The Fruit of the Spirit 13: No Strife in the Church!

One of satan’s main missions in life is to cause strife in local church. If satan can get strife in your church, he can stop dozens, hundred or thousands of Christians from being godly, from being fruitful, from reaching the community and city. He can use that strife to turn immature or inexperienced people away from church altogether!

John 13.35 tells us that we are supposed to be known for our love for one another – so satan wants us not to known so he really invests in trying to make us all fall out with each other. Offended because someone else got to preach or lead a group and you didn’t. Upset because not everything in the service went your way. Miffed because you were told not to do something or gossip or something else. Angry because the pastor preached differently from your pet doctrine on a particular verse. That’s the work of satan, and it is because strife is so powerful for his team!

We have to see strife as a weapon of satan, as the power of satan, and see it as something to resist and fight at all times. Faith works by love, fear and anxiety work by strife. Strife is the main reason we are not in revival and not seeing a constant flow of salvations and healings.

What is stopping you growing up as a Christian? I bet it comes back to mostly strife. Mostly you getting upset at others, causing conflict with others because you want your own way, so you clash with others. The second you are in strife, you are yielding to satan. You have to realize how serious this is. I cannot grasp this for you, you need a revelation that strife brings every evil work.

But if we repent of strife and get in agreement with our local church (obviously, if you don’t even go to church you are at the highest levels of immaturity and strife – and I am sure you will respond in strife to that statement) then we will defeat satan every day, walk in faith, move mountains and get results.

Agreement and harmony is how we deal with strife, and it takes what satan intended for evil and turns it to good!

Selah.

The Fruit of the Spirit 12: Avoid Strife!

James 3.16 tells us that where there is envying and strife there is confusion and every evil work. Strife is like the opposite of the love of God – it is doing things that cause conflict, causing people to be against each other, to fight, to quarrel, to clash, to be in competition with someone.

Strife and envy as seen here in James 3.16 are really the two super-weapons of satan, they are the two that will introduce every evil work into a situation. If a church is in strife, satan can do whatever he wants. Strife is how satan gets born again Christians to the divorce court, how he deceives Christians to stop going to church, how he separates people from the other people they need to love to get where they are going. Because satan cannot kill our born again spirit, cannot destroy our new birth, cannot take the love right out of our spirit, so he tries to get strife in our souls – in our thinking, our emotions and our decisions so we cannot walk in the power of love and be in that place that never fails.

The Roman Empire had a Latin motto, divide et impera, which in English, translates to “divide and conquer”, it meant if you keep people attacking each other, you can get them to do anything you want. It actually comes from satan, causing people to break into factions and miss out on the power of love and unity.

You see satan knows that when we come to the unity of the faith, we will be a perfect man, standing as tall as Jesus Himself (Ephesians 4.13). A church in unity will beat the devil every day, see salvations, healings, power and life in levels we have never seen because we have not resisted strife. It makes us as tall as Jesus, as mature as Jesus, as powerful as Jesus.

When a church is in unity, we will be walking in a way that cannot be stopped. We will walk with the Lord together and we will change the world. The problem is so many Christians today really do not care about unity, about oneness of heart. The church in Acts had singleness of heart and people were getting saved every single day. The devil hated that decade and never wants to deal with that again, so he tries his hardest to get strife into every church.

The pastor preaches 100 things on Sunday, but we disagree with one, so we leave the church. We end up in so much strife, we have to go for a walk down the beach Sunday morning because we cannot function in any church! We get upset over the org chart in the church, and that’s not God’s will, we are supposed to honour those who lead us, not cause strife.

Strife comes from hell, and is demonic and opens the door to every evil work. It’s that simple. If you disagree with that statement, you are in strife with God, let alone other people. You cannot live in strife and not have evil things in your life. Love opens the door for good things.

Strife is what keeps Christians babies. They have no good things in their life, they cannot help others, serve others, love others. They sabotage their serving, their ministry and their lives. They will still go to Heaven when they die, but earth will never be fun for them. Strife keeps you in the flesh, acting like a toddler, rather than in the spirit being mature.

The Corinthian church – according to Paul got into strife, arguing over their favourite speakers. We think that’s not serious, but it is so serious. If you are arguing with someone who your favourite speaker is, if you are trying to get a timetable of who is speaking when at a conference to decide who to hear rather than attend the conference as a living organism, leading from one speaker to another, you are in strife. You are a baby Christian. You are carnal.

