The creation is made by God with a purpose. No one can rightly judge the success or failure of anything without first determining the purpose for which that thing is created. Purpose answers the question; Why? One significant attribute of purpose is fruitfulness. Without fruitfulness a life is moving on the wrong side of purpose. What does it mean to be fruitful? To be fruitful means a life has followed its due process, paid its dues, withstood all resistance and adversity to yield the manifest triumph of purpose. God has determined that fruit will be a mark of distinction: “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” (Mathew 7:16). Fruit bearing takes a process, it takes time, and it takes patience. You can transplant a tree and it will survive and begin a new life if the condition is conducive, but you cannot re-plant a tree that has fruits on it already and expect to keep the fruits. The fruits will drop down one by one, and the tree would have to start a new beginning and endure a new process of interacting with elements, whether favourable or otherwise, until it begins to bear new fruit. What does that mean; among other things, it means for example, that you cannot transplant someone else’s faith about God and think it is going to work for you. No, it will not work. You (yourself) have to begin with God through the experience of new birth, grow in faith and go with Him through the experience that leads to fruit bearing.
The way of fruit bearing
The way of fruit bearing is death to self
“I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24 Common English Bible) “Then Jesus said unto His disciples, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)
The other way is abiding in Christ
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.” (John 15:4-5 Common English Bible)
The Lord instructs that as His children, we should produce fruit that is consistent with repentance, “Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives. And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones. The axe is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and tossed into the fire.” (Mathew 3:8-10 Common English Bible)
Repentance depicts a change of mind, a change of position. Repentance is an inward action known only to an individual, but the only way people around know what has taken place in your life inwardly, is your outward life: attitude, character, lifestyle and personal habits that reflect your new position.
God detests fruitlessness. If a Christian needs to be fearful about anything, if they need to cry against anything, if anything should make them wet their pillows with tears; it is fruitlessness. God will do all He can to make any of His children to be fruitful but the ultimate yielding to the workings of God belongs to the individual. Jesus told this parable: “A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’ The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.” (Luke 13:6-9 Common English Bible)
Ultimately, fruitlessness will be judged. “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Mathew 21:43 KJV) The LORD judged fruitlessness of the fig tree: “And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.” (Mathew 21:43 KJV)
In this account, one needs to realize that when the LORD cursed the fig tree, there was not an immediate physical reaction. It was the following day when the disciples passed through the route again that they observed that the fig tree had withered. Simply, what happened was that the LORD spoke to the future of fruitlessness in that fig tree. It was as if the LORD was saying; “Thou shall no longer deceive me, thou shall no longer embarrass me, and thou shall no longer take my grace and patience for granted – your time to thrive in this barren condition is expired for ever; no longer shall you live without purpose.”
Does that touch your heart at all? Is your life truly reflective of your profession of Jesus Christ? Are you truly born again? Does heaven recognize you as its candidate, and does hell know you are not one of its members? What is God doing in your life that is making you distinct in a Christian world that is submerged by hypocrisy, deception and double dealings?
It is getting serious and darker brother, sister: Can your light shine for someone else to see their way back to God? Can your presence in any gathering make a difference for Christ whether in silence or in action? Would you need to cry that God make your life fruitful?