The Supernatural Fruit of the Holy Spirit – Part 1 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Welcome friends to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in, and so glad to have you with us. We are teaching a brand new series beginning today on the Supernatural Fruit of the Holy Spirit. I have my son, Aaron, with us. This is a great teaching. I believe that every believer needs to understand it, and I believe as you understand it, you can walk in true Christian maturity and in victory. Blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you here today, and I’ve got my son, Aaron, and we’re sharing on the Supernatural Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Aaron did this teaching and it’s great. So, be encouraged today with the work.

 

  Amen. Well, we’re gonna start right in Galatians 5:22 and 23. This is where the Apostle Paul actually lists out the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And it says here in Galatians 5:22 and 23, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, “long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, “gentleness, self control, “against such, there is no law.” And I love calling these the supernatural fruit of the Holy Spirit because they really are supernatural.

 

  Amen.

 

  These fruit of the Spirit for the new creation in Christ, for everyone who believes in Jesus. If you have the spirit of Jesus on the inside of you, you actually have access to all of these fruit.

 

  Amen.

 

  And they should be manifest. It should be evident in your life. And you can actually choose to walk in the Spirit and you can choose to put on these things.

 

  Right, they’re already in you in Christ. If you are born of God, if you are a new creation in Christ, you know, the Bible says in Romans 8:9, “If you have not the spirit of Christ, you’re none of His.” So, if you’re born again, you have the exact same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead living on the inside of you. So, it’s not that you do not have the fruit of the Spirit. If you’re born again, you have the fruit of the Spirit on the inside of you, in your spirit. And as you renew your mind in the word of God and take authority over your body, you will walk in the spirit.

 

  And they all go together as well. So, it’s not normal for someone to say, “Well, I’m a peaceful person, but I’m not patient, “and I don’t have any self control” or “I can love, but I don’t have any joy.”

 

  Right.

 

  They actually all flow together that they’re, you know, they’re all part of the same tree of life that’s been placed on the inside of you. That tree of life being Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I love something that I heard you mention when you were preaching, it kind of inspired me to do a series on the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And you kind of broke down these nine fruit into three categories. So, the first three fruit, love, joy, and peace. You said these correlate to our relationship with God. And I think, yeah, definitely love, joy, and peace flow out of our relationship with God. You said the second three fruit: long suffering, kindness, goodness, correlate to our relationship with others. And these fruit come out when you’re just in your day to day walk with other people.

 

  Right.

 

  It might be your family, your coworkers, neighbors. These deal with our relationship with the others. And the last three: faithfulness, gentleness, and self control correlate to your relationship with yourself.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, you have a relationship with yourself. You are a spirit, you possess a soul, and you live in a body. So you are to possess your soul. That’s why David in the Psalms would say, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul.” He’s actually talking to himself.

 

  Right.

 

  He has a relationship with himself. He’s saying, “Why are you downcast?”

 

  Right.

 

  Why are you, what’s wrong with you? Rejoice in the Lord.

 

  Amen.

 

  And that’s why Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” And again, I say rejoice. He could say that talking about joy because most people say, “Well, how can you say “to rejoice all the time? “That’s impossible.” Well, joy comes out of your spirit.

 

  Right.

 

  And you have that access to that fruit all the time. So, when you believe on Jesus, something happens on the inside of you, something happens in your spirit,

 

  You already have the fruit of the Spirit. You’re not trying to get it.

 

  Mm hmm.

 

  You already have it in you. And the fact is, the Bible says there in Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the spirit “and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” It does not say, do not walk in the flesh, and you will walk in the spirit. Which is how a lot of people take it, but that’s not how it works. It’s like when you’re born again, you have the fruit of the Spirit in you and you really have no excuse. And as like you’re talking about, we have to possess our souls, and I know this is something you’ve taught a lot, Aaron, is in the Bible says, “In your patience, possess your soul.” So, when you live from the spirit realm, and he says later, I think it’s Galatians 5:25, “If we live in the Spirit, “let us also walk in the Spirit.” When you live from the spirit realm and let your spirit rule over your soul, let your soul be the servant and make your body be the slave, you will walk in the Spirit.

