Do you think you can produce fruit? Galatians 4-6

Galatians 5:22-23 (NASBStr)

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 Galatians Christians were being taught or being tempted to produce works (such as circumcision) to "complete" their salvation.  Note the following:

Galatians 3:3 (NASBStr)

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

In the "fruit of the Spirit" verse we are told that it is the Spirit who produces anything good flowing from us.  There are those who believe it is our effort that produces these things.   IF there is any effort (work) it flows entirely from faith.  Note the following:

Galatians 5:6 (NASBStr)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

The word used in Galatians 5:6 for "working" is "energeo" (English = Energy).   The energy we use that enables the fruit of the Spirit to be produced in our lives is fueled only by faith, not by our effort or energy.   The fruit listed above is the fruit "of the" Spirit.   We have all these things when we allow the Spirit to Walk in us and Work in us.  We shouldn't pray for "joy" or "patience" or "self-control" but we should pray that we would be walking in the Spirit.   When we do walk in the Spirit we have these things flowing from us.  WE don't produce them.  WE don't have self-control.  The Spirit produces them in us through faith in the finished work of Christ and His promise of the Spirit to work out our salvation as we believe.   

See John 7:37-39 (NASBStr)

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “ If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. ’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Christ promised the Holy Spirit to produce these things in us through the new nature.  We can't "perfect" our salvation by effort.  We can believe that the Son of God has given us the Spirit of God to produce energy to produce His Fruit in our lives.   Faith ... Period!

From WORD Biblical Commentary:  It is so, as well, with Paul's catalogue of "the fruit of the Spirit." For while we might have expected such items as alms- giving, evangelism, social service, care of the widows and orphans, etc. to appear in the list, Paul enumerates, rather, such items as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness," etc. Again, it appears that Paul is not so concerned with precisely how each of these matters works out in practice, but with the underlying orientation of self less and out going concern for others. For in commitment to God through Jesus Christ one discovers a new orientation for life- an orientation that reflects the selfless and outgoing love of God himself. It is not, as in Eastern philosophy, the denial of the ego or the created self. Rather, it is freedom from the contaminating effects of egoism and self- centeredness, with the result that now such virtues as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control" can be expressed in the Christian life in ways that are beneficial to others and that reflect God at work in the Christian's life, apart from one's own sinful egocentricity.