GODLY CHARACTER 1

22 BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT PRODUCES THIS KIND OF FRUIT IN OUR LIVES: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. THERE IS NO LAW AGAINST THESE THINGS!"
Galatians 5:22,23 (NLT)

5 THOSE who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)
10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
12 THEREFORE, DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, YOU HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO DO WHAT YOUR SINFUL NATURE URGES YOU TO DO."
Romans 8:5–12 (NLT)

• If a professed believer allowed the Holy Spirit to take over his or her life totally, good fruit or fruit of the spirit would be produced in his or her life (Galatians 5:22,23).

• You had to walk and fellowship with the Holy Spirit for you to be whatever God wanted you to be.
• Cultivating or building a good character might be difficult If you want to do it with the arm of the flesh—without the help of the Holy Spirit.
• Fruit of the spirit are grown in your life, when you allow and cooperate with the Holy Spirit to take you through different circumstances of life (James 1:2-4).

• God wants you to bear fruits in your walk with Him (John 15:2,16).

• The fruit bearing of a believer is not without total submission to God through the Holy Spirit on the inside of him or her.
• God would want you to learn many things in different situations and circumstances of life that you may find yourself. Fruit of the spirit would not be grown in your life, as a believer in Christ Jesus, without passing through unpalatable situations and circumstances in your Christian journey (Romans 5:3-5).
• God would want you to learn from every challenging circumstance and situation permitted to come your way (James 1:4).
• Humans generally learn faster and better through challenges, or through unpalatable situations; If the person, the believer, allows the Holy Spirit to do It.
  EVEN Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered: "EVEN THOUGH JESUS WAS GOD'S SON, HE LEARNED OBEDIENCE FROM THE THINGS HE SUFFERED" (Hebrews 5:8 NLT).
• You submit to God through the Holy Spirit and allow or cooperate with Him to open your eyes to see whatever He might want you to learn in whatever you are passing through.
• Most of the problems that are found in a believer's life are meant to grow or produce the fruit of the spirit:
  3 BE ASSURED THAT THE TESTING OF YOUR FAITH [through experience] PRODUCES ENDURANCE (patient)[leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. 4 AND LET ENDURANCE HAVE ITS PERFECT RESULT AND DO A THOROUGH WORK, SO THAT YOU MAY BE PERFECT AND COMPLETELY DEVELOPED [in your faith], LACKING IN NOTHING" (James 1:3,4 Amps).

3 BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT THE TESTING OF YOUR FAITH PRODUCES PATIENT ENDURANCE.
4 And LET PATIENT ENDURANCE FINISH ITS WORK, SO THAT YOU MAY BE MATURE AND COMPLETE, NOT LACKING ANYTHING."
James 1:3,4 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

• God would not permit anything in your life without a purpose: "AND WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD, TO THOSE WHO ARE THE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE" (Romans 8:28 (NKJV).

• Whatever you are passing through had a purpose to fulfil in your life, and mainly to form or build an approved character or a godly character in you (Romans 5:5; James 1:2-4).
• If you failed to recognize the purpose of a challenge or predicament which you have, It would tarry, persisted longer than necessary, in your life.
• Some of the persisted problems in the lives of some believers is a result of their inability to learn what they supposed to learn from them.
• You had to be intentional and purposive, and work on the self, deal with the flesh, and allow the Holy Spirit to do His perfect work in your life.
• The present problem or need in your life has a mission purpose in your life. And that is to shape you into the person God wanted you to be.
• The mission of the problem or challenge or predicament or suffering might be to birth patience, or gentleness, or long-suffering, or love, or any other fruit of the spirit (James 1:3,4; Romans 5:3-5).
• Every problem or challenge has a purpose to accomplish in your life; to move you into a better and higher level in your spiritual life: " . . . SO THAT YOU MAY BE PERFECT AND COMPLETELY DEVELOPED [in your faith], LACKING IN NOTHING" (James 1:4 Amps).

• God will not give you what you could not handle. What would lead you to backsliding; what would cause spiritual apathy or lukewarmness, would not be given to you.

• If you had not grown the right fruits of the spirit needed to handle the blessings you are asking for, from God, you may not be given.
• Some believers want to believe or have the notion that since it is the fruit of the spirit, the Holy Spirit should go ahead and produce the fruit in their lives. But they are mistaken, the Holy Spirit cannot singlehandedly produce any fruit in a believer's life without his or her cooperation, obedience, and submissiveness.
• Since the fruits do not grow on the main tree, but on the branches, thus, the fruits had to be grown in the believer's life (John 15:5).
• In other words, the fruits of the spirit would be grown in your own spirit, not in the Holy Spirit. They are the fruits of your own spirit, the inward Man, your newly created spirit; but you would be helped by the Holy Spirit to grow or build or develop the fruits, as you cooperate and submit to His principles and leadership.
• Consequently, your spiritual growth in God, and your material success, and whatever God would do or accomplish in or through your life, are determined by the permission you give to God, or the extent you allow Him to work through the Holy Spirit—in you and your life situations and circumstances.
• The Holy Spirit on the inside of you, as a believer, is meant to make you perfect or mature, in preparation for the next phase of your current assignment or the new assignment which God has for you. God is preparing you for a purpose!

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.

• Whatever sickness found in your body that is working against your health and wellness, such is cursed and uprooted completely now in Jesus' name.
• The hold is totally broken now, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
  Peace!
  TO BE CONTINUED

STEPS TO SALVATION
• Take notice of this:
IF you are yet to take the step of salvation, that is, yet to be born-again, do it now, tomorrow might be too late (2 Corinthians 6:1,2; Hebrews 3:7,8,15).
a. Acknowledge that you are a sinner and confess your Sins (1 John 1:9); And ask Jesus Christ to come into your life (Revelation 3:20).
b. Confess that you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that you confess it with your mouth, Thus, you accept Him As your Lord and Saviour (Romans 10:9,10).
c. Ask that He will write your name in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:8).

• If you took the steps As highlighted above, It means you are saved—born-again. Join a Word based church in your area and Town or city, and be part of whatever they are doing there. Peace!