 

  And I love just talking about what we have in the Spirit, what’s been given to us. You know, in 2 Peter 1:3 and 4, it says, “As his divine power has given to us “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” So, I believe that all these fruit are things that pertain to life and godliness. They are part of the divine nature. It says, “Through the knowledge of Him “who called us by glory and virtue “by which have been given to us exceedingly great “and precious promises, “that through these you may be partakers “of the divine nature, “having escaped the corruption “that is in the world through lust.”

 

  Amen.

 

  So we’ve escaped the works of the flesh. You know, Paul lists actually the works of the flesh right before the fruit of the Spirit. And we’ve escaped that, we’ve escaped the corruption that’s in the world through lust.

 

  Yeah, I mean, when you’re talking about corruption, the Bible says in the gospel of Matthew, “Don’t lay up your treasures where moth “and rust does corrupt.” We’re in a world that’s been corrupted by sin. And when sin entered, death entered. She’s talking about this principle of death that’s in the world because of lust, or Adam’s transgression, lust of the flesh, lust of the pride of life. You know, that corrupted man’s original state in his relationship with God. So he says we escape the corruption that’s in the world through, you know, because of Adam’s transgression or because of lust, because we have received the divine nature. We have the nature of God. Every born again believer has the nature of God. Every born again believer already has the fruit of the Spirit. You don’t have a spiritual problem if you’re born again. You may have a mind problem, a soul problem. Your mind, will, and emotions, right? You may be having challenges in your body, but if you will let your spirit rule, you will walk in the spirit.

 

  And the fruit, to me, the fruit of the Spirit, that’s a mark of maturity.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, there’s also gifts of the spirit.

 

  Right.

 

  And gifts of the spirit are awesome, but just because people are prophetic and flow in different charismatic gifts, it doesn’t mean that they’re a mature believer. Like if they’re really flaky.

 

  Right.

 

  We’re to know people by their fruit.

 

  Right.

 

  Not by their gifts. And I think a lot of people are really attracted to gifts.

 

  Right.

 

  But don’t really understand the value of the fruit of the Spirit and people who’ve been just producing that type of fruit for decades and decades.

 

  In the Old Testament, the priests wore a garment, and at the bottom there was a pomegranate and a bell, a pomegranate and a bell. And it’s like a fruit and a gift, a fruit and a gift. And the fruit of the spirit, I agree with you 100%. The Bible actually says this in Colossians 3:14. He says, “Put on love, which is the bond of perfection,” or the bond of maturity, “and all of the fruit of the spirit flow forth from love.” God is love. And love is the first fruit that is named. So, if you walk in love and you let the love of God rule you, love is the bond of maturity. And we know people by their fruit. And I’ve seen some people that are very gifted in operating the gifts, and yet they’re quite flaky. Because they really haven’t matured. And gifts are exactly what they say, they’re gifts. It’s not because you’re mature.

 

  Yeah, and these fruit of the spirit, I like how you brought up, you know, they correlate to our relationship with God, our relationship with other people, and our relationship with ourself. And if you have a strong relationship with God, it’s gonna affect your relationship with other people and also your relationship with yourself.

 

  Right.

 

  As well. So, I think we could go ahead and dive into the first fruit of the Spirit, which is love. And really all the fruit can kind of tie into love.

 

  That’s right.

 

  You know, when in 1 Corinthians 13, when Paul defines love, we see that a lot of the other fruit are kind of summed up there in love. You know, in 1 Corinthians 13:4 8 it says, “Love suffers long and it is kindness.” It’s talking about long suffering.

 

  And kindness.

 

  Or patience and kindness. “Love does not envy. “Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.” Man, pride is, you know, that’s a big way that the devil goes after people and gets people off track, is with pride.

 

  You know, Aaron, Proverbs says that only by pride comes contention. So if you’re angry and mad all the time, and I could be preaching to myself. ‘Cause a lot of stuff in the world can make you mad. But only by pride comes contention. And if you get over your pride, you’re not gonna be contentious.

 

  And I love all these things. “Love does not behave rudely.”

 

  Right.

 

  You know, it’s actually, well mannered. I was actually kind of surprised when I, seven years ago, came and worked as a pastor. Just I was kind of surprised at the way some people approach leaders at this church, just like, “Why’d you do this?” Why’d you, like, just very rude. Like, “You need to meet me right now.” And I had just come from working on my doctorate in music and I would never come to a professor yelling at him saying, “You need to meet me right now. “You’re wrong.”

