For this Wednesday Word, in one of his messages, Pastor Jerry Flowers, Jr. shared the importance of being able to discern good character (or “fruit”) in other people who are in (or are trying to enter) your life. Galatians 5:22-23 talks about the fruit of the Spirit, key attributes that should be reflected in the lives of believers. Those are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Some people talk a mean game of believing in God but don’t truly walk as God has called us to live, particularly with these characteristics. I struggle with some of these still myself, but there is a difference between struggling with these on occasion and not even trying to tackle them. Now before you say “Only God can judge me,” that’s a Tupac Shakur song, not the Bible. There is such a thing as righteous judgment amongst believers (John 7:24) and it’s important to have discernment over who you allow into your life.
It’s important that someone’s fruit lines up with what they say. However, as Pastor Jerry shares in this clip, you can’t possibly detect the difference between good and deceptive character in others when you aren’t reflecting the fruit yourself!
People may say that they love God and have a relationship with Him, but what does their fruit look like? What do their actions say? But Pastor Jerry says you need to be concerned more about your own fruit “The reason you keep getting deceived is because you keep producing fake fruit,” he shared. “And until you allow the Holy Spirit to build in you real fruit, you’ll constantly get deceived by fake fruit.”
Talk about CHALLENGED. Watch the clip below!
Imperfectly B 