Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah. It's been a month since we had a public Sabbath assembly but the davar (word) I have today follows on specifically from the first two parts of the last Rosh Chodesh message given five days ago.

Those who know, know; and those who do not, cannot. Those who speak know, but speak not; those who do not know, speak, and know not what they say. For it is written:

"Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words" (Prov.23:9, NKJV).

My public message today is going to be from that well-known passage in Galatians 5, so if you'd like to begin by turning there with me, it's on p.1683 in your NKJV Evidence Bibles. The reason I have chosen this passage is not only because it is the best advice I can think of to give people who want to know how to hear Yahweh speaking to them in their lives but because it gives us the kind of indicators we absolutely need if we are to adequately prepare ourselves for the remainder of this winter for what has already come, and what is about to come, before we arrive at Aviv 1 in the spring - the authentic New Year which this year will be on 25 March.

So how can I know what Yahweh wants me to do? How can I know His will in my life day-by-day? How do I know I am walking the right path? And to answer those questions ministers like myself should give the following answer: check that your spiritual 'receiving station' is working optimally. And that's what we're going to do this morning. All you need to know to have a clear, concise answer is to be found in Galatians 5 where there are two wonderful passages, one of which deals with the works of the flesh (which we aren't going to specifically look at today other than in passing) and the other, in stark contrast, details the fruit of the Ruach haQodesh - the Holy Spirit. This may well already be a familiar passage to you but today I hope to perhaps fine tune it even more so that it becomes an even more effective tool in your spiritual preparedness.

So what are the signs that the Ruach (Spirit) has reached you and is operating in you? Because once you know for sure the Ruach (Spirit) is inside, you can know for sure Yahweh is talking to you and ministering to you even if you don't understand all the intricate ways He does so. So as we read this passage together, I want to ask you each individually: Are these things happening in your life? If they are, you're on the right path and you've nothing to worry about other than to keep going down this Derech (Way) of Messiah (Christ)! If these things aren't happening in your life, then you're probably not on the right path.

So let's read Galatians 5:22-23 - I'm using the Revised New American Bible (RNAB) for a change but I'll add other nuances to the Greek from the NKJV too:

"In contrast (with vv.19-21) the fruit of the Ruach (Spirit) is (1) ahavah (love), (2) simcha (joy), (3) shalom (peace), (4) patience ('longsuffering' - NKJV), (5) kindness, (6) generosity ('goodness' - NKJV), (7) faithfulness, (8) gentleness, (9) self-control. Against such there is no torah (law)" (Gal.5:22-23, RNAB - messianised).

And you'll remember that Yah'shua (Jesus) taught that a tree is known or judged by its fruit (Mt.12:33-37). "Against such there is no torah or law" means that even a legalist - an extreme Law-keeper trying to earn his way into heaven - cannot say anything against these fruits. Paul contrasts all this with "adultery ('immorality' - RNAB), fornication, uncleaness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions ('rivalry' - RNAB), jealousies, outburts of wrath ('fury' - RNAB), selfish ambitions, dissentions, heresies ('factions' - RNAB), envy, murders, drunkeness, revelries ('orgies' - RNAB)", and the like which exclude people from the Kingdom of Elohim (God) (vv.19-21, NKJV), but I don't want to get into the negative side as I hope it is obvious to you all. So that's what's being contrasted.

So Paul mentions nine prime fruits of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). Before we dig into these we need to ask ourselves who the Ruach (Spirit) is but what I don't want to do today is get into the controversy over gender or the personal character of the Ruach (Spirit) because I want to keep this simple and experiential. Relationships are complex and that is no less true of the relationships that exist between the members of the Elohimhead or Godhead. So I want to approach this in perhaps a slightly new way - from the perspective of the relationship between the Father and the Son - between Yahweh and Yah'shua (Jesus) as that relates to, and is experienced by, us in the here and now - in the nitty-gritty of everyday life.

Let's look at the Ruach (Spirit), without unduly over-simplifying, in terms of the ahavah (love) or chesed (mercy) that connects the Father and the Son as that is relayed to, and is experienced by, us, which is a vital function of the Ruach (Spirit). Who is the Son? He is a perfect image of the Father, in the same way that Abel was a perfect image of Adam, and after him, Seth.

Now indulge me for a moment. I want you to imagine the Father and the Son communing at each other, and as they do, they 'sigh' their love for each other - this is a beautiful picture conceived by the late Fulten J. Sheen. You see, that 'sigh' which is that shared breath or love that comes from silent 'knowing' may be described as the Ruach haQodesh - the Holy Breath - the Holy Spirit. And I'm sure you'll remember the time when Yah'shua (Jesus) "breathed on [the talmidim/disciples), and said to them, 'Receive the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)" (John 20:22, NKJV), the same 'breath' the Father and the Son breathed into Adam (Gen.2:7) from whom Eve was later taken. Now this is a big mystery, and I am not at all denying that the Ruach (Spirit) is a Person, or even Seven Persons, or that She is female - all I am saying that in terms of what we experience, as those talmidim (disciples) experienced, She is like breath, which is what the word 'ruach' literally means, as you know. I just want you to hold that picture - that feeling too - for a moment, as we consider other aspects of the Besorah (Gospel).