 

  Right.

 

  Yeah, I’d be very respectful and you know, Christians should be some of the most respectful people out there.

 

  Right.

 

  So, “Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, “it’s not provoked, thinks no evil.” That’s really powerful right there.

 

  You know, I like it in the amplified translation, I believe it says, “Love does not rejoice in evil, “but rejoices when right, in truth, prevail.”

 

  Yeah, verse six says, and I’m reading from the New King James that says, “Does not rejoice an iniquity but rejoices in the truth.”

 

  Right.

 

  “Bears all things, believes all things, “hopes all things, endures all things. “Love never fails. “But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. “Whether there are tongues they will cease. “Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” So it’s saying that love is the thing that’s gonna persist.

 

  Yeah, you know, in your reading there from 1 Corinthians 13, but in 1 Corinthians 12, the scripture talks about the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, different gifts, and operations of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 13, he says, at the end of 12, he says, “Covet earnestly the best gifts, “but yet I show you a more excellent way.” 1 Corinthians 13 says, “Though I do all these things, operating all these gifts, “if I have not love, its profits mean nothing.” In the first three verses it talks about that. And then 1 Corinthians 14 talks about instruction on the operation of the gifts in the church. 2 Timothy 1:7 said, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, “but of power, of love, and of sound mind.” If you look at that in 2 Timothy 1:7 where it says, “God gave us not a spirit of fear, “but of power, of love, and of sound mind,” power is talking about 1 Corinthians 12. Love is talking about 1 Corinthians 13, right? And a sound mind, how we operate in the gifts, 1 Corinthians 14. So, those three chapters of 1 Corinthians correlate with that 2 Timothy 1:7.

 

  And when I’ve really studied out, you know, 1 Corinthians 12 and the gifts in context, it’s talking about the body and how the body’s to work. And he’s really playing for unity. And there’s different gifts, there’s different motivations. You know, Romans 7.

 

  Right.

 

  But really all these different gifts, the charismatic gifts aren’t given to chop people off.

 

  No.

 

  They’re given to minister to other people and to minister God’s love to people.

 

  Right, and it tells us this a number of times in 1 Corinthians 14, let everything be done decently and in order and let everything be done to the edifying. It’s all the work together to build up the body. And so, when things aren’t done to the edifying or building up the whole body, we have to think about the whole body and not just ourselves.

 

  That’s really good. So yeah, let’s just, I mean, we’re talking about love here and just how a lot of things are summed up into love. But like I said, the fruit of the Spirit, this is coming from the Spirit of Jesus that is on the inside of us. And Jesus was really the full demonstration of God’s love.

 

  Right.

 

  For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. So we know that God is love, Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love. And I love what 1 John 4 says, I’ll read from verses seven through 13. It says, “Beloved, let us love one another “for love is of God. “And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. “He who does not love, does not know God for God is love. “And this the love of God was manifested toward us, “that God has sent His only begotten son into the world, “that we might live through Him. “And this is love. “Not that we loved God, but that He loved us “and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. “Beloved, if God so loved us, “we also ought to love one another. “No one has seen God at any time. “If we love one another, God abides in us “and His love has been perfected in us. “By this, we know that we abide in Him “and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit.”

 

  Again, love is the mark of maturity. We’re gonna have to take a break, but when we come back, we’re gonna talk about this and we’re gonna talk about how we have the love of God. You know, none of the other fruit of the Spirit. It says God is, but it does, the scripture does say God is love. And all of these fruit of the Spirit flow forth from the nature of God, which is love. So, we’ll come back and talk more about this after a very short break. Stay tuned. It’s gonna be great. We appreciate you. God bless you. Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve been enjoying watching this broadcast. My son, Aaron, taught this series on the Supernatural Fruit of the Holy Spirit here in church live. And it is fantastic teaching. In fact, I had one of my staff say that’s one of the best teaching that he’s ever done. So, you can get these live teachings from the church by accessing our website free at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  You helped single moms and orphan children in Congo, Africa.

