The first commandment
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground”.
~Genesis 1:27-28
Notice that before the human being ever came into this world, God blessed them. The life of everyman on earth was divinely intended to be an expression of the blessings of God.
Then, notice from the first chapter of the bible that everything was created to be fruitful; to multiply; to become more. Unfruitfulness is simply unnatural.
The first instruction programmed by the divine word into the human spirit and consciousness is ‘be fruitful’. I regard this as the first commandment. ‘Be fruitful’; not ‘be faithful’, or ‘be religious’.
It is possible to be faithful without being fruitful
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. ~John 15:1-2
How can a branch be in Him and bear no fruit? At least, Jesus implies here that it is a possibility. It is possible to be in Him without bearing fruit. It is possible to be faithful without being fruitful.
So, I ask you this morning, is your apparent faithfulness to God producing fruits for God? Is your faithfulness producing fruitfulness?
It’s a branch. It’s in Him. So it’s stuck in there, but mysteriously there’s no fruit. So it’s cut off.
It’s not enough to be faithful; you must be fruitful. Faithfulness without fruitfulness is an abomination before God.
Be fruitful; that’s the essence of praise, and proof of discipleship
And by the way what does it mean to be fruitful? It means to reproduce the nature of God here on earth. It means to produce results that make folks pause and say ‘Hey! There’s God!’
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”
Acts 14:11
It means that your life on earth makes men to stop and wonder. If your results on earth cause people to pause and wonder, then, whether or not they say ‘praise God’, their feelings of ‘wow’ is a praise to God.
The only evidence of Christ in a believer is seen in the fruits he bears.
Mat 7:20 Here Jesus was talking about CHARACTER!
Therefore it is not just saying you’ve given your life to Christ and having Salvation, it MUST show in your LIFESTYLE.
Unfortunately, we all claim to have received Christ, yet no fruits to show for that.
For me all we have here is the salvation information
But what we need is salvation lifestyle.
The outward evidence of what you received at conversion is your CHARACTER.
One man practicing the word of God is greater than 50 men preaching it.
That is why we have the “ACTS OF THE APOSTLES” and not “TALKS OF THE APOSTLES”
It is not about the things you know about God, but about what you do with what you know.
If you know everything about the will of God it is, just INFORMATION
But if you know what it takes to do the will of God, it is REVELATION.
Revelation leads to ACTION and ACTION leads to FRUITS.
African Christians lack the revelation, that’s why we are so FRUITLESS!
Many Western Christians understood this, that in love many missionaries took risks to bring us the Gospel.
Please do not make the mistake of thinking that your fruit or gifts is for a local church, it is for all mankind. Now your local church can help you in discovering your gift, can help you to mature, but your fruit is for the world…starting from your immediate Family to your Neighbors, to your community, to your country and to the world at large.
To me, the church is a fuel station, you don’t buy a fuel and start driving around in the fuel station.
The main reason why we can’t stop gossip in the Church is because so many people with great potentials are just running around with it in the church. Imagine if after buying fuel all the cars starts running around in the station, there crashes everywhere.
The bible says “when you bear fruit, you become my DESCIPLES. And as you know good fruits attract people. Therefore when your fruits attract people you are MAKING DISCIPLES.
HOW TO BECOME FRUITFUL
MATURITY
A Tree Is Never Expected To Bear Fruits Until It Is MATURE.
First a seed will have to die, before it starts growing. (You need to die to self),
Illustration: your child that is about 2years old will never be able to carry a can of 20 liters of water. However you pray, that child will never be able to carry it. All he needs to carry it, is just maturity, growth, not prayer.
Prayer is not a substitute for growth. Prayer can help you in growing. You cannot use prayer to do what only MATURITY can do.
Many things we cry and pray for, all we need is just GROW UP.
What then is maturity: in this context, When you are not being micro-managed by external forces.
It is when you are able to function independent of what someone says, when you can function in truth.
“What you are told and what you shown is not the same as what you discovered yourself.”
You need to discover the truth for yourself.
Let His words abide in you
“”I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
~John 15:5
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”
~John 15:7
You see it? It’s possible to abide in Him without His words abiding in you. When you abide in Him without His words abiding in you – that is, when religiosity is devoid of real spirituality – it leads to unfruitful faithfulness. This is what happens with unproductive bench-warming, addicted-churchgoing, activity-obsessed religion — the kind that repels both God and man.
And what in the world does it mean to have His words abide in you?
Now, before you get off the deep end on that one, let me quickly point out that it definitely means more than memorizing a bunch of bible verses! It means that you become well-versed and grounded in His wisdom, the sound, solid eternal laws that guide the operations of the universe; and that your every move is guided by them.
