Fruitfulness

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Fruitfulness

Here are 4 ways on how become more fruit in your lives

for Christ, even if you’re not yet saved

Ø Before fruit there must be life

Ø There must be an entire commitment to the conditions

Ø Fullness must come before Fruitfulness

Ø The character of the fruit

1)               Before fruit there must be life

John 15  ⁵ “.. I am the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for

without Me you can do nothing ..”

   As time goes on there are things that Christians tend to forget. Christ is saying here is the He would hope we would open our eyes to stir up emotion. He wanted to remind us, that, He is the true Living One, and has come that we may life, (more abundantly).

   This going to sound, silly, but if want a nice fresh apple/pear you don’t look upon a dead tree, would you? So why not have a true living God that would dwell within you. For, with Christ Jesus in our lives, you would be able to do things otherwise you wouldn’t normally be able too.

   A soul dead in sin … “..you who He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin..” (Eph 2 v1) … can never bring forth the fruits of righteousness. There must be a planting in Jesus Christ first.

“.. You must yield yourselves unto God, as those that are

alive from the dead ..” (Rom 6 v13)

   The fruit of the ‘self-life’ is corrupt, so there for you must crucify the flesh with all its lusts, thus growing in the knowledge of God. This kind of whole hearted surrender to the grace and the power of the spirited God open the way into the heart, and life so God can enter in the works mightily. 

2)              There must be entire surrender to the new conditions

   So what does it really mean to ‘Entirely surrender’? Well, if the roots of the tree does not reach out and spread into the new soil, into which it has been re-planted, then the tree will not prosper and grow into a fine specimen. In Philippians chp’s 3 9 & 10, Paul refers to  “..being found in Him..”, the source of life eternal, he then goes onto to also say “..That I may know Him..”, a growing acquaintance with Him. The branch must be entirely passive to the power of the vines.

“..present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead,

and your members as instruments of righteousness

to God ..” (Romans 6 v13)

   Tell me, I hear you scream at the monitors. Well, it so because we must crucify the flesh unto its lusts, then and only then can we grow in full knowledge of God. We can’t have an air of arrogance though, or prepare for a stumble after stumble, that is until we have an air of humbleness. Once we rid ourselves of this arrogance, then we wil ready for our whole hearted surrender unto the grace and power of the spirit of God, this will lead the way into the heart and life so that God can enter in and work mightily within us. Further ways can be found in …

3)              Fullness must come before Fruitfulness

   In all life there a natural order of events. A gun dog must be trained from a puppy to not be scared of all the bangs from the guns, shouting & noise, and to watch for the right bird falling from the sky, then go and to fetch it on command. So it is the growth of the trees, in that the branch will not bear fruit until it has been filled to over flowing with sustaining sap. Just like a cup will not over flow, that is until it has been filled up.

 “.. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water ..”  (John 7 v38) . . .

 . . . If the rivers are to flow out of us, then the unfailing spring must rise up like a torrent and then fill all within. We must take care though; a sloppy and dissatisfied heart will always produce only a poor and dissatisfying testimony for Christ our Lord. It is no good standing up and saying ‘the Lord saved me from drink’, only to then go out after and by a bottle wine/spirit! You are only fooling yourself, and making a joke of your testimony. For sure all those you told about being saved won’t ever take you seriously ever again. Though fear not all is lost, just you are going to have a fight on your hands, take comfort as you will have our Lord Jesus there to help you in becoming strong.

   If the roots of our being are spread next to the river, by the way of our Holy Spirit, then we shall not cease from yielding fruit.

  

“..For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which

spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when

heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be

anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease rom yielding

fruit ..”  (Jeremiah 17: v8) 

4)              The character of the Fruit

“.. Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine ..”   (Ezekiel 47 v12)  

This following part has 2 part to it …

      i.            It will be new fruit

   ii.            It will be new fruit according to the nature of the tree

     i.            So it will be New Fruit

   The first statement is ‘It will be new fruit’. Here we are told, if we regenerate, replace old branches for new, in doing so we will grow stronger. To stand still after I was saved is actually sin in its self. We were saved to spread the Word, to spread His seed/Word, in time to spread out and help many to glory.