 

  Right now we have 510 household, 775 are kids in school, we’re sponsoring every month and 450 we’re feeding every day.

 

  We support Julie. We helped her last year to build a new feeding center.

 

  Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’ve been talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Today, we’re talking about the first fruit of the Spirit, which is love. So Aaron, just go ahead with your teaching, praise God.

 

  Yeah, and we were sharing from 1 John 4 where it says, “God is love.” And I like that it says in this, “The love of God was manifested toward us, “that God has sent His only begotten son into the world.” You know, all these fruit need to be manifested.

 

  Right.

 

  They should be evident. And the Bible says you’ll know them by their fruit.

 

  Right.

 

  Sometimes, we have to get people to lead a certain ministry here, whether it be music or children’s ministry, television, and we need to hire someone and oftentimes we hire from within because we can observe people for a period of time and kind of see what their fruit is like.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, fruit, time reveals a lot of things.

 

  About a person.

 

  About a person. And you know, it takes time to really know someone and time to really see their fruit. A lot of people try to make judgements just by a word of knowledge or a discernment. But really to really know someone, it takes a period of time to see the fruit in their life.

 

  Right. And when love rules, it’s not about you. It’s about what’s best for the whole body. I recently got a request to fill out a reference for a person here that’s in the church. And I actually really like this person. I think they’d be a great fit. But one of the things this ministry asked, it was another ministry that was asking for a reference on a person here that attends our church, was will this person put the ministry’s needs, the ministry’s things above their own? And I can tell you with experience that this person will. I can tell you with the experience, some of the people that I’ve had worked for me in the past put their selves far above the ministry. And they’d say, “Well, no, I can’t do this. “You gotta hire somebody to help me do this.” And yet they would do it for their own self and their own ministry. They put their own things ahead of the things of God.

 

  And the word minister means to serve.

 

  Yeah.

 

  So, if it’s just what’s in it for me, if that’s the primary focus of someone’s heart, then you’re not gonna be, again, minister. And we’re all really called to be ministers in some capacity.

 

  You know, Jesus was the greatest minister. He’s also the greatest servant. Philippians 2:4 says, “Let every person “not just look on their own things, “but also on the things of the others.” And what that question is really asking is, are they a self serving person or are they putting God first? Are they putting others ahead of themselves? You know, the Bible says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Bible says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” And you can tell a lot about a person, like you say, by their fruit as you spend time with them. It’s not so much what they say, it’s what they do.

 

  And maybe you’re connected with someone in a relationship and it might be a business relationship, a friendship, and you’re kind of realizing some of the fruit isn’t really there and maybe you’re beating yourself up because like, man, some of these things, it takes time to get to know someone.

 

  Right.

 

  It takes time to see the fruit in their life. And you know, when I’m looking at people, especially to hire someone here at the church, I’m trying to look at their fruit over a long period of time.

 

  Right.

 

  Sometimes people maybe question, “Why’d you hire that person? “I have a bad feeling.” Well, you know them by their fruit.

 

  Right.

 

  So, anyways, some people just 

 

  That recently happened. We hired a person that’s been here in this church that’s been serving for well over a year. That everybody loves who serves with them. They got a great attitude. They really have a servant’s heart. They’re really humble. And somebody came and said, “Well, we don’t have a good feeling about ’em.” Well, we know them by their fruit. And since we’ve hired ’em, they’ve done a fantastic job. And really, we could tell, and other people that were working with them and serving with them in the ministry could tell. And the these people that are making judgements are not making judgements because they have no relationship with these people whatsoever. And yet they wanna make judgements about somebody they don’t even know. But we can tell by their fruit. Jesus said, “You’ll know them buy their fruit.” And you were talking about how we know people buy their fruit, but the scripture also said this, Jesus said this in John 13:35, “People will know that you’re my disciples “by your love for one another.” Love is the first fruit. And we’re not talking about love as an emotion. We’re talking about the nature of God, the fruit of love. Agape. And love does not seek its own. That’s the very first thing that 1 Corinthians 13 says about love. It’s not selfish, it’s not self seeking. It’s not looking out just for number one, but love thinks about what’s better for other people. You were talking about this in a relationship, this is so powerful. But the best advice I could give you if you’re not married and you’re seeking to get married, is find somebody that loves God more than they love you. Find somebody who’s a giver. And if they’re not a giver, if they don’t love God more than they love you, you don’t need to be in a relationship with them. In a marriage relationship.

