The 9 Fruits of the Holy Spirit

The 9 Fruits of the Holy Spirit As you will see in the Scripture verse we will give you in thisbible basic, there is one very special incredible verse that willtell you that God the Father wants to transmit and impart 9specific fruits of the Holy Spirit up into our personalities. The first three bible basics that we have listed inour sanctification bible basic all set the stage as to whatGod is looking to do with each one of us. God wants all of usto enter into a sanctification process with Him so that Hecan begin the process of molding, shaping and transforming usinto the express image of His Son Jesus Christ. He wants tomake us into a better and more holy people. He wants totransform us by the renewing of our minds. He wants to putright thinking into our thought process. In the first bible basic we have listed underthis \"Sanctification,\" we gave you the specific verses fromScripture that showed you that it is by the power of the HolySpirit that this sanctification process is done with you in thislife. However, you will not be a passive robot in all of this. Youhave to be willing to work in cooperation with the Holy Spiritonce He begins to start this process within you. Your job will be to get into the Word to find out exactly whatit is God is going to want to change about you. You willneed to find out exactly what qualities God will want you to tryand \"put on\" into your personality and what qualities He willwant you to try and \"put away.\" This bible basic will be the first of a series of biblebasics giving you all of the appropriate Scripture versesshowing you exactly which qualities and attributes Godwill want to get worked into your personality and whichqualities He will want to pull out of you. 1

And there is no better place to start this series of bible basicsthan with the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you want to start offby keying on some of the more positive qualities that Godwould really like to get worked into your personality, reallystudy and meditate on these specific 9 qualities. When God the Father purposely isolates and spells out9 specific qualities that will be coming direct from His HolySpirit, He is really letting you know the extreme importance ofthese 9 specific fruits. These 9 fruits are major fruits and qualities that arecoming direct from God Himself and every Christian should dothe best they can to work with the Holy Spirit in gettingall 9 of these fruits worked into his or her personality. We'll first start off by bullet pointing each of these 9 specificfruits so that you can have all nine of them isolated at the top ofthis bible basic. We will then give you the Scripture versewhere these 9 fruits are coming from, and then do a briefcommentary on each one of these fruits so you can fullyunderstand what each one of these fruits are all about andhow they can dramatically change the quality of your life andyour state of well-being if you are willing to allow the HolySpirit to start to work all 9 of these fruits into your mind, souland personality. Here are the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit listed one right afterthe other in a bullet point format:• Love• Joy• Peace• Longsuffering• Kindness• Goodness 2

• Faithfulness• Gentleness• Self-control Now here is the specific verse from Scripture wherethese 9 fruits are being given to us by the Lord:• \"But the fruitof the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.\" (Galatians5:22) Before we get into the appropriate commentary on eachof these nine fruits, note the following:1. The word \"Spirit\" is with a capital \"S\", which means these 9fruits are coming directly from the Holy Spirit, not from us.2. What this means is that God's love, God's peace, God's joyand God's goodness can start to be transmitted up into ourpersonality. These are His attributes and personality qualitiesthat will start to flow and mesh into the core of our personality. Think about the ramifications of this, that God theFather Himself is allowing us to share in a part of His divinenature by allowing His Holy Spirit to transmit and impart thesenine divine qualities right up into our soul and personality! This is why God the Father is specifically telling us inthis verse that these 9 fruits are coming directly from His HolySpirit, so that we can fully appreciate the magnitude ofsuch an experience. Jesus has already told us that He is the vine and weare the branches. The branches draw their life from thevine, not vice versa. Just as the branch draws its life from thevine, so too must we draw our life directly from Jesus.Jesus will release His life into us through the Holy Spirit inthe exact same way that the vine will release the life of the treeinto the branches. 3

