So Where's My Fruit?

"You didn't choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My Name. This is My command: Love each other." (Jo15:16,17) 

We are all a link in the someone's journey towards salvation. One person plants the seed, others water and nourish that seed through encouragement and kind deeds and love, then at the right time, if they are willing, they are born again. ...Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. (1Co3:5,6) God is the One who causes the seed of the Word planted in a heart to grow. God rewards us for working in the harvest fields. "The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!" (Jo4:36)  

For years I read this verse "He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit and prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they produce even more."(Jo15:2) And I would beat myself up asking, 'Where's my fruit? I don't want to be thrown away like a useless branch and burned (v6).Jesus was talking to His followers when He said this, not to nonbelievers. Fruit is people who have come to accept Jesus as their Saviour(Jo4:36). Salvation comes to those that the Father draws to Jesus and are born again of the Holy Spirit, not by any human effort. "For no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them to Me..."(Jo6:44) and "...the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. ..you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." (Jo3:6,8) 

Just because we can't count thirty, sixty or even a hundred people that we have shared the Gospel with becoming followers of Jesus, doesn't mean that we have no fruit. There is no record in Scripture of Abraham being used to bring anyone into a relationship with the LORD, although he was an honoured prince among men (Ge23:5) and a friend of God (Is41:8). Moses appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Lu9:30) but all the adults that left Egypt with him (other than Joshua and Caleb) died in the wilderness and never made it into Canaan because they would not believe God and trust Him fully. Moses didn't convince or influence his generation to have a relationship with the Father yet at the end of his life, he went to be with the Lord. 

 The fruit of the Spirit that is revealed in our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Ga5:22,23) Salvation is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit, it is one of the works of the Holy Spirit. The word fruit is used 67 times in the New Testament and 54 of those times the Greek word used is karpos, meaning fruit, with no further explanation given. Fruitless, however, is described in the Collins dictionary as yielding nothing or nothing of value; unproductive; ineffectual or without fruit. So it follows that being fruitful or bearing fruit means that we yield something of value, we are productive and effectual where we are.

Fruit is also the outworking of the indwelling Jesus. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation - the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ - for this will bring much glory and praise to God. (Ph1:11) Jesus said "...My Father who lives in Me does His work through Me." (Jo14:10) "...the Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does." (Jo5:19) Jesus allowed His Father to work through Him and in the same way, if we want to imitate Jesus then we have to allow Jesus to work through us.

I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing." (Jo15:5 the Amplified Bible)) If we are remaining in Jesus, and He is remaining in us then we are producing fruit even if we can't see it. It is not something that we have to try to force or manufacturer. It is the outcome of the indwelling Jesus. God rarely lets us see where He has used us to touch others because it was never us anyway, it was Jesus working through us.The fruit that He produces in us is not for our benefit. No grape vine or fruit tree consumes its own fruit, it is picked and consumed by others.

"And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God's Word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!" (Mk4:20) We are good soil if we have heard, accepted and obeyed God's Word and fruit will follow, we have God's word on that! "But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. ...Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit." (Jer17:7,8) And it isn't a once only thing, the plant that came from that seed produces new crops every year at the right season. We can continue to produce fruit yearly, even into old age. Even in old age they will still produce fruit: they will remain vital and green. (Ps92:14) 

...And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. (Ro7:4) A harvest is possible for us because we are united with Jesus, not because we have tried really hard. When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honoured and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine. (Jo15:8 the Amplified Bible) How amazing, we can honour and glorify God through bearing fruit, doing what we are empowered and designed to do as we live in vital union with Jesus.

Praise the Name of Jesus!