Have you noticed a lack of biblical principles in the world recently? I study a lot of history, and there used to be a very real community and unification on the basic principles of life founded on biblical principles. Even if our grandparents and great-grandparents weren’t Christ-believing, most of their moral, ethical, and physical choices were based on rudimentary biblical principles simply because they were infused within the culture.

Not only did we start school with the Pledge of Allegiance, but we also started it with prayer. Most families didn’t question whether or not you attended church on Sunday—or at least Christmas and Easter. The Bible was treated respectfully, even if someone held it at a distance.

Now, so much has changed. The pursuit of Universalism has almost eliminated the hierarchy of the Bible in government, education, community, and even in some churches! Now, the idea of God has become interpreted by your personal truth, which is based on your interpretations. Even evening TV has limits on what it can show, but taking Jesus’ name in vain has become a free word unassociated with anything hallowed.

So how do we, as Bible-believing Christians, prepare our kids to live in an unbiblical world? How do we teach them to be set apart when being set apart comes with so many convoluted arguments and opinions that often turn the tables, making us look intolerant, unkind, narrow-minded, and unreasonable? Should we teach our children to take a stand for their faith, or is there a different road to take that will inspire less controversy and kickback?

Here are a few ideas you could consider when facing the daunting prospect of raising God-honoring children in a world that no longer recognizes His authority.

1. Teach your children critical thinking.

Gone are the days when we could skate by on our faith without it being analyzed and challenged. Now, in some ways, to defend our faith, we must be able to be lawyers in the courts and present a case before a very skeptical judge. Too often, we teach our children biblical principles by merely justifying our beliefs and lifestyles by saying, “because the Bible says so.” But when you face a world where the Bible is merely a book with little authority, this quickly undermines that statement. When your children grow, they will even wonder where this perceived authority comes from. This is why teaching your children how to think critically is important. How to examine the evidence, make an outline for an argument with supporting logic, and present in a way that isn’t just faith-based. Yes, faith is a huge part of our walk with the Lord, but He has left a myriad of evidence to support His claims and biblical authority. We must teach our kids how to identify and understand it.

2. Teach your children about other viewpoints and belief systems.

Be cautious of being so set apart from the world that your children have no understanding of the world. In an effort to protect them, sometimes we infuse them with only Scripture, so when they enter the world, their only defense is a Book that the world dismisses within seconds. Yes, Scripture is the sword of the Spirit, and we don’t discount that. But we also must learn to understand how others process and perceive it, and we must be well-versed and familiar, so we can respond when we’re challenged with other “truth statements” from other belief systems. Teach your children about the main religions like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and more. Educate them on the various cults, philosophies of thought, and even the discrepancies of Biblical interpretation within the church itself.

3. Teach your children it is okay to interact with the world.

This doesn’t mean embracing the world’s beliefs, tolerating sin, or being inclusive of things the Lord has spoken against. What it means is that we need to teach our children not only is it okay to still interact with others of different beliefs, but it’s also crucial from a gospel standpoint. This is how we will reach others in the name of Christ. Not removing ourselves, but immersing ourselves in people groups that need Him. Jesus spent time with prostitutes, tax collectors, and more. We must teach our children not only to interact with the world but how to interact with them. Teach them how to show the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, and the kindness of Christ, while also teaching them the balance of conviction and standing firm on what they believe.

4. Teach your children the Scripture.

They need to know it inside and out. They need to hide God’s words in their hearts. Be proactive parents and teach them the Word. Not just the Word but where it came from and its history and legacy. Do you know the meanings of the books of the Bible? Do they understand the fundamental concepts of theology? Foreshadowing, what it means to “die to self,” what Old Testament sacrifices meant in light of the coming of Jesus Christ, why the veil was torn and the implications of it at the death of Christ, and so on. This is your child’s spiritual heritage, and they need to know more than just basic Bible stories, a simple prayer of salvation, and the Ten Commandments.

The world is not getting more tolerant of Christianity. Truth is not becoming clearer. Right and wrong are not remaining decisively different. Because of this, our legacies will be our children, and for our children to carry on our spiritual legacies, we must be proactive in teaching them how to survive in their faith.

Be sure that you’re continuing to educate yourself so that you can teach them. Learn about biblical history, archaeology, apologetics, theology, and world religions. Be on the lookout for resources aimed at your children to learn. There are many great biblically-based resources available now that also address the above topics in ways children can understand and learn from.

We pour ourselves into our children’s educations, sports careers, scientific motivations, creative outlets, and so on. It is more vital that we pour ourselves into their spiritual health and foundation. One day, in the not-so-far future, they will be challenged for their faith and beliefs. If they are going to avert being led away, and if they are going to stand strong, then we must be sure they are thoroughly grounded.

In reality, every generation has had to be grounded in their faith. And even though the Bible was more widely accepted, that doesn’t mean that other generations have had it easier. Maybe different, but not easier. This is why Scripture urges us to teach it to our children. Each generation has its own crosses to bear. Let us help our children bear them by infusing them with the information, foundation, and wisdom they will need to be strong warriors for the faith. And pray. Pray over them. For the Word of the Lord to stand true in their hearts as an unbiblical world seeks to wash it away.

Any mom who has tried to fill a plate of food while listening to her child recite the week’s spelling words or the latest French vocabulary for the next day’s quiz knows she needs to pull out her mom genius skills. Food and homework. What could be more important? But the swish of her phone indicates someone needs her genius work skills, and the texter either doesn’t know it’s dinner and homework time or they aren’t thinking about what she is juggling at that moment. The tension of trying to do more than one thing at a time is real for moms.

This happens more than once or twice a week for me, and sometimes I handle it better than others. You probably know this dilemma as well and perhaps have found what works for you but are open to new ideas. Can we pool our ideas and agree on the best solution?!

As a full-time business operator from my home, work is not just contained to my office. Sometimes it’s in our living room or a bedroom with a make-shift “studio” for video calls or recordings. If only people saw what was on the other side of the computer or the desk, right?

I believe we all face the temptation of “let’s do more so that we can have more.” Sometimes I think, Just one more email, and then maybe I can move that project forward, or I have five minutes before we leave, and I can get in a couple of texts before I take my daughter. But I’ve realized that those extra minutes on an email or text I could be spending with a family member are not worth the effort I think it will yield. That tiny seed time could be a deposit toward showing my family, “I’ve missed you today. How did your day go?” Instead, I’m often running right up until the time we need to walk out the door and not focusing on what matters most.

So what do I have to share with you when I “work on” my mom-work-life balance? I can tell you what hasn’t worked well and hopefully encourage you to avoid some of the things I’ve learned as my kids are now teens.

Here’s what I do know:

-Families work best when they know more than a couple of days ahead of time what you have added to the schedule that’s different from the norm. They need more than a few hours and more than “a day’s notice” of what’s happening. This has been my downfall. Lack of communication. Sigh.

-Work, when it’s contained to certain hours, is best contained mentally, not just physically, to that timeframe. When we carry over into dinner and the rest of the evening what happened that day, even if we don’t say anything, but it’s on our mind, we are not able to be present to our family in moments where they are speaking to us or expecting to get our reaction. I’ve missed moments like this and have “take back” moments I wish I could redo.

-The phrase “work to live” or “live to work” has come to mind as I work and help provide for my family. Since my kids outgrew naps and their awake hours increased, over the years, we shifted into their full-time school schedule, and you think you’ll have more hours to work. But we just fill those hours with other things. Running kids to appointments, helping them get what they need to be successful (therapy, basic necessities of life, school needs, etc.), and showing up when they have a sports or other event. After working for 17 years on my own, my motto now is, “What can I downsize on my plate?” Just like downsizing a home or closet (or both!), I want to reduce my schedule so I can be more effective in the hours I work and in the time I have with my family.

-Self-care is so essential that if you put it last, you will lose more time than if you had put it first. Recently, I took some time off going to the gym for my stretch and/or dance movement classes that keep me going. I thought I’d have more time to work, but it backfired. I ended up with back pain, and it cost me time going to therapy and needing to sleep more to help with restoring my body. The interesting thing is that my instructor said, “When your core is tight, your back is stronger.” I thought skipping this essential step wouldn’t make much difference. But if my core strengthening isn’t in place, physically and spiritually, then it will be a heavier load. Not just on my back but my family as well. We need to take care of ourselves, so we can be healthy and are able to show up at work and with our family.