What is salvation all about? It is about the Father sending the Son all the way out to the limits of, let's call it 'God forsakenness' - those parts of the universe necessarily abandoned by Yahweh because of the rebellion and sin of men and malakim (angels). He sent Yah'shua (Jesus) out there so that we might be gathered into the ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy) that the Father and Son share, which is so perfect, so deep, so wonderful, that it is wordless - a sigh, or to use another image in Scripture itself in Romans:

"But the Ruach (Spirit) prays on our behalf with groans that are not discernable" (Rom.8:26b, HRV).

And as you know from the gender of the Ruach (Spirit) in Romans, the groaning is born of mother-type love, as of a mother intently praying for the safety of her children. We are 'gathered' into this Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) by the will of the Father and the Son in the same way a pre-incarnate spirit is 'gathered' into the watery matrix of the mother's womb, a medium which we can't talk in but have to wait until we are born into air and can use our lungs, larynx and tongue.

We can only speak of having a 'spiritual life' when we are immersed in the Ruach (Spirit) which is always conveyed in 'liquidy' images like 'water' and 'olive oil' in Scripture or 'airy' ones like 'wind' and 'breath'. The idea of being 'spiritual' is not some vague, symbolic language - it's very literal, it implies immersion in a medium, and that medium is the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) who is both a Person (or Persons) and a substance. It's as different as standing on the side of a swimming pool and actually getting into the water. It's a whole different experience with different sensations on the skin - sensations of texture, sensations of pressure (because water is more dense than air - its heavier), and sensations of heat being conveyed in a different way to air. So there is a tangible differnce between being immersed in the Ruach (Spirit) and simply operating in the psyche we are born with and which we experience all around us in the form of other people and indeed living creatures of all kinds.

So here is the question Paul is asking: how do you know that you're in the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)? The problem is, you can't see the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) so you can control and manipulate it as you would something visible because it's like the wind which blows where it will - remember what Yah'shua (Jesus) said to Nicodemus:

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Ruach (Spirit)" (John 3:8, NKJV).

But you can see the fruit of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) - the consequences or effects of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) on the soul just as you can feel the wind. And that is why Galatians 6:22-23 is so important. So what I want to do is just pick out some of the major themes the apostle talks about.

The first fruit of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is AHAVAH or LOVE, which surprises no one because that is the principle identifier of the Ruach (Spirit). So if you have the Ruach (Spirit) in you, 'She' or 'it' will show up as love. Now ahavah-love and chesed-love (in Hebrew) or agapé-love (in Greek) is not a sentiment or a feeling primarily - love is an act of the will. Love is to want the good of the other and to do something about it - it's both an inner impulse and an action, like faith and works.

What love is not is a kind of 'indirect egotism' in which 'I'll be nice to you if you're nice to me' - 'I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine.' That's not love. Love in the biblical sense of ahavah, chesed and agapé is breaking out of this black hole of the ego. It's getting out of the gravitational pull of the self and really living for the 'other'. If you've got that, then you're in the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)! If your life is characterised by that, then Yahweh-Elohim is breathing through you by means of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) which connects us to Him.

Then Paul talks about simcha (joy) and shalom (peace). It's been said that the flag of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is joy. Someone who is joyful has the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in him or her. But what is meant here by 'joy' per se? What does this Hebrew word simcha translate to? because it does not mean what the world means by it. It doesn't mean an exuberance or over-abundance of psychological satisfaction and stability, good though these things absolutely are. The simcha or joy Paul is talking about here is signalled or identified more by that second word, peace, and specifically the Hebrew concept of shalom.

Yahweh desires we have 'shalom' and by that is meant well-being no matter what turmoil may be going on around you. Shalom is the connection in the very depth of your soul to the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God). What that gives you is a peace, a harmony, a serenity which can endure any and all of the changes in your life, of every type and quality, positive and negative, good and bad, pleasant and painful. So it doesn't matter, if you have shalom, which comes from the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), whether you are in a good psychological space or a bad one, whether you're healthy or sick, whether you're successful or not. If you're connected to the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) you have this sense of well-being, this shalom, this peace even if psychologically - psychically - you're not always in a good place.

