Series: Fruit bearing

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This morning, I want further share with you on ‘Fruit bearing’. We have been looking at the need for us to be fruit bearing believers in Christ Jesus. God, as we see in scriptures, wants us to bear fruit. That’s because it brings Him glory when we do so. And we have looked at the nature of fruit He wants us to bear. This is referred to in scriptures as the fruit of the Spirit.

But we are not likely to bear fruit as He expects us to if it is not our desire to do so. As I’ve told us again and again, we must desire what God desires for us. We must want what He wants for us. We must not assume that we are going to become the persons God wants us to become automatically. If we do not want to become the persons He wants us to become, we will most likely not become the persons He wants us to become. If we do not want to have what He wants us to have, there is a possibility that we are going to end up not having what He wants us to have. So, we must desire to bear fruit as He wants us to bear fruit.

Now of course, as we see in scriptures also, God has not left us to ourselves in this matter. He is at work in us to will and to act according to His good purpose. God is at work in us to fill us with desires that are consistent with His good purpose and to also enable us to realize those desires. But we must not quench those desires. We are told not to quench the Spirit (1Thessalonians 5:19). You know what that means? It means to silence the Spirit of God. He is talking to you. He is telling you what to do. You can silence Him. You can tell Him to keep quiet. You can tell Him that what He is doing is too much.

As a child of God, if you are indeed a child of God, it is His job to fill you with those desires that are consistent with His good purpose. And God is never remiss in handling His jobs. He is never remiss in handling His responsibilities. So, surely, He will fill you with desires that are in line with His good purpose. But you can quench those desires. You can decide not to work with them. You can decide to eliminate them. You can decide to ignore them. And you can think yourself of the number of times you have quenched those good desires that God brought to you. You can think of the recent ones, the times in which God was leading you to do something or asking you to do something and you silenced Him. You knew that what He was asking you to do was the right thing for you to do. You knew that it was good. You knew that it was righteous. You knew that it would be profitable for you and for every other person around you. Yet you did not do it. Why? That is what is called quenching the Spirit, silencing the Spirit.

Well, do not give anybody the impression that God is not giving you the will to do what is right. If He is not giving you the will to do what is right, that means He is not living in you. That is the point. If He is living in you, He will surely and continually give you the will to do what is right, to do what is in line with His purpose for you. But you will have to work with that will. Otherwise, it will amount to nothing.

In any case, what we are dealing with is ‘Fruit bearing’. And we are dealing with it because that is what God wants us to do. Then we have equally seen that apart from Him, we can do nothing. In St. John’s Gospel, chapter 15, which we have been looking at, Jesus describes our relationship with Him. He refers to himself as the vine and to us as the branches. And He tells us that as the branches cannot bear fruit by themselves without abiding in the vine. In the same vein, cannot bear fruit by ourselves without abiding in Him.

So, we already know the main secret of bringing forth fruits, the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit, which consists in: love, joy, peace, gentleness, humility, self-control, brotherly kindness. The secret is abiding in the vine, abiding in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our source, the source of everything God wants to produce in us. He is the source of the joy that God wants to produce in our lives. He is the source of the love that God wants to exhibit through our lives. He is the source of the humility, the gentleness, the meekness, the self-control that God wants to exhibit through our lives and in our lives. Therefore, we have to remain connected to Him.

It is not for us to struggle to be any of these things. It is not for you to struggle to love, to be patient, to be kind, to be gentle or humble. If you are struggling, something is wrong. Because you are supposed to do these things naturally. Why are you a new creation, by the way? Why have you been recreated? You have been recreated so that you will be able to do these things naturally.

So, if you are not doing them naturally, something is wrong. And you may want to ask yourself if you have not been disconnected from your source. Or you may want to ask yourself if nothing is blocking your connection to your source. Because doing these things should come to us naturally. And doing these things will come to us naturally if we abide in the vine. Branches do not struggle to bear fruit. They just bear fruit naturally. All they need to do is to remain in the vine. So, we too should bear fruit naturally. All we need to do is to remain in the vine or abide in the vine.

How then do we abide in the vine? The word of God tells us that we abide in him by allowing his words to abide in us. Let me read that verse to you again from 1 John chapter 2, verse 24:

“As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.” (NIV)

What have you heard from the beginning? The word of God! Now John says see to it that the word of God that you have heard remains in you or abide in you. If it does, if it does abide in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. Simple!

So, if I want to remain connected to Him, I must allow His word to abide in me. As I pointed out last week, that goes beyond merely reading Scriptures or studying Scriptures. It also involves meditating on Scriptures, meditating on the word of God. Because the only way the word of God will abide in you is if you will meditate on it, if you will continually ponder on it. If it is not abiding in you, then, you are not meditating on it enough. You have to meditate on what the word of God says about you. You have to meditate on what the word of God says about fruit-bearing. If you want to bear any kind of fruit in abundance, then, you must meditate on what the word of God says about that thing.

