Hopefully the answer to that is no. Yes you read that right. Before I tell you why, lets first read Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” The first thing we should notice is that the word fruit is singular. In English the word fruit can be used to denote many, but the use of the verb “is” clues us in that the use of the word “fruit” is meant to be singular in nature.

The fruit of the spirit is not separate, they are a package deal. In his book Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards says, “anyone of these fruit, individually, can be counterfeited by Satan, can be counterfeited by the natural constitution of the human heart…only the Holy Spirit can produce them altogether.” Often people say that they produce one or more of the fruit, which means, they are producing that fruit, not the Holy Spirit.

So when I asked if you are producing the fruit of the Spirit, the answer should be no. We want the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of the spirit because only He can produce all of them at the same time, and they are the real and not the counterfeit, which means that they stick. We’ve seen people who are joyful but not loving, and we’ve seen people who remain joyful and kind in their suffering. Which joy do you think is from the Holy Spirit?