Welcome to day eight of our 14 days of prayer and fasting devotional series!

Each day of this series we will dive into a Spirit-led word from one of our amazing Angelus Temple and Dream Center Ministry Leaders and Directors, and we encourage you to prayerfully join us as we humbly examine where our God is leading us in this new season, as well as the new thing He has already begun in our midst.

Today, we will be hearing from our Worship Pastor, Kelli Bradley, as she urges us to focus on loving and trusting God, who will produce fruit in us, rather than pursuing the fruit we desire to see come from our relationship with Him. 

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the
flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the
flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you
want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry
and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,
factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that
those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (NIV, Galatians 5:16-23).

I don’t know about you, but I find myself battling my flesh a lot. God wants us to bear fruit. We can’t make a difference without being different.

So how do we do this? The answer is this: fall in love with Jesus and walk with the
Spirit. We can’t learn fruit; we can’t be taught how to have more patience or read a self-
help book to unlock the secret to having peace. No! The fruit is the byproduct of who we
are when we are walking with the Spirit. The more we become like Jesus, the more the
fruit of the Spirit will pop out of our lives.

John 15:4-5 says, “Remain in Me and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear
fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in
him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing” (BSB).

The gospel is not a learned behavior; it is a transformation of the inner person.

John 14:15 says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (ESV). I heard something that completely changed the way I think about this verse. Someone asked, “Which side of the comma are you living on?”

I’ll ask you the same question. Which side of the comma are you living on? Are you
trying to keep the commands so you can be in love with God or are you focused on
loving God and allowing obedience to be the byproduct?

Let’s purpose to shift our focus on loving Jesus more in 2025 than ever before and let’s
watch the fruit of the Spirit of God be what pops out of our lives.