"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... You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you." (John 15:5,16)
From these verses it is obvious that the Lord wants us to bear fruit in our lives. But what is the fruit that He desires that we bear? The most obvious answer comes from Galatians 5:22-23 where we read, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law". We also see that there is the fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11; James 3:18).
What the branches have to do in order to bear fruit is to continue in relationship with the Vine. Now, this sounds very picturesque but what does it mean for the "average Christian"? Have you had those times in your Christian life where everything just seemed to go wrong? Maybe it got so bad that you were tempted toward unbelief, questioning whether God would ever do anything in your life.
Recently the Lord nailed me for my own unbelief in His desire to work in and through my life. Ministry can begin to wear on you, when you start trying to deal with issues in your own strength. He reminded me of a verse that He used in my life in the late 70's when I was back in college at Flagler College. "Jesus said to her, 'Did I not say to to that if you would believe you would see the glory of God.'" (John 11:40). Belief is that state of resting everything you have on something, or in this case, someone.
If I am not bearing fruit in my life, it is because I am not abiding. Whether I want to admit it or not, I am functioning with some degree of unbelief. In order to bear fruit I must stay intimately connected to Jesus at all times. If there is a problem, I need to go to Jesus with it. If there is a need, I must go to Jesus with it. If I need wisdom and direction in ministry, I need to go to Jesus with it. If Jesus is really your life, your Vine, then you need to go to Him with everything, all the time (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
We see some really crazy things going on in the world these days. The only way that we are going to make it through, and bear fruit at the same time, is to cling to Him and rest in His love for us.
Pastor Chris
