Embark on a transformative quest with us as we uncover the essence of the Fruit of the Spirit and its profound impact on our daily existence. Imagine each virtue as a muscle in your spiritual fitness routine, essential for fortifying your soul's resilience and aligning your life with the divine. Our discourse traverses the metaphorical orchard of faith, where the seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control blossom into actions that resonate with God's blueprint for humanity. With heartfelt appreciation, I invite you to glean insight from our vibrant discussion, for your contributions breathe life into this path of biblical wisdom we tread together.
Venture deeper into the heart's orchard where we reveal how the cultivation of these spiritual fruits enables us to transcend our inherent sinful nature. We examine the timeless parables of Jesus, unlocking their relevance in our own lives, and emphasizing the significance of a heart rich in virtue. As we navigate the complex terrain of maintaining holiness post-reception of the Holy Ghost, we uncover the true meaning of an abundant life beyond material riches. With each spiritual step taken, we're reminded of the continuous journey toward Christ-like transformation, a path we explore with gratitude for your fellowship and the shared desire to spread the love and teachings of Jesus.
Embark on a transformative quest with us as we uncover the essence of the Fruit of the Spirit and its profound impact on our daily existence. Imagine each virtue as a muscle in your spiritual fitness routine, essential for fortifying your soul's resilience and aligning your life with the divine. Our discourse traverses the metaphorical orchard of faith, where the seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control blossom into actions that resonate with God's blueprint for humanity. With heartfelt appreciation, I invite you to glean insight from our vibrant discussion, for your contributions breathe life into this path of biblical wisdom we tread together.
Venture deeper into the heart's orchard where we reveal how the cultivation of these spiritual fruits enables us to transcend our inherent sinful nature. We examine the timeless parables of Jesus, unlocking their relevance in our own lives, and emphasizing the significance of a heart rich in virtue. As we navigate the complex terrain of maintaining holiness post-reception of the Holy Ghost, we uncover the true meaning of an abundant life beyond material riches. With each spiritual step taken, we're reminded of the continuous journey toward Christ-like transformation, a path we explore with gratitude for your fellowship and the shared desire to spread the love and teachings of Jesus.
Speaker 1:
Everybody and welcome to today's episode of walk with me. I am your host, jj is so wonderful to see Each and every one of you, or here in view, each and every one of you. I'm telling you guys, I really appreciate the questions and the comments that you guys are sending to the Inbox, which is walk with me at Bible study at gmailcom. Walk with me Bible study at gmailcom. I really appreciate the questions. The feedback from last week's show was amazing. Thank you each and every one of you. Thank you for those who are liking and sharing it to other people, recommending the podcast. Thank you for those who are listening on all the platforms. I heart Spotify. I can't even remember all the the platforms. I don't want to Name some or forget others and everyone's like oh well, this, this platform must not be important. I do know us on Apple. This guy has been very good with good to us as far as spreading the podcast. So I thank each and every one of you who is listening. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I. It's not about JJ, please understand. It's not about JJ, just about the word God and applying it Correctly In our lives, and I know that we have a lot and and, believe it or not, outside of this podcast, I get into a lot of spiritual discussions or biblical discussions, and I'm not trying to say that and and we'll get to you. Sponsors, matter of fact, let me just go and do that now, for I get too far for here, too far field. Thank you so much for the sponsors. True bars Squisite creations is each and every one of you who donate and help make the studio. You know I we will probably be doing more, maybe even more episodes. This because this is really is getting to be Wonderful journey.
Speaker 1:
Here bit this and, like I was saying earlier, we get into a lot of back and forth and biblical things and sometimes we Sometimes we debate about things that are not in the Bible and sometimes, which I don't understand, when sometimes we debate about things that are in the Bible, which again, I don't understand. Neither one of us wrote the Bible, so we not allowed to add to it or take away from it. If the Bible is what it is and it says what it says, it doesn't really matter if I like it or not, or you like it or not, or it's. It's just what it is, okay. So please understand as we go through. I'm not. They're gonna be some things that I, I, that comes across these airwaves that may kind of rub you the wrong way Because it wrote me the wrong way. We call that conviction. I know the world called it being offended nowadays, but it's really called conviction and you should probably Search yourself the same way I search myself, and that's just us being honest here, and before we get into today's lesson, we always have a saying here and walk with me. It's you Read a Versa 2 above, a Versa 2 below when we talk about a particular scripture.
Speaker 1:
Why? Because context is key. The Bible is not. Well, let me start. Let me back up. The Bible is organized into chapters and verses only because it makes it easier for us to reference it. So, when we want to talk about a particular subject in the Bible, instead of saying everybody turned to page 837 and everybody ended up on a different page because the Bibles are different sizes, we end up saying, hey, go to Matthew, chapter 7, verse 1, and then everybody could find it just makes it easier to reference.
