3) I want to be grateful. A grateful person generally is humble. One of the things I use to crush my pride is expressing gratitude out loud for things someone does for me.

As a minister (servant) we of all people should be most grateful. If any good comes out of my ministry, whether it is from my preaching, my counseling, teaching or even finding guidance that I need for my life, it is a miracle of God. There is a verse that says ‘unless the Lord builds the house, the workers labor in vain.’1 This is so true!

Rick Joyner once said that if a pastor thinks that he deserves the applause of the people, that is like the donkey that carried Jesus in the Triumphal Entry thinking that the ‘hosannas’ were for him.

But it gets even worse. When we ministers allow ourselves to receive the praise, we become thieves. We are taking something that is not ours. Let’s not fool ourselves. We are stealing something that belongs only to God.

Gratitude for something that God or another person has done for us comes from a humble heart. In order to truly thank someone, we first have to recognize that we are not self-sufficient nor independent and that we need a helping hand.

Expressing gratitude to others is hard on our pride. Why is it so hard, especially when it has to do with the people we love the most? All of us like it when someone acknowledges an extra effort that we exert.

I want to be known in heaven and on earth as a grateful person.

4) I want to be fruitful. This is another miracle. I can do works, but to produce fruit means I have to be grafted into the vine.2 If His vigor is not running through my veins, I cannot produce fruit.

The number one thing He wants from me and my life is the fruit of the Spirit. The verse in Ephesians 5 says that the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth. These are not an easy combination to find in a person – goodness, righteousness and truth. There are times that I lean more toward righteousness and truth and become exacting but then there is not very much goodness around. Other times I can have lots of goodness but have to make sure it is not at the cost of righteousness and truth. God wants me to have all three and so do I.

For me to have the fruit of the Spirit depends much more on the Spirit than on me— it is after all His fruit. I just have to be grafted into the vine3 and if there is a healthy, consistent relationship with Him, His fruit will be in my life.

On the other hand, if His fruit is not in my life, it is because I don’t have that healthy, consistent relationship with Him. Easy, isn’t it? For all my striving, I can not produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control.4 This is not like a breakfast buffet where you pick and choose what you want We need to have all of them in our lives.

I want to be that kind of person. If I have the fruit of the Spirit then I will for sure produce other types of fruit for God — souls getting saved, bodies being healed, the afflicted being comforted and the captives set free.

To know God, to be humble, to be grateful and to bear fruit. These goals for my life are out of my reach, but through Christ, I can do all things.5

1- Psalms 127:1 2- John 15:4,5 3- John 15:5, 8 4- Galatians 5:22, 23 5- Philippians 4:13