-Know your ideal work time zone (yes, almost like the time zone you live in) and stick to your routine as much as possible. My family knows I’m really of no use past 9:00. Okay, 8:00. Let’s be real. It’s easier to “check out” and read a book or just have some time alone, but 8:30 is when my kids return home from their activities, so that’s an ideal time to be with them. Planning when you can connect with your family is just as important as the phone or video call you had with a client that day. It just doesn’t always go on the calendar. When your family sees that you have those few minutes for them at the end of the day, no matter what has happened, they see you spending the end of the day with them. And that matters – it reaps huge dividends.

Sometimes balance feels more like an endurance race, doesn’t it? Who ever thought that balance could equate to everything fitting together perfectly in its little squares, like a waffle with little compartments? Some of us feel like that waffle with syrup pouring over us like a river trying to find the best spot for each moment to land.

Moms are cruising down the river of career and mommy-ing one moment and paddling upstream with responsibilities the next. It can be quite a load.

There is a wise saying that I often go back and look at in the Bible. Maybe you quote it too: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21 NIV)

My treasures are right in front of me. I enjoy the ministry and opportunities I have through my professional life and can’t see myself doing any other career. But at the end of the day, that’s all it is – a career. I’ve told God several times, and I have to continually check my spirit in this, that if he asked me to give it all up, would I do it? Do I cling too tightly to work and not enough to him? And the most freeing thing for us to say is, “If all of this went away tomorrow, God would still provide.” And he would! And we would be okay. But he gives us the opportunity to learn how to create life in the work he’s given us and the role of mom. And we know when we’re faithful in the small things, he’ll be able to entrust us with more. That might look like work opportunities on a higher level that we aren’t sacrificing to attain or a larger family or more for our family that we didn’t expect.

Did my kids notice that we had tacos two times last week for dinner? Probably not. Do they notice that we have food on the table and that my work helped to provide it? Yes. It isn’t as much what you do to provide, but that you meet the needs of your family that they see. Are you present when they want and need you to be? Showing up for their games and events with school or sports means a lot to kids, maybe even more than a fancy trip or physical belongings that we think will add to our family life.

My daughters do skills on a balance beam four inches across and raised four feet off the ground. They have been trained to get up and do what they do. I watch them, and they are thinking about their skills and landing, not about how they might fall off. I think this is how we can approach life—focusing on our skills and what we do, not on how we might fail or not get it all done. The term “plant your feet” is often used for gymnasts on this apparatus. Let’s be moms who plant our feet where we see them needing to go. Not too many steps or way too far ahead. But right here, right next to where our families need us and our work colleagues can see we are not driving our feet forward beyond where they’re meant to go.

How are you inspired to keep your feet moving on the balance beam where you can be more concerned about where you’ll land? How will you keep cruising when your waffle is a syrupy mess of responsibilities spilling over? Let’s remember that each moment we are stuck worrying about something we did or didn’t do takes away from a moment we could be in that’s forward thinking. Ever wonder why the car’s rearview mirror is so much smaller than the big window in front that we see out of? The best part for you and me is that we get to start over each day. And aren’t we grateful for that?

Every couple who walks down the aisle wants to be together forever and that probably includes being together in eternity, too. But why do wedding vows say, “I take you for my lawfully wedded wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. I will love and honor you all the days of my life”?

Does this mean marriage with our other half ends on earth and does not exist in heaven? Before we answer this, let us try to understand what marriage really means.

God Made Humans for Close Relationships

First of all, let us remind ourselves of God’s nature and character in order for us to understand marriage fully. God has always existed in a perfect, loving relationship between the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, since before creation.

It was not out of boredom or need for a hobby that He created the universe. It was an expression of His goodness and generosity. Consequently, as His image-bearers, humans are made for connecting, for loving, and for belonging.

God has endowed humanity with a relational nature, and the institution of marriage is the deepest expression of it. “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it” are the blessings associated with the creation of mankind as male and female in Genesis 1:27–28.

Essentially, the first way marriage contributes to the service of God is by conceiving and then nurturing children in a godly way.

It is a blessing to have children. Unfortunately, not every married couple is blessed with children. That is a sad fact. Having no children does not mean that a marriage is not a marriage, and God can still be deeply honored through it.

Procreation, however, should be regarded as a costly, sacrificial blessing (Ephesians 6:4), so that they may become fellow gardeners under God to care for his creation.

In all cultures, the universality of marriage has been demonstrated throughout history. As a matter of fact, we live in a fallen world that is different from God’s perfect design that has always existed, including in our time.

Although this is true, most societies recognize the central importance of lifelong marriage between one man and one woman. Our arts and entertainment reflect this to a large extent. Many stories, songs, poems, novels, plays, and films have been centered on love.

Their triumphs are celebrated, their tragedies are mourned, and most of the time they succeed. Shakespeare’s tragedies always end with death, while his comedies always end with marriage.

The central themes of our stories are love and death because they are central to our lives. Whether consciously or unconsciously, all of these stories describe God’s grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

Therefore, the capacity for love between two people cannot simply be regarded as horizontal. Ultimately, it aims to establish a vertical relationship between an individual and God. Our Creator intended for us to have a loving relationship with him or her.

Marriage Symbolizes Christ’s Relationship with His People

Symbolic of Christ’s relationship with His Church, God created marriage as the most intimate of human unions. In marriage, the union between man and woman conceals a truth about God and the Church.

Marriage symbolizes the permanent union God ordained between His Son and the church. This divine plan is symbolized by marriage on earth. In the same way that God intended for Christ and the church to become one body (Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 12:13), He intended that husband and wife become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).

It applies to all marriages, whether they are Christian or not, regardless of whether the parties recognize them as such. The marriage that God instituted at creation represents the final, eternal relationship that He will have with His redeemed people in the New Heaven and New Earth.

Yes, there is marriage in heaven — one grand, final consummation between the Lamb and His Bride, as described in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 19:6–9).

Yet, Christian traditions cite Matthew 22:30, in which Jesus says, “At the resurrection people will not marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” This is also true because what Revelation tries to emphasize is marriage in heaven is with Christ and not pertaining to worldly marriage.

There Is a Big Difference Between Heaven and the World

According to John’s vision, there is no temple in the eternal city since God and Christ the Lamb are its temple, being intimately present with their people. Likewise, the Father and the Son will serve as the city’s sources of illumination, eliminating the need for the sun, moon, or light itself.

Similar to how a lamp is useless under the light of the sun, so will God’s light be brighter than the light of the sun.

When Jesus died on the cross, He desired that the church be holy and without blemish. As a husband desires the best for his wife, Jesus wanted the best for us as well. This is the picture of marriage in heaven, we are literally married to Christ because we are His bride.

Worldly marriages are fleeting, and when we die, they are inevitably severed. Our perfect, everlasting union with God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will take their place as something far more intimate and beautiful.

Therefore, why is it sometimes difficult for us to accept this truth? Could it be a fear of losing physical intimacy or intimacy with others?

Our only way to know what God has given us in this life is first-hand. In faith, we look forward to what He has promised, but we can’t begin to imagine what it will look like in reality.

The institution of marriage was first instituted by God in the order of creation. Marriage is the unchangeable foundation of human life. The purpose of marriage is to enable humans to serve God through faithful intimacy and children.

Christ and the church are likened to the marriage of God and his bride, his bride, the church. A husband should act as a self-sacrificing leader in marriage, and a wife should submit to her husband in a godly manner.

As a visual representation of the gospel, the institution of marriage points to our hope in Christ returning to claim his bride.

With the One Who Matters for Eternity

What God has in store for us on this side of heaven is only a glimpse. No one can imagine what it will be like to no longer be married or given in marriage, or how that could be any better than our current relationships.

But when we are in heaven, we will not be able to think of that anymore because when we are there, we have the assurance that we will have an eternal and intimate union with our Lord, which is far more valuable than our current state, like the sun’s light is to a lightbulb.

This is very comforting to know that we have joy forever and ever and no death can conquer that everlasting union with Christ. Now we can only hope and wait.

College can be thrilling and exciting for your child. But it can also be stressful if not properly planned. Help your child navigate the muddy waters of college by creating a plan with them. Help them make good decisions, both with their money and time, so they can enjoy their experience instead of focusing on the wrong things.

The College Landscape Has Changed

Years ago, kids put undue pressure on themselves because high school was considered college preparation. SAT scores kept kids up on sleepless nights. Parents hired tutors for their kids to get better grades so they could make it into their prestigious schools. But the college landscape has changed. People realize young adults don’t always get their dream jobs straight out of college, leaving them wondering why they even went to college at all. But with a bit of planning and help from parents, that doesn’t have to be the case.