In one short, but incredible powerful Scripture verse, God theFather is giving all of us an incredible revelation on what cango on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm for thosewho are willing to work with Him in this sanctification process. Now we'll go on to describe what each one of these ninefruits are all about and give you definitions from some of thedifferent Bible dictionaries and commentaries, thereby makingit easier for you to work with the Holy Spirit once He starts tomove in on you to try and impart some of these divine qualitiesand attributes into the core of your personality.1. Love If we had to rank all of the above fruits in their orderof possible importance, the quality of love would have to be #1.And this is why it may have been listed as #1 fruit in theabove Scripture verse. Due to the extreme importance of just this one quality, we aregoing to do another bible basic on this quality and title it\"The Power of Love.\" This bible basic will also be listedin the Sanctification bible basic of our studying. There aresome very powerful and profound verses from the Bible onjust this one quality alone and it needs to have its ownbible basic to do it proper justice. Here are some of the different definitions on what love isfrom the different Bible dictionaries and commentaries:• Unselfish, benevolent concern for another; brotherlyconcern; the object of brotherly concern or affection• The self-denying, self-sacrificing, Christ-like love which isthe foundation of all other graces• Unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the well being ofanother 4

• The high esteem which God has for His human childrenand the high regard which they, in turn, should have forHim and other people• To love, to have affection for someone; to like; to be afriend; the love of brothers for each other One of the main messages that comes through loud andclear from studying our Bible is the extreme importance thatGod the Father is placing on that everyone learn how tolove Him, love ourselves, love one another, and to even go asfar as to be able to love our enemies and those who will try andhurt us. However, our abilities as fallen humans to love one another isvery limited. This is why it is so important for each andevery Christian to work very closely with the Holy Spirit to getthis fruit worked up into the core of our personalities. It is onlywhen the love of the Holy Spirit starts to flow and enterinto our personalities can we even begin to love God, loveourselves, and love one another to the degree and to theintensity that God would like to see from each one of us. To those of you who will be entering into thissanctification process with the Lord, this quality should belisted as the #1 quality you should really attempt to put oninto the core of your soul and personality. The Holy Spirit willbe moving on you very early and very quickly to get thisquality imparted into your mind, soul and emotions due tothe extreme importance of it in your walk with the Lord. You can be the greatest man of God and have some ofthe greatest gifts of God flowing through you, but if youare not walking with all of this in the spirit of love andhumility, it will have all been for naught.2. Joy 5

In the rough and tough world we live in with all of the crime,disorder and bad things that can happen to anyone of usat anytime, many Christians have lost a lot of their joy in theLord as a result of some of the beatings they have taken in thislife. We remember we had a bank teller tell us one timethat she very seldom sees people smiling anymore when theycome in and do business with her. She says no one seems to behappy anymore and everyone seems to be carrying around theweight of the world on their shoulders. Again, with the imperfections of our own fallen nature,and then you combine that with how people reactdifferently to adversity, some Christians have literally hadmost, if not all oftheir joy in the Lord, knocked right out of them. This is why the above verse from Galatians is so powerfuland so needed by every single Christian today. In this verse,God is telling us that He can transmit some of His godlyand divine qualities right up into the middle of us like filling upa new car with its first tank of gasoline. Many of God's peopleneed a fresh infusion of His divine qualities due to the leaks thathave occurred as a result of some of the beatings His peoplehave taken during the course of their lives. And the quality of joy is a much needed quality in this dayand age. No matter how bad of a beating you may have taken inthis life, God can still fully heal, deliver and restore you ifyou are willing to work with Him in this healing process. And one of the things that God can fully restore in you isyour joy in Him. And not only can the Lord fully restore whatjoy you used to have in Him, but He can also increase it to amuch greater degree and intensity due to the wording in theabove verse, with the quality of joy being one of the 9 specificfruits of His Holy Spirit! 6

Here are some of the different definitions of what real joy isall about:• Great delight; gladness of heart• The happy state that results from knowing and serving God• That deep, abiding, inner rejoicing in the Lord• To rejoice, to be glad• Happy, joyful, cheerful, rejoicing, festive Realize that God can transmit this divine quality right up intoyour personality and this will be His joy, not your joy,once it starts to flow up into you. And once God starts torelease His joy into your system, you won't be able to help butfeel it. And once you are able to start feeling it again, it willbecome much easier for you to learn how to walk back in it inyour own daily walk with the Lord. The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Thisis why it is so important that every Christian have somelevel of God's joy operating through them in this life. WithoutGod's joy operating in your life, things can begin to dry up.Nothing is ever fun anymore. Everything can start to become achore. Before you know it, you will want to start to withdrawfrom others and life in general. The joy of the Lord can really give you an incredible surge ofstrength in your own daily walk with God, especially when youhave to take on some really tough situations. This is whyeach Christian should work very closely with the HolySpirit in not only getting Him to release His joy into yoursystem, but to keep it running through you on a regular andconsistent basis. The Holy Spirit will do this for you if you are open toreceiving this divine infusion from Him and are willing to workwith Him to keep it properly flowing through you on a regularbasis. 7