It is hard work, of course. Meditating on the word of God is hard work. And this is why many of us Christians struggle with living in the light of the word of God. To continually think about what the word of God says, to set His word continually before you is hard work. To fix your gaze on what the word of God says is hard work. To fix your mind on what the word of God says is hard work. The word of God has not said it will be easy. God has not said it will be easy to meditate on the word of God. All he has told us is to meditate on His word and to do so day and night.

So, during the day, you’re thinking the word; you’re pondering on what the word of God says about you, what it says about your life, what it says about your walk with Him, what it says about your various relationships. You’re pondering on these things. In the middle of the night also, you do the same. In other words, when you wake up in the middle of the night, what should naturally come to your mind is the word of God. You wake up to wee. What should come to your mind? The word of God!

See, if you have to wake up to think about anything, what you should think about is the word of God, not your family problems, not your business problems, not your academic problems. That is worrying. That is being anxious. And it is not going to solve your problem. It may make you wake up angry. It may make you wake up bitter. It may make you wake up moody. That’s why some people wake up moody. They’ve been meditating on the wrong things. They wake up in the middle of the night to meditate on the wrong things. So, they are bound to wake up moody. Some often wake up anxious. Why do they wake up anxious? They’ve been meditating on those things that will make them anxious.

Now, of course, meditating on the word of God does not mean that all the problems surrounding you will naturally vanish. They may still be there staring you in the face. But meditating on the word of God will prepare you to handle them. It will give you the confidence you need to handle them. It will give you the wisdom you need to handle them. Meditating on the word of God will make you one with what God has said. And you see, when you become one with what He has said, you cannot act contrary to what He has said.

If you are acting contrary to what God has said, if you are living a life that is contrary to the will of God for you, the main problem is that you have not become one with what God has said. You may believe in what He has said. You may love what He has said. You may agree that what He has said is good for you. Yet it’s not working in your life. And the word has to work in your life. The word of God has to work in your life for you to produce the fruit God talks about. Paul says to the Thessalonians that he is glad that the word of God they heard is working in them (1Thessalonians 2:13). But I’m saying it’s not going to work in you until you become one with it.

Now the only way to become one with it is to meditate on it. It does not matter what your profession is. It does not matter what your job is. It does not matter what your background is. If you will meditate on the word of God, it will produce in your life the results God wants to see. You are not going to struggle to get the results produced. The word in itself is powerful enough to produce in your life what God talks about.

God spoke to Joshua along this line. Joshua was a soldier. And the only gift God had to give him was His word. Look at Joshua, chapter 1, from verse 7. God, speaking here to Joshua, says:

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.” (NIV)

The first thing God told him is to be strong and very courageous. And you know, when God speaks to you like that, you don’t try to be what you are told to be, because the word He has spoken to you will produce in you the strength to be what you are meant to be. I mean that if God says to you, “Be strong,” what happens to you? You become strong.

In one of the visions of Daniel that was what happened to him. The vision weakened him. The vision made him weak. So, he fell flat on his feet. And he had no strength in him to even talk. And God said to him, “Be strong now; be strong.” And what happened? He became strong. So, when God speaks to you, it’s not for you to try to be what you are meant to be. It’s for you to receive what He says, knowing that His word will produce the energy in you that is required for you to be what you are meant to be. (Cf. Daniel 10:15-19)

Well, God said to Joshua, “Be strong and very courageous.” And when God said those words to him, he became strong and courageous. And then God went on to tell him that he must be careful to keep the law that Moses had given to him. He must not turn either to the right or to the left in keeping. That means he must make no excuses for not acting on the word. He must not try to revise whatever God has said to him. Just act on it. Don’t try to revise it. Just act on it. That way you are going to be successful wherever you go.

Then look at verse 8. God, still talking to this man, says:

“Keep this book of the law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (NIV)

Where is he to keep the book of the law? On his lips! In his mouth! Read the word. Talk the word. You understand the point now? You must keep on saying what the word says to yourself. By the way, Romans 10, verse 17, says, “Faith comes by hearing the words of Christ,” right? But it does not say whom you must hear it from. It only says faith comes by hearing the word of Christ. You can hear it from yourself, then. And you had better start hearing it from yourself.

How do you hear it from yourself? You say it to yourself. You say what the word is saying to yourself. I do that every day. I may not have done enough of it, but I am ready to do enough of it. For example, in 2 Timothy, chapter 1 verse 7, we are told that God has not given us the spirit of timidity, but the spirit of power, love, and sound mind or self-control, right? That’s the Spirit we have. Now I have to say that to myself. I have to say that God has not given me the spirit of timidity. And I say that to myself almost every day, in fact, more than once every day, that God has not given me the spirit of timidity but the Spirit of power.