   The second part is ’It does not belong to the unregenerate man’. No one wants to be so hard hearted that you be saved ‘cause a friend is saved’, only to stay as you were before. How do you expect to grow, if you don’t put off your old ways, and you will never grow new fruit, because of it? It’s not the fruit of the flesh, and not the outcome of an energetic self-life.

  ii.            It will be new fruit according to the nature of the tree

    When gathering fruit, like you would not look for Figs in the midst of thorns, Or, gather grapes in the middle of the thistles, would you? Gods fruit cannot be held back because the fruit “.. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness ..”  (Galatians 5 v22). But not the fruit of the Christians, the fruit of the spirit, as we can see, is just the likeness of Christ.

 

   You have now become partakers of the divine nature. As a result of the living Spirit, moving sap, with so the image and the characteristics of Christ are wrought in the believers by the living, moving spirit within.

    

 So surely it is the work of God, and evidence of a soul being full possessed by Him. Now I'm sure there is more than one among you who thought this 'Possessed by Him sounded ever so 'demonic-supernatural'. Well, No & Yes. OK stop scratching you heads or you'll have no hair left. No - our Lord is by no means demonic, but, Yes - our God is the only one true supernatural, after all He made the Heavens & Earth, so He could not be Human.

   Where there is the indwelling of the Spirit, there must be infestation of the Christ likeness. It was once said, sadly I know not by whom, that 'Death is the way to life and fruitfulness’.

“.. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone, but if die it bring forth much fruit ..”

John 12 v24  - King James version

Chastisement, Why do we need it?....

Chastisement

Why do we need it?

Hebrews 12 1 ~29

   I’ll go out on a limb here in saying that whilst we were growing up we all at some time were told off? Then told what is expected of us. The following will show, why it is ‘good for us’. Also why it is needed. They said that we had use their faith to overcome, to use their faith to have victory through our life.

V1  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

V1 is telling us we can do it no matter where you are in life, no matter what you are lay aside every weight, such as over eating . . . watching to much TV,  and the sin This would be the sin of unbelief, this must be layed aside.

   Run with endurance the race Everyone has their own race mapped in front of them. We don’t chase the race that is set before us. What we must do is to find out/discover what it will be/with patience & endurance.

V2  “ .  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith . .”

We’re told never to ‘look at’ Jesus, instead we’re told to ‘look unto’ Jesus. Why is this?  . . .  Let me try and explain.

   You waken to find out the flat your in is on fire and the only exit is blocked off by the fire. You’ve called the fire brigade is on their way, once they get there you are told NOT to look at the fireman, but to look unto the fireman.

   Why, I hear you say, surely they are the same thing? NO If ‘look unto’ the fireman, you’re looking with expectation, that the fireman has an expectation to rescue you. So when looking ‘unto’ Jesus with an air expectation that Jesus has a champion to be able to live this life the way He lived His life.

“. .and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus. .”

   When we run into hard times, and there seems no solution to the problem set before you. We need to loo ‘unto Jesus’ with expectation for Him to help us out of where we are. . .

“. .endured the cross. .”

I don’t think today anyone would gladly offer themselves for such a barbaric beating that Jesus had taken for us. That said Jesus knew what His life was about from a very young age. Now the time had come for Him to go to the cross, also knowing in 3 days He would rise from the dead.

“. .who for the joy that was set before him. .”

   So yes as it says here that Jesus must have gone to the cross with joy in Hi heart, pre-knowing, who would win this battle before it had begun. You know whilst having ‘happiness in your life, you can still be without joy. But you can have joy in your life, that it’s infectiousness will bring on happiness..

. Joy comes from what you know

. Happiness comes from your comfort

. . but, the sour note is, that you can have joy yet be thoroughly uncomfortable.

V3  “. . such contradiction of sinners . .”

   We always feel that we have it worst that you neighbour or friends. Just the other day I was told this, “If you feel you it watch a TV program called ‘The Jeremy Kyle show’, then you’re your troubles will just fade away, compared to theirs.

   It’s a hot day and need that fan to help cool you down, you would not take your child by the hand thrust the hand into the fan? Teaching the child how dangerous it could be, messing up the child’s hand. There is a special place for people like this!