3. Peace This is another major quality that we all need operating in ourlives, especially with all of the uncertainty of this life and neverknowing what is going to happen next. Jobs are no longer as secure as they used to be. Younever know when the company you work for may bebought out and your job will be gone in a flash. Half ofall marriages are still ending up in divorce. We are all forcedto 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 areall forced to deal with on a daily basis, it becomes very easy tolose your sense of peace, especially your peace in theLord. Again, this is one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit, andthe Holy Spirit can really help you pick up the slack if you startlosing your own sense of peace over some of the storm cloudsthat could hit you in this life. Realize that the Holy Spirit hasHis peace to give to you and that He can give it to you in greatabundance. We have found that once His peace starts to flow up intoyour mind, soul and personality, it really is as the Bible says, apeace that surpasses all human understanding, especiallywhen that peace comes in right in the middle of a severestorm cloud that you may be going through. Here is how the quality of peace is described in someof the different Bible dictionaries and commentaries:• The presence and experience of right relationships• The tranquility of soul• Sense of well-being and fulfillment that comes from Godand is dependent on His presence• The inner tranquility and poise of the Christian whose trust isin God through Christ 8

• Tranquility, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation ordiscord The quality of peace should be one of the mainqualities that you should try and get worked up into your soulthrough the Holy Spirit in the sanctification process. Withoutthe peace of God operating in your life, you could becomevery easily rattled, shaken, tormented and knocked right off ofyour game in the Lord the first time any adversity should comeyour way.4. Longsuffering One of the main definitions of the word longsuffering is thatit is referring to patience. And patience is another sorelyneeded quality in the fast paced world in which we live intoday. Just watch people standing in line at the grocery storeor at your local fast food restaurant and watch how short somepeople's fuses are today. Road rage is still a problem onsome of our highways. Look at someone the wrong way andthey will want to try and take your head off. Many peoplehave been killed or seriously injured because someone lost histemper over something that was very trivial. With the fast paced ways of our society, many people havehad their fuses shortened up and it thus takes very little toset them off. As a result, many people have very little patienceoperating in their personalities. For Christians, this poses a major dilemma. One of the waysof 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 findout very early on about His ways is that He works on a muchslower time frame than we do. And unless you learn toadjust to His slower way of working things out, you willfind yourself easily losing your patience with Him and how Hewants to work things out in your life. 9

God operates on a much longer and slower time frame thanwe are used to operating in the fast paced world in which welive in. You will really have to work with the Holy Spiriton this particular quality to get it properly worked up into yoursoul. The reason for this is that your own impatience will startto act up and try to override the patience and longsuffering thatthe Holy Spirit will try and transmit to you. At times, it maybecome of battle of wills, your will against His will. But once the Holy Spirit starts to try and manifest this qualityup into your personality, then you have to try and move with itand allow it to get worked into your mind and emotions. If youdo, then His patience will start to override your impatience, andbefore you know it, your fuses will start to lengthen andyou won't lose your patience like you used to do. Here are the different definitions for the word longsuffering:• Forbearance, patience• Patient endurance and steadfastness under provocation• Forbearance under ill-will, with no thought of retaliation• Patience, endurance, steadfastness and forbearance• Forbearance under suffering and endurance in the face ofadversity• Ability to endure persecution and ill-treatment With the way all of these definitions are reading, you canreally see why we all need the patience and longsuffering of theHoly Spirit to start operating in our souls and personalities,especially when we are forced to have to face any kind ofadversity. Sometimes it will be the patience and longsufferingof the Holy Spirit that will be the only thing that will give youthe ability to last the entire length of a storm cloud or trial. 10

