What Does A Spirit Filled Christian Look Like?

The power of the Holy Spirit is manifested in a believer’s life through two channels, the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. The thing that sets the fruit of the Spirit apart is that the fruit is the standard by which our walk with God can be measured. It is much easier to exercise a gift or talent from God than to walk in the Spirit.Jesus had a great deal to say about people who substituted gifts for fruits: “Beware of the False prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves... So then, you will know them by their FRUITS. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:15-23)

Jesus was warning the people of His day to look carefully at what men would be doing in the Name of Jesus, and do not be easily impressed. Instead check their fruits. Giftedness does not determine greatness in God’s book. Jesus said “you will know them by their fruit,” not by their anointing, or by miracles they perform, nor by revelation knowledge they claim to have, which are sometimes used as “crowd pleasers” to make men seem more Godly than others.

The real indicator of what kind of Christian is the evidence of our dependency on and sensitivity to the prompting of the Spirit. Fruit is a public testimony to a believer’s sensitivity to and dependency on the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that Spirit of God dwells in you? The Holy Spirit lives inside the believer. He makes us His home and God is not inhabiting His believers just to watch them struggle to produce fruit. The vine is Christ, believers are the branches, and the Holy Spirit is the sap that runs from the vine into the branch. The branch lives, grows, and BEARS FRUIT not by struggles and effort, but simply by abiding. (John 15:1-5) In these scriptures Christ clearly states that He expects His followers to bear fruit, not produce it. The amount of fruit we bear correlates with how apparent it is to others the good deeds that overflow from our character. (John 5:8 & Matt. 5:16) So if you bear the kind of fruit Jesus is talking about, it will draw others to our way of believing and create a regular harvest. The “Good News” is that Jesus tells us that it is impossible for believers to do anything apart from Him. Believers struggle like they do because they attempt the impossible, no one can live the Christian life apart from Christ with the consistency necessary to accomplish what God has called us to do.

The fruit of the Spirit is LOVE (for those who do not love in return), JOY (in the midst of painful circumstances), PEACE (when something you were counting on doesn’t come through), PATIENCE (when things aren’t going fast enough for you), KINDNESS (toward those who treat you unkindly), GOODNESS (toward those who have been intentionally insensitive to you), FAITHFULNESS (when friends have proved unfaithful), GENTLENESS (toward those who have handled you roughly) and SELF-CONTROL (in the midst of intense temptation).

Remember, unsaved people can demonstrate patience or kindness, and just about everyone exercises self-control at some level. So just because a person is patient doesn’t mean he or she is walking in the Spirit, and the same goes for the other eight qualities. The fruit is not something you produce, it’s something that takes you by surprise as the Holy Spirit produces it through you.