It is hard to believe this is the last fruit of the Spirit for me to cover in my current series. I am hoping that these teachings have blessed you and helped you grow in your relationship with God. The last fruit of the Spirit for me to cover is goodness. Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV) says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”. As I have said previously the fruits of the Spirit go hand in hand with each other. Applying them all in your life should result in goodness and will let you be of the Spirit and not of this world.
God expects us to walk in goodness, because of the goodness he provides to us. Psalms 31:19 (WEB) “Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of men!”. As true followers of Christ, we must fear God. Proverbs 8:13 (KJV) tell us “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”. As this scripture tells us to fear God, we must hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and perverted speech. My question to you is do you truly hate those things I just listed? Many of those things I listed are deemed “okay” in our society. Or they are labeled as “the way to be”. We can all be guilty of these things at times, I will admit that I myself am not perfect either. But we must recognize our flaws so that we can apply as much goodness to our life so that we can walk in the Holy Spirit.
In America’s society today, we are dealing with a culture war, it has been going on for years. However, this culture war has gotten stronger with evilness. In my lifetime so far, I have seen so many perverted movies and entertainment come out, and yet people that call themselves Christian indulge in this type of content. There are many people who indulge in the evil way, one of the parts of the evil way is witchcraft. In the early 2000s, a woman by the name of J.K. Rowling started releasing the Harry Potter book series. These books are easy for anyone, especially children to access at the bookstore or the school library. These books make their way home with children. Little do people know these books teach witchcraft but appear in the form of entertainment to make it look innocent. There are many Christian parents who permit this content to enter their homes. I am going to say something very bold here, these books have an evil Spirit about them, bringing this book into your home opens the door for the enemy to work in your life. Leviticus 19:31 (KJV) tells us, “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” If we want to walk in the fruit of goodness, we must be careful of what we watch, listen to, read, speak, and think. Even the best Christians can fall short of this (even I myself fall short at times), but we must constantly analyze what we bring into our lives. If we tolerate evil, it will dominate our life! I don’t know about you, but I want the promises of God to dominate my life and not the evilness of this world.
Walking in goodness does not only apply to what we allow into our lives but how we treat others. Matthew 12:35 tells us, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”. As followers of Christ, we want to bring forth good things, at times because we are never perfect, we can sometimes fail at this. When we fail at this, we must recognize our error and improve upon it. 2 Corinthians 12:9 (WEB) reminds us, “He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.”. I would like you to take some time and reflect on the following questions:
- Am I lacking in goodness? If so, where?
- Am I allowing the evilness of the world to come into my life by any means (literature, music, entertainment, words, thoughts)?
- Does my goodness reflect all the time?
Once you ask yourself these questions, work on improving. That might involve giving up the music you always listen to, instead listen to Christian music, or have the bible read to you from your phone. Have you participated in any evilness in your life? f so that means you must remove that evil activity and spend more time in prayer and in the Word of God. You may also want to revisit my previous teachings on the fruits of the Spirit and determine if you are weak in any of those. Remember that God is your strength, and nothing is impossible.