Have You Chased Spiritual Gifts And Neglected To Cultivate Spiritual Fruit?
(When seeking gifts and fruit are spiritually out of balance)
Not too long ago, I felt the pull to do a total blog refresh. I was thrilled to take this on but I got far more than I bargained for in the process. As part of the refresh assessment, the blogging expert said I needed to focus my writing based on my most popular post topics and stop wasting my time on what people didn’t want to read. This information was gathered from my blogging data.
That meant I would write exclusively about fasting and spiritual gifts and stop writing about spending time with God, finding a solid church, or how our words and actions affect others.
That just didn't sit right in my spirit.
But because I have ignored and excused the issue for so long, it took me a while to figure out where the prickling in my spirit was coming from. I didn’t disagree on blogs/ministries needing focus. My lack of peace was over what believers are diligently seeking versus what was being downplayed (and in some cases, outright ignored); spiritual gifts versus spiritual fruit.
MY CONCERNS
My husband and I cut our Christian baby teeth in a Charismatic church that fully believed and regularly focused on spiritual gifts. We learned a great deal but the teaching often felt one-sided. Since then, God has moved us to a few different denominational and non-denominational churches.
The brothers and sisters we met along the way were mostly good, godly people. They loved Jesus and wanted to serve him all the days of their life. However, we have consistently seen a dominant focus (or fascination) with spiritual gifts, especially power and speaking gifts. These gifts were highly sought after and the display of gifts was held up as the litmus test of a spirit-filled person and an alive, vibrant church body. I get it. We all, myself included, want to see the power of the Holy Spirit on display. It instantly touches our feel-goods and it draws crowds.
In contrast, each church seemed to have at least one person that was highly regarded for being kind, loving, generous with their time, gently pointing others to the Bible, and free with their hugs and encouragement. This type of person appeared to be so rare that they stood out in the body. Although others respected this rare jewel, teachings about spiritual fruit were rare. Maybe it didn’t fill enough pews?
That shouldn't be so, friend! Brothers and sisters displaying the character of Christ should be the norm in our churches, not precious, rare jewels.
So there was the concern that was prickling my spirit.
When did we as a church body fall for the lie that displaying signs and wonders proved our spirituality while displaying godly fruit proved we were nice but kinda boring people?
Unfortunately, I believe we have taken things too far and gotten off balance with the power of the Holy Spirit. Pulling together three years of data tracking the topics my blog readers are drawn to further confirmed this for me.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is necessary for genuine faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit manifests (displays) through us with spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit. Since they are both from the Holy Spirit, does it matter if one is sought over another? Fruits are gifts too so what is the difference, really?
Let’s look at this biblically so that we can getting our thinking in line with God’s.
Spiritual Gifts
Spiritual gifts are supernatural abilities (outward signs) of the Holy Spirit working through someone to accomplish God's purpose. Gifts of the Spirit are given on an individual basis as the Spirit of God wills it (meaning He decides who gets what gift and when). We don't all have the same gift and only Jesus Christ had all the gifts.
Spiritual gifts lists can be found in Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14; Ephesians 4:11; and 1 Peter 4:9-11.
To read more about spiritual gifts, click here.
Spiritual Fruit
Spiritual fruits are character traits (also called qualities or virtues) that result from the Holy Spirit working in the life of a believer. Unlike gifts, the Holy Spirit blesses every believer with all the fruits at once.
The primary list of spiritual fruit can be found in Galatians 5:22-23.
ACTIVE IN THE LIFE OF A BELIEVER
If we are being honest, most of us are fascinated by the spectacular and extraordinary. In today’s culture, we want instant everything or we lose interest and wander away. Sometimes that wandering is mentally zoning out and sometimes it is walking away to find something more exciting. And many of the supernatural gifts are exciting! We don’t usually have to wait for them to manifest either.
Our churches are full of people prophesying, laying hands on each other, and speaking in tongues. How thrilling is it to have someone walk up to you with a word of knowledge and declare, “God told me to tell you…”. It makes you feel special and loved.
Spiritual fruit on the other hand is quiet and subtle. Like physical growth, spiritual growth (changing to be more Christ-like in thought and deed) happens slowly behind the scenes of our everyday life as we cling to the vine (Jesus) and labor with the Holy Spirit to overcome the works of the flesh (which nobody wants to admit to struggling with).
Oftentimes, we don’t realize we have been growing until we take the time to look back at how differently we respond in unpleasant situations. For example, if you have an issue with a quick temper, you have to pray for peace and take your thoughts captive to calm your anger. You will probably need to work on your self-control so that you don’t say something better left unsaid. Because those things are a process you will also need to work on your patience and perseverance.
We all want to be that person that makes others feel loved and special. We want to handle difficult situations in a way others will admire. But we aren’t always willing to take up our cross and crucify our fleshly responses.
THE DANGERS OF GIFTS OVER FRUIT
When we are off balance striving for gifts over fruits, we hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. We aren’t as effective for the kingdom as we should be. It gives a false picture of the life of a Christian and handicaps the body.
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about spiritual gifts and then sums it up by saying the greatest gift is love (a fruit!!). Paul indicated that the gifts and fruit are intertwined by suggesting we earnestly desire the best gifts but that he would show us a more excellent way. Then in 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul says to pursue love but desire gifts.
Unfortunately, we have gotten turned around and get this backward by striving for gifts while desiring the character of Christ (peace in all circumstances, love for others, joy regardless, etc).