Speaker 1:
That, being said, is the reason why we read a Versa 2 above or the Versa 2 below, or preferably the whole chapter, because the context of which a particular line is said really paints the picture behind what is said, and I'm spending a lot of time on this today because we get into a lot of. Well, the Bible says this right here, but what is this? What was the Bible saying right before that or right after that? So what you're saying is not making any sense, okay, so today we are going to pick up with our journey through the Bible and, like I said, if you have questions, feel free, and if your question is very involved or something and I probably will just turn into an episode because a lot of people have a lot of questions that are similar or also, if I'm getting a lot of the same questions or a lot of the same comment on a particular episode, we'll make a show about it. No problem, this podcast is not about JJ, it's about you guys, and thank you so much.
Speaker 1:
So the last time we left off, we were talking about the fruit of the Spirit and we were talking about why it was important to have the fruit of the Spirit or what it actually was, and we'll go ahead and continue that where we were. We left off Because it's a reason why the fruit of the Spirit is important and I know we kind of make a big deal of it or make it to seem like, hey, I'm super spiritual because I've got these fruits of the Spirit and we have to make it. You have to make it like it's a big deal, but it is a big deal, but not in the way that some people make it to seem. See, the fruit of the Spirit are. It covers a few things. It covers you having abundant life. It covers what, what God wants to accomplish for us, and it helps us guide us towards a more Christian life.
Speaker 1:
For example, if, if you want to be more fit, you go to the gym, and the fruit of you going to the gym and lifting weights is that you are, your body is more toned and and you have more muscles. Now I want to stress that I did not say you will be more healthy, but you will be healthier Because you can do things the wrong way, and we see bodybuilders die in their 40s all the time Because they do things the wrong way. They look good on the outside, they can sure move a lot of weight, but then all of a sudden we notice that they're taking steroids and their bodies collapse from the early living for God is kind of the same way. You got to do it the right way and when you do it the right way, certain things become evident to other people, even people who aren't living for God, because they see that something's different about you. Okay, so one of the things of living for God and having the fruit of the spirit is that you will have an abundant life. Things that are inside will tend to come out of you, and Jesus spoke about it. And we talk about a man's heart In Luke, chapter 6, 43 to 45,.
Speaker 1:
Jesus loves to speak in parables, and these things about speaking in parables, it's not about being mysterious, it's about drawing a picture so that everybody could see it, even if you don't understand it at first. And here he does this thing. He says For a good tree, bring forth, not corrupt fruit. So a good tree doesn't bring forth rotten fruit. Neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. The tree is old and it's not good. It doesn't bring forth good fruit, for every tree is known by its own fruit. Four of thorns men do not gather figs, nor if a bramble bush gather they grapes. For a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bring forth that which is good and an evil man. Out of the evil treasure of his heart, bring forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Now, that last part you probably have heard 246,000 times. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. But how often are we reading the previous two verses? This thing is not just evident at the time that we do the speaking. This thing actually shows up in our entire lives too. So we have to be very careful in what we are putting out.
Speaker 1:
Now, I understand that when you hear something like that, some people will want to put forth a good persona, a good sort of vision to other people, and what happens is the inner of them comes out when their guard is down, and this is where we use a lot of the term. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You will see some people who are claiming to be Christians, are claiming to be this way or that way, and then all of a sudden, in a moment of weakness, you will see something completely different. Now this doesn't just apply to people living for God. There are people who are out there that act really tough and really mean and really, and all of a sudden something will happen and you will see this little small sort of vulnerable gentle person kind of peek out and then it gets clamped down on. So please understand, this is not just a Christian condition, this is a human condition. The way you are on the inside will eventually show on the outside, alright.
Speaker 1:
So Proverbs 4 and 23 talks about it in a very succinct way. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Now, that doesn't really make a lot of sense until you break it down. If you keep bitterness out of you, out of your heart, you will tend to be less bitter to other people. If you keep deceit out of your heart, you will tend to be less deceitful to other people, and so forth and so on. So what is the aim, what is the reason, what is the purpose of having the Spirit inside of you? Well, one of the things that the Spirit will do is have a more of a targeted life as far as living for God. So is God's will to bring forth this fruit in the heart of his people.