Here are seven ways to help your child plan for college:

1. Save Quickly

Do your best to save as early as possible. But if you find you are running out of time, try to pay down some bills – or even better, pay bills off—so that you have more money to play with each month. The more money you have to spare, the more you can save. Building your savings is similar to a snowball; once you pay extra towards your bills, they get paid off quickly. Once bills are paid off, it frees up more money to save towards college, tuition, room and board, and meal plans. If money is tight, try to see if your child can room with a friend off campus. This will help save additional money and let your savings compound even more.

Another way to grow your savings is to get an extra part-time job. A temporary job will help all that income be designated only for college. Ask your child if they will get another one as well. There may be difficult days, but in the end, when you are enjoying college relatively debt-free, it will have paid off (in more ways than one.)

2. Dream Big

Millennials don’t hold the same values as previous generations. They don’t care about building a big home or working until they’re 65. They just want to know they’re making a difference in people’s lives. They may choose a college based on if they can afford it, knowing they may choose many career paths throughout their lifetime. While their love for frugality is admirable, it is important as parents to help them dream big when it comes to choosing their college. Entrance requirements for SAT scores and other criteria are much lower than they were years ago. Therefore, your child may have an even better chance of getting into the school they’ve always wanted to attend. Help them dream big by applying to their top choice and a couple of schools they would love to go to but don’t think they can get into. It’s a good lesson in taking a leap of faith while also teaching them how to handle rejection.

3. Evaluate Your Wallet

While there’s no harm in dreaming big when it comes to your college, dreaming big may not be possible, given the amount in your wallet. Allocate funds from your weekly or monthly paycheck and put them towards your savings if you receive any additional money. There’s no need to take another mortgage out on your home or empty your savings to help your child plan. In the end, it won’t matter which college they went to as long as they graduated. Additionally, with the plethora of jobs on the market, it is easier to help your child plan now than it was years ago. Don’t be unwise with your money, but at the same time, there’s no need to go into debt for college, either. Discern what is right for you and your family’s budget before making this important decision.

4. Set Measurable Goals

Nothing can feel more overwhelming than when faced with the insurmountable costs of tuition. It can feel like college is an unattainable goal for your family. But is it, or do we just need to plan properly? Set small measurable goals for your child. Ask them to get a job and designate a certain amount from their paycheck. Give them an incentive to save more by matching what they save. They’ll see their savings grow in no time and feel like they are saving for something worthwhile.

5. Prioritize Your Prerequisites

Choosing a major can cause anxiety and stress for your child. Before choosing a major, focus on getting your prerequisites out of the way first. This way, it gives your child time to make a final decision. Even if they think they know what they want to major in in college, chances are they may change their minds. If they choose classes in their major only, they will have wasted precious time and money on courses that didn’t matter in the end. Take the stress out of choosing a major by encouraging your child to do basic 101 classes. This way, they always transfer to another major—or school—if necessary.

6. Get to Know the Community

If your child is going away to another state for school, take time to get to know the community. Survey the area and help them identify grocery stores, theaters, pharmacies, and other essential landmarks they will need to know while there. If they need to take a bus or subway, get a schedule and take a trip on the bus with them so they can get used to that mode of transportation. Figure out where the hospital is as well in case there is an emergency. They instead can take action instead of feeling helpless.

7. Leave a College Legacy

While not every person can go to college due to academic standing or financial issues, some may simply be undecided on whether college is in their future. Have an open and honest conversation about your college memories. If you had a good experience, share that with your child. They will not only want to hear more about your story but also about their family’s legacy. Encourage them to go to carry on the legacy of your family’s love for education. If they are torn about where to go, give them a tour of your alma mater. Show them the dorm room you stayed, the dining hall where you ate your meals, and the quad where you hung out with friends. Create a hands-on experience of what college can be.

College can be fun and exciting. But if poorly planned, it can cause anxiety for your child. But it doesn’t have to. Make your child’s college experience a family affair. Share in your child’s fears about being away from home and share your own fears about letting them go into adulthood. You may not be able to quench every fear, but you can make your child feel like they are not alone. And that’s the best plan you can give them.

In addition to the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Bible also tells us that there are 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit.

As you will see in the Scripture verse I will give you in this article – there is one very special incredible verse that will tell you that God the Father wants to transmit and impart 9 specific fruits of the Holy Spirit up into our personalities.

God wants all of us to enter into a true sanctification process with Him so that He can begin the process of molding, shaping, and transforming us into the express image of His Son Jesus Christ. He wants to make us into a better and more holy people. He wants to transform us by the renewing of our minds. He wants to put right thinking into our thought process.

In the “Sanctification,” I gave you the specific verses from Scripture that showed you that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that this sanctification process is done with you in this life. However, you will not be a passive robot in all of this. You have to be willing to work in cooperation with the Holy Spirit once He begins to start this sanctification process within you.

Your job will be to get into the Word to find out exactly what it is God is going to want to change about you. You will need to find out exactly what godly qualities God will want you to try and “put on” into your personality, and what qualities He will want you to try and “put away.”

This article will be the first of a series of articles giving you all of the appropriate Scripture verses showing you exactly which qualities and attributes God will want to get worked into your personality, and which qualities He will want to pull out of you. And there is no better place to start this series of articles than with the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to start off by keying on some of the more positive, godly qualities that God would really like to get worked into your personality – really study and meditate on these 9 specific qualities.

When God the Father purposely isolates and spells out 9 specific qualities that will be coming direct from His Holy Spirit – then He is really letting you know the extreme importance of these 9 specific fruits.

These 9 fruits are major fruits and qualities that are coming direct from God Himself – and every Christian should do the best they can to work with the Holy Spirit in getting all 9 of these fruits worked into their personality.

I will first start off by highlighting each of these 9 specific fruits so that you can have all 9 of them isolated right at the top of this article. I will then give you the Scripture verse where these 9 fruits are coming from, and then do a brief commentary on each one of these fruits so you can fully understand what each one of these fruits are all about, and how they can dramatically change the quality of your life and state of well-being if you are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to start to work all nine of these fruits into your personality.

Here are the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit listed one right after the other in a numbered format:

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Longsuffering
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self-control

Now here is the specific verse from Scripture where these 9 fruits are being given to us by the Lord:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

Before I get into the appropriate commentary on each of these nine fruits, note the following:

1. The word “Spirit” is with a capital “S” – which means these 9 fruits are coming directly from the Holy Spirit, not from ourselves.
2. What this means is that God’s love, God’s peace, God’s joy, and God’s goodness can start to be transmitted up into our personality. These are His divine attributes and personality qualities that will start to move into the core of our personality.
3. Think about the ramifications of this – that God the Father Himself is allowing us to share in a part of His divine nature by allowing His Holy Spirit to transmit and impart these nine divine qualities right up into our soul and personality!

This is why God the Father is specifically telling us in this verse that these 9 fruits are coming directly from His Holy Spirit – so that we can all fully appreciate the magnitude of such an experience.

Jesus has already told us that He is the vine and we are the branches. The branches draw their life from the vine, not vice versa. Just as the branch draws its life from the vine, so too must we draw our life directly from Jesus. Jesus will release His divine life directly into us through the Holy Spirit in the exact same way that the vine will release the life of the tree into the branches.

In one short, but incredible powerful Scripture verse, God the Father is giving all of us an incredible revelation on what can go on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm for those who are willing to work with Him in this sanctification process.

Now I will go on to describe what each one of these nine fruits are all about and give you definitions from some of the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries, thereby making it easier for you to work with the Holy Spirit once He starts to move in on you to try and impart some of these divine qualities and attributes into the core of your personality.

Love – Fruit of the Spirit Bible Verse

If I had to rank all of the above fruit of the Spirit in their order of possible importance, the quality of love would have to be #1. And this is why it may have been listed as the first fruit in the above Scripture verse.

Due to the extreme importance of just this one quality, I am going to do another article on this quality and title it “The Power of Love.”

This article will also be listed in the Sanctification Section of our site.

There are some very powerful and profound verses from the Bible on just this one quality alone, and it needs to have its own article to do it proper justice.

Here are some of the different definitions on what love is from the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries:

• Unselfish, benevolent concern for another; brotherly concern; the object of brotherly concern or affection
• The self-denying, self-sacrificing, Christ-like love which is the foundation of all other graces
• Unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the well being of another
• The high esteem which God has for His human children and the high regard which they, in turn, should have for Him and other people
• To love, to have affection for someone; to like; to be a friend; the love of brothers for each other

One of the main messages that comes through loud and clear from studying our Bible is the extreme importance that God the Father is placing on that everyone learn how to love Him, love ourselves, love one another, and to even go as far as to be able to love our enemies and those who will try and hurt us.

