How will They Know?

by Maurice Pujol
Published May 22, 2006

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

What’s the difference between a Christian and a believer?

Well, in the way I use the term “believer,” every believer is a Christian. But not all Christians are believers. Pollsters in recent years have reported that a majority of Americans define themselves as “Christian,” yet a majority of people living in any given neighborhood rarely, if ever, attend church.

If we survey the churchgoing public across America, there is a wide variety of beliefs and intensity of commitment. We have “megachurches” with attendance in the five-figure range, spirited worship and anointed preaching. But we can also find the same level of preaching and praise in small churches in nearly every community.

On the other hand, there are many churches in the throes of death all across the nation. In fact, there are church buildings with declining attendance where the worship has already died without anyone realizing it. The Holy Spirit has left the building without anyone realizing it, for they haven’t paid attention in so long.

We are in need today of a Holy Spirit revival that will sweep this nation, revitalize old congregations and create new ones. We need a fresh revelation of God’s truth, a new infusion of His power, not just in the dead and dying churches, but also in all of them, large and small.

When this happens, more people will want to be like us, rather than be totally unlike us. They’ll want to know more about Jesus and the Bible. They’ll want to know more about the faith that gives us peace in the midst of trouble and joy in spite of our tribulations. Believers experience the same trials people in the world do, but somehow we seem to get through them better, get them behind us quicker and end up more blessed than before the trouble came.

There’s a song we sang decades ago at church services, one I haven’t heard much in recent years. It’s called, “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” One of the verses mentions being “one in the Spirit,” a quality sorely needed in the Body of Christ.

Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit have no room for all the negative thoughts and emotions that haunt the lives of so many people. These bad things may pop up in the minds of Spirit-filled believers, but they go just as quickly as they come. Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit find the power to live productive lives, able to overcome addictions and habits that had dragged them down in the past.

How do we know if someone is filled with the Spirit? How do we know if we’re filled with the Spirit?

The Apostle Paul listed nine qualities he called the “fruit of the Spirit.” These are the traits that others recognize in you if you’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said a tree shall be known by its fruit – a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, nor can a good tree produce bad fruit.

Fruit of the Spirit shouldn’t be confused with gifts of the Spirit, which Paul identified in I Corinthians 12. Gifts are things that God gives to those who are anointed, while fruit of the Spirit are those qualities God uses to bless others through those who are anointed. It’s what comes out of people who are Spirit-filled, and it clearly sets them apart from other people with whom they may attend church.

If a person gossips, he or she is not Spirit-filled, for love is lacking. If one’s appetite (of any kind) is out of control, then that person is not Spirit-filled, for self-control is lacking. I have seen people who clearly suffer from the sin of gluttony condemn those who are addicted to alcohol, and I see only the lack of the Holy Spirit in both their lives.

People who go through life with a scowl on their faces, even in church, are not Spirit-filled, for joy is missing. People who keep their word, whether or not it benefits them, show evidence of the Holy Spirit in them, for they have the quality of faithfulness.

I had battled for most of my life with a short temper. I could easily “fly off the handle” over just about anything. There seemed to be nothing I could do about it until the Holy Spirit blessed me with His presence. He gave me a quality I had never manifested, the fruit called patience.

There is a peace that rests upon the Spirit-filled in the midst of life’s worst crises. It is what Peter called a peace that passes all understanding, for it makes no sense to the human mind. How can a person living with a cancer diagnosis be so happy and confident all the time? Only those of us who are also filled with the Spirit can understand.

Then there are those overall, almost impalpable, qualities those “under the influence” of the Holy Spirit exhibit. We all know people who just exude kindness, goodness and gentleness the moment they walk into a room. Their secret? The Holy Spirit.

Paul urges us, in Ephesians 5:18, to be not drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit. Where the Holy Spirit is, there is no room for sin, negative thoughts and emotions or destructive behavior. It’s when we try to drive the Spirit away through self-will that we leave room for the things that don’t belong in our lives.

Nor do such things belong in our churches or in the Body of Christ as a whole. That’s why revival is needed now, and needed badly.

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