Daily Devotional

Word of the Day

Fruit of the Move of God

John 15:16 says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." None of us sought after God, He sought us. While we were sinners, He loved us and died for us. We were loved when we were unlovely, so we love the unlovely. We are still unlovely but we've experienced the grace and mercy of God. In the midst of our evangelism there should be an appetite for the character of Christ and a renewal of intercessory prayer for the lost.

As the Spirit of God is moving in your life, do you have more joy? Are you aware of a supernatural peace and gentleness? Is there kindness and temperance that was never there before? Are you excited about souls but more impatient? The Lord needs to work some fruit in your life! We have a zeal for the lost but have no gentleness in the way we present the Gospel. We offend more people than we draw because of our mannerisms. We lack the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We will know if we're subordinating ourselves to His pruning when we see more of the fruit of the Spirit manifesting in our lives.

In Galatians 5:22 and 23 Paul says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." The fruit of the Spirit does not come from increased effort or personal discipline. The fruit comes from only one source, abiding in the vine. It is a conscious awareness of what the Apostle Paul said, "For me to live is Christ. It is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in me." The Spirit of God brings us into this abiding, a greater dependence, a greater awareness that God is working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. We can't take any credit for the fruit. The way to ruin a move of God is to start assuming that we are doing something good, it is because of our own holiness and efforts. God wants us conscious of our dependence on Him every moment of the day. There is a consciousness and awareness of our abiding in Him. This abiding is not only a residing and a continuing, but it is the awareness that without Him, we can do nothing. There will be an emptying of self, self-reliance and self-righteousness. There will be a greater appetite for the glory of God and for the fruit that brings that glory. There will be a desire for invisibility, wanting to take nothing from the glory of our God, being able to say, "Without Him I can do nothing."

As this fruit manifests, it will give the appetite to serve one another, to prefer others better than ourselves, to seek first the Kingdom and walk in humility. When people look at us they will say, "Behold how they love one another!"

We say, "Praise God, look what God has done!" He can do more! Many of us have built friendships on a natural plane and that's good. But those friendships will not stand in the day that's coming. God is moving in our midst to build a wall. He's building an army where two are better than one. He's building His church with living stones. He's strengthening His body of many members where each member edifies the others in love. He's preparing a bride for His soon coming. We need to embrace that preparation and realize there is more to be done because He is coming for a chaste virgin, a bride who has none of the world in her. We want to continue to speak into one another's life, to love one another, to edify one another, to bring reproof, rebuke, correction and instruction unto righteousness. It is a process.

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