However, our abilities as fallen humans to love one another is very limited.

This is why it is so important for each and every Christian to work very closely with the Holy Spirit to get this fruit worked up into the core of our personalities.

It is only when the love of the Holy Spirit starts to flow and enter into our personalities can we even begin to love God, love ourselves, and love one another to the degree and to the intensity that God would really like to see from each one of us.

To those of you who will be entering into this sanctification process with the Lord – this quality should be listed as the #1 quality you should really attempt to put on into the core of your soul and personality.

The Holy Spirit will be moving on you very early and very quickly to get this quality imparted into your mind, soul, and emotions due to the extreme importance of it in your walk with the Lord.

You can be the greatest man of God and have some of the greatest gifts of God flowing through you – but if you are not walking with all of this in the spirit of love and humility, it will have all been for naught.

Joy – Fruit of the Spirit Bible Verse

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

In the rough and tough world we live in with all of the crime, disorder, and bad things that can happen to anyone of us at anytime, many Christians have lost a lot of their joy in the Lord as a result of some of the beatings they have taken in this life.

I remember I had a bank teller tell me one time that she very seldom sees people smiling anymore when they come into the bank.

She says no one seems to be happy anymore and everyone seems to be carrying around the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Again, with the imperfections of our own fallen nature, and then you combine that with how people react differently to adversity – some Christians have literally had most, if not all of their joy in the Lord, knocked right out of them.

This is why the above verse from Galatians is so powerful and so needed by every single Christian today.

In this verse, God is telling us that He can transmit some of His godly and divine qualities right up into the middle of us like filling up a new car with its first tank of gasoline.

Many of God’s people need a fresh infusion of His divine qualities due to the leaks that have occurred as a result of some of the beatings His people have taken during the course of their lives.

And the quality of joy is a much needed quality in this day and age. No matter how bad of a beating you may have taken in this life – God can still fully heal, deliver, and restore you if you are willing to work with Him in this healing process.

And one of the things that God can fully restore in you is your joy in Him. And not only can the Lord fully restore what joy you used to have in Him, but He can also increase it to a much greater degree and intensity due to the wording in the above verse – with the quality of joy being one of the 9 specific fruits of His Holy Spirit!

Here are some of the different definitions of what real joy is all about:

1. Great delight; gladness of heart
2. The happy state that results from knowing and serving God
3. That deep, abiding, inner rejoicing in the Lord
4. To rejoice, to be glad
5. Happy, joyful, cheerful, rejoicing, festive

Realize that God can transmit this divine quality right up into your personality – and this will be His joy, not your joy, once it starts to flow up into you.

And once God starts to release His joy into your system, you won’t be able to help but feel it. And once you are able to start feeling it again, it will become much easier for you to learn how to walk back in it in your own daily walk with the Lord.

The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is your strength. This is why it is so important that every Christian have some level of God’s joy operating through them in this life.

Without God’s joy operating in your life, things can begin to dry up. Nothing is ever fun anymore. Everything can start to become a chore. Before you know it, you will want to start to withdraw from others and life in general.

The joy of the Lord can really give you an incredible surge of strength in your own daily walk with God – especially when you have to take on some really tough situations.

This is why each Christian should work very closely with the Holy Spirit in not only getting Him to release His joy into their system, but to also keep it running through them on a very regular and consistent basis.

The Holy Spirit will do this for you if you are open to receiving this divine infusion from Him and are willing to work with Him to keep it properly flowing through you on a regular basis.

Peace From The Fruit Of The Spirit Bible Verse

This is another major quality that we all need operating in our lives, especially with all of the uncertainty of this life and never knowing what is going to happen next.

Jobs are no longer as secure as they used to be. You never know when the company you work for may be bought out and your job will be gone in a flash.

Half of all marriages are still ending up in divorce. We are all forced to constantly live under the threat of future terrorist activity, never knowing when or where the next attack will come from.

With all of this kind of heightened activity that we are all forced to deal with on a daily basis, it becomes very easy to lose your sense of peace, especially your peace in the Lord.

Again, this is one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit can really help you pick up the slack if you start losing your own sense of peace over some of the storm clouds that could come against you in this life.

Realize that the Holy Spirit has His peace to give to you and that He can give it to you in great abundance.

I have found that once His peace starts to flow up into your mind, soul, and emotions, it really is as the Bible says – a peace that surpasses all human understanding – especially when that peace comes in right in the middle of a severe storm cloud that you may be going through.

Here is how the quality of peace is described in some of the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries:

1. The presence and experience of right relationships
2. The tranquility of soul
3. Sense of well-being and fulfillment that comes from God and is dependent on His presence
4. The inner tranquility and poise of the Christian whose trust is in God through Christ
5. Tranquility, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord

The quality of peace should be one of the main qualities that you should try and get worked up into your soul through the Holy Spirit in the sanctification process. Without the peace of God operating in your life, you could become very easily rattled, shaken, tormented, and knocked right off your game in the Lord the first time any kind of adversity should ever come your way.

Longsuffering – Fruit of the Spirit Bible Verse

One of the main definitions of the word longsuffering is that it is referring to patience. And patience is another sorely needed quality in the fast paced world in which we live in today.

Just watch people standing in line at the grocery store or at your local fast food restaurant and watch how short some people’s fuses are today.

Road rage is still a major problem on some of our highways. Look at someone the wrong way and they will want to try and take your head off.

Many people have been killed or seriously injured because someone lost his temper over something that was very trivial.

With the fast-paced ways of our society, many people have had their fuses shortened up and it thus takes very little to set them off. As a result, many people have very little patience operating in their personalities today.

For Christians, this poses a major dilemma. One of the ways of our God is that He is a very patient and longsuffering God. His ways are not our ways.

And one of the things you will find out very early on about His ways is that He works on a much slower time frame than we do. And unless you learn to adjust to His slower way of working things out, you will find yourself easily losing your patience with Him and how He wants to work things out in your life.

God operates on a much longer and slower time frame than we are used to operating in the fast paced world in which we live in.

You will really have to work with the Holy Spirit on this particular quality to get it properly worked up into your personality.

The reason for this is that your own impatience will start to act up and try to override the patience and longsuffering that the Holy Spirit will try and transmit to you. At times, it may become of battle of wills – your will against His will.

But once the Holy Spirit starts to try and manifest this quality up into your personality, then you have to try and move with it and allow it to get worked into your mind and emotions. If you do, then His patience will start to override your impatience, and before you know it, your fuses will start to lengthen and you will not lose your patience like you used to do.

Here are the different definitions for the word longsuffering:

1. Forbearance, patience
2. Patient endurance and steadfastness under provocation
3. Forbearance under ill-will, with no thought of retaliation
4. Patience, endurance, steadfastness and forbearance
5. Forbearance under suffering and endurance in the face of adversity
6. Ability to endure persecution and ill-treatment

With the way all of these definitions are reading, you can really see why we all need the patience and longsuffering of the Holy Spirit to start operating in our souls and personalities – especially when we are forced to face any kind of adversity. Sometimes it will be the patience and longsuffering of the Holy Spirit that will be the only thing that will give you the ability to last the entire length of a bad trial.

Learn how to ride and flow with the patience of the Holy Spirit in your daily life and walk with the Lord – and you will then be able to enter into a much more restful, peaceful state within your mind and emotions.

Kindness- Fruit of the Spirit

As a result of more people being impatient, having short fuses, and with everyone always being in a hurry – many people have lost the ability to treat others with kindness and respect.

A kind word, a kind action to another person can really do wonders for them.

When you really study the life of Jesus in the New Testament, you can really tell how kind He always was with other people in His dealings with them.

Jesus is without question, the ultimate role model for all of us of someone who was fully walking and operating in all 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The quality of kindness will go hand in hand with the quality of love. Once the Holy Spirit starts to transmit His love up into you, the quality of kindness will follow right along with it. It will then become much easier for you to be able to be kind to others once the love of God starts to flow more into your personality.

You cannot help but be more kind to others if God’s love is flowing through you. This is why the quality of love has to be the main quality that you really concentrate on getting more of from the Holy Spirit. Once the love of God starts to flow and operate through you to touch others, many of the other fruits of the Holy Spirit will then start to follow right after it in domino fashion.

