Precious Treasure In Our Jars of Clay: The Fruit of the Holy Spirit

The Fruit of the Spirit are nowhere to be found on this earth but in the believer’s heart. The world cannot produce this fruit within our hearts without removing our crosses but God - my two favorite words used together in Scripture - bestows them - irrespective of our circumstances. Through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit within every child of the King, a “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” can be found even in the midst of our direst troubles and horrific hardships. Believers are to walk different than the world. Remember, neither man nor Satan can rob these precious fruits from the believer’s heart. Isaiah 26:3 (NIV) comes to mind here: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” 
The word “fruit” is singular indicating a unity of all of them. These “fruit” are to be found in the lives of every child of the King living under the control of the Holy Spirit. God enables us through His indwelling power to walk as Jesus walked. As Paul writes in Philippians 1:20 (NIV): “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” 
Believers are to be in the process of being conformed into Jesus’ likeness in ever increasing measure. Unfortunately, the problem lies in that we so often revert to acting in our flesh, quenching the Spirit within by giving way to our selfish ambitions, vain conceits, worries and fears. Through our anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language or whatever, we end up looking more and more like the world and less and less like Jesus. Remember, as His children we are subject to His “pruning” which occurs when He seeks the deeper and richer and choicest fruit in our lives. He desires for us to “shine like the stars in the universe” rather than simply being a mile wide and an inch deep in our walks with Him. His pruning enables us to go further still.    
The fruit of the branch of our lives is directly traceable to the Root of Christ. If this union is severed there will be no fruit. As the Lord Jesus said: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Meaning, apart from His indwelling Spirit we can do nothing that will make it through the fire that will test the quality of each man’s work. Nothing eternal can be accomplished apart from the indwelling Holy Spirit – our fruitfulness comes from Him – and so too our gratitude. To Him we owe all our virtue and usefulness.