Growing In the Fruit of the Holy Spirit

By Elena Arnaudova

Galatians 5:22-23 are well-known verses amongst Christians, and yet there is relatively little teaching on this subject. In "Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit", Elena looks at each of the nine fruits of the Spirit, underlining their fundamental importance to us in our Christian development. These simple, down-to-earth and practical studies are the result of some of the insights and revelations Elena has received through her own devotional times over twenty years as a born-again believer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 10, 2008
• ISBN: 9781447814283

Book preview

Growing In the Fruit of the Holy Spirit

GROWING IN THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Copyright © 2008 by Elena Arnaudova. 

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations, which must be acknowledged.

ISBN:  978-1-4478-1428-3

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations 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 NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE.  Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation.  Copyright © 1996, 2004.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.  All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation.   Used by permission.

Introduction

First of all, I must say that I am no great expert on the subject of the Holy Spirit.  I am an ordinary Christian (if any Christian can be called ordinary) who loves God, loves His Church, and desires to live my life to His praise and glory.  I have no great ministry. I am not a preacher, or a healing evangelist, or, for that matter, even a leader in my local church.  Yet I believe that God has gifted and anointed me and that what I have learnt over the years as a Christian, the revelations God has given me, and the experiences He has taken me through will be a help and an encouragement to others.

From a young age my dream was always to be a writer and to have a book published one day.  The question I asked myself many times, however, was what subject I could possibly write on.  From the time that I was baptised in the Holy Spirit, I knew the answer to that question, at least in part.  It had to be connected somehow with my Christian faith.  But there was such a wealth of Christian literature already that it seemed to me that just about every subject had been written about; and, anyway, who would be interested in a book written by a nobody?  What did I have to offer?  No impressive title, no doctorate, not even a theology degree to my name!  Yet, I remained convinced in my heart that if this dream was from God that He would lay something on my heart. He would enable me, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to complete this work.  He would provide a way for me. 

Early on in my Christian walk, God laid on my heart that I should keep a journal.  In it I would write down the things I felt God was speaking to me—revelations that had come through reading the Bible—and my hopes, dreams, and goals at the beginning of each New Year. I even scripted some of the prayers I prayed.  As time went on, the desire to share some of these insights, prayers, and revelations with others became stronger, and I began to wonder whether one day some of these writings could in fact be used in a book.

In 2005, I had a powerful, fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit, when I felt His anointing on me very strongly over a period of two or three days.  During this time I became very conscious of the Holy Spirit's presence, and I began to develop a new sensitivity to His voice. I was so desirous to maintain His abiding presence in my life that I wanted to do whatever I had to in order to remain in His wonderful presence and to hear Him speak to me on a daily basis. 

During my quiet times, the Holy Spirit began revealing Himself to me through the Word.  I was drawn to meditate upon the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which the Bible talks about in Galatians 5.  I began writing these thoughts down as the Holy Spirit spoke into my heart.  Very soon I began to wonder if this could become the basis of my book.  Many authors had written about the Person of the Holy Spirit and about His gifts, but I was unaware of any published materials on this particular subject of the fruit of the Spirit.   In my experience it's not a subject that is even preached on a great deal these days.

At one point, a number of years previously, I had felt God say to me, When you begin to feel me speaking to you, I want you to start writing, and as you write I will give you more.  At the time, I connected this with the prophetic gifting.  Although a young Christian, I had begun, albeit in a small way, to move in the prophetic, and I believed that God was directing me to record prophecies that He would give me so that later I could bring them to the church.  Looking back, however, I wonder if, in fact, this wasn't my first direct indication from God that He actually wanted to use me as a writer. 

So, anyway, here it is—a book on the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  I hope and pray that it will bless you and help you to grow in your Christian life.  My prayer is that you, and I, will bear much fruit to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

And just one final word to all of you who have a dream.