Now I also have to break it down. It’s not just about quoting Scriptures. I have to break it down. The Spirit God has given me is the Spirit of power, not the spirit of weakness. So, I am not weak. I am not a weak Christian; I am a strong Christian because the Spirit of God fills me with power. Also, He has given me the Spirit of love. So, I have to tell myself, “What I have in me is love. The Spirit of God fills my life with love, not with lust but with love. So what my life will express is the love of God. Because there’s the Spirit of God in me and He’s filling my life with love.”

Then He fills my life with soundness of mind, with self-control, with self-discipline. So I am not undisciplined. I am disciplined. The Spirit of God works in me and fills my life with discipline. I have to say that to myself. You have to say that to yourself. You have to talk the word. What are you doing? You are making yourself one with the word of God. That’s how to meditate.

Again, this goes beyond memorizing scriptures. This is thinking the word of God and speaking the word of God to yourself. And you have to do this day and night. As often as it comes to your mind, you say it. You say it to yourself. You say it so that you hear it.

Now God says if you will do this day and night, you will be prosperous and successful. I’m, then, going to ask myself, “If I’m not doing this and I’m not prosperous and successful, what could be wrong?” It may mean that I’m not doing it enough. Because God says that if I do it, this will be the result: prosperity, success. And He says do it day and night. That is non-stop. It’s not a one-off thing. It’s not what you do for a week. It’s not what you do when you feel good. It is not what you do when there are no challenges staring you in the face.

It is easy to say, “My God supplies all my needs according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus,” when your bank account is full, when you enter your kitchen and there is food everywhere. Yes, when things are going on well, you can easily say, “My God supplies all my needs according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus.” It’s easy to say that. But you had better just know that you are thanking God where that is the case.

But to say that when your bank account is empty, to say that when there is no food in your house, that’s what we are talking about. To say these things, regardless of the circumstances that you are faced with, that’s what we are talking about. You are saying that to yourself, regardless of what you see or do not see. Regardless of what is happening in the country, you are saying to yourself, “God supplies my needs according to His generosity”. And since you have to do it non-stop, that means you have to keep on doing it until the result starts showing. You can’t quit as far as this is concerned.

I’m trying to show you why many of us believers are not bearing the fruit God wants us to bear. We think that we are going to do the right thing for a while and then stop. No! The right thing must be done all the time. The right thing must be done from start to finish. If you are going to become one with the Word of God, you must be prepared to do so from start to finish.

We are given some illustrations in Scriptures to show us that we must be committed to the Word of God in order to see their results. There are times, of course, that when God asks us to do something and we do it, the results manifest immediately. But that is not the case all the time. There are times, there are situations in which you have to consistently act on what God has said over a period of time, unspecified time, before you begin to see results. And if you are not prepared to do the Word of God for as long as you have to do it, you may not get results. In fact, there are results that will not be evident in your life.

God, for instance, spoke to Joshua about what to do to bring the walls of Jericho down. I’m asking you this because I’ve asked myself. God said you will have to go around the walls of Jericho once every day, right? For how many days? Seven days! Then, on the seventh day, they would have to go around the walls of Jericho seven times and afterwards shout.

The question is, “Could God not have brought down the walls of Jericho the first day, having made them go around it once?” Could God not have done that? Or could God not have brought down the walls of Jericho as they approached it, without these people having to march around it at all? Could God not have done that? If He could divide the Red Sea without any one of them touching it, if He could open the rivers of Jordan just by the priests stepping into it, could He, then, not bring down the walls of Jericho by Joshua merely stretching his hand towards it? He could.

Yet He did not. Instead, He told them, “You will have to march around it for seven days. And on the seventh day, you will do so seven times.” Why? It was to teach them commitment to His word and commitment to Him. It was to show them that there are things that you must do again and again and again and again in order for you to see results.

Why must Naaman dip himself inside the river Jordan seven times? Oh, someone may say, “Oh, that is because seven is the perfect number.” That’s true. But how many people had to dip themselves inside the river seven times in order for them to get well in the bible? How many people did Jesus ask, “Go and dip yourself inside the river in order to be cleansed of leprosy?”