Here are some of the different definitions of what real kindness is all about:

1. Quality or state of being kind
2. The steadfast love that maintains relationships through gracious aid in times of need
3. Goodness of heart, serviceable, good, gracious, pleasant
4. Love for mankind, hospitality, acts of kindness, readiness to help, human friendship, benevolence, taking thought of others
5. Goodness in action, sweetness of disposition, gentleness in dealing with others, affability
6. The ability to act for the welfare of those taxing your patience

As you can see from some of these different definitions, this is a very beautiful quality to have transmitted up into your soul and personality by the Holy Spirit. Not only will you be able to touch others with this godly quality, but you will also be able to touch yourself – because you will feel so much better about yourself if you can learn how to treat others with much more kindness and respect in your daily dealings and affairs with them.

Goodness – Fruit of the Spirit Bible Verse

The Bible says that it is the goodness of God that will lead sinners to repentance and salvation.

The quality of goodness is another real powerful quality to have operating through you.

This particular quality has a real drawing power to it. Not only does the goodness of God draw people direct to Him, but this fruit of goodness operating in a believer can also draw people direct to God through the actual believer.

Spirit-filled saints who are walking with many of these fruits operating through them are like a magnet.

Many people who have been saved through an individual believer say that what drew them in was the love and goodness they saw shining through that believer.

Jesus says that we are to carry His light and let that light shine before men and not attempt to hide it.

Part of His light are these 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit shining through an anointed believer. Nonbelievers are really drawn to someone who has some degree of these nine fruits manifesting through their personalities.

However, there is something extra special about the quality of goodness. Many Christians can effectively witness to others by just living right and being a good example and role model for others to follow.

Many nonbelievers carefully watch and study some Christians because they know there is something really different about them.

One of the key qualities a nonbeliever will pick up on in a solid Christian is this quality of goodness. This quality has an ability to really get down deep into the core of a believer’s personality.

To those who really have this quality, you can tell that it is something operating deep down inside of them.

This quality is not something that waivers like some of the other qualities can do. These people are good down to their very cores of their personalities. You can see it and feel it when you get around these types of people.

As a result of seeing this God-like goodness deeply ingrained into their personalities, there is an immediate drawing towards them. You feel totally safe being around them because you know you can totally trust them, and you know they would never deliberately hurt you.

Children are quick to sense and pick up on this quality in people who really have it. These types of Christians draw children and adults to them like magnets.

This is why this particular fruit and quality is so important for each Christian to have. Because with it, you can easily draw many more people to the Lord.

If the goodness of God will lead people to repentance and salvation with Him – then the goodness of God operating through an anointed believer will have the ability to draw nonbelievers into salvation.

And the goodness of God can be transmitted and worked up into your personality through the power of the Holy Spirit.

You can have the actual goodness of God shining through you to reach others if you are willing to work with the Holy Spirit in this sanctification process.

Now here are some of the different definitions of what this quality is all about:

1. Beneficence, ready to do good, love in action
2. Kindness in actual manifestation, virtue equipped for action, a bountiful propensity both to will and to do what is good, intrinsic goodness producing a generosity and a Godlike state or being
3. The word beneficence means the fact or quality of being kind or doing good

This particular quality is a very powerful fruit to have operating in your personality because of the drawing power it has in it.

And the beautiful part about this fruit is that this quality is so pure in its goodness – it does not have any manipulative qualities within it.

In other words, a truly good person could not even begin to try and use you or manipulate you for their own personal gain because they are too good and righteous to even begin to think along those lines.

This is why these kinds of people are so trustworthy and why so many people are drawn to them – because you feel so safe by just being around them.

Faithfulness – Fruit of the Spirit Bible Verse

In the times we live in with half of all marriages still ending up in divorce, and with many people getting back-stabbed in the workplaces with people they thought they could initially trust – this particular quality is one that is really needed in our day and age.

This quality is not only needed in our own personal relationship with God, but it is also needed in our own personal relationships with our friends and our families.

Once you are saved and have entered into a true personal relationship with the Lord – one of the first things you will really have to grab a hold of is holding fast to the Lord and staying faithful to Him for the rest of your eternal life.

Once you are saved and have entered into a true personal relationship with the Lord, there is no turning back – ever!

This is what got the Jewish people in major trouble with God the Father back in the Old Testament. They could not stay faithful and loyal to Him on a consistent and regular basis.

There were times that God the Father was literally calling them harlots and adulterers because they would not stay faithful to Him, especially when they kept chasing after other gods.

God the Father really holds this particular quality in high esteem, and this is one quality that He will really expect you to operate very strongly in – not only in your own personal relationship with Him, but also in your other personal relationships with your family and friends.

In other words, He wants you to be faithful and loyal to your spouses, to your children, to your parents, and to your good friends.

Too many people are bailing out from their spouses and their children if they hit a few minor speed bumps in their marriages.

Too many spouses are having affairs behind their spouse’s back, thereby destroying all of the trust and faithfulness that may have been built up in the early years of their marriages.

Too many fathers are bailing out of their marriages, and then forgetting and forsaking their own children – and sometimes for good, never wanting to see any of them ever again!

If God brings you a wonderful mate, wonderful children, and good and wonderful friends – then He will expect you to stay loyal and faithful to all of them in your own personal relationships with them. A true friend will stay by your side for life – through thick and thin and for better or for worse.

Just as God will stay faithful to you in His own personal relationship with you – He will expect you to stay loyal and faithful in your own personal relationships with the other people in your life.

Now here are what some of the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries have to say about this particular quality:

1. Fidelity which makes one true to his promise and faithful to his task
2. Steadfast, dedicated, dependable and worthy of trust
3. Steadfast, unchanging and thoroughly grounded in relation to the other
4. Dependability, loyalty and stability

With the self-centered and materialistic world in which we now live in, where many people’s only goals and ambitions are to get as much as they can out of this life while they still can – I am afraid this is one quality that is in very short supply.

Most people are lucky if they manage to make 2 or 3 good, loyal, and faithful friends in this lifetime.

This is one quality that God the Father is really watching all of us on. He is watching who is going to stay true, loyal, and faithful to Him – and who will stay true, loyal, and faithful to the friends and family that are brought into our lives.

The flesh is strong – especially in the area of wanting to satisfy its lust for the material things of this life. This is why this quality is one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We all need the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit worked into us to help us keep loyal to God, family, and friends.

Gentleness- Fruit of the Spirit

Many men may draw back a bit from this next fruit, which is the quality of gentleness. However, Jesus was fully incarnated into a human flesh body – but this incarnation was done as a man – fully Man and fully God.

Since Jesus walked our earth as a man – the Son of Man – study His actions very carefully when you read the gospels and how He handled different types of people.

There were times that He would engage and set people straight, like He did with some of the Scribes and Pharisees. But there were other times that He dealt with people very gently, with kindness and love.

His gentle way of handling some of these people is what really jumps out at you when you really study how He handled different types of people.

Again, Jesus is the perfect role model for all of us to study and learn from – especially with how He handled people while He was walking down here on our earth. For men in particular, His actions and behavior towards others should be a major study for all of us and we should seek to pattern our own daily walk after Him.

And one of the divine qualities that He had operating in Him with great abundance was the quality of gentleness.

The quality of gentleness is another major quality needed in our world today. So many people have been beat up and hurt in their dealings with other people – that just a gentle word, a gentle touch from another Christian can really open up the door for that person to be able to receive Jesus and His healing, saving, and deliverance power into their lives.

Once you really start walking in the Holy Spirit with His divine fruits operating and flowing through you – you will really be able to feel and sense when you should handle a certain person or a certain type of situation with more of a touch of gentleness rather than with any kind of stern rebuke or condemnation.

There is a time for tough love – but there are also times that just a gentle and loving touch is all that is really needed to properly handle a certain situation.

The Holy Spirit will guide you in all of this. Just realize that the quality of gentleness is one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit, and this is one of the fruits that He would really like to get worked into your personality, especially in being able to use it when dealing with and helping out others.

Parents especially need this fruit operating through them, as it is very easy to get out of balance with the way you are correcting your children. Sometimes more of a tough love approach is needed, but at other times more of a gentle approach will be better suited for the situation.

If all your children ever hear from you are stern words of rebuke and criticism, and it is never properly balanced out with words and actions of love, kindness, and gentleness – then after a certain period of time your children will start to pull away from you, and they then will have no more desire to want to establish any type of good, solid, loving relationship with you.