How many times have we seen someone operating with a particular gift being treated like a rock star while ignoring the fact that they are often manipulative, prideful, self-absorbed, and unkind? How many times do we hear them admit they don’t read their Bible and only go around the brethren when they have to? Or maybe they hold themselves apart from others by claiming to be too busy to be bothered. We all know people like this.
Without the ability to observe them for a while, we have no way of knowing if this person even has a relationship with Christ, let alone godly fruit. Because we know from Romans 11:29 that gifts are given without repentance (meaning whether the person is saved or not God may choose to bless them with one of His gifts to fulfill His purpose). Gifts are not a sign of salvation.
However, an unsaved person may fake godly fruits for a short time but they can’t hide their fleshly fruit for long. The fruit of the Spirit is a direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit living in us. Without the Holy Spirit making a difference in our life, our fruits will be very different (see Galatians 5:19-21).
As we use our spiritual gifts in the body, we will be told how great we are, how thankful that person is to have us speak into their life, how anointed and highly favored we are. If we don’t know Jesus as our Lord and Savior and have not been actively leaning on the Holy Spirit and cultivating godly character in our life, we will accept the praise as your due honor instead of humbling turning them to God and giving Him the glory.
ARE GIFTS PROOF OF FRUIT?
I was once told that fruit and gifts are the same because if you manifest gifts it’s proof that you have fruits or God wouldn’t allow you to manifest his gifts. I believed it.
Then I came across Exodus chapters 7 and 8 where God instructed Moses and Aaron to perform miracles as a sign from Him. Immediately, Pharaoh’s magicians copied the miracles. Pharaoh’s magicians were not from God and had unholy motives. Yet they appeared to be no different than Moses and Aaron. Friend, if it happened then, it happens today.
What if Moses and Aaron had blindly accepted what they saw and told Pharaoh, “Oh, okay. Well, it looks like God is also working through your guys so who are we to doubt or question what you are doing? We must have misheard God. We’ll just move along and not bother you any longer.”
Yet, we do this today when we accept signs and wonders as automatically being from God.
So even though that person’s comment was what I wanted to hear, it wasn’t biblical.
Spiritual gifts can be imitated, taught, and bought. That sounds harsh but it is true. When it comes to spiritual gifts, the common advice used to be to watch clips of healing services and learn how that healer talked, handled themselves, used scripture, etc., then imitate what you learned. The new thing I’ve seen is miracle schools popping up teaching how to activate and operate in spiritual gifts. I’ve yet to see a single “Grow your Godly Fruits” school.
A POWERFUL REASON
It is fruits, not miracles that separate us from the world. Jesus didn’t say that the world would know us as His children by the power of the signs and wonders surrounding us. He said that they would know us by our love for others (John 13:35). So much of the Bible, especially the New Testament, is full of wisdom on how to treat others; every time godly fruit is referenced not signs and wonders.
Jesus also provided us a way to discern false Christians. He said we would know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-20). Again, not by signs and wonders but by the evidence of godly fruit in their life. Godly fruit isn’t hidden under a bushel basket.
Unfortunately, we think if someone claims to be of Jesus and seems to have a gift they are good to go. We don’t stop to pray over or check their godly fruit, just assuming it’s there. However, Jesus went on the say in Matthew 7:17 that good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit. Both will produce fruit but one isn’t used to bless us but to hurt us.
It’s a sad fact that false Christians are in the church, friend. God doesn’t want us to be ignorant or ignore that fact. We have to be prayerfully watching fruit as we use biblical discernment to tell the difference between what is imitated and what is real. Look at what Jesus said in Matthew:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
(Matthew 7:21-23)
If, as many believe, we are headed for the dark days of the end of times, we need to be seeking to cultivate spiritual fruit over gifts. In Revelation, we read about the anti-Christ performing signs and wonders. I like how bibleref.com sums it up for us:
“The second beast (Revelation 13:1–2; 13:11) is most commonly referred to as the "False Prophet." This person is a partner in evil with the first beast, most often labeled as the Antichrist. The False Prophet puts on quite a show to convince people that he is Israel's messiah. He performs great signs and even makes fire drop down from heaven, as the prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice (1 Kings 18:36–39). The exact meaning or scope of these signs is unknown. Undoubtedly, he will perform great signs by the power of Satan (Matthew 24:24; 2 John 1:7).
In light of all that, do we really want to rely on signs and wonders as our litmus test for a “true, spiritual-filled Christian”? Knowing what lies ahead, shouldn’t we be prayerfully examining fruit in the life of a believer?
WRAPPING IT UP
If I took the advice of the blog expert and focused on one aspect of the Holy Spirit while ignoring another, I would be encouraging this out-of-balance perspective. Doing that may have brought more readers but I decided to continue to trust God to do with the blog as He desires. I couldn’t add to the problem.
Nothing in the Bible indicates that God wants us to elevate spiritual gifts over spiritual fruit. Instead, we need to seek God first (Matthew 6:33) and work with the Holy Spirit to cultivate our character and how we treat others. God has never failed to take care of His people so we can trust that as we draw closer to Him, He will activate in us whatever spiritual gifts He needs to make miraculous changes in those around us and in our communities!
“Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
(Colossians 3:17 NASB).
YOUR TURN
Have you chased after gifts and neglected to cultivate spiritual fruits? Has your focus on fruit been pushed aside by the desire to have a gift, a ministry, or an office? If your feel you are spiritually out of balance with gifts and fruits, what steps is the Holy Spirit leading you to take today to make adjustments?
