Ephesians 5:9

"For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly good." Ephesians 5:9

Have you ever thought The Holy Spirit was leading you to do something un-kind... I have. As a young Christian, I spent years learning to distinguish the difference between the flesh (sin), my soul (inner man, which must be renewed), and The Holy Spirit (Christ's influence on the soul). I would share my experience with Christians and when sharing something unkind in deed or word that I thought was from The Holy Spirit, some other Christians would refer to it as "tough love"... a term that to this day I have not found such word from the bible. In fact, I have found only the opposite. This particular verse is so clear, that I can't make it any clearer.

The root problem is our ignorance (what we have yet to know) of God's Word. The less we know of God's Word, the less we understand about what to expect from The Holy Spirit. The less we understand of what comes from The Holy Spirit, the harder it is to recognize what is from Him or what is still from the worlds influence on our reasoning and inner communication... including the devil! We must stay in God's Word and search ourselves for the things the bible says we should see from The Holy Spirit".

Another problem is simply our lack of experience. We must, "Learn to discern" the leading of The Holy Spirit by asking questions of ourselves about why do this or that. Look for the motivation behind what it is we do. Was I lead to do this, or am I driven by my need, or greed, or pride. Most often we can find the root of what makes us do this or that has nothing to do with God... But we know that it should! Our goal should be to "walk in The Holy Spirit", (live every waking moment in a spirit of love). We "know" from this word today that we should be producing "every form of kindly good. Amen?

Let's pick up with Ephesians verse 5:11 next time.

I love you.