Strife makes you selfish, seeks your own good, does not honour others, and will fuss over the tiniest things. You have to decide to deal with strife in your life – you have to decide to resist it and if you do yield to it, repent quick and get it out of your life. Strife brings every evil thing.

Get out of strife. Stop fussing over everything that doesn’t go your way, and enjoy what does. Love God, love people, honour those over you, and be humble. Selah.

The Fruit of the Spirit 11: Dealing with Unfruitful, Unkind People

It seems like every time I make a fresh commitment to love people like Jesus, someone just out of nowhere starts being mean and unloving to me. I mean making vile, deceitful videos about me, lying about me, just plain aggressive, it could be anything. And then the hardest part of love becomes what Paul told the church in Corinth that we should “pay no attention to a suffered wrong” (1 Corinthians 13.5).

Before you think that advice is impossible, why not pause a minute and think of the man who wrote that. The worst I have had to deal with in my life is people rolling their eyes at me, making spiteful posts about me on social media, and so on. Occasionally, as happened last year, someone raises their fists at me and threatens me, but that’s really not common. For Paul it was – he was beaten with sticks, he was stoned, he was locked up in prison for things he never did. Nobody deserved what Paul went through, and Paul certainly didn’t – all Paul is doing is going around the nations telling them the good news about a God who loved them so much He had a plan in place to make them right with Him. He was teaching kingdom principles and healing the sick. Yet, most nations and cities treated him like the worst kind of criminal.

Did Paul get mad? Did he get into self-pity? Did he get into envy? Did he ever step out of love? It doesn’t seem like it from Scripture. He is in prison, not murmuring and muttering about his captors and his treatment, but rather writing Philippians! If Paul couldn’t handle mean people, our Bibles would all be a lot thinner!

And Paul wasn’t in some modern prison with Netflix and Amazon and a nice comfy bed. No – he was in a dungeon, no natural light, chained to a wall, sleeping virtually standing up, with the bugs and rats. But he kept in love. He kept his prayer life up, he kept his fire. And this was not a one-off for Paul, he ended up in prison loads. His mission was still love the Christians and love the non-Christians. Build up the church and reach the lost. He did that so well, you and I have both been built up by him more than maybe any other preacher! He’s been in heaven for centuries and we are still getting people saved and healed and discipled by his writings!

I heard Gloria Copeland say once “they could put Paul in prison, but they couldn’t put prison in Paul”. That’s a very powerful quote. Spend some time thinking about that today. Whatever they do to you, they cannot put it in you. Keep walking in love no matter how mean they are to you!

The Fruit of the Spirit 10: Envy and Divisions!

One of the reasons why envy is so evil, so opposed to the fruit of the spirit, so rebellious to God and to love is that envy is what splits churches and causes strife. If you envy someone in your church, this weekend, don’t avoid them, go and show them some love – tell them how lovely they are, tell them how wonderful they are, tell them how much you appreciate their position, their ability and so on.

Envy can be carnal – you can be envious of someone pretty or young or rich, or it can be even spiritual envy where you are upset that a certain minister is doing better than you and has a bigger following than you. We have seen that and it has never ended well.

Because the Corinthian church was relatively immature, satan got into that church and used his number one weapon of envy to keep that church immature! The visible manifestation of envy was arguing over which preacher is better. Can you imagine the fighting in Corinth?

Apollos is so smart, and such a good preacher, he is so inspiring. Did you know I had lunch with him once?

Paul was before Apollos, he started the church, I was there in the early days, before you came, you just weren’t around, I was though.

No, I love Peter, he talks about being with Jesus. Peter is the best. He eats with me, he doesn’t eat with you.

No – you should all be as spiritual as me, and only ever follow Jesus!

That argument is never worth having. Paul rebuked them for it. He told them they were acting like babies and acting like mere unchanged men. You see you might think you are a mature, godly, super spiritual Christian, but if you are dividing the church you are carnal. Pure carnal. If you are doing that you are a baby. Now if someone is like that with you, stop it.

I met a pastor recently, and it was the first time I met him. I told him just in conversation that I was going to preach at a conference, and he told me about a conference he was going to preach in at the same nation, and we started talking. It didn’t take long to realize that he was trying to top me. If I was preaching for three sessions, he was preaching for four, if I was preaching to 300 people, he was preaching to 500 hundred. He was just continually comparing himself to me to put me down. That’s babyish! That’s carnal! I was stunned and I stepped away from the conversation straight away – I am not going to cause strife with him! Don’t cause trouble with people just because they want to cause trouble with you.

