and the Christ in us – the hope of Glory. Col.1:27.

Rejoice.

Laolu Oyeyemi.

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Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. – Galatians 5:13-26

I have been studying on the subject of the Holy Spirit in recent weeks and lately came to the aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. I have come to realize that it is all about the Holy Spirit bringing His nature and character into our lives as believers, affecting our way of life, our day-to-day walk and changing our personality into a semblance of God’s character.

To be honest with you, there is no way we can exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our natural selves. We cannot live like God prescribed as natural human beings.  Our flesh, the sinful – ‘Adamic’-  nature poses the greatest threat to our being true children of God. Galatians 5:17 above says ‘the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh…’

And that is our weak spot, the point of failure for many Christians, right there. Many believers live their lives in the power of the flesh and not in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are largely carnal otherwise flesh ruled.

The fruit of the Spirit is the reflection of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but for this to be a reality, we need to make a switch in our way of living to the Spirit controlled mode and stay in that mode on a consistent basis. Check out the fruit of the Spirit and constituent attributes; Love, Joy, Peace, Long-Suffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.

Let us take a closer look at love – which is the chief character; The Spirit inspired kind of love is not talking about ‘loving’ someone who has been nice to us, or the mere giving of gifts to close friends or other obviously common and convenient shows – although there is nothing wrong in doing these.

The love of God is supernatural. It is popularly referred to as Agape in the Greek language. It defies definition, it goes beyond human comprehension, this is exemplified by dying for the unlovable and unworthy. It is the character of God that drove Jesus to leave His place in Heaven. He took on the body of a man, lived and died for the service of mankind. The real love of God can only be exhibited by the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was there to help Jesus all the way. Jesus could not do without the partnership of the Holy Spirit. Human beings are way too selfish to exhibit the Agape love of God on their own. We need to die to self and embrace the ways and leading of the Spirit of God for us to be the true light he has called us to be.

The Christian witness will not be effective when we make our efforts in the flesh. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood and the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal.   Are we doing better than the world? Do we love differently than the unbelievers?

We need a switch. We need to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to birth His true nature in us. We need to embrace the word of God and receive a revelation of the mind of God from the Holy Spirit. We need to yield ourselves to his promptings and direction and we will see the difference the Light of God shining through us can produce.

25 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. (Gal. 5:25. Message Translation)

Shallom!

‘Laolu Oyeyemi