 

  Yeah. I once heard the pastor from Gateway Church in Texas, Robert Morris, preaching about him raising his children and he has a daughter. And he said, “As a pastor, “if someone wants to date my daughter “and eventually marry her, “I’m gonna check this young man’s giving records. “And if he’s not a giver, if he’s not a tither.”

 

  Right.

 

  He’s not gonna get true riches. And he’s just being very practical.

 

  Man, I wouldn’t, if I had a daughter, I wouldn’t want them marrying a person who’s not a tither. I didn’t have a daughter, I just have three sons. But you know, one of the major things that I taught all of you guys, number one, you love God. Number two, you love your family. Number three, a practical trade. But in loving God, giving is part of that. And I taught all of you, the first thing that you do with your finances is you give a 10th to God. Now, Mom and I give like 30%, but we give the first 10th, then we try to save or invest the second 10th. Now that might be in a house payment, that might be in a savings account, that might be an investment account, in a retirement account, that might be in a good and profitable business. But we give the first 10%, save the next 10%, and then we live off 80%. Now, Mom and I right now, we give about 30%, but we’re still investing. And I teach people that. I teach that, that’s a Joseph principle. It works and it’ll work in your life. You can actually get it in my book on provision, “Releasing Supernatural Increase in Your Life.” And you can go to Amazon or you can go to our church website and get that book. It’s a great book on finances. And you know, those are things that I taught you and your brothers, all three of you. And you’re all in different areas of life. But you are all prospering because you all practice those principles. You give to God first, then you invest, and then you live off the rest. Praise God, and it works.

 

  And love, I love that It’s, I love that love is mentioned as the first fruit. You know, if other fruit’s not really being produced, maybe there’s not much joy, not much kindness. You know, if there’s other crop failures going on, faithfulness failure, sometimes people just need to go back to their love, understanding God’s love towards them.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, I love what Jesus said, and you know, revelation to the Ephesians church, you’re doing all these things, but I have this thing against you. You’ve left your first love.

 

  Right. They didn’t lose it, they left it.

 

  They left it.

 

  Right, so that was a choice that they made. In other words, God made the first choice at the cross in Christ. And God chose everyone, called everyone into salvation at the cross. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, “I will draw all men to myself.” That’s in John 12:32. Literally it means He’s gonna take all judgment. So, God made the first choice, but we make the second choice. And that’s by believing on Jesus. And just like we made a choice to believe on Jesus, we can also make a choice to reject Jesus. And that’s not something we believe is probable. Some people don’t even believe it’s possible. I believe it’s possible ’cause the scripture talks about it. But you can leave your first love, and you need to let the love of God rule you. You know, Galatians 5:6, before these scriptures we started with, says this, “In Christ Jesus, “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything “but faith that works by love.” And your faith works when you understand how much God loves you. And when you begin to understand how much God loves you, just like the scriptures you read in 1 John 4, the result of that is when you understand how much God loves you, you begin to love others.

 

  Amen. Awesome, well, I’m really glad you could join us today. This is gonna be a powerful series. So be sure to tune in for the rest of the week. We’ll probably take two weeks to go through the Supernatural Fruit of the Holy Spirit. So, if you’d like to call in to receive prayer, maybe you’ve never made Jesus your Lord and Savior, if you’d like to call and ask Jesus into your heart today, you can do so. Or to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. We have people who call in and receive that all the time. But if you’d like to call in to receive prayer, maybe to make a gift or just to connect more with the ministry, just give us a call. We’d be happy to pray with you.

 

  Amen, and if you’re in Colorado Springs on a Sunday, we would love to have you at Charis Christian Center, or you can live stream our services. Bless you.

 

  We have access to the supernatural fruit of the Spirit as believers. When we choose to walk in the Spirit, we will receive the inheritance that God has made available to us. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching “The Supernatural Fruit of the Holy Spirit.” A $20 value free of charge. Download it today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I want to say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today. Blessings.

 

  Thanks for watching “Grace for Today.” This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719 418 4000. Or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today.”