The Holy Spirit is your fruit of the Spirit for bringing the life and ministry of Jesus into your life and ministry. Let’s take a look at the basic foundational heart of God found in the Ten Commandments. These ten principles are just the minimum requirements of what is needed to help people live together in harmony. We need to see why Jesus didn’t come to do away with them. And, we need to see how Jesus wants us to be able to fulfill them through the fruit of the Spirit.

1. Exo 20:3 (NIV) You shall have no other gods before Me.

If we think we can get our needs met through some false God, we will spend the days of our lives wasting our time and suffering needlessly. Our source will be useless and our efforts will be in vain. God has made this Law so as to point us in the true direction for getting all our needs met and our eternity filled with His blessings. This is a vital law for the healing, blessings, and miracles we need.


2. Exo 20:4-6 (NIV) You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Our relationship with God is based on love, honor, respect, and honesty. If we try to have an “affair” with false gods and idols, we are cheating on God. We are killing the very relationship that God created us for. Jesus made it clear that we CANNOT serve two masters. Mat 6:24 (NIV) No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. It is either love or hatred. We NEED this relationship with God. This is a very important law.


3. Exo 20:7 (NIV) You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.

• Mat 28:19-20 (NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them IN THE NAME OF the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.


• John 3:18 (NIV) Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed IN THE NAME OF God’s one and only Son.


• Acts 2:38 (NIV) Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, IN THE NAME OF Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.


• Acts 3:6-8 (NIV) Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. IN THE NAME OF Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.


• Acts 3:16 (NIV) By faith IN THE NAME OF Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ NAME and the faith that comes through Him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.


• Acts 4:29-31 (NIV) Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders THROUGH THE NAME OF your holy servant Jesus. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.


• Acts 4:12 (NIV) Salvation is found in no one else, for THERE IS NO OTHER NAME under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Once we see how important God’s name is, we are better able to see why this law exists. It isn’t just a law that protects God’s reputation or brings reproach on Him by us using His name in swearing or in jest. In the spirit realm, the name of Jesus is a powerful weapon against all the evil and satanic things that try to come our way. God’s name sets people free from the spirit realm to the physical realm. This is a great law.


4. Exo 20:8 (NIV) Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Not only do we need a day that is free from work, we need a day to spend with God. It isn’t just a matter of meeting God’s desires, it is a matter of meeting our physical and spiritual needs. We need to take a day off; but, we need to take it off with God. It is a time of relationships with ourselves, others, and God. Without this day, we will find ourselves becoming a slave to the things of this world. This is a vital law that helps us be able to survive as humans.


5. Exo 20:12 (NIV) Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

We can see the destruction of our society based on the breakdown of parent/child relationships. Parents need to treat their children with love and respect and children need to honor their father and mother. Much of how a person handles the issues of life is formed in the family. The blessings of God come from the honor and respect that exists between parents and their children. The rest of a person’s life is built on the family relationships and the emotional, spiritual, and physical growth that took place there. This is a vital law for all involved.


6. Exo 20:13 (NIV) You shall not murder.

If we kill someone, they don’t cease to exist; but, it does cheat them out of the time they needed for preparing for eternity. Jesus makes it clear that killing people doesn’t just involve stopping their bodily functions.

Mat 5:21-22 (NIV) “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca [you empty headed, worthless person], ‘ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Character assassination is just as important to God as killing someone physically. Trying to destroy someone’s God-confidence and God-esteem is like murdering them. God cares about our physical, emotional, and spiritual condition. He doesn’t want us or those around us damaging these areas in one another. This is also a very important law.

7. Exo 20:14 (NIV) You shall not commit adultery.

When we are in love with someone and someone else has sex with them it does great damage to us. Sex is the physical process of making us become one body with someone else. Sex is ONLY allowed in the marriage relationship.

Mat 19:4-6 (NIV) “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

God actually joins a man and woman together and makes them one body. He ties their hearts together and makes them one person. This is a powerful miracle of God that is to be honored and kept sacred and pure. Sex in the marriage is godly and lawful. Sex outside the marriage isn’t. Sex ties two people together in a physical, emotional, and spiritual way. 1 Cor 6:15 (NIV) Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

If the Bible hadn’t explained the fact that we could actually make ourselves one with a prostitute just by having sex with them, no one would have believed it. When we have sex with someone outside marriage, we absorb their sins into us.

1 Cor 6:18-20 (NIV) Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. This isn’t a law we can afford to break.


8. Exo 20:15 (NIV) You shall not steal.

We have all felt the pain of someone stealing from us. Some things are hard for us to replace and other things are irreplaceable. If it were a common thing for people to steal all we have, we wouldn’t be able to live much of a life. We need to be able to keep those things we own. People stealing our identify, our possessions, and our money hurts us deeply. People cheating us out of the money we have earned is very hard on us. When people don’t pay us for the things we have sold them, it hurts us financially. Stealing is very damaging to the individual and the society. This too is a very important law.


9. Exo 20:16 (NIV) You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

When we bring the law against someone falsely, we hurt their reputation. We cause them to be punished for things they didn’t do. And, we make them responsible for things they shouldn’t be responsible for. The only way for a court to be able to get at the truth is for people to give honest and truthful testimony. False testimony can be made outside court situations as well. Gossip, backbiting, seditions, discord, dissensions, factions, and rumors can also be false testimony. This is a law that we all need to obey.


10. Exo 20:17 (NIV) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Once our attention is drawn toward wanting something or someone that others have, plans start to form in our mind as to how to get them or how to hurt the one who has them. Covetousness grows in us like a cancer and starts to become a priority in our plans, goals, and efforts. The emotions that develop in us become very strong and influential. It can take over most of our thoughts for the day. Our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions become dominated by its influence. It can ruin our life and the lives of those around us. We need to obey this law.

As you can see, all these laws are vital to the success of our life. There is nothing wrong with the laws themselves. It would seem that we would all agree with these laws and be willing to make them a part of our lifestyle. But, because of the weaknesses of our sinful nature that is located in our human body, we all have the struggle described in Romans 7:15-24. The reason our world is in the condition it is in, isn’t because we disagree with these Biblical principles. We all want to be treated the way these laws lay out life and its rules and regulations. We just can’t seem to live them in our treatment of others.

Our world is in a mess because of all the people who are constantly breaking these laws. The Holy Spirit is causing all those people, whom God hasn’t turned over to a depraved mind (Romans 1:21-32), to feel guilty about breaking these laws of God (John 16:8). But, even with the Holy Spirit’s conviction, people can’t stop breaking these laws (sinning).

1. So, we have the great qualities of these laws: Rom 7:7 (NIV) What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” Rom 7:12-13 (NIV) So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.


2. We have the weakness of our body: Rom 7:8 (NIV) But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Rom 7:11 (NIV) For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. Rom 7:22-23 (NIV) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.


3. And, we have Jesus Who gives us the power to overcome the weaknesses of our body: Rom 8:1-4 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Jesus didn’t just come to earth and go straight to the cross. He lived a life, preached a message, and used a training method that, if followed to the letter, will change our life, the lives of those around us, and will change our whole world. Jesus is the answer to salvation, to sanctification, to mentoring, to ministry, and to changing the world. He can so change your life and ministry by working with you through His life and ministry that He shows you how to bring change to the whole world.