Joyce Meyer - Secrets to Exceptional Living: Transforming Your Life Through the Fruit of the Spirit

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Amplified Bible (AMP). The Amplified Bible, Old Testament, copyright 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament, copyright 1954, 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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FaithWords Edition

Copyright 2002 by Joyce Meyer

Life In The Word, Inc.

P.O. Box 655

Fenton, Missouri 63026

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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ISBN: 978-0-446-55351-3

A MORE EXCELLENT WAY OF LIVING

God has made available to us the means for leading an effective, fulfilling, powerful and rewarding life. Preparing ourselves by gaining the knowledge and training we need to live the way we desire will help us, of course. But leading a truly exceptional life beyond imagination comes from recognizing and focusing on what is important in life. And God tells us what is important in His Word.

It is important to God that we develop the qualities of His nature that we have more love, joy and peace in our lives; more patience, kindness and goodness; more faithfulness, gentleness and self-control qualities that the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit. These qualities of Gods Spirit are already inside those of us in whom His Spirit lives, those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins, who have repented of our sins and received Jesus as our personal Savior.

As Christians, many of us pray that God will move powerfully through us to help others, and God wants us to pray this way. He has made available to us special endowments of supernatural energy that the Bible also calls spiritual gifts But I believe our first priority should be developing the fruit of the Spirit.

During the first few years of my ministry, I spent a lot of my prayer time asking God for those special endowments of supernatural energy to operate through me. I thought to be a powerful minister, I would need them. And I do. We all need them. But I didnt give much thought to the fruit of the Spirit. Then one day the Lord impressed upon me, Joyce, if you would have put even one half of the amount of energy and time into praying about and trying to develop the fruit of the Spirit as you have the gifts, youd already have both.

The same Scripture passages that tell us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts, The following verse shows us an example of how the gifts and love work together.

And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

MATTHEW 14:14 NKJV

One of the special endowments of supernatural energy that God has made available for us to use is the gifts of healings.

Jesus said: the tree is known and recognized and judged by its fruit. and by our fruit Jesus is known. A display of the fruit of the Spirit, the nature of God, is a display of the character of Jesus Christ. According to 2 Corinthians 5:20 we are Gods ambassadors, and He is making His appeal to mankind through us as believers in Jesus Christ. This is a very big responsibility that we should take seriously.

IF GODS LOVE IS THE BASIS FOR OUR ACTIONS, WE ARE REPRESENTING HIM WELL BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE.

As an example of how we can affect anothers life through the simplicity of the fruit of the Spirit, I want to quote the words on a card Dave and I received today.

Dear Joyce and Dave,

Words cant begin to express the blessing you have brought to me through God. I was always stressed out, worrying about little things and taking God for granted. Your books, tapes, and most of all, being around both of you and your family has changed my life!

The people that work with you in your ministry are the most wonderful, genuine and warmest people I have ever met in my life. Thank you for helping me grow spiritually!

D.L.

Now what if this woman had read my books and listened to my tapes, but when she spent time in my presence was disappointed in the way I behaved? What if my family or I had been short-tempered, rude or unkind to her? We would not have had a positive influence on her; she may have even viewed us as hypocritical, and it could have hurt the cause of Jesus Christ.

Everybody wants to be loved, and God makes Himself known through His love. For this reason I believe that nothing is more important to the heart of God than for us to focus on expressing His love in order to draw people to Jesus.

People are hungry, and they are looking for something real. When people taste the fruit in us and see that it is good,

God has given us gifts to help people, and we can use the gifts He has made available to us to a certain extent without having developed the fruit. When I first started ministering, I hadnt developed much fruit or even thought about it, as I mentioned before. I had a very strong gift of communication in order to teach and was operating in what I was called to do but with practically no fruit.

People may see the gifts operating in us, but most of the time they look closer, inspecting our fruit to see whether it is good before opening themselves up to receive from us. When we show people that what we have is real, then they will listen to what we say and be receptive to what the Holy Spirit wants to give them through us.

You can show people that what, actually Who, you have is real by responding with the good fruit to little incidents that happen in your daily living. If someone bumps into you at the grocery store, steps on your toe or even rolls a cart over your foot, be nice about it. Learn how to respond good-naturedly, especially if youre prone to reacting with irritation or anger. To turn the situation into a pleasant experience, you could even laugh with the person, who certainly didnt intend to bump, step on or roll over you! People can see Jesus in your patient, even joyful, response to something as small as that.