Learn to ride and flow with the patience of the Holy Spirit inyour daily life and walk with the Lord and you will then be ableto enter into a much more restful and peaceful state within yourmind and emotions.5. Kindness As a result of more people being impatient, having shortfuses and with everyone always being in a hurry, many peoplehave lost the ability to treat others with kindness and respect. Akind word, a kind action to another person can really dowonders for them. When you study the life of Jesus in the NewTestament, you can really tell how kind He always was withother people in His dealings with them. Jesus is withoutquestion, the ultimate role model for all of us of someone whowas fully operating in all 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit. The quality of kindness will go hand in hand with the qualityof love. Once the Holy Spirit starts to transmit His love up intoyou, the quality of kindness will follow right along with it.It will become much easier for you to be able to be kind toothers once the love of God starts to flow more into yourpersonality. You can't help but be more kind to others if God's loveis flowing through you. This is why the quality of love has to bethe main quality that you really concentrate on getting more offrom the Holy Spirit. Once the love of God starts to operate andflow through you to touch others, many of the other fruits of theHoly Spirit will start to follow suit in domino fashion. Here are some of the different definitions of what realkindness is all about:• Quality or state of being kind• The steadfast love that maintains relationships throughgracious aid in times of need 11

• Goodness of heart, serviceable, good, gracious, pleasant• Love for mankind, hospitality, acts of kindness, readinessto help, human friendship, benevolence, taking thought ofothers• Goodness in action, sweetness of disposition, gentleness indealing with others, affability• The ability to act for the welfare of those taxing yourpatience As you can see from some of these different definitions, thisis a very beautiful quality to have transmitted up into your souland personality by the Holy Spirit. Not only will you be able totouch others with this godly quality, but you will also be able totouch yourself, because you will feel so much better aboutyourself if you can learn to treat others with much morekindness and respect in your daily dealings and affairs withthem.6. Goodness The Bible says that it is the goodness of God that willlead sinners to repentance and salvation. The quality ofgoodness is another real powerful quality to have operatingthrough you. This particular quality has a real drawing power to it. Notonly does the goodness of God draw people direct to Him, butthis fruit of goodness operating in a believer can draw peopledirect to God through the actual believer. Spirit-filled saintswho are walking with many of these fruits operatingthrough them are like a magnet. Many people who have beensaved through an individual believer say that what drew themin was the love and goodness they saw shining through thatbeliever. Jesus says that we are to carry His light and we are to let thatlight shine before men and not attempt to hide it. Part of His 12

light are these 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit shining through ananointed believer. Nonbelievers are really drawn to someonewho has some degree of these nine fruits manifesting throughthem. However, there is something extra special about the qualityof goodness. Many Christians can effectively witness toothers by just living right and being a good example androle model for others to follow. Many nonbelieverscarefully watch and study some Christians because theyknow there is something different about them. One of the key qualities a nonbeliever will pick up on in asolid Christian is this quality of goodness. This quality has anability to really get down deep into the core of a believer'spersonality. To those who really have this quality, you can tellthat it is something operating deep down inside of them. Thisquality is not something that waivers like some of the otherqualities can. These people are good down to their very cores oftheir personalities. You can see it and feel it when you getaround these types of people. As a result of seeing this God-like goodness deeply ingrainedinto their personalities, there is an immediate drawingtowards them. You feel safe around them because youknow you can totally trust them and you know they wouldnever deliberately hurt you. Children are quick to sense and pick up on this qualityin people who really have it. These types of Christians drawchildren and adults to them like magnets. This is why thisparticular fruit and quality is so important for each Christian tohave. With it, you can easily draw many more people to theLord. If the goodness of God will lead people to repentanceand salvation, then the goodness of God operatingthrough an anointed believer will have the ability to draw 13

nonbelievers into salvation. And the goodness of God canbe transmitted and worked up into your personality throughthe power of the Holy Spirit. You can have the actualgoodness of God shining through you to reach others if you arewilling to work with the Holy Spirit in this sanctificationprocess. Now here are some of the different definitions of whatthis quality is all about:• Beneficence, ready to do good, love in action• Kindness in actual manifestation, virtue equipped foraction, a bountiful propensity both to will and to do what isgood, intrinsic goodness producing a generosity and aGodlike state or being• The word beneficence means the fact or quality of beingkind or doing good This particular quality is a very powerful fruit to haveoperating in your personality because of the drawing power ithas in it. And the beautiful part about this fruit is that thisquality is so pure in its goodness, it doesn't have anymanipulative qualities within it. In other words, a truly good person could not even begin totry and use you or manipulate you for his own personal gainbecause he is too good and too righteous to even begin tothink along those lines. This is why these kinds of people areso trustworthy, and why so many people are drawn to them,because you feel so safe by just being around them.7. Faithfulness In the times we live in with half of all marriages still endingup in divorce and with many people getting backstabbed inthe workplaces with people they thought they couldinitially trust, this particular quality is one that is really neededin our day and age. This quality is not only needed in our 14