   God was introduced to us as ‘Abba Father’, what Jesus meant here was that God is ‘the first and the last Father’ one who is intimate with us. As God’s heart is filled with so much love & tender mercy, and NOT just judgement. Because of Jesus death on the cross was so that we can benefit from His selfless act,  also that we benefit from the fullness of God.

God is good all the time

V5    Shows clearly that God does not rebuke us with diseases and the like, for He will use for most, use words and signs. Your profit and growth will come to be based on whether you will be able to receive those words that God will use to rebuke and encourage you . .

Psalm 141  5   “. .Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. .”

   There can be powerful results that come from correction. But even more so when it comes from a man steeped in the word of God and also being ‘righteous’, let it be a kindness to me, thus may I rejoice because of such correction. The implication is that if a ‘righteous man’ sees and says that this is a disservice to you.

Q “What would the correction be in Heaven?

More so than here on Earth?

In Heaven surely these acts would not occur, so no

Need for correction?

   When we see a building on fire, the Firemen would run head long into the fire. Whereas you and I run in the other direction till we are a safe distance away. As Christians we can/must-not despise correction. So we should, like the Firemen, run head long to being corrected, even just like a righteous person would.

RPT x2

I will not despise the correction of the Lord

  

Proverbs 3  9   “. . Honour the Lord with your possessions,
And with the first fruits of all your increase;
¹⁰ So your barns will be filled with plenty,
And your vats will overflow with new wine. .”

Proverbs 3  11   “. . My son, do not despise the chastening

of the Lord, Nor detest His correction. .”

   The Lord only brings His correction/chastening, “if you head my word your barns would be filled to bursting, and you vats over flowing, fit to burst.

(NKJ)

Hebrews 10  “. .  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. .”

  This verse in Hebrews shows the difference between our Earthly parents & Heavenly parents. As when God chastens He only does this for ‘our-own’ profit, and no one else. That we may be partakers of His Holiness, as well so that we may declare this, “God you are my Wisdom”. The result that we mat blame on Gods correction, is actually the judgement for the road we continue on down, whilst all the time God is trying to tell you not to go gown.

V9  John 10 v10  “. . I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. .”  Gods correction is just so!

   The seal of empowerment was called the ‘Beamer Seal’. This is the seal in Heaven that Christians will come before to receive our rewards according to our works, here on Earth. Not to be confused with the ‘Seal of Judgement’.

   (This is my surmise) I feel this may have come about those Christians whose works were neither many nor good. This was done by one Jew called Augustine. It is here in Heaven for us to give account of our works whilst on Earth. We will be rewarded as well as have losses.

   The seal nobody wants be on willingly is in hell, called ‘ The Great white Throne of Judgement’. That is where it will be determined to what level in hell or lake of fire you will go for eternity. Yes there many levels of punishment in hell, where you will receive your suffering. The name ‘Dante’ is famous for depicting and showing, in his paining, the many levels of hell and the suffering there.  I know, and understand, there will be many scoffers among you, saying, who will be saying how does he know how many levels there truly are? The truth is NO-ONE really knows alive, among us knows for sure, but I feel he nails it.

   OK, so, let’s start raping by showing one of the ways God knew how to correct Peter. What was it that brought Peter to his knees? In his prayers he prostrated himself before God and humbly he said to God forgive me Lord, for I’m so stupid’. So what actually brought Peter to his knees? Well, it was when our Lord caused a net breaking harvest to come.

   You ask so how did God correct him? Well, not by being angry or shouting or pointing at him or wagging his finger. NO, instead He showed extreme kindness toward Peter. ‘A net breaking harvest’. It was Peter who told Jesus, you don’t know you’re not a fisherman, we have been out all day, so all my nets are in and stowed away.

   But Jesus told him to cast out his nets, just the same. Reluctantly Peter did this to humour Jesus, in doing so, suddenly the nets were ready to break and called the other fishermen come lend a hand. Such was the harvest, such was Gods extreme kindness. The kindness and blessing bestowed upon him brought Peter to his knees. Because even the partners boats began to sink such was the kindness showed to him.

   Suddenly it became clear to Peter what this meant. Let me leave you with this verse from…

Romans 2 v4  “. . Or do you despise the riches of His

goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness 

of God leads you to repentance?. .”