Now, just because you don’t have envy in your heart that doesn’t mean you can just listen to any preacher there is – because you need discernment. Let’s not fall off the ditch on the other side of the road. Stay away from faith destroying grace destroying teachings! When I read someone say God made them sick for a reason, I ignore them. It’s not envy, I just don’t care for that sort of thing.

I don’t go arguing with people, I don’t go find them on social media and attack them and cause divisions. That’s not love! When you are on social media jumping on other people you are not walking in love! I can fellowship with any Christian, as long I know I don’t have to try and straighten them out!

The Fruit of the Spirit 09: The Biggest Enemy of Love

The biggest enemy of love is envy. Proverbs 14.30 tells us that envy rots the bones! If you have envy in your heart, it can literally make you sick. Satan hates you and wants you sick, he wants you to have rotting bones, so one of the things he really wants to do is make you envious. Satan hates you walking in love, walking in the fruit of the spirit, walking in victory – so he will constantly try and trap you with envy.

We need to listen to Paul who says “let us not be desiring empty glory, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5.26).

Satan is right now trying to get you to look at a situation and get envy in your heart. Envy is the biggest enemy of love.

God’s nature is love, He is love. And as we yield to love, we yield to God, we yield to life and success and abundance. Satan’s nature is envy. He envied God, envied the angels, envied Adam and Eve, and if you yield to envy satan can “steal your lunch and pop the bag”. This is really serious. Envy is not something we treat as serious, but it is deadly serious for every Christian and we must be aware of it.

What is envy? It is you feeling angry and negative towards another person because you perceive they have an advantage or an item or a victory that you presume should be yours and not theirs. Now, we can say very clearly according to Scripture that LOVE NEVER ENVIES (1 Cor. 13.4).

What does love do when someone else wins? When someone else gets a victory, gets a new car, a new house, a new jet, a new job, a new friend? Love rejoices when others succeed. Envy gets depressed and angry when others succeed. Love has a party when someone else wins, envy gets sad.

Envy says things like why on earth would he have a new car, he doesn’t work as hard as I do, he isn’t as smart as me. I should have a new car. Look at his wife, so pretty, and I am still single, I should be getting married. Look at my family living in this house we don’t even fit into and that single person is living in that huge house all alone.

As a pastor, I see professional envy far too much. Ministers envious of the size of your church, the money you earn, the pulpits you are invited to speak at, the guest speakers you have, all of it, I have seen over and over, it is the nature of satan.

Now all of us will be tempted to have these thoughts at a some point because satan is trying to get us to walk out of love. The thoughts come to us all. But we have to deal with it seriously – we have to say loudly “This thought is not God, I rebuke you envy, I walk in love, I am a child of God, and God is love”. You have to deal with this strongly. You cannot let these thoughts build a little house in your head and start making you an envious person! You cannot and you must not!

Envy won’t just stop you walking in love and seeing all the benefits and abundance of that, it will actually rot your bones. I don’t want rotten bones, I want strong bones!

I have heard someone recently say envy is not that bad, but it is the worst thing we can do. It’s a work of the flesh according to Galatians 5, it’s part of having a reprobate mind according to Romans 1. It is something we must engage with and defeat.

James 3.16 actually says where there is envying and strife there is every evil work. Envy opens the door to every evil work. I mean all of it, every single bit of it. So you deal with it and refuse to receive it. When it enters your mind, when you start to feel down, you force yourself to rejoice that someone is being blessed and has opportunities and increase!

The Fruit of the Spirit 08: Biblical Love

The first segment of the fruit of the spirit outlined in Galatians 5 is love. Really, the Christian life is all about love. Nothing is more important than that we love each other. Paul told the Corinthians the greatest of these is love! He then goes on say that love is the still more excellent way (1 Cor. 12.31).

I have heard many Christians say “such and such is really spiritual” but what they mean is that person is a little weird, a little strange, a little odd. When we talk about a spiritual experience, we are normally talking about miracles and signs and wonders. But being a spiritual person is being a loving person, and the most spiritual experience you will ever experience is watching someone love someone else who is not easy to love.

