You Were Made to Be Fruitful
From Genesis 1, we received the charge to BE FRUITFUL. Fruitful is defined by as:
Producing fruit, especially in abundance.
Producing offspring, especially in abundance.
Producing useful or desired results; productive.
Producing good results; beneficial; profitable.
Did you know that you are meant to be fruitful? God spoke it and ordained for those who are called His sons and daughters to produce, be profitable, be productive, and see abundance.
Now often with this kind of message, we think financially. Although that can be an element of it, and I genuinely believe that God wants us to prosper in our finances, it should not be limited to the other areas that will reflect His presence in our lives.
Galatians 5:22-23 says that "…the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"
Our lives should display these characteristics as we spend time with God, read the Word, and practice what we learn. If our lives are not producing this kind of fruit, we may need to take some time to repent and ask God to soften our hearts again.
We need to produce these things because they testify to this dark world of the light. They cause our lives to be salty in a tasteless world. Where there is the opposite happening, we walk in the power of having them because of God's Spirit.
We all fall short:
Instead of being loving = we can often be so mean and cruel.
Instead of having joy = we can be burdened by the weight of the world, comparison, and other things that zap our happiness.
Instead of peace = we can find ourselves wrestling with fear, worry, and anxiety.
The list continues.
On the other hand, through God's goodness and the grace made available to us, we can decide we want this kind of fruit to be in our lives and allow God to work within us so that we can have those characteristics despite circumstances.
It doesn't mean that we will have days where they seem absent, but as we stay connected to God, we will see more of it growing within us and flowing from us.
Read all of John 15 below (#ItsMyFavorite)
The opposite of fruitfulness is barrenness.
Barren means unproductive; unfruitful; not producing results; infertile:
Lacking vegetation, especially useful lacking in stimulation or ideas;
Dull: not producing worthwhile results
This is the opposite of what God has desired for us. The lack of production in our lives should be an indicator that something is off. Maybe we need to repent of laziness and fast and pray until we see the fleshly desire to procrastinate break. Or, maybe we need to take some time to seek God for our divine strategy and purpose, so we stop wasting our lives.
No more fruitless living:
There are many stories in the Old and New testament of barren women, yet cried out to God to open their wombs, and they conceived.
Maybe we are barren in ideas
Or, barren spiritually
Or, sterile in our minds
I believe that as we keep learning to stand on what God's Word says, and confess it over our lives, we will see it come to pass. That is if we are willing to repent and turn away from anything that would cause His Spirit to be quenched in our lives.
It's time to level-up and stop playing the fence on our walk with God. We cannot believe that He will bless us while we entertain things that are in total contradiction to His desires. If He has convicted you or spoken to you about something (usually by you having a lack of peace), understand that He is waiting for you to do that thing before He gives you the next steps.
Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. – Matthew 3:8
PSALM 92:12-15
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the Lord,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, "The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."
Pray and meditate on this: John 15
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.
Until next time,
