The Fruit of the Spirit | Alive In The Spirit
by Daniel Burton
At the outset of this series roughly 30 weeks ago, we sought out to discover what the evidence of a Spirit-filled life looked like. Throughout preparing for the loss,my, the word studies, commentaries, and various other readings, I found myself being routinely challenged by the meaning and implications of the Fruit of the Spirit. It struck me how utterly counter-intuitive expressing the Holy Spirit is for our human, fleshly instincts. Each part of the fruit requires each person to put to death the flesh and come alive through the Spirit within us. When seeking to allow the fullness of God’s presence to flow through being, the self must submit to what God does. The flesh and the Spirit stand in stark contradiction to one another. Where some seek the gifts of the Spirit (although this is noble and good) they do so to prop themselves up as the pinnacle of Spiritual growth. This misses the point of the Holy Spirit and the true Fruit of the Holy Spirit, which empties us of ourselves and fills us to the point of overflowing.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Crucifying the Flesh
The whole of Galatians 5 speaks to the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Our flesh desires things that run counter to the Holy Spirit. While some throughout history have taken this to mean that we should chastise our flesh. The image of the monks whipping and punishing their flesh comes best describes this practice that we must punish our flesh for its desires. 
Yet, this overlooks some of the fundamental concepts of the Gospel. God redeems the flesh and its desires through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit within us. As the Spirit takes residence within us, we crucify the flesh with it’s passions and desires but come alive in the newness as God, with the Fruit of the Spirit serving as the testimony of the Gospel to the world.
Even for dedicated Christians, our testimony can sometimes reflect more our past sin instead of the redemption and resurrection. People have given long testimonies where they recount every last aspect of their past sin only to describe the work of God as more of a passing thought. While we think this displays the depth of God’s work, instead it only glorifies the sin of the past. The miracle of the Spirit’s work in the lives of people involves making the dead become alive! This should dominate our account of the God’s work within out life. As we crucify our flesh, the focus and testimony of our lives declares the Gospel that “Jesus Saves!” down to the core of our being and the Fruit of the Spirit hold a larger role in our life. We express the Fruit of the Spirit everything we do as a result of the presence of the Holy Spirit working within us. Does the practice of your faith call more attention to you or the God who rescues us from the depths of our depravity at great cost to Himself?
Keeping In Step With The Spirit
Thus, as the Spirit makes us alive in Him, we keep in step with the Spirit. Keeping in step involves and aspect of following where the Spirit leads. Everyone who has sought to do this understands how scary this process comes off. God doesn’t call us according to our flesh, after all we have put the flesh to death, but according to the Spirit who works inside of us. 
The Spirit takes audacious leaps and bounds into places that goes beyond where we feel we are able. Furthermore, it rejects the desires of the flesh for the fullness of the Holy Spirit within us. Keeping in step with the Spirit allows the Holy Spirit to conquer the sins and temptations that we face on our daily basis but gives the Spirit permission to work within us as He conquers temptation, sin, and death. We do not dictate the steps Holy Spirit but allows the Holy Spirit to step first as He plows our path for us. We merely follow where He leads us, trusting that our place is secured in eternity with Him.
When we keep in step with the Spirit we can walk in the confidence that God has paved the path that we are to go long before we got there. God does not call us to places He has no presence in, nor does He call us to do do things He cannot do. The calling of God will be a stretch for us to accomplish (and in some cases an impossibility) but it will never be an impossibility for God. Through the miracle of God and the transformative work inside of us, God will receive glory. Therefore, we can have confidence in keeping in step with the Spirit. God is sovereign able to do all things as God steps first. However scary the call of God may be, it will be accomplished by the risen Lord. When the Spirit calls do you drag your feet or eagerly strive to chase after the presence of God no matter where he leads or calls?
For more in this series, check out The Fruit of the Spirit
