Fruit

Fruit

We are to produce the fruit of GOD’s Kingdom by abiding in Christ Jesus! “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.” (John 15:5)

We can have useless fruit in our lives; fruit that is not resulting in treasures being built up in Heaven. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.” (Matthew 7:18, 12:33)

We can have wheat and tares growing in our life. “Let both grow together until the harvest and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:30)

We can produce fruit in our life that is a blessing to ourself and our family but has no spiritual or eternal value; tastee and satisfying but not nourishing.

Abiding and being fruitful is the work of Holy Spirit in our life but we must participate; being fruitful is not a spectator sport. We have to not just ask for forgiveness, but we have to get the bad habits out of our life and incorporate the good habits of GOD’s Kingdom into our life; this is repentance.

“Father, dig up the soil around me, fertilize and water me so that I will produce the fruit of Your Kingdom. Father, forgive me for producing fruit that is under developed, that is not nourishing or good for seed for me, my family, the Church or the world. If it is not the fruit of Your Spirit – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance – cut it from my life. Father, cut down the trees in my life that produce false good fruit (fruit that meets the world’s standard of success) and cut down the trees in my life that produce bad fruit. Father, prune the good but weak fruit in my life to bring good, healthy fruit to harvest and produce in me the humility of wheat so the tares can be reaped and burned.”

Study Matthew 3:4-12, 6:18-21 & 24, 7:15-23, 12:33-37, 13:24-30 & 36-43, 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-14 & 20-24; Luke 3:7-14, 13:6-9; John 15:1-17; Galatians 5:18-26