That You Bear Much FRUIT: Fruit Bearing Fun

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” (Psalms 1)

The first Psalm offers unique understand to the process of God in your life. First it offers the guidelines to come to God and please Him. Walking not in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners, or sitting in the seat of the scornful indicates the kind of company God expects us to keep and the negative progression of entertaining friendships with ungodly people. To please God, we must fall in love with God’s Word and ways.

When we surrender ourselves to God’s word and His principles, we experience a transplanting process. Being planted by waters resulted from God digging our lives out of the environment of skin, and planting us by the rivers of life. The transplant occurs when “the axe is laid unto the root of the trees,” and true repentance transpires (Matthew 3:10).

Repentance is key

Repentance is the complete turning around in one’s life, from sin and evil to God and godliness. It involves godly sorrow for the sinner’s wayward lifestyle, complete surrender to God, and the desire and effort to satisfactory serve God. John the Baptist charged his listeners, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Repentance converts the soul into the “right” direction, a direction leading to God.

Accompanying repentance, you were baptized in Jesus’ name or planted as a tender plant in God’s kingdom (Romans 6:3-7).

Transplanted into a brand new environment, this tender plant draws nutrients and resources from a heavenly atmosphere. the power of the spirit of God and God’s word feeds the plant and produces positive growth.

The Growth Process

God expects the newly transplanted plant to grow. The new plant must consistently extend its root fibers deep into God’s soil. While the visible part of the plant above the ground annually experiences various changes, under the ground the roots constantly grow year round and reach deeper into the earth’s resources: so must the new convert consistently extend roots deep into God’s resources.

When we repent, get baptized in Jesus’ name, and receive the Holy Ghost, God starts a spiritual growth process that He expects to continue in us until we pass from this life to the next. As a baby learns to talk, stand, and walk, we too must develop in our spiritual skills and grow strong in God.

The Purpose of Growth

When God transplants us and desires us to grow, He ultimately expects us to produce fruit in our lives. Accompanying the fruit of repentance, God expects us to produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Repentance may compare to the skin of the fruit, while the fruit pulp may signify the fruit of the Spirit.

Jesus’ Discourse on Fruit

Jesus carefully compared man’s relationship with God to a branch’s relationship with the vine. The productive branch attached to the vine produces fruit, and any branch that fails in fruit production is pruned from the plant. Jesus related God’s physical command, “Be fruitful and multiply” as a spiritual mandate with sever consequences for failure as described in John 15:2,6).

Jesus also gave the necessary formula to produce fruit. The resources of the vine must readily pass from the vine through the branches. The certain fruit-producing hormones, water, and other necessary ingredients available from the vine must freely flow through open channels of the branches in order for fruit to be produced.

This necessary attachment must endure both internal decay and external adversities, such as the weather. Together, the vine and the branch permanently unite, endure internal and external forces, and provoke the propagation of seed, pulp, and skin for reproduction (John 15:4-5).

Jesus spoke of the three results of the spiritual attachment of human branches to the divine vine: fruit production, divine blessedness, and glory to God (John 15:7-8).

Man and Fruit Compared

The scripture describes man as being a trichotomy. Body, soul, and spirit comprise the makeup of every man. The body, man’s exterior actions and appearances, houses the soul. The soul, man’s seat of intellect and emotions, houses the spirit of man. The human makeup includes body, soul, and spirit, much like an apple includes skin, pulp, and core (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Spiritual fruits results when the spirit of man submits to the spirit of God and allows the union of man’s spirit and God’s spirit. Since God is spirit (John 4:24), human and divine fellowship occurs in the spiritual real, and the spiritual seeds supernaturally develop in man’s inner core.

Sensitivity to the spiritual union allows divine effects to flow through man’s soul and into man’s body. The scripture speaks of “the peace of God, which passes all understanding” in Philippians 4:7, and “joy unspeakable” (1 Peter 1:8). It also instructs us to love the Lord with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength in Mark 12:30.

Accompanying a person submitting his spirit to God’s he must yield his body and soul to God This requires learning to follow God in thoughts and actions. The fruit of God’s spirit includes the spiritual union core, the pulp of proper attitudes, and the skin of Godly behavior.

Keep a good attitude

Godly fruit pulp includes proper attitudes. Since a person’s attitude exposes the inner self and produces the exterior behavior, the attitude develops as the most visible aspect of spiritual fruit. This aligns with natural fruit which usually is made up mostly of pulp (James 3:17 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Godly fruit skin involves proper disposition and actions. A person’s outward appearance and behavior depict the type of fruit that comprises the spirit and soul (Read Luke 6:45, Matthew 7:16-18,20 and Matthew 3:8,10).

Therefore, the scripture instructs for Christians to behave themselves in Godly manners in Philippians 1:27, James 3:13, 1 Peter 1:15, and 2 Peter 3:11).

The Fruit’s Purpose

Within the life of every living organism, a desire and energy to reproduce motivates it as its primary purpose. God placed this drive into the core of all His creation when He commanded, “Be fruitful and multiply” in Genesis 1:22.

God desires for the transplanted plant to produce fruit for reproduction. Comparing salvation to an apple, God gives a converted person the outer skin of repentance to show others the changed life; the apple’s pulp compares to the fruit of the spirit that God gives to make a person’s life sweet and entice others to partake of His kingdom; and He gives the seed of God’s word to be planted into the ground of other’s lives (Matthew 13:3-23).

The core of the fruit holds the plant seed, which when planted fulfills God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. However, accompanying components of the fruit, the pulp and skin, assist in the dispersing process by providing food for birds or other animals that can transport the seeds to distance locations. The three components of the fruit, the skin, pulp, and core, each serve the plant in its primary purpose, reproduction.

As natural fruit exists primarily in the reproduction process, God also gives spiritual fruit ultimately for a believer to win someone else. By the Holy Spirit’s infilling, positive, attitudes, and Christian behavior, others will feel an inner awareness and drawing toward the kingdom of God and ultimately come unto salvation. Christians should reproduce Christians.

What Does F.R.U.I.T. Stand for?

Therefore, throughout the upcoming series, we will discuss the necessary attitudes and virtues to produce fruit. Consider the acronym “F.R.U.I.T.”

1. F: Faith
2. R: Relationship
3. U: Understanding
4. I: Intimacy
5. T: Teamwork

I look forward to walking you, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, in the next lesson of this series titled, “Overcoming Through Your Faith”.