A leprous man came to Him once and asked, “Master, if you are willing, you can make me whole.” And the Bible says Jesus touched him and said, “I’m willing; be whole.” And he was whole instantly. He didn’t have to go to any river. He didn’t have to do any washing. He was healed instantly. Right there. (Cf. Matthew 8:1-3)

Now for Jesus Christ, it didn’t matter whether it was one person or ten people. Ten came to him and said, “Master, have mercy upon us. We are suffering from leprosy.” He said, “Okay, go and show yourselves to the priests.” He didn’t say go and dip yourself inside any river. ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests’ was what He said. And on their way, they realized that they had been made whole. When were they made whole? The moment He spoke His word to them. (Cf. Luke 17:11-19)

So, if God wants to do something instantly, he can do it instantly. Right? The power to do it instantly is there. If He has to perform a thousand miracles to make that happen instantly, He would do so. Now if he is not doing it instantly, and He is asking you to follow a process, what is it teaching you? Discipline, the discipline of commitment!

What am I saying? It is that in order for us to see the benefits of the word of God in our lives, the full results of the word of God in our lives, we must be committed to it non-stop. If you are going to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit as mentioned in scriptures, love, joy, peace, contentment, humility, gentleness, self-control, patience, faith, faithfulness, then you must be prepared to meditate on the word of God non-stop.

So, if certain things are not evident in your life yet, do not worry. What you need to do is to meditate more on the word of God. Is somebody following me this morning? Don’t try to struggle to love. Don’t try to struggle to be patient. Don’t try to struggle to be humble. Don’t try to struggle to be anything that God wants you to be. You don’t have to. What you need is to draw from your source. And how do you draw from your source? You draw from your source by meditating on His word. And if you are not seeing the results yet, what must you do? You must be more committed, be more committed to His word. That means your commitment is not enough.

Solomon says if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small; your strength is not enough. That’s why you faint. That’s why you get tired. That’s why you get weary. Your strength is not enough. Now what are you going to do? Are you going to die there? No. What do you do? Get more strength. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. Isn’t that what we are taught to do in scriptures? We are told to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Who is going to do that? I am going to do that. You are going to do that. You are going to strengthen yourself in him. How do you strengthen yourself in him? One of the ways is by meditating on his word. (Cf. Proverbs 24:10; Ephesians 6:10)

So, if you have been failing at something that God wants you to do, it’s not just for you to try harder. Are you following my point? What you need to do is to get more strength. Draw more from him. Otherwise, you are going to be frustrated. And there are frustrated Christians. They love God. They want to please Him. They want to do His will. But they keep finding themselves unable to do what He wants them to do. So, at some point, they get frustrated; they become finally tired. And at a point of their tiredness, Satan may drive them back to where they were coming from.

Some have been driven back like that, driven away. These are now saying, “Christianity is not working for me. I thought I would be able to live this Christian life. It’s not just working. God, you know I really want to. But it is not working.” So, they turn away from Him. But that’s not the solution. That’s only going to mess you up more.
What you need to do is to return to your source. Draw more from your source. If you will draw from Him, you are going to find all the strength you need, all the energy you need, all the comfort you need, all the inspiration you need to be the person He wants you to be, to do the things He wants you to do.

God said to us through Isaiah, “Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Now waiting on him doesn’t mean sitting down in one place, waiting for Him to come. No! It goes beyond that. It means putting your reliance on Him, putting your trust in Him. That’s what it means. In other words, you stay put there. You are telling yourself, “I must keep drawing from Him. The challenges may be hot. Things may be intense. But I remain connected to him. I will keep on meditating on His word. I will keep on filling myself with His word. I may appear weak today. I may even fall or fail at some point. But see, I’m not getting discouraged. Because He says that those who wait on Him will have their strength renewed.” (Cf. Isaiah 40:31)

Who is going to renew their strength? God Himself! In other words, He will furnish them with the strength they need to go from start to finish. They will have the strength to be patient. Do you understand the point now? The one whose reliance is on God, maybe for one thing or the other, whatever it may be — that thing may not be showing up yet – but he’s going to have the strength to be patient to see the result. Yes, he will have the strength, all the strength he needs, all the energy he needs, to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint.

So, if you feel tired in your walk of faith, you know that something is wrong. What should you do? Go for strength! That’s not the time to stop studying the word. That’s not the time to stop meditating on the word. That’s not the time to stop praying. Usually, that’s what people will do. When they get tired like that, they now stop doing everything. But that’s when to do it more. Because the one that has spoken will not fail you. He has said you will have your strength renewed. And you will surely have your strength renewed. You will have your wisdom renewed. You will have your determination renewed. Whatever it is that must be renewed in you will be renewed. So, you’re going to fly. You’re going to soar like an eagle. You will soar above those challenges. You will soar above those trials. You’re going to be on top of them. You want to be on top of those challenges. But that’s what it means to soar.

Eagles are not afraid of the wind blowing. Because they have to use the wind to rise. They’re going to use it to rise. And you’re going to use those challenges to rise. You are going to use those trials to rise. You are going to use those tribulations them to rise. They will not pull you down. They will not make you faint. They will not make you weary. They will not destroy you. You are walking in victory over them.

Let’s begin to bless the name of the Lord this morning.