Now here are some of the different definitions on the quality of gentleness:

1. Mildness combined with tenderness
2. Gracious, kindly disposition, controlled strength
3. A disposition that is even-tempered, tranquil, balanced in spirit, unpretentious and that has passions under control
4. A character that is equitable, reasonable, forbearing, moderate, fair and considerate
5. Power and strength under control
6. Willing to pardon injuries, correct faults. One who rules his spirit well

Not only will other people love and gravitate towards you more if you learn how to walk in this quality – but you will be at much more peace with yourself since you won’t always have to be fighting and striving with others when trying to help them out.

Self Control – Fruit of the Spirit Bible Verse

Last, but not certainly least, is the quality of self-control. This one is huge, and I mean huge!

Once you start to enter into a true sanctification process with the Lord – expect the Holy Spirit to move on you very early with this specific quality.

The reason for this is that we all have a certain amount of character flaws operating in our personalities. There are some bad and negative qualities that will have to go.

The Bible tells us that our spirits and our flesh will war against each other in this life. Our flesh wants immediate self-gratification at all costs and will stop at nothing to try and get it.

Our spirits know that some of our fleshly desires are not right for us and as a result, there will be a tug of war between the two – and sometimes it will be a major tug of war. And the only thing that will be able to control and curb some of the desires of our flesh is the quality of self-control.

Since we all live in a very self-centered and materialistic type world today, many people have very poor impulse control. If they see something they immediately want, they will do anything they can to try and get it. They will not be denied until they get what they are going after. These people are obviously very weak in the quality of self-control.

This is why the Bible tells us that if we can learn how to really walk in the Holy Spirit, then we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh.

Due to our fallen and sinful natures, all of us are weak to some degree in the quality of self-control. This is why God the Father made sure to have this fruit listed as one of the 9 fruits of His Holy Spirit.

We all need God’s self-control operating in our lives and in our personalities if we are going to have any hope in getting cleaned up and properly sanctified to the degree that He would like to get us to in this life.

If you do not have God’s self-control operating through you – you will have very little victory over such things as bad tempers, judgmental and critical spirits, an unforgiving spirit, and vices such as smoking and the abuse of alcohol.

Once the Holy Spirit starts this sanctification process within you – be prepared for some major battles and tugs of wars with Him once He starts coming after some of the negative qualities operating in your personality.

But if you are willing to yield to Him and allow Him to start to work all 9 of these fruits into your personality – then you will find yourself starting to grow in ways and in areas that you never thought were possible in this life.

His supernatural power in this area will blow you away once you see how far He can really take you to become the person that God would like you to become in Him in this lifetime.

Here are some of the definitions of what the quality of self-control is all about:

1. Temperance, rational restraint of natural impulses
2. Sober, temperate, calm and dispassionate approach to life, having mastered personal desires and passions
3. Calls for a self-disciplined life following Christ’s example of being in the world but not of the world
4. Restraint or discipline exercised over one’s behavior

The above definitions perfectly describe what God is looking for once He starts to work and transmit this quality up into our personalities. This specific quality is one of the major keys in being able to get any kind of victory over some of the lusts and desires of our flesh.

Conclusion

All of the above definitions on each one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit give you a perfect description of what each one of them are all about, and why God the Father really wants to work each one of these 9 fruits into our personalities.

As you can see when reviewing each one of them, they are all very powerful – and they not only have the ability to help change, transform, and sanctify you – but they also have the ability to touch all of those around you.

Nothing will draw nonbelievers and believers alike to the Lord than a truly sanctified saint in the Lord who is walking and operating in all 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit.

If you are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work and transmit all 9 of these fruits up into your personality to some appreciable degree in this life – you will then become a light that will literally radiate the presence of God Himself through your soul and personality.

You have no idea how many people you will be able to save, touch, witness to, and help disciple if you have these fruits operating through you. These fruits will give you a credibility with God and with other people that no degree or title can give you in this life.

This sanctification process is the ultimate, highest aim and goal with God for our lives.

For those of you who are not afraid to let God begin this deeper sanctifying work in your life – keep these 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit directly in front of you.

And then work very closely with the Holy Spirit once He starts to manifest these fruits up into your personality.

These fruits will be coming directly from Him. They will be His love, His goodness, His joy, and His peace that will start to flow into you. But you will still have to do your part in all of this. Once these divine attributes start to be released into your personality by the Holy Spirit – your job will then be to start to walk and operate in them.

If the Holy Spirit starts to release His quality of love into your personality, but you start refusing to walk and operate in that love in your words and actions to others – then He will start to pull it back from you after a reasonable length of time.

Now I will list top 6 different ways that the Holy Spirit will lead us and communicate to us in this life. So you can have all of them right at the top of this section, I will go ahead and list all of them in a bolded, numbered format so you can have all of them at a quick glance.

• The Inner Witness – The Inner Knowing
• The Word of God
• Leadings
• Visions
• Dreams
• Prophecies

Again, I know some people freak out once you attempt to step into this kind of supernatural realm with the Holy Spirit. But this is where each Christian has to make their own choice as to whether or not they want to tread into these kinds of deeper waters with the Lord.

You can either learn how to do all of this with the Holy Spirit, or you can choose to let this supernatural realm go and just stay on the path that you are already walking on if you have never had any of this kind of activity before with the Holy Spirit.

Many of you will know exactly what I will be talking about below, as you have already stepped into this realm with the Holy Spirit and have learned how to play this kind of game with Him.

However, if this is all new to some of you because you have never been taught any of this in the churches you have been raised up in, then you will need to make a decision with the Lord as to whether or not you will want this supernatural realm opened up for you by God the Father.

If after reading the captions below you decide you would like God to open up this supernatural realm for you, then all you have to do is go direct to God the Father in prayer and ask Him to allow the Holy Spirit to become very active in any of these 8 different ways in which He uses to communicate to us.

Tell God that He has a solid, green light from you to open up this realm if it will be His perfect will to do so at your present level of spiritual development with Him.

If you put that kind of special request before God, then He will take you very seriously and He will then very gradually lead you into this realm and from there, the Holy Spirit will start to move in some of these different areas for you.

The Holy Spirit will also show you how to discern when it really is Him communicating to you as versus when it is just your own emotions or imagination talking to you.

Now I will take you into top 6 different ways the Holy Spirit will use to supernaturally communicate to us in this life.

1. The Inner Witness – The Inner Knowing

In my opinion, this is the number one way that the Holy Spirit will communicate to us in this life. Here is the specific verse where this piece of revelation is being given to us by the Lord:

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:16)

“I tell you the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit …” (Romans 9:1)

The first verse is telling us that the Holy Spirit Himself bears witness in our human spirit that we are children of God. And if the Holy Spirit can bear witness in our human spirits on that issue, then I believe He can also bear witness in our spirits with other things as well.

And then the next verse will prove that to you. The apostle Paul gives us additional revelation when he says that his conscience was also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit was bearing a good witness for Paul in his conscience, which I believe is part of our human spirit.

The key word in these two verses is the word “witness.” The Holy Spirit is bearing witness to something in our human spirits. And what exactly is a good “witness” when we do receive one of these from the Holy Spirit?

Jack Hayford, in his excellent book, Hayford’s Bible Handbook, defines a witness or witnessing as the following:

Giving evidence, attesting, confirming, confessing, bearing record, speaking well of, giving a good report, testifying, affirming what one has seen or heard, presenting the gospel with evidence

The first verse above where the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with our spirits that we are saved lines up with some of the above definitions from Mr. Hayford such as confirming, attesting, confessing, and bearing record. In other words, the Holy Spirit is confirming in our spirits that we are saved and that we are now children of God.

When you really cut into this word as it is being used in the first verse above, another word for the inner witness would be that it is an inner knowing.

The Holy Spirit will transmit the knowledge He wants you to have on something as a strong, inner knowing.

I am sure you have all heard many people say, “I had a good witness on that pastor’s preaching today.” Some people say that the inner witness is a “knowing without any shadow of a doubt.” They will use the slang expression, “You know, that you know, that you know, without any shadow of a doubt.”

Other people call this inner knowing an illumination, an enlightenment. All of a sudden you receive supernatural illumination, supernatural enlightenment on what a Scripture verse may mean. I personally like the term, “inner knowing,” to best describe how the Holy Spirit supernaturally communicates to us in this life.

When the Holy Spirit communicates something directly to you through this inner witness, it will be a knowing without any shadow of a doubt. When you receive one of these for the first time, you will know that it has come directly from the Holy Spirit due to the strength and conviction of it.

After you start to receive these kinds of inner knowings from the Holy Spirit, you will soon learn how to discern when one is really coming in from Him, or when one is just coming in from your own natural imagination and emotions.

A true, inner witness from the Holy Spirit will come out of your spirit – it will not come out of your head, your imagination, or your emotions.