Remember God is love, so love is the most godly we can be! Love is the head of the list of the fruit of the spirit, and when you have love, the other eight in the list will always be around! Love starts this list because it is the foundation of it all.

Now we do not have the right to define love the way we want to. From the world singing songs about “love” that have nothing to do with Biblical love at all, to Christians using the word “love” to avoid responsibility or honour, we do not have the right to define love. We must let the Bible define love. Love is dying for a sinner. Love is giving up your only Son. Love is not selfish, love is not conditional. Love is patient. Love is kind.

Now the more you look at love, and I encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 13 and all of 1 John, the more you will stand at the shore and go – I cannot get into that ocean, I cannot possibly love people the way God loves me. I cannot do it. But the starting point of love is that God has loved us so much He has through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ transformed out spirits so the fruit of our spirit is love. Your spirit is love just like God is love, it’s made of the same stuff – love. You are one spirit with Christ, and that spirit is made of love. Just as Jesus is, so are you in the world – love. The love of God has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit.

I don’t care how you feel or what you think, the truth is that if you are born again there is love in your spirit. Your spirit is actually made of love. If you feel love, there is love. If you don’t feel love, there is still love. It has nothing to do with feelings, it is the truth.

Love is not a feeling, although it can provoke many different feelings. Love is the spiritual and supernatural power to put others needs and desires and well-being above our own. It is in you, and your job is to let it out!

If we are not living in love, we are wasting our lives.

Look at 1 Corinthians 13.1-7 in the Message:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

You must be able to see from this that love is the beginning of it all. Love is the most important part. Love is the bottom line. Nothing matters without love at the centre. When we are not letting the love inside us out, your tongues is just white noise, your prophetic words are pathetic words and your mountain moving isn’t worth a penny.

But again, and I have to emphasise this as there are enemies of the cross in the church redefining love to mean leave me alone and let me do what I want, never judge or have standards, and that’s not love – no love never gives up, love cares for others more than for itself. We need to read these words and ask – are we loving the Biblical way. You know you can take 1 Corinthians 13 and turn it into declarations – you can say “I keep going to the end, I always look for the best” and speak it by faith and start to see it manifest. Sometimes when you make declarations like that, you suddenly need to repent and then you do, and God loves you, and you pick yourself up and keep declaring and move forward!

Making changes is part of walking in love. Because we live in a fallen world with demons in it while our spirit is trapped in our flesh suit, all of us have unloving habits and issues we need to address. I never grew up with godly parents who knew the Word, so I had to instill this into myself. Some of us were raised to hold offense, to seek revenge, to be selfish and be critical and rude and superior to others! You have to decide that will not be the normal for your life. You are born again and have the Holy Spirit inside you.

When you notice you are out of the path of love, and not letting the love inside you out, make a change. I had to start really from square one as no one taught me this as a child. Now, praise God, it was different for our children, we were teaching them this as toddlers! And I recommend all parents do the same – show your children how to be loving, live loving in front of them, and if you miss it apologize to them.

Go and read 1 Cor. 13.4-8 in a translation you like, and personalize it. I am patient, I am kind, I am not envious… and start changing your experience of love today.

Next week, I am going to teach you how to deal with love’s greatest enemy!

The Fruit of the Spirit 07: Feed on the Word

I think nearly every single Christian underestimates how powerful the Word of God is. It cleanses us from anything in our life that is keeping us out of God’s will, out of walking in dominion, out of victory and abundance – and out of holiness. The Word is what gives us the power to get answers for our prayer.

So many approach God’s Word as a man-made, man-penned book, and it is not that at all – it is supernatural power. It is alive and full of power, active, operative, energizing and effective (that’s Hebrews 4.12 in the Amplified Classic).

We have to learn to feed on the Word, to get some revelation and some wisdom and some power from it. We have to above all else be full of the Word. We have to read it and expect God to speak to us through it. We need to mix it with the faith that it will work when we read it, that it will change us, it will lead to us being fruitful.

Some of you reading this if you had to sum up your Christian life recently, you would say things like (if you were honest) – going through the motions, it’s dry, I am not really living for God, it’s become routine. Now if that is you, firstly, admit it, secondly, don’t get discouraged – pretending hasn’t helped you walk in love and kindness and forgiveness has it – but admitting it will. Don’t let the devil condemn you – you are not so far from God as you can never be back! You are close to Him and in a moment you can regain your fire and passion. You are still a born again child of God, you are still a new creation, you still have life and you still have fruit! Just surrender to the Lord and get digging into the Word.