own personal relationship with God, but it is also neededin our personal relationships with our friends and our families. Once you are saved and have entered into a truepersonal relationship with the Lord, one of the first things youwill really have to grab a hold of is holding fast to theLord and staying faithful to Him for the rest of youreternal life. Once you are saved and have entered into a truepersonal relationship with the Lord, there is no turning back,ever! This is what got the Jewish people in major trouble with Godthe Father back in the Old Testament. They could not stayfaithful and loyal to Him on a consistent and regular basis.There were times that God the Father was literally callingthem harlots and adulterers because they would not stayfaithful to Him, especially when they kept chasing after othergods. God the Father really holds this particular quality inhigh esteem, and this is one quality that He will really expectyou to operate very strongly in, not only in your ownpersonal relationship with Him, but also in your otherpersonal relationships with your family and friends. Inother words, He wants you to be faithful and loyal toyour spouses, to your children, to your parents and to yourgood friends. Too many people are bailing out from their spouses and theirchildren 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 mayhave been built up in the early years of their marriages. Toomany dads are bailing out of their marriages, and thenforgetting and forsaking their own children and sometimesfor good, never wanting to see any of them ever again! 15

If God brings you a wonderful mate, wonderful children, andgood and wonderful friends, then He will expect you to stayloyal and faithful to all of them in your own personalrelationships with them. A true friend will stay by your side forlife, through thick and thin and for better or for worse. Just asGod will stay faithful to you in His own personal relationshipwith you, He will expect you to stay loyal and faithful in yourown personal relationships with others. Now here are what some of the different Bible dictionariesand commentaries have to say about this particular quality:•Fidelity which makes one true to his promise and faithful to histask• Steadfast, dedicated, dependable and worthy of trust• Steadfast, unchanging and thoroughly grounded in relation tothe other• Dependability, loyalty and stability With the self-centered and materialistic world in which wenow live in, where many people's only goals and ambitions areto get as much as they can out of this life, we are afraidthis is one quality that is in very short supply. Most people arelucky if they manage to make 2 or 3 good, true, loyal andfaithful friends in this lifetime. This is one quality that God the Father is really watching allof us on. He is watching who is going to stay true, loyal andfaithful to Him and who will stay true, loyal and faithful to thefriends and family that are brought into our lives. The flesh is strong, especially in the area of wanting tosatisfy its lust for the material things of this life. This is whythis quality is one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit. Weall need the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit worked into usto help keep us loyal to God, family and friends. 16

8. Gentleness Many men may draw back a bit from this next fruit, which isthe quality of gentleness. Whether some of the liberals like it ornot, Jesus was incarnated into a human flesh body, butthis incarnation was done as a man, fully man and fully God.He was not incarnated into the body of a woman, nomatter how any liberal tries to spin this basic fact, withmany liberals trying to make God gender neutral. Since Jesus walked our earth as a man, the Son of man, studyHis actions very carefully when you read the gospels and howHe handled different types of people. There were timesthat He would engage and set people straight, like He didwith some of the Scribes and Pharisees. But there were othertimes that He dealt with people very gently, with kindness andgentleness. His gentle way of handling some of these people iswhat really jumps out at you when you really study how Hehandled different types of people. Again, Jesus is the perfect role model for all of us to studyand learn from, especially with how He handled people whileHe was walking down here on our earth. For men inparticular, His actions and behavior towards others should be amajor study and we should seek to pattern our own daily walkafter Him. And one of the qualities that He had operatingin Him with great abundance was the quality of gentleness. The quality of gentleness is another major quality needed inour world today. So many people have been beat up and hurt intheir dealings with other people, that just a gentle word, a gentletouch from another Christian can really open up the door forthat person to be able to receive Jesus and Hishealing, saving and deliverance power into their lives. Once you really start walking in the Holy Spirit with Hisfruits operating and flowing through you, you'll really beable to feel and sense when you should handle a certain 17