Speaker 1:
In John 15 and 8 it says Herein is my Father, glorified that you bear much fruit. So you shall be my disciples. The perfect will of God is that you are going to be so abundant in your walk. And I'm not just talking about money, because a lot of people hear every time you say, oh, I'm abundant, oh I'm so successful, oh I'm so this, oh I'm so that. No, no, no, we're talking about things of the Spirit, in other words the inability, for example, to be easily angered, one of the things that I see in a lot of people, a lot of people that are claiming a certain way and then we were just talking about it. You know, you say something that other people will find offensive, then you go really flying off the handle because you're easily offended. That's not the fruit of the Spirit, so, but one of the biggest things that you will see when you apply the Spirit correctly and the way it will express itself, is how we overcome sinful nature.
Speaker 1:
Second Corinthians 1035 says though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. In other words, even though we are people, our enemy is not other people, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. Through what? Through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, canceing down imaginations and every high thing that exalted the self against the knowledge of God and bringing it to captivity Every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now, let me just pause there, because I was reading that scripture, I had this guy, had this memory of this guy coming to me and said well, god, just want you to imagine stuff, what and this is where it takes.
Speaker 1:
It takes a lot of study and taking the Bible out of the way it was organized, and understand that this is talking about a general idea. In other words, it's OK to imagine things. What you're not going to do with the spirit of Christ, I can. You're not going to imagine committing sin. You're not going to imagine murdering somebody, but you're going to imagine, you can imagine you're some prayer for somebody. So you can imagine, um, what you know, what you might think heaven is like, because the bible talks about it in very descriptive tones. So it it causes the mind to create a picture. So that means, if we can't imagine things in the bible causes you to sin, which would kind of create this galactic, paradoxic, um you know problem which would kill itself on this, on his face. So you want to make sure that you're using the word of god in the context that it is not sure why we keep going back to this today, but I guess that's going to be the topic of the day.
Speaker 1:
Context. Context context with understand that the fruit of the spirit will fight against evil imaginations will fight against evil sinful nature will fight against things that we know that are not right, and the spirit of god will also tell us what ain't right, because you could be under the assumption that something's right and then all of a sudden you get a check in the holy ghost and bam. Now you realize that maybe this ain't such a good idea and maybe I should be. I should pray to overcome this thing, which is a very difficult thing. It's not easy, it's not something you're going to pray one time.
Speaker 1:
Fruit think about it like this y'all, fruit is fruit takes a long time. We have, um, two fruit trees in our backyard. We planted those trees like three years ago. One is a star fruit tree which I get like maybe four, four star fruit off of it and in a mango tree or I think the entire time we've had that we may have gotten to you. Fruit does not automatically appear as soon as you plant a tree and and we remember we got these trees when they were like five or six years old, because we get up from a nursery. When you plant these trees, you got to take care of them. You got to water them, you got to prune them, you got to make sure they're right. And there is a season where the fruit comes in and sometimes, um, not like star fruit. The star fruit kind of makes fruit all year, which is so wonderful. But once you are done with the mango season, that's it. The tree has to recover for the next mango producing season.
Speaker 1:
And sometimes your spirit can be just this way.
Speaker 1:
You will be.
Speaker 1:
You are not generally producing fruit as soon as you get the holy ghost, and sometimes it doesn't. It's. It's not as easy as just sitting there and letting it grow. You have to work at it. You see, you know, saying walker, say it's not, don't get discouraged if you, if you pray through today and then tomorrow, you realize that you're doing a sin. These things, this is a a growing process. This is you are growing in christ and you are not. I don't care if you're 68 when you pray through you, in the eyes of god, once you pray through, you are a spiritual baby, which actually just makes it a little bit harder for you, because you've got to relearn an entirely new life and how you're gonna learn. That's what the holy spirit is for, that's what preaching is for, that's what going to church is for.
Speaker 1:
Now this sinful nature will oppose you at every turn, because just because you pray through it doesn't mean that your flesh ceases to exist. It doesn't mean that however many years you lived in the world cease to happen. I'm no. I've known people who have grown up living for god, grown up with the holy ghost, and still have to fight their flesh. As a matter of fact, theirs is worse because they have this thing where they don't know what they're fighting.
Speaker 1:
Now this christian, the christian generally, is going to have a dual nature. Another is two natures in one, which is the nature of god and then the nature of our flesh, and our job is almost 98 percent overcoming that sinful flesh, glacial 429. But as then, he that is born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit. Even so, it is now. Now, how do we do that? We have to constantly be in a spirit where we are quite willing to repent of something, because that's how we get forgiveness.
Speaker 1:
Now I'm not saying, you know, send a little bit every day. We got that light going around too and you know that's going to be another one of our, our biggest lies. The church ever accepted. No, send a little bit every day is not bible. Our job is to avoid sin, because that's what the spirit is there for, first john, one and nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Remember cleansing us from all unrighteousness, not leave a little bit behind hebrews 4, 15 to 16, for we have not an eyeprints which cannot be touched with the feeling of our primaries. In other words, let me stop right there.