That will be the first “tell” that what you are receiving is coming directly from the Holy Spirit.

Some people refer to these inner witnesses as a “gut knowing or gut feeling.” How many times have you heard people use the slang expression that their “gut” was telling them what they needed to do, and then later on it turned out to be right. Those “gut knowings” or “gut feelings” are many of the times the inner witness from the Holy Spirit.

If you get a strong, gut feeling not to get on a plane, and you then decide to heed that warning and hours later that plane ends up crashing, then you know that gut warning was coming in direct from the Holy Spirit since you do not have the ability to see into the future like He can.

Many, many people have received those gut warnings not to do something specific, and many of the times, those gut warnings turned out to be 100% accurate, which again means that many of them were coming in direct from the Holy Spirit Himself.

My take on the above two verses is this:

If the Bible says that the Holy Spirit can bear witness in our own human spirits that we are saved and that we are truly the children of God – and He can also help out the apostle Paul on the issue he was dealing with where He bore witness with Paul’s own conscience, then this tells me the Holy Spirit can also bear witness with many other things in our life as well.

What I have personally found out in this realm is that the Holy Spirit will communicate knowledge to you through this inner knowing, through this inner witness. When you receive this inner knowing about something specific, you will not hear an audible voice or hear any type of inner words coming up on you.

What you will receive is just a good, clear, inner knowing on the message being transmitted to you.

For instance, say you have been meditating on a particular Scripture verse, but you just cannot seem to get the correct interpretation on what it may mean or how it can apply to your life.

And then all of a sudden one day, the Holy Spirit gives you a strong, inner knowing as to exactly what this verse means and how it can apply to your personal life.

What the Holy Spirit will do is transmit the interpretation of that verse through the inner knowing. All of a sudden you will “understand” what this verse means and you will then be able to “see” the true meaning behind the words.

This is supernatural enlightenment and illumination that the Holy Spirit can give you on many of the verses in the Bible.

It is His job to actually open up the meaning of Scripture for you so you can understand what you are reading and from there, how to get some of these incredible spiritual truths worked into your daily walk with the Lord.

And not only can the Holy Spirit communicate to you the meaning of certain Scripture verses through this inner witness – this inner knowing, but He can also do this on many of the other things in your daily life as well. He can give you strong, inner knowings on the following:

• Who you should be marrying in this life
• When you should take the next new job God will want to give you
• How to solve any problems you may be having in school or at work
• How to handle a problem or roadblock that may have occurred in your marriage
• How to handle all of the problems that will occur if you have just lost your job
• When to move in on someone to witness to them

There is just an infinite number of things that the Holy Spirit can communicate to you on so you can try and get through this life in one piece and try to handle all of the problems that may come your way.

Per our article on the 9 gifts of the  Spirit, two of the 9 gifts are the Word of Knowledge and the Word of Wisdom. And for the most part, we believe that a lot of these words of knowledge and wisdom will come to you through this inner witness, this inner knowing.

That is why it is extremely important that each Christian learn how to receive these inner witnesses from the Holy Spirit, so they can then receive actual communication from Him as to exactly what He wants them to be doing with some of the specific issues that will be occurring in their daily lives.

The Holy Spirit is called the Helper in the Bible, but He cannot help you with some of the things you will need help on unless He can first communicate directly to you on exactly what He wants you to do.

The ability to pickup up these inner witnesses, these inner knowings from the Holy Spirit will only come to you through a process of trial and error. Your mind will receive the inner knowing out of your spirit. And if it is truly from the Holy Spirit, then you can totally depend on it and from there, act on it if any kind of action will need to be taken.

2. The Word of God

The next way that the Holy Spirit will communicate knowledge to you is sometimes by giving you a direct verse from Scripture. All of a sudden, you will see a Scripture verse float up right in front of your mind’s eye.

And when you see this particular Scripture verse, you will see the meaning of the verse and how it will answer the particular problem or dilemma you may be dealing with.

The Bible is just loaded with an unbelievable amount of spiritual truths, and many of these spiritual truths will be the answer to many of life’s problems that we will all encounter.

And if there is a particular Scripture verse that will answer a problem you may dealing with, then there is a very good chance that is how the Holy Spirit will help you solve the problem – by giving you the actual Scripture verse that will solve the problem.

I cannot tell you how many times over the course of my life that the Holy Spirit will bring back up to my remembrance a certain Scripture verse that will solve or answer the problem I may dealing with.

I have actually come to the conclusion that if there is an actual verse from the Bible that will solve the problem, that will be the first thing the Holy Spirit will want to give you.

This is why it is so important for each and every Christian to spend as much quality time as they can in loading up their mind with the Word.

If you do, then the Holy Spirit can bring back up to your remembrance certain Scripture verses when you may need them because you have already done your part by getting the Bible verses “in you.”

3. Leadings

In addition to communicating a direct message to you, the Holy Spirit can also give you “leadings” on what to do and what not to do. Again, here is the verse that will show us that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to lead us in this life, along with another verse showing us that Jesus Himself was also willing to be led by the Holy Spirit when He was walking down here on our earth in the flesh.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1)

If God is telling us that we are to be led by His Holy Spirit, and then He shows us that His own Son Jesus was also led by the Holy Spirit, there can be no other conclusion to come to other than God wants all of us to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit in this life.

When it comes to these basic leadings, some people have different terms to describe it when it does come in on them from the Holy Spirit.

Some people will say I had a “leading” from the Holy Spirit to take that new job. Other people will use the terms “unction” or “prompting.”

They will say they felt or sensed an unction or prompting from the Holy Spirit to do something specific.

These leadings from the Holy Spirit can be anything from a very gentle nudging to something that could be much stronger.

When you get a real strong leading to do something specific, it will feel like God has His big hand on the small of your back pushing you forward.

You will feel the wind at your back to move in that certain direction.

You will feel or sense a very strong unction, a very strong prompting to move in that direction.

However, if God does not want you to move in that certain direction, then you will feel or sense no leading at all from the Holy Spirit.

When you think of moving in that direction, you will get a real flat witness from the Holy Spirit. There will be no inner witness to move forward.

You will have no peace to move in that direction. If that is what you are picking up when thinking about moving in a certain direction, then that is the Holy Spirit’s way of telling you to let it go and not to move in that certain direction.

Again, being able to pick up these kinds of leadings from the Holy Spirit is something that you will learn through a process of trial and error with Him.

After you have received quite a few of these leadings from the Holy Spirit, you can then become quite adept at being able to tell when a leading is coming in directly from Him or when it is coming in from your own natural desires and emotions.

5. Quickenings

Another very interesting way that the Holy Spirit will use to communicate something to you is through an actual quickening. A quickening from the Holy Spirit is when He will “jump” something at you. For instance, if you are reading the Bible, you may find a verse or two that will jump off the pages at you and hit you right between the eyes.

Whenever the Holy Spirit quickens something like this to you, this means you are to grab a hold of it and examine it to see exactly what the message is that He is trying to convey to you. If you are dealing with a specific problem, He may quicken a verse to you that will help solve your problem.

You can also have words from preachers jump at you. You could be driving down the road in your car listening to a pastor teach on the radio when all of a sudden something he says jumps right out at you through the radio.

And again, when this happens, this is the Holy Spirit’s way of bringing you knowledge He may want you to have on something specific.

Another area where this could occur at is at your local Christian bookstore. You will be in the bookstore browsing all of the books in there when all of a sudden a particular book will jump off the shelf at you.

When that happens, there is a very good chance that is the Holy Spirit quickening that particular book to you.

If that should ever happen to you, you should pick up the book to see what it is all about.

There may be information in there that will help you in your walk with the Lord, and the Holy Spirit may want you to buy the book so you can add it to your storehouse of knowledge in the Lord. I cannot tell you how many times He has personally done this to me over the years.

And every time He does it, I always end up buying the book because there is key information and knowledge in that book that I needed to have for my own personal growth in the Lord.

I know many of you have had these kinds of experiences with the Holy Spirit. Some people will use the slang expression that something really “jumped” at them when they first heard it.

And in most of these cases, that word or message that was quickened to them by the Holy Spirit was something they really needed to hear at the time it happened.

Again, after you have received quite a few of these quickenings from the Holy Spirit, you can easily learn to sense and discern when it really is the Holy Spirit doing this for you.

Also, do not go “looking” for these quickenings to occur. Let them come naturally to you by the Holy Spirit.

6. Visions

The next three ways the Holy Spirit will communicate to you – visions, dreams, and prophecies – are all coming from this one verse out of Joel.

