Does your fruit pass the test? Yeshua said, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Matthew 7:16.

He did not say we would be known by our gifts, titles, words, platforms, or ability to quote Scripture. Fruit reveals what has actually been growing within us, and eventually, what is growing on the inside will become visible on the outside.

Galatians 5:22–23 gives us a clear standard for examination: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." These are more than qualities we admire or characteristics we discuss in Bible study. They are evidence of a life being governed and transformed by the Spirit of God.

The difficult part is that our words and our fruit do not always agree. We can speak about love while withholding it from the people closest to us. We can talk about peace while continually creating strife. We can speak about gentleness while allowing anger to govern the way we respond to people. We can proclaim faithfulness publicly while neglecting the commitments God has entrusted to us privately.

This is where the examination becomes personal. It is easy to recognize unhealthy fruit in someone else, especially when their behavior has affected us. It takes humility to turn that same examination inward and ask what our own lives are producing. Before we inspect someone else's tree, we should be willing to stand before God and allow Him to inspect ours.

This is why examining our fruit matters. The purpose is not condemnation. It is transformation. God does not reveal what is unhealthy in us merely to expose us. He reveals it so that we can surrender it, address what produced it, and allow Holy Spirit to cultivate something different. Recognition gives us an opportunity to repent where repentance is necessary, heal where healing is needed, and mature where our character has not yet caught up with what we profess.

Take a moment today and look beyond what you say about yourself. Look at what your life consistently produces, especially when you are inconvenienced, disappointed, overlooked, corrected, or when no one is watching. Those moments often tell us more about the condition of our fruit than the moments when everything is going well.

David prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts." Psalm 139:23. That is a courageous prayer because it gives God permission to show us ourselves without the protection of our own perception.

The litmus is simple: Character over performance. Fruit over words.

The question is not simply whether we profess to belong to Him. The question is whether the evidence growing from our lives agrees with our profession.

Does your fruit pass the test?

Signed-Intercessor