The Power of a Fruitful Life

Are you investing in someone else’s life? Who are you mentoring? Do you have a mentor? Throughout our lives we should be learning (from others and from studying to show ourselves approved -accepted, pleasing- to God), and then sharing what we’ve learned with other people God puts in our life.

If you are a parent, obviously you have huge potential to invest in the life of your child. What a privilege, and what a responsibility! Studies show that during the first five years of life, the amount of information that can be learned and the potential for learning far exceeds any other time of a child's educational history. Wow! In other words, this time is foundational. Pour into your children, grandchildren or any child your life touches. Don’t miss an opportunity to nurture them. Teach them right from wrong. Be ever teaching them new words; how to work and play; how to take turns and share; how to have a conversation and how to listen. All of the things they will be doing when they start school. Lack of this ever crucial early development multiplies problems as they grow up.

But whether you have children or grandchildren or you don’t, we should all be investing in other people’s lives because our need to grow and learn never ends. Jesus taught by telling stories and using word pictures, and in John, chapter 15, He compares the believer’s relationship with Him to a vine with branches. He says, “I am the Vine and you are the branches…apart from Me you can do nothing.” A little further down the chapter He says, “it is to My Father’s glory that you bear much fruit.” Then over in Matthew, chapter 12, Jesus says “a tree is recognized (or known) by its fruit.” If we are in the will of the Lord, we will be bearing much fruit and we will be known by that fruit. But what does that mean? What does that look like? How is that possible?

I’ve just finished reading a book that expounds on living in the presence of God. It’s a study of the human heart and how God prepares it for His glory. In it the author brings up a fascinating thought! He says the power to reproduce life is in the fruit. Let’s think about that. When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were to eat from the tree of life not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, if we are desiring and allowing the fruit of the Spirit to be lived out in us, that walk will bear fruit because there’s seed in that fruit that will reproduce life in us and in others. We’re not to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil that judges man. We seek to draw men and women to Jesus not turn them away by judging or condemning them. God alone is Judge. If you want to see your spouse turn to Christ, walk in the fruit of the Spirit. Love with the love of Christ; find joy in the presence of the Lord; receive the gift of God’s peace; let His patience calm you; seek His goodness, gentleness, kindness and let Him control your actions. If you want to see your child or your parents or your friends or co-workers or the hurting and the homeless come to the Lord, walk in the fruit of the Spirit. The seed planted by your life will reproduce new life.

I’ve also been reading in Ezekiel 47 where the prophet Ezekiel saw the throne of God and describes what he saw. This is another word picture in scripture that teaches us what living in the presence of God looks like. Ezekiel made these observations:

* Water came out from under the threshold (gateway, door–the first place you step) of the temple
* This water was a river that would flow from the throne of God measuring ankle deep, then knee deep, waist deep, until it was deep enough to swim in (symbolizing, I believe, the depth of relationship or how far we choose to go in our knowledge and experience with God)
* At the bank of the river was a great number of trees
* Swarms of living creatures live wherever the river flows
* Fishermen stand along the shore spreading their nets
* The fish are of many kinds
* Fruit trees of all kinds grow on both banks of the river
* Their leaves won’t wither, nor their fruit fail
* Every month they bear fruit because the water from the sanctuary flows to them
* Their fruit is food and their leaves are for healing (Revelation 22)

Oh my goodness…do you see it? It’s a word picture describing what our lives look like when we live in the presence of God. James 4 says, “draw near to God and He will draw near to you” and this is what will happen! We will drink from the fountain of Life and bear much fruit. Fruit that will reproduce life just like food does for our physical bodies, and it will bring healing and nourishment to the hungry and hurting.

The condition? Live near the throne of God…