Here is the next verse that will completely set the stage for you on these next three ways the Holy Spirit will use to communicate something specific to us:

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28-29)

Notice that visions, dreams, and prophecies are all directly connected to the Holy Spirit Himself.

This verse is also implying that when He is really poured out, dreams, visions, and prophecies are going to be given to many of God’s people, not to just a few select saints. Many people believe that this outpouring has already begun, but that it will intensify in the coming years ahead.

In this caption, I will discuss the different kinds of visions you can receive from the Holy Spirit.

There are two basic types of visions that you can receive from the Holy Spirit.

One is called an “open vision.”

The other is called a “closed vision.”

A)  Open Vision – an open vision is when you receive a vision with your eyes wide open. Many of these visions will be in actual 3-D and if God should allow it, you can actually be a part of that vision itself.

John the Revelator was receiving these kinds of heavy, open visions when God was giving him visions on what was going to happen at the end of times. Some of the prophets in the OT also received these kinds of heavy, open visions.

But for the most part, they are very rare, and most Christians will never receive these kinds of open visions from the Holy Spirit. But please note, that could all change in the coming years as more of that verse from Joel starts to come to pass.

B)  Closed Vision – the second kind of vision you can receive from the Holy Spirit is what is called a closed vision. A closed vision is when you receive a vision in your mind’s eye. Another word for this is that you will receive a “picture in your mind’s eye.”

Though a closed vision does not seem to be as heavy or as dramatic as an open vision is, do not let that fool you. They are both visions and a closed vision is just as powerful and just as dramatic as an open vision is.

Though many people will never receive an open vision in their life, not so with the closed vision. The Holy Spirit loves to give these closed visions and He will do it quite frequently to those who will be open to receiving them, since a closed vision is receiving a picture in your mind’s eye.

Again, you will have to learn through a process of trial and error when a vision is coming in from your own natural imagination or when it is coming in direct from the Holy Spirit.

The reason the Holy Spirit loves to give these inner closed visions is because a lot more information and knowledge can sometimes be communicated to you through a vision or picture in your mind’s eye. You have all heard of the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.

That saying right there perfectly describes why the Holy Spirit loves to give you these closed inner visions – because sometimes He can communicate a lot more knowledge and information to you.

However, these closed visions can come in on much smaller matters as well. For example, say you just lost your car keys and you cannot seem to find them anywhere in the house. What you don’t know is that your dog has just knocked them underneath your bed.

If the Holy Spirit wants to tell you where they are located at since He is called the Helper in the Bible, He can either give you an inner knowing, an inner witness to look underneath your bed, or He could give you an actual closed vision, with the vision showing you that the keys are lying right underneath your bed.

Many of the times, He will choose to give you that picture in your mind’s eye of where the keys are located.

What I have found from personal experience is that the Holy Spirit can give you these closed inner visions on very small and trivial matters like where you may have misplaced your cars keys at, to much larger and heavier issues in your life.

In other words, there is nothing He cannot give you a closed vision on to help you out with something, or if He wants to use a closed vision to communicate a specific piece of knowledge to you.

What you will have to learn on this is how to discern when a picture in your mind’s eye is really coming in from Him, or when it is coming in from your own natural imagination, since your own natural imagination has the power and the ability to draw up its own pictures in your mind’s eye.

One of the ways that you can tell when you are receiving a closed vision from the Holy Spirit is how it will come in on you. Many of the times these visions will come in out of the blue.

You may not really be thinking about anything specific or you are not using your own imagination to draw up any kind of picture’s in your mind’s eye. And then all of a sudden it will come in very quickly and very suddenly.

Another tell you will get when one of these is coming in from the Holy Spirit is that not only will it come out of the blue, but the picture you are receiving in your mind’s eye is not something that you would normally conjure up for yourself.

Sometimes these visions will need interpretation, other times they will not. But if you get a picture in your mind’s eye that comes in out of nowhere, and it is something that you would not naturally conjure up on your own, then examine the vision very carefully to see if it may be from the Holy Spirit and if you think it may be, try to interpret what He is trying to tell you.

Another tell that the Holy Spirit will give you so you know that the vision is coming in directly from Him, is that He will give you a good, inner witness that it is coming directly from Him, which is the first way I gave you above on how He will communicate something to you.

Again, you will only learn all of this though a process of trial and error with Him. After you have received quite a few of these closed inner visions, you can again become quite adept at discerning when a vision is coming in from Him, or when the vision is just coming in from your own natural imagination.

7. Dreams

The next way that the Holy Spirit can use to communicate something specific to you coming from the above verse from Joel is in your dreams.

In other words, you can receive a dream direct from the Holy Spirit. Another word for dreams is that they are “visions of the night.”

As you all know, the Bible has many examples of people receiving dreams from the Lord. God used an angel in a dream to tell Joseph to immediately flee to Egypt right after Jesus had been born, as Herod was getting ready to kill all of the first born.

King Nebuchadnezzar was given dreams on end time events, but he needed Daniel to interpret those dreams for him. Daniel himself was also given dreams and visions on coming end time events.

Dreams in your sleep are nowhere near as common as closed, inner visions are, but every once in a while God can give you a dream direct from Himself. So how do you know when you are receiving a dream direct from God, since psychologists have told us that everyone dreams every single night when they are sleeping?

I do not consider myself an expert on dreams. But there are several men in the body who are considered somewhat experts in this area.

Two of them are John Paul Jackson and James Goll. James Goll has written a very good book on dreams. The title of his book is, “Dream Language”. Another good book is, “Understanding the Dreams you Dream”, by Ira Milligan.

I personally have only had about 10 dreams from the Lord over a 20 year period. But what I can give you is what God does to me personally so I know that the dream is really coming in from Him.

The first thing God will do with me when He is giving me a dream from Him is the actual timing of it. I always get these God-dreams close to when I am getting ready to wake up. For instance, if I go to bed at 11 PM and I am going to be getting up at about 7 AM, the dream will be coming in between 6-7 AM.

The reason He does this with me is so the dream is basically right in my face right as I am starting to come out of that deep sleep.

The second tell I will get so I know that the dream is coming in from the Lord, is that the dream will not fade away from me once I wake up.

If you will notice, on most of the dreams you will have during the night, you will either have no memory of any of these dreams when you wake up, or if by chance you do remember one of them as you wake up, that dream will then fade away from you within the first 1-3 hours.

After the three hours is up, you will have completely forgotten about the dream.

But if the dream is coming in direct from the Holy Spirit, then the dream will not fade away on you. It will be as clear in your mind’s eye 6 hours later as it was when you first woke up. It will stay with you for days, if not forever.

If you wake up with a very strong, vivid dream being right in your face and you think it may be from the Lord, what I would do is grab a piece of paper and pen and write down what the dream was all about and if need be, draw actual pictures of what you saw in the dream.

Sometimes these dreams will need some kind of interpretation and you will need to carefully examine the dream to see exactly what God is trying to convey to you.

If God gave some of His people dreams back in the OT and NT, and we now have the above verse from Joel where God is telling us that once the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh, that dreams from the Lord will become quite common, then you know this is one of the supernatural ways that the Lord will want to use with some of us from time to time.

So again, do not be afraid if you ever receive what you think may be a dream from the Lord. If God is giving you a dream direct from Himself, then there will be a personal message in there for you.

Your job will be to get it down on paper and carefully examine and analyze it for what that personal message may be.

As I said above, there are some men in the Body who are very good in this area. Some of them have written books on dreams and what certain things may mean in the dream.

I have never delved that deeply in this area, so I do not have the knowledge or expertise to tell you what every little thing in the dream may mean or represent.

For the most part with myself, most of the dreams I have had from the Lord have all been very straight forward.

God was either giving me a heads up on what was getting ready to come my way, or He was giving me a dream to help me solve a particular problem or issue I was dealing with at the time.

8. Prophecies

The third way God can communicate directly to you coming from the above verse from Joel is by prophecy. As we explained to you in our article titled, “The 9 Gifts of the Holy Spirit,” one of the 9 gifts from the Holy Spirit is the gift of prophecy.

The gift of prophecy is when you receive a direct word from the Lord. And when I say a direct word, I mean a direct word. Every word that you receive in the prophecy will be direct words from the Lord.

Since I have already talked about this gift at length in the above article, I will not go any further with it under this caption.

If you would like to see a good, detailed explanation on what this gift is all about and how God can use it with you,it is our part 3 of our series on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit called, The Gift of Prophecy.  This will be our explanation of what this gift is all about.