Speaker 1:
Jesus knew when god manifests himself in the flesh. God was able to feel every single thing that we felt. God was able to experience every single thing that we experienced, every temptation, every sickness, every pain, everything that you and I could ever experience. God was able to experience it when he was in the flesh, but was in all points tempted, as we are yet without sin. And jesus even said be angry and said not. There were times when jesus got angry, but he didn't go out and chewed up a place, he rebuked people in the spirit of christ. In his spirit, he rebuked people with the word of god and I yeah, I get it. He was god manifesting the flesh. Remember now, this was our blueprint of how we should be striving to act. Be more christ, like we hear. It said a lot.
Speaker 1:
So what was Paul's advice? Let not sin, therefore, reign in your motor bodies that you should obey it and or the lust thereof. Neither yield to your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. What is all that mean? What is all that mean? In other words, sin does not have to control you.
Speaker 1:
Temptation is a serious thing, and the way the devil uses temptation, it makes it even worse, because the devil knows what you are tempted with. So, in other words, if you are a rich person, well, let me. Well, let's just go with that example. If you were a rich person, tempting you with money wouldn't make any sense because you got money. If you were hungry, I could tempt you with a Twinkie and you would be willing, depending on how hungry you are, to do just about anything to get that Twinkie, depending on how hungry you are. And same thing with all the temptation, whatever you like the most. If you like to spend time with the opposite sex, then you can be tempted that way too, but this is based on the things that you like. Now I'm not saying that you can live above the temptation. That's not what we're saying. That's not what the Bible says.
Speaker 1:
Remember he said in Hebrews we have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our affreemnities, but was all points tempted, but was all points tempted. He was tempted in everything, but yet overcame sin. Likewise, we can overcome sin too. We can live without sin in our lives. So and this we can go, we can touch on a lot of different things, like, for instance, jesus fasted for 40 days. Now, if a human, if a regular guy, man or woman don't eat for 40 days, the science tells us we are no longer alive. God was in that flesh. That flesh couldn't die until it was time. But when that 40 days had passed, that flesh was hungry, that body was hungry and the devil came and said hey, man, you know your God. You could turn these stones into bread, but Jesus did not fall for that temptation. He did not fall for that sin. He said we shall live by every word that precedes out of the mouth of God.
Speaker 1:
Now I'm not saying and you know sometimes, sometimes we sort of look at, you know, overcoming temptation as some sort of super spiritual, super duper, unattainable thing. That's not what we're saying. What we're saying is that this is what the spirit will help us do. We cannot do this of our own. There is no possible way for us to overcome sin, all sin, without the spirit of God within us. I know it sounds bad, but there is a cure for that. There is a cure.
Speaker 1:
And even still, the Bible talks about being able to, even after you, pray through and you get the Holy Ghost. You repent in your sins, you baptize in Jesus' name, you get the Holy Ghost. Then, all of a sudden, something happens and before you, before you know it, you've said or done something really sinful. That's a completely different scenario. Now you have a way. You can go back and repent of this thing that you did.
Speaker 1:
But the Bible talks about it recently, willfully. After we have the knowledge of the truth, after we have known of a sin, there will remain no more sacrifice for sin. That's why we must be careful about living above sin. All right Now, I know it was a pretty heavy episode about food and the spirit of living above sin, but the spirit of God also tells us, sort of guides our lives, as to what God wants us to do. But we have to be building an open to accepting what God wants us to do and next time we continue our journey, if we're not interrupted with any questions which, by the way, please send the questions, I love them we will be talking about holiness and journey through life and how to really become more like him, because this is all. This is what the focus is of the letters from X to June. Yes, we are still in that session section between acts in June, because Romans, the Corinthians, the Galatians, the Hebrew, all of these were churches that was written to in the book.
Speaker 1:
All right, revelation was a future thing and I know I'm kind of bringing a discussion into the podcast, which, yeah, we may do that, but please understand you, fellow workers, living for God is not always a. It's not always a oh my God. This is something I can do or this is something I can't do. Remember, the first thing we talked about was how abundant life is and what that really means is how well you're going to live as a Christian. That's what the abundance is. There's not money, not fame, just how happy your life is, how good your life is and whatever God will for your life is, and how everything turns out. And we will talk more about that, because there's no way we can fit that in a one episode, and I realized over time a little bit. I really do appreciate each and every one of you. Tell somebody you love them, tell somebody that Jesus loves them, and see you on the next one. Love you all, bye, bye.