The Fruit of the Spirit
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the fruit of the Spirit.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Fruit of the Spirit
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, ” Galatians, Chapter 5, Verses 22 and 23.
Brothers and sisters, in today’s broadcast we explore the deeper meanings of the fruit of the Spirit. We shall show how these fruit of the Spirit are perceived on absolute, infinite, and eternal levels. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. Even though they are separate personalities, so perfect are they in carrying out the divine purpose, and so absolutely identified with each other, they ignore time and space and are indivisible. They are one. Never will we be able to distinguish the three personalities of the Godhead in our human minds. But in spite of this fact, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have separate functions, though these functions always appear in the human mind as one.
Always remember that the Father originates. He is the Thought God. The Son expresses. He is the Word God. The Spirit is the Executor. He is the Act of God. Thus we have the Thought which is expressed in the Word, and executed in the Act. The Son is the personal revelation of the Father while the Spirit is the personal revelation of the Father-Son. In viewing the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, we should remember that even though they are carried out in the Spirit, they do not originate with the Spirit. The Father is the source of all.
The fruit of love, faith, and goodness originate with the Father. The Father is the source of these concepts of spiritual value. This is the power of the Father, the driving dynamo, the essence of the spiritual drive. The drive of love gives rise to the spiritual universe of truth, beauty, and goodness.
Truth is divine reality. It is the relationship between the Father and the Son, the relationship between the Father-Son and the Spirit. Stated another way, the Son faithfully and truthfully expresses the Thought of the Father while the Spirit faithfully and truthfully carries out their joint plan.
When we, the sons and daughters of the Father perceive this spirit plan, admittedly a tiny part, we perceive divine truth. The beauty of the Spirit consists in the absolute unity of the Father, and the Son whom he represents. As the Spirit executes the infinite and eternal spirit plan of the Father-Son in absolute harmony, unifying all contrasts absolutely, we who view snatches of this awesome spectacle perceive spirit beauty.
This is in contrast to the ugliness of disharmony perceived by the unspiritualized mind. Goodness is the quality that reflects the faithfulness and truthfulness that the Son reflects the Father's Thought. The Son does not alter the Thought of the Father as He expresses it, and the Spirit executes the Father-Son plan perfectly. The Spirit does not alter it in the least.
There is no imperfection in the Spirit's performance. In a progressive spiritual universe, even in a time-space universe with its delays and handicaps, wrong thinking and wrongdoing can not survive. A delay does not mean that a given event will not occur, neither does a handicap means that an obstacle will not be overcome. The Spirit is gradually imposing the Father's reality as expressed in His Son in the time-space universe. Goodness does overcome all evil.
Faith is that quality of assurance that the Father possesses in His certainty that the Son is the absolute expression of His thought. There is no doubt about this transaction. This quality is also shared by the Son that the Spirit absolutely carries out the divine plan.
The next three fruit of the Spirit are the character traits expressed in the Son, and manifested in the Spirit. They are gentleness, meekness, and temperance. The character reactions of expressing love, faith, and goodness are gentleness, meekness, and temperance. These three traits unify to form a righteous character.
Gentleness refers to tenderness, a soft heartedness that is the result of being saturated with love. The Son is so absolutely and infinitely filled with the consciousness of the Father's concern and watch care, with the Father's endless and infinite supply of spirit and truth sustenance that it creates a tender hearted and gentle character. There is something transforming about being conscious that someone exists only for your welfare. Such a consciousness inspires us to want to do the same, to live our lives unselfishly for the welfare of others.
Meekness refers to a humility, a character trait that appears in response to the faith that the Father has in His Son. As the Son is conscious of the awesome responsibility, and privilege of being the expression of the Father who is so limitless in magnitude and scope, and even though the Son shares this infinity and eternity, the largeness of it which he is apart creates a consciousness of humility that a small child display in the presence of his father. Finally there is temperance.
Temperance is a character response to the Father's goodness. This tendency to love, practice patience, show mercy, and bestow forgiveness has a certain flavor of balance. Love and patience are complimentary. In the Son these qualities are eternally balanced. Temperance is a character reflection of this relationship.
The final three fruit of the Spirit which are the results of having a righteous character are joy, peace, and long suffering. As the Son expresses the Thought of the Father, and manifests the resultant character traits in the Spirit, the Spirit experiences joy, peace, and long suffering. The joy is the result of consciously realizing the success in carrying out the Father-Son plan. Even we perceive joy when we successfully completes an undertaking of our own choosing. The Spirit is absolutely successful in carrying out the divine plan, therefore he is absolutely joyful. Nothing can stand before the drive of the Spirit.
Peace is the conscious realization of the Spirit that He absolutely, eternally, and infinitely carries out all the mandates of the Father-Son plan. Long suffering is the quality that the Spirit displays in the time-space universe. Here the Spirit suffers many delays and handicaps, but is absolutely confident of His some time victory in space. There is no limit to the amount of time he is willing to wait for the unfolding of the divine potentials concealed in space and actualized in time. There is no limit to the handicaps that he is willing to overcome in the prosecution of the Father-Son plan. He absolutely knows that what exists in eternity will at some time exist in space.
This concludes today's message on understanding a deeper meaning of the fruit of the Spirit. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
The Fruit of the Spirit