Look at Jeremiah - would anyone deny he had the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)? Yet he suffered from great depression at times. We don't cease going through legitimate human struggles when we get the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). We should never try to fake anything, to try to become some 'super-Christian' when we're not. I know of at least one charismatic preacher who is always smiling, bubbly and happy no matter what but I'm not sure that's what Paul necessarily meant when he spoke of having simcha or joy at all times. The simcha (joy) is qualified by the shalom (peace) and what that means.

Next Paul talks about 'patience' or 'long-suffering' as being a mark of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). How do we acquire patience? Through acquiring love, and love is willing the good of the other person. You see, if your life is based on you and your projects, your needs, your plans - what's your attitude toward people who are boring, or annoying, or getting in your way? 'Annoyance' is impatience, a lack of long-suffering. And you will, I'm sure, remember in that classical passage on love in 1 Corinthians 13 that one of the characteristics of love is that it isn't irritable or resentful (NLT)! Remember?

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking ('demand its own way' - NLT), it is not easily angered ('not irritable' - NLT), it keeps no record of wrongs ('of being wronged' - NLT). Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" (1 Cor.13:4-7, NIV)

That's what the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) looks inside a person because that's what love is, and the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is love, because "Elohim (God) is love" (1 Jn.4:8,16, NKJV). She's a virtuous Mother putting up with a lot! Impatience says, 'Get out of my way! You're blocking what I want to achieve!' But if your stance is that of love, you're not trying to get those people out of your way. In fact, you're seeing them as an occasion for love. Perhaps, indeed, they were put in your way by Yahweh precisely as an opportunity for you to love.

Picture yourself waking up in the morning. What's your fundamental attitude? Is it, 'What can I get out of this day?' or 'What occasions for love will present themselves to me today?' The patient or long-suffering person has that attitude. I'd also say this: you're patient in regard to your own suffering. Again, if you're egotistical, all you want are your own projects and plans - then your own suffering for the sake of loving the other is getting in the way, which is why we get impatient with it! 'When will I get over this suffering?!' we demand of ourselves. But the patient person might say, 'No, maybe this suffering is itself a gift given to me by Elohim (God) to help me grow in some spiritual way?' So I become long-suffering even in regard to my own suffering!

The next one I thought we'd look at is 'generosity'. You might wonder how this figures into that original question we asked, 'What does Yahweh want me to do? What path should I walk on?' but I would still ask, 'What path makes you most generous? What form of life brings out the most generosity in you?' Because I would like to suggest to you that maybe that's the path Yahweh wants you on. What do I mean by that? The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is not just "the gift [of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)]" which true baptised believers receive (Ac.2:38, NKJV) - well, actually, it's "poured" on those who believe (Ac.10:45, NKJV) - but it is 'gift' itself - without the indefinite ('a') or definite article ('the') in front of it - because the Father loves the Son, because the Son loves the Father, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is the mutual gifting of the Father and the Son. The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is the Divine Generosity.

Most of us, alas, live, as described in T.S.Elliot's great poem, The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock, where he laments the end of his days, saying: "I've measured out my days with coffee spoons". That's the ungenerous attitude - taking a tiny little spoon of your life and offering it to Elohim (God) and to others, hanging on to your prerogatives and privileges.

No, if the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is in you, then you become 'gifting' - you become 'overflowing' as when the navi (prophet) Joel, speaking of the 'former rain', says "the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil" (Joel 2:24, NKJV) and David who declares that his "heart is overflowing with a good theme" (Ps.45:1, NKJV). 'Overflow' is a Divine Word that bespeaks heavenly generosity. "My cup runneth over" (Ps.23:5, KJV) with the generosity of Elohim (God) in the well-known psalm, #23. Generosity is a fruit of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit).

Next Paul talks about 'faithness', 'fidelity' or 'loyalty'. That's important, isn't it? Most of us will make a great commitment of love at some point in life and that is where our maturity is found really. Becoming a minister, two people getting married, someone deciding he will give himself to his country or to a noble cause, I will take care of my ageing parent...whatever it may be, when you say, 'I make this great commitment or covenant of love', that is of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit).

Covenant-faithfulness, as I've said so many times, lies at the very heart of the Besorah (Gospel)! Fidelity is faithfulness to that commitment, honouring that commitment. That is honour. Chapter 36 of the Olive Branch is a powerful revelation I received in 1988 - I can still remember the day the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) filled me and I received it. I want to read it to you - it's not very long:

"The honour of a man is his life, and he that seeks to honour Yahweh all the days of his life shall receive honour of Yahweh and be honoured by the Household of Faith. But he who has no honour, but yields it in the weakness of his heart on account of his love for men and the praises thereof, shall lack in wisdom and have a poor understanding.

"Where is there an honourable man in the earth (1 Sam.9:6, KJV)? Who will stand upright before the wickedness of men but remain on bended knees before his Elohim (God)? Where is there a virtuous woman who honours her husband and stands by him on account of his righteousness (Prov.3:10)? Behold, honour has fled the earth, and each man seeks his own, to consume it upon his lust.

