The fruit of the Spirit is not optional for leaders of impact. Love, peace, patience, joy, gentleness, and the rest are qualities that bring influence and motivate others around us. The fruit of the Spirit is one of the ways God gives us authority in the eyes of others.
The fruit of the Spirit (listed in Galatians 5) is being sensitive to the Lord and what He is doing in the lives of others, not just being captured by my own agenda, my own pressures and needs. It is seeing my spouse’s heart that gives me gentleness and patience. It is hearing the heart of my children that stirs a God move in me. The fruit of the Spirit is Christ expressing Himself through me toward others, His presence in me flowing toward others.
Patience isn’t just a discipline. It is the Spirit pacing us back to hear more, to see more deeply, to care. Gentleness (power under control) is seeing the heart of a person who needs correction, not just the actions that need corrected.
The fruit of the Spirit is God in me in the nitty gritty places of life, filling my soul so that I will not be filled with anxiety, anger or panic pace. The fruit of the Spirit is Christ leading me as I lead others, Christ showing me others, slowing me down, reminding me that those in the path are not in the way.