Realize they’re interwoven - One works with another - One gets stronger the others often get stronger, too.

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You’re single and take Susan, your girlfriend, to a movie she would like - That’s Love, Kindness

And example of what I mean

Behind you sits two noisy young boys. You bribe them to be quiet with candy. That’s Patience, Kindness, Peace, Love

Susan holds your hand - That’s Joy, Kindness, Peace, Love, Gentleness

You sense God approves of Susan for you - That’s Joy, Love

Next level of the fruit of the Spirit requires greater portions- greater love, patience, etc., because the natural reaction to overcome is stronger.

Susan wants a sexual relationship. You say no. That’s Love, Patience, Self-control, Goodness, Faithfulness

She becomes irritable with you. You continue to be attentive to her. That’s Patience, Peace, Self-Control, Faithfulness, Joy

She threatens to end the relationship it is doesn’t become sexual. You tell her you care deeply for her but love God more. That’s Patience, Self-control, Peace, Gentleness, Kindness

Another way to look at it …

She ends the relationship. It’s hurts but you wish her well. That’s Self-control, Peace, Gentleness, Joy

As the fruit of the Spirit become more and more at odds with natural human response, you need greater portions of the fruit to behave in a Godly way. If, for instance, she enlisted her friends to chide you, laugh at you, question your manhood, to resist you’d need greater portions of Goodness, Self-control, Joy (in the Lord), etc. As you grew stronger in Love (loving her even though she was abusing you), you would also grow stronger in Goodness, Self-control (you’d want to throttle her friends, but don’t), Patience (you’d want to fly off the handle but you remain calm) and peace (you remain calm).

You’re in a hurry. You jump in the car, peel out to the street, end up behind a slower moving truck. Which Fruits of the Spirit are in play? All of them, and here’s why:

• Patience: You’re being forced to slow down. Your speed advantage is taken away.
  Love: You know what you called the truck driver. No love there.
  Peace: You’re agitated. There’s nothing peaceful in your thoughts or demeanor.
  Joy: You’re angry. You want to get around this guy. No joy anywhere.
  Kindness: By bobbing and weaving behind him, you’re making the truck driver’s life miserable
  Goodness: You want to break the law and speed
  Faithfulness: The only faith you have is in speed. You haven’t considered that God is in charge of the clock, too.
  Gentleness: You’re being hostile and boorish.
  Self-Control: You’re very close to causing an accident.

How might God work in this situation …?

Because you’re a guy, and less sensitive to warnings about love, peace, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, but more sensitive to admonitions about Self-Control and breaking the law, you hear a voice in your head say, “Hey, Bill, you’re trying to break the law here. Is that something a Christian ought to do?” Instantly your foot leaves the accelerator. You slow down, assess your emotions, find that you’re not controlling yourself very well, and you calm down. God (the Holy Spirit) has your attention. The following occurs with the other fruits of the Spirit within you:

• Patience: We all know as Christians we should be patient. God tells us often to wait on Him. You instantly realize this and work within you to take on a demeanor of patience.

• Love: This is another of the stalwarts. We’re to love our neighbor as ourselves. You realize this truck driver is just doing his job. In your heart to apologize to him and pull back a couple car lengths

• Peace: You realize that God’s in control, so much so that He took charge right in your car, and since He’s telling you to slow down, He must have a plan to take care of the clock for you. You sense a peace in that. Realize that when you and God are aligned there is peace.

• Joy: You don’t think about joy at all. Yet you experience it when you realize that God is ever taking care of you and had your best always in mind.

• Kindness: Like Joy, you don’t think about kindness, you don’t think about not bugging the truck driver as kindness, you think of it more as self-control. Understanding kindness will come later.

• Goodness: Goodness is associated more with being law-abiding and so you equate the episode as a lesson in keeping the law.

• Self-control: You hit yourself hard on self-control and law breaking. But you’ve thought about the others. The next time you find yourself in this situation, you grumble when it happens, but then quickly realize God’s at work within you and you assume a more patient, faithful emotional stance.

God ups the ante …

God wants you to understand that you can trust Him even in the most difficult situations. You’re due for your first child to be born. Your wife’s contractions are beginning. She’s prone to difficulties so that doctor told you that when they start you have to get her to the hospital ASAP. You take him seriously. You and she jump in the car and immediately you find yourself behind that same truck. Here’s what happens concerning each of the Spiritual Fruits:

• Patience: The instant you see the back of the truck you grunt, groan, slam you hand against the steering wheel, and utter an epithet. But instantly thereafter you straighten. “Okay, God’s in control here. But why would He do this. He knows … Because He wants to keep us safe. He knows how I drive. He wants me, Sydney, and the baby safe.” You ease back a couple car lengths.

• Love: You’re overwhelmed with it suddenly knowing that God has your back, and especially that He has Syd’s and the baby’s back. You feel a tear forming and flick it away nonchalantly hoping Syd doesn’t see. It becomes a moment you never forget. In the future, when you wonder if God’s there, you think of this moment as assurance.

• Peace and Joy: They intermingle here. You think about Joy for the first time in this connection. You remember a Christmas Eve way back when when you looked out your bedroom window and saw Christmas lights reflecting off new fallen snow. So peaceful, so joyful.

• Kindness: By being calm you know you’re being kind to Syd, and in turn, to the baby. You equate kindness to peace and joy, to behaving calmly around those you love and who trust you to give them your best.

• Goodness: Where goodness seemed a bit high brow and not breaking the law seemed more you, being the husband and father you were called to be - in charge, confident, careful, wise, under Christ - now seems like goodness and you like it.

• Self-control: You know that you can work to control yourself because God has the rest of it. He’ll make sure all the rest of it works out. That’s a new revelation to you. Self-control before has meant what it said - control the self, bring the self in line. Now the reason Christians can concentrate on controlling the self became evident to you. God has the rest of it well in hand.

• You have grown to be a stronger Christian by appropriating more and more of the fruits of the Spirit into your daily life.
  
  

God ups the ante again …

It’s years later. You have three kids now. There’s a flood warning. It’s been raining hard for 24 hours. You live in a valley with only one what out. It’s over a bridge which spans a swollen river. That bridge is suddenly threatened. If you don’t get over it in time, it could mean you and your family will end up in a violently watery grave. Into the SUV you jumps, strap the little ones in, make sure Syd is secure, and off you go. And right in front of you in that same miserable truck, now loaded to the rafters and, with every turn of the wheels, sinking more deeply into the muddy road. After less than a mile, the water on the road begins to rise.

If you have a paper and pencil, fill out how God uses this situation in the guy’s life to fill him with even more of the fruits of the Spirit?