How to be fruitful

MESSAGES FOR THE MONTH MARCH, 2016: OUR MONTH OF FRUITFULNESS

THEME: BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY

MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY THE 20^TH OF MARCH 2016

Topic: How to be fruitful

Introduction: The prosperity of man is rooted in the prosperity of his soul. To prosper is to be whole nothing; missing and nothing broken. When we are whole, we would be fruitful. In the book of 3John 1:2, we read: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth”. To put it another way, I wish that you are fruitful and multiply to the extent your soul is cultivated to permit you. In other words, God has done all that needs to be done for you to be fruitful; the rest is up to your cooperation through your soul.

From today, we shall be looking at how to be fruitful based on the cultivation of our soul. The reason for the cooperation of the soul for our productivity or fruitfulness is that since the fall of man, the new birth became necessary. When we are born again, a whole new life starts for us. This is the life where the spirit must begin to control the soul as opposed to the old life when the flesh was in control. This is the real warfare of man after salvation. He can therefore only be productive to the extent he cooperates with the new creation spirit and the word of God based on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it and have dominion: This is the statement of the blessing and it encapsulates God’s work description for mankind. We are only as fulfilled as we obey this command. When we do, we are blessed with increase and we attract God’s interest in us. So he comes to prune us to become even more productive.

If we disobey this command, we risk being cut off from our source and cast away. That will not be the portion of any of us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In these teachings, we are going to focus on spiritual fruitfulness as most of us are already familiar with the fruitfulness of the body and for those of us who have developed our minds to some extent; the fruitfulness of the soul. To have children simply entails cultivating a godly relationship as you are led of God. This relationship ends in marriage and the fruit of the marital union are children. Then the work of cultivating them and guiding them into God’s purpose for their lives so as to continue your godly legacy begins as you work to build a great environment for this to happen effectively.

Mental productivity is what informs your decision to become literate and learn a trade or business where you could grow to the point of productivity and more productivity as you faithfully build your business to the point where your efforts by the grace of God can become instrumental in bringing out the best in others. All who are blessed through your work are proofs of your mental fruitfulness.

Spiritually, Jesus tells us to bear fruit that would abide and he told us how. His instructions are found in John 15:1-8; 16. A study of that chapter would reveal the following truths to us:

1.     Jesus Christ is likened to the vine while we are likened to the branches.

2.     As the branches have to depend on their connection to the vine for sustenance, we also have to depend on our connection to the Lord for our sustenance. We do this by the fellowship with the Holy Spirit and the word of God and taking the Holy Communion daily. See John 6:56-57.

3.     The difference between us and the branches is that we can exercise our wills to choose to disconnect ourselves from the vine or stay connected to the vine. See Deu.30:19-20.

4.     If we choose to stay connected, we shall grow because we would be receiving nourishment from the vine and become productive. If on the other hand we choose to disconnect from the vine, we shall wither and die and consequently become fruitless.

5.     The father is likened to the vinedresser. Just as a vinedresser comes to prune a productive branch to become even more fruitful, so does the father do to us when we bear fruits. God is really not looking for perfect people. He is looking for available people who have the heart to stay connected to Him. Prov.23:26 and Ps103:7.

6.     In the same way the vinedresser cuts off the unproductive branch, God also cuts off those who are not willing to bear fruit. This is the same principle at work in the parable of the pounds and talents where the little that the unproductive servant had was taken from him and given to the most productive servant. In the same way, the unproductive branch will be cut off to give room for the productive ones to perform better. This is a very sobering thought when we bear in mind that God is no respecter of persons. This is why Apostle Paul talks of leading himself to be disciplined so that he would not end up as a cast away after he has preached to others. See 1Cor.9:2; Acts 10:34-35; Lk.19:20-26

7.     It is God’s will that we bear much fruit. When we do, we enjoy the privilege of answers to our prayer.

8.     In this passage, Jesus reemphasized that the reason He chose us is that we bear fruit and that our fruit would abide. So it is not enough to just bear fruit, we must ensure that they abide.

9.     The fruits we bear are godly character and good works. See Gal.5:22-23, Matthew 5:16 and Eph.2:10. The godly character is described in Gal.5:22-23. When godly character is cultivated in our lives, it would generate the ability to do good works. This is what I call the grace of God. It has the ability to attract favour to us and energize us to meet the need that the favour opportunes us to meet. The good works are anything we do that would add eternal value to people even though some temporal values may also necessarily be added in the process. For example, God has given me a vision of this ministry which has helped many to find their place in God’s scheme of things that would endure forever. This is like what we are talking about.

10.                        2Peter 1:5-11 provides the recipe that would guarantee our fruitfulness, protect us from bareness and unfruitfulness in the word of righteousness until we step out of time into eternity.

11.                         The best way we can get our souls to cooperate with our spirit to bear fruit unto God is by walking in the spirit. To walk in the spirit is a choice you make and follow through with the help of the Holy Spirit. We are told in Gal.5:16 that if we walk in the spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. In Philippians 2:12-13, we learn that if we decide to work out our salvation by walking in the spirit for instance, God would come to help us work to will and to do of His good pleasure. So we are not really left to ourselves. God is only looking for a willing and ready heart.

We shall stop here for today. Next week, we shall conclude by looking at the process that lead to our ability to exercise dominion as God originally intended. Meanwhile, the starting point for fruitfulness is the new birth experience. If you are yet to have that experience, you can begin today by saying the following prayer out loud and you shall be born again and start bearing fruit immediately:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name!

Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or      www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.     

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!