Selah!

The Fruit of the Spirit 06: Go Forward (Sexual Purity)

To move forward and be more spiritual in this world takes a lot of effort. We live in a world where every TV show has fornication and sin. It is insane. In this area of sexuality alone, we have to put the effort in to meditate on the Word and stand on God’s standard. The message that sex before or outside of marriage is harmless and safe could not be more wrong. It violates God’s plan and design for humanity, and it will always bring harm to you. It will always bring you in bondage to the flesh, to the world and to satan.

The entire culture of the world is in place to make you sexually immoral. AI is a brand new technology, but already there are AI-programmes that will make pornography. It’s the world we live in, and it has a voice trying to make you think that if you forget about the Bible, and just do what you want sexually, you will be happy, free – liberated.

This is one of the reasons why you need to put the effort in to liisten to sermons, to read the Word, to hear from God and keep growing. There is a strength and purity that comes from His Word being put into your ears and eyes.

I deal with many Christians who are stuck in sexual sin, because they have no idea of what I said in my last post about sowing and reaping, and they have no passion to put the Word and truth into their soul. They might want to lead worship, preach, heal the sick, have a great ministry, live a great Christian life, shine in their life – but until they deal with this – until they feed their soul some healthy spiritual food – they will keep failing. They will then lose hope and feel like they cannot walk in victory.

They try and change their behaviour but they are not changing what they are feeding on. Once you settle the Word in your heart, and SOW TO THE SPIRIT, then that will weaken your flesh, strengthen your spirit and what seemed impossible will actually become easy.

This can be your testimony, it can be your story. You can sow to the spirit, keep sowing to the spirit, and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You can win, but you need to up your Word intake. Going to church every two to three weeks and playing games on your phone is not going to help you make it. You need to listen, bring your notepad, you need to listen mid-week, you need to listen to other sermons, you need to read books, read the Bible, and fill yourself up so you are strong.

You may not get victory instantly, but if you keep putting God’s Word first, eventually the tables will turn and you will walk in a harvest of spirituality. Be strong – walk in victory – don’t let satan create distractions from the Word and filling yourself with the Word. Don’t let satan get you so busy with your work, the cares of life, and just the business of life! Make time to be still and know that God is God – and you will win in this area.

The Fruit of the Spirit 05: Sow Spirit

You can according to the Bible sow to the Spirit. You see many people when tempted try to go neutral – they watch some TV trying to resist a cigarette, they read a novel rather than call someone they know would be a negative influence. Don’t do that – when the flesh wants to go negative, don’t go netural, go postive. Sow to the Spirit.

Pray in tongues, read the Word, love people. When you start doing those things, you will change automatically. You give God your time and attention, and you will live above the flesh and step into a spiritual lifestyle. You will receive a spiritual harvest from your spiritual seed.

You will think less like the world, and more like Jesus! It’s going to be awesome.

The Fruit of the Spirit 04: Speak Spirit

Your spirit is love, peace, joy, patience and all that good stuff. Your flesh is selfish, grumpy, carnal, foolish and mean.

You need to side with your spirit. The best and most efficient way to do that is with your words. Say yes to your spirit and no to your flesh. If you are tempted to watch pornography, open your mouth and say “I am a spirit, I am full of life and love and peace and purity”, you say “no flesh, I am not submitting to your selfish, impure, ungodly desire, you do not get to control my life and push me into immoral thoughts. Flesh, you are crucified, and you have no strength to tell me what to do, I am more than a conqueror, I am a new creation”.

The more you resist your flesh, the weaker it becomes. The more you submit to your flesh, the stronger it becomes. Learn to resist – make sure your flesh knows what it can do, and what it cannot do. It will eventually stop trying to pull you off course all the time. You may not realize this right now, but your flesh will eventually submit and follow along.

As you keep the Word in your heart by reading, by listening, by submitting, by speaking – you will win, your spirit will win, it will start to lead, and you will be like the Christians that Paul said “by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil”. In other words, the more you use this, the more you speak this, the more you submit to the spirit and resist the flesh, the better you get at it. You train your flesh to resist evil. Your body will stop craving a cigarette, to sleep in on Sunday morning, to watch porn or inappropriate TV or listen to gossip and lies.

Keep fighting, keep resisting.