"Honour is as a rock, fast and immovable, which no man can tear down on account of its strength. It is better that a man have little understanding but much honour in the fear of Yahweh, than to have much wisdom but little honour and no fear of Elohim (God) (Job 28: 28; Is.11:2-3). For the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of understanding (Prov.9:10), and the honour of Yahweh is the foundation of His House.

"Therefore seek the honour of Yahweh and receive Him in the highest, for wisdom has two faces, the one to build up and the other to destroy (Ezek.41:18). If a man finds honour and wisdom it shall go well with him, but if he lacks honour, then great shall be his fall!

"I, Yahweh, love honest men and women, and will uphold them in the day of their trouble; It is written [of man] that a man can be saved no faster than he obtains knowledge and wisdom; But I say unto you, that unless he possesss honour and an upright heart, knowledge profits nothing, for even the devil and his angels have these things. Honour is as a cedar of Lebanon and the Mount of Ephraim that cannot be bent or moved by wind or storm.

"Therefore seek first the honour of righteousness that your steadfastness in Yahweh may be fixed and immovable, withstanding the darts of temptation and the craftiness of all evil men; And I will surely bless you, and keep you, that your days may be prolonged for the sake of the Kingdom. I give these words unto the honourable man for I love the integrity of his heart. And behold, I shall honour him as he has honoured Me, and give him that which is sufficient for his daily walk. And this is given for all the qodeshim (saints, set-apart) who love Me, and all those who will come unto Me with broken hearts and contrite spirits. Even so. Amen."

Just as the Father can never cease loving the Son, nor the Son cease loving the Father, so the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is the chain of love that binds together. That chain of love binds the Father and Son. When we are faithful in our commitment of love, we imitate the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). We have the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), and those noble feelings that would make us faithful are the presence of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). That's where the feeling comes from! It is the source of all nobility.

That is why lack of fidelity - lack of faithfulness - is such a great curse and crisis in our Western culture. People are not true to their word, they are not true to their commitments, their vows, their covenants, their undertaken obligations, because our 21st century Western culture is not a fruit of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). It is a fruit of selfishness and devilry.

We won't cover all the nine virtues for lack of time so let me skip a couple and move on to self-control or temperence. Understand from the outset I am not talking about Puritanism - it's easy enough to mock Christianity as 'fussy', as 'anti-body', 'anti-sexuality', and so forth, (none of which is true, incidentally - what people mean by these accusations is that they are anti-rules, anti-responsibility, anti-accountability, and the like). Paul was an Israelite and Israelites were never anti-body! It was the Gnostics and their off-shoots who had that hang-up - maybe the Platonists of Paul's day were anti-body too, but Yehudim (Judahites) weren't. Paul is not against the body at all.

So why is self-control important? Self-control means, in a nutshell, 'I'm going to order everything in me according to love.' That's what is means. It means all my energies, all my passions, all my powers, all of which are good (if they are in line with Torah) - but they have to be ordered to love. If not, then chaos will result. And the person who lacks self-control lacks that ordering capacity, what the Germans call Ordnung. That's why it's a fruit of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) at work in you.

So ask yourself, 'What enables me to direct my life toward love?' That's what Yahweh wants, that's the Christian/Messianic path you're on, the Derech (Way) that Christ described Himself as: "I am the Derech (Way), the Emet (Truth), and the Chayim (Life)" (John 14:6, NKJV). That is why the Besorah (Gospel) is also called "the Derech (Way)" (Ac.9:2; 19:9,23; 24:14,22). If you're walking a path where you're losing self-control, then you know that is not the Derech or Way spoken of by the apostles. That's not the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit).

Let me end with one last thought. Let me leave you with a prayer that always works if you are absolutely sincere when you pray it, no matter what's going on in your life, good or bad, no matter how young or old you are, no matter how sick or healthy you are, no matter where you are. "Come, Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)". You can't control the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), it blows where Elohim (God) wills. You can't say, 'If I do A, B, and C, I'll get the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)' because it doesn't work that way. Or 'If I follow this program, or this teacher, I'll get the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit).' No. It doesn't work that way either. You have to ask for the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) - 'Come, Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), renew my heart.' And so I recommend, if you want the fruit of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in you per pro Galatians 5, ask - not for things but for Yahweh's will and the tools to effect that will, foremost of which is always the Ruach (Spirit):

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matt.7:7-8, NKJV).

Be prepared to receive whatever gifting Yahweh imparts. The Alef-Taw awaits. Amen.

Acknowledgements

[1] Robert Barron, The Holy Spirit (2012)

Comments from Readers

[1] "Thank you!" (RK, USA, 2 January 2020)