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If evangelism is the priority element of health, the first fruit it bears is spiritual health. Two things happen. First, the newly saved person begins to grow in Christ. This kind of church health is the result of the work of God’s Holy Spirit through the study of the Bible and its application to one’s life. But secondly, the believers participating in the effort of evangelism also grow in Christ… because they have been applying the truth of Scripture to their life and putting it to practice.
The fruit of spiritual health is always visible and real; Galatians 5:22-23 teaches this. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” This fruit (notice the singular nature of the word, not plural) is what will begin to happen in the life of the Christian who is maturing. As God’s people are growing in this way, so will the church. We begin to see maturity in greater and greater levels, a new excitement about the work of God and a passion to see, learn and grow more in Christ. Our individual life as a Christian is never to be one of isolation, but always for the profit of the church. And when we are growing spiritually, the church will grow spiritually… the corporate church is a barometer of her individual people!
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