Upon accepting Jesus as your personal Savior, there starts the journey of growing your spiritual life. Contrary to popular belief, life doesn’t necessarily get easier or problem-free just because you’ve said a prayer, been immersed in water, and started attending church. The truth of the matter is you have to be intentional about living and walking out a life that lines up with the Word of God.
There are many ways you can enhance your spiritual walk from joining a Bible study group to reading books put out by the best Christian authors. However, one way I’d like to talk about is using the fruit of the Spirit. If you’re wondering how you can use the fruit of the Spirit to grow your spiritual life, then keep reading.
The Fruit of the Spirit
In our fast-paced, I want it now society, we’ve been conditioned to have things readily available at our fingertips. I once read that although you can go to the grocery store and buy just about any fruit you want (even if it’s out of season), you can’t go to the spiritual grocery store and buy spiritual fruit whenever you want.
Basically what this means is you can’t pick up the fruit of love today, and then a little fruit of joy tomorrow, then go awhile without getting any. In order for these spiritual fruits to show up and stay in our lives, it’s going to take some work on our part. We have to willingly say “Yes” to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and accept His gentle nudges of conviction and course correction.
If we try to grow our spiritual walk by our own efforts, it will only be a matter of time before we realize that we haven’t truly grown at all. But let us not mistake the time it takes to grow for no growth. Honestly, as long as there is breath in our lungs, we should always seek to grow.
With this in mind, let’s look at the Scripture that talks about the fruit of the Spirit-
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23
I challenge you to find Scriptures about each fruit and journal them. But before you do, let’s look at ways you can intentionally use the fruit of the Spirit to grow your spiritual life.
How to Use the Fruit of the Spirit to Grow Your Spiritual Life
For these examples you’ll want to snag a planner, journal, or a simple spiral notebook. Simply put, you’ll need some space to write these actionable, yet practical, suggestions out.
Choose a Focus Fruit
You can do this on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, but you’ll want to start by choosing one fruit of the Spirit to focus on for whatever duration you choose. The idea behind choosing one fruit is to be intentional about learning this fruit and applying it in your daily life.
Reflect on the Focus Fruit
Next up is reflection. Reflect on what the chosen fruit currently looks like in your life. This isn’t to beat yourself up, rather than give you a starting point on how you can begin cultivating the characteristics of the fruit so they begin to manifest in your life. Turn your reflection into actionable steps that you can do to begin growing the fruit in your life.
Pray About the Focus Fruit
Now it’s time to put some prayer behind the fruit that you’re focusing on. Use scripture to declare and decree ways that you’d like this fruit to be evident and as fuel for actually walking it out on a daily basis. As you find scriptures, journal them out and use them for an in-depth bible study.
Dig Deep in Walking Out the Focus Fruit
This is where the true test comes. You’ve chosen the fruit to focus on, reflected, prayed, and hopefully found some scriptures to stand on… but, now it’s time to walk it out. There are several different facets of life and we don’t want to leave any out. Practice walking this fruit out in every one of them, from friends, family, and self to community and work.
These four steps can be put into a rinse and repeat cycle and be used for however long you want to do it. Keep in mind that there isn’t a “You’ve arrived!” destination in this Christian walk until you meet Jesus face to face, so whether you decide to do this for a little bit or long bit, it’s sure to help you grow spiritually.
Enhancing Every Area of Life With the Fruit of the Spirit
I briefly talked about the four primary areas of life that are greatly impacted by our spiritual life and I want to talk about them a bit more. I want to show you some practical ways you can focus on these areas as you start intentionally working on the fruit of Spirit in your life. You see, those who are in our friend, family, community, and work circles are the ones who often see the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of us. They will also be the ones who start to see the change in our lives once the fruit of the Spirit starts to plant and grow.
To plant, cultivate, and grow in these areas, consider the following:
- Highlight and evaluate distinct ways you are not showing the fruit.
- Be honest with how you are falling short.
- Mention any conditions and how this affects yourself and those in your sphere of influence.
- Write down opportunities and ways you’d like to begin growing the fruit in these areas.
Always keep in mind that taking yourself through these suggestions are not to highlight how you are falling short or always pointing out the bad things you’re doing. We need to put our dirty areas under the microscope so we can clean them up and be more like Jesus, which is His calling for us.
This also gives us the opportunity to be the salt and light in the world. When we are genuinely walking this journey and pouring out the same love, grace, and mercy that Jesus gives us, people’s lives are touched. All we have to do is say “Yes!” and get started.
A Helpful Tool – Spiritual Seeds Planner
As I mentioned above, you’ll want to use a tool of some sort to jot down what you are learning about the Fruit of the Spirit as you begin studying, praying, and applying it to your life and relationships. One helpful idea is the Spiritual Seeds Planner.
The Spiritual Seeds Planner is a planning tool designed to help Christians prioritize living a fruit filled life, guided by the Holy Spirit. Guided by the Fruit of the Spirit, the planner uses a gardening theme concentrating on four garden plots – Friends/Family, Self, Community, Vocation/Work. Each month focuses on one Fruit, detailing actions to plant + cultivate + grow. Actions are planned daily for highest yield. Cute garden themed stickers provide visuals for tracking growth. Unlike any other planner, the Spiritual Seeds Planner prioritizes and plans Spiritual growth over daily “to do” lists and activities focusing on growth rather than achievement.
The Spiritual Seeds Planner includes the following features:
- Easy to follow instructions with visuals
- Vision Board
- Monthly Fruit Focus & Planning Pages
- Monthly Inspirational Prayers
- Weekly Planning
- Beautiful faux leather cover
- Fruit of the Spirit Bookmark with definitions and scriptures
- Fun Garden Themed Stickers
- Back pocket
- Blank pages for notes
- Brown Ribbon Bookmark
- Monthly Tabs
Should you decide that growing your spiritual life with the Fruit of the Spirit is an endeavor you wish to embark upon, I can’t think of a better tool to help you organize, record, and reflect on your goals, thoughts, and prayers. The Spiritual Seeds Planner comes in several color options — Grapefruit Pink, Coconut Brown, and Slate Grey, each with the garden-themed stickers. They also offer some fun and helpful free downloads, including this one that shows you how to use your planner.
If you’d like your own copy of the Spiritual Seeds Planner for 2021, visit their website. You can save 20% by using the code: FRUITOFSPIRIT.