person or a certain type of situation with more of a touchof gentleness rather than with any kind of stern rebuke orcondemnation. There is a time for tough love, but there arealso times that just a gentle and loving touch is all that isreally needed to properly handle a certain situation. The Holy Spirit will guide you in all of this. Just realize thatthe quality of gentleness is one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit, andthis is one of the fruits that He would really like to get workedinto your personality, especially in being able to use it whendealing with and helping out others. Parents really need this fruit operating through them, asit is very easy to get out of balance with the way you arecorrecting your children. Sometimes more of a tough loveapproach is needed, but at other times more of a gentleapproach will be better suited for the situation. If all your children ever hear from you are stern wordsof rebuke and criticism, and it is never properly balancedout with words and actions of love, kindness and gentleness,then after a certain period of time your children will start to pullaway from you and they will have no more interest or desire inwanting to establish a good, solid, loving and deep personalrelationship with you. Now here are some of the different definitions on the qualityof gentleness:• Mildness combined with tenderness• Gracious, kindly disposition, controlled strength• A disposition that is even-tempered, tranquil, balanced inspirit, unpretentious and that has passions under control• A character that is equitable, reasonable, forbearing,moderate, fair and considerate• Power and strength under control 18

• Willing to pardon injuries, correct faults. One who rules hisspirit well Not only will other people love and gravitate towards youmore if you learn how to walk in this quality, but you will be atmuch more peace with yourself since you won't alwayshave to be fighting and striving with others when trying tohelp them out.9. Self-Control Last, but not certainly least, is the quality of self-control. Thisone is huge, and we mean huge! Once you start to enter into atrue sanctification process with the Lord, expect the HolySpirit to move in on you very early with this specific quality. The reason for this is that we all have a certain amountof character flaws operating in our personalities. There aresome bad and negative qualities that will have to go. The Bible tells us that our spirits and our flesh will waragainst each other in this life. Our flesh wantsimmediate self-gratification at all costs and will stop at nothingto try and get it. Our spirits know that some of our fleshlydesires are not right for us and as a result, there will be a tug ofwar between the two and sometimes it will be a major tug ofwar. And the only thing that will be able to curb and controlsome of the desires of our flesh is the quality of self-control. Since we all live in a very self-centered and materialistic typeworld today, many people have very poor impulse control. Ifthey see something they immediately want, they will doanything they can to try and get it. They will not be denied untilthey get what they are going after. These people are obviously very weak in the quality ofself-control. They are ruled by their own flesh rather than bythe Holy Spirit. That is why the Bible tells us that if we learn 19

how to really walk in the Holy Spirit, then we will notfulfill the lusts of our flesh. Due to our fallen and sinful natures, all of us are weak tosome degree in the quality of self-control. This is why God theFather made sure to have this fruit listed as one of the 9fruits of His Holy Spirit. We all need God's self-controloperating in our lives and in our personalities if we aregoing to have any hope in getting cleaned up and properlysanctified to the degree that He would like to get us to in thislife. If you don't have God's self-control operating through you,you will have very little victory over such things as badtempers, judgmental and critical spirits, an unforgivingspirit, and vices such as smoking and the abuse of alcohol. Once the Holy Spirit starts this sanctification process withyou, be prepared for some major battles and tug of wars withHim once He starts coming after some of the negative qualitiesoperating in your personality. But if you are willing to yield to Him and allow Him to startto work all 9 of these fruits into your personality, then you willfind yourself starting to grow in ways and in areas thatyou never thought were possible in this life. His supernaturalpower in this area will blow you away once you see how far Hecan really take you to become the person that God would likeyou to become in Him in this lifetime. Here are some of the definitions of what the quality ofself-control is all about:• Temperance, rational restraint of natural impulses• Sober, temperate, calm and dispassionate approach to life,having mastered personal desires and passions• Calls for a self-disciplined life following Christ's example ofbeing in the world but not of the world 20

• Restraint or discipline exercised over one's behavior The above definitions perfectly describe what God islooking for once He starts to work and transmit thisquality up into our personalities. This specific quality isone of the major keys in being able to get any kind ofvictory over some of the lusts and desires of our flesh. 21