Bearing Fruit

This came to mind this morning in my time with the Lord, “unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain that build it.”  Unless the Lord works through us, we will accomplish nothing.  

Read what Jesus said in John 15:5, “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.”

In the spiritual world the Lord is the vine and we are the branches.  The only way we can bear fruit is to be connected to the main source which is the vine (THE LORD) and that can only be done through a personal relationship with Him, which is commonly known as being ‘Born-Again.’   If we are attached to the vine we can bear much fruit.  We can try to do things in our own strength but we will accomplish very little.  Think of this, Paul had a relationship with the Lord and he bore much fruit because of it, so did all of the disciples that walked with Jesus.  

Now think of the sons of Sceva, read Acts 19:11-16, “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

And the evil spirit answered and said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’

Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

These men tried to use Jesus’ name but they had no relationship with Him and were severely beaten.  Paul on the other hand, had a close relationship with the Lord.  Read what fruit he bore that day because of it in verses 17-20 as well as the prior verses that you already read, “This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed”

When we stay close to the Lord, we will bear much fruit.  We can read all through the Word that those who stayed close to the Lord accomplished much fruit.  How is your fruit bearing going?  If you are kind of bare, maybe you are struggling in your own strength and not depending on the true vine (The Lord) or maybe you are not connected at all.  Maybe you need to spend more quality time with the Lord or maybe you need to repent of your sins, turn from your wicked ways and confess them to the Lord who seeks the humble and contrite, repented heart.  He will freely pardon you and you will become a child of God; then you can start bearing much fruit.  

The choice is yours!  I hope you make the right one.  Something to think about!  Have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!