Praying for the “Fruit of the Spirit” In Your Life Could Be Dangerous!
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh….The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:16,22-23a).
Now, how does one walk by the Spirit and experience His fruit? First John 1:6-9 has the answer…
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.“
Notice in the passage above, when sin is confessed and fellowship with the Lord is restored, Christ-followers are cleansed from all unrighteousness and walk in the Light.
“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
Who is part of the Light? Of course, all three Persons of the Godhead; including Father, Son and Holy Spirit! They cannot be separated. Hence, if we are walking in the Light of God, we are at the same time walking by (with) the Spirit who is in the Light. Based on Galatians 5, any one walking by the Spirit will experience the fruit of the Spirit. “For the fruit of the Light [Spirit – KJV] results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth” (Eph 5:9). It really is a simple teaching…wouldn’t you agree? “The testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.” (Psa 19:7b).
So do we have to pray for the fruit of the Spirit based on the above? The answer is a clear “NO.” Full and complete biblical repentance brings forth the Holy Spirit’s fruit in the life of a true Christ-follower. It is the result of being in God’s Light. (An article to understand what biblical repentance looks like can be found at the following link: http://reachinghigherwithmeyer.blogspot.com/2011/11/do-you-know-how-to-repent-of-sin-false.html). Conversely without repentance, you will have no real peace (or any benefit of the fruit of the Spirit) due to your choice of remaining in the darkness.
Now…what if you pray for the fruit of the Spirit instead of just repenting of your sin? Well, my persuasion is that can be dangerous. Here is why. Let’s take a couple of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit and pretend they do NOT come via repentance, for illustration purposes only…
Peace – If a person prays for peace as a Christ-follower, truth is, if he or she has any unconfessed sin in their life, they’ll very likely experience more conviction (and actually have less peace). In order for the Lord to give you the peace you desire, Godly conviction must take place first, true repentance must follow, and peace will be the result (2 Cor 7:10).
Patience – Praying for patience is really dangerous as well. I mean, what would God need to do to make a person be more patient (if hypothetically patience did NOT come with repentance and walking by the Spirit)? Answer: God would have to put people in scenarios to increase their patience; letting them develop it during trying times. Is that what you truly want…waiting in longer lines, getting caught in more traffic jams, waiting a lot longer for everything, your kids acting up more and more, etc., etc. – in order that you can learn to be more patient? Maybe you, but not me! I’d rather repent of all my sin, and as a result receive the fruit of the Spirit, which includes patience.
How about you? Would you rather repent of your sin, or continue to pray for the fruit of the Spirit? If you pray for the fruit, it could be dangerous. Be very careful of what you pray for!