Monday, June 30, 2014

God's Fruit Trees



 










Most of us have asked God for wisdom and knowledge at one time or another. We have also been asked for them by someone needing help. Whatever the circumstances, God's  wisdom & knowledge...never deviates from Christ's character and His actions when He was here on earth. Like anything else...anything...God wants our faith and gaze to always end up back on Christ Jesus. Why? 

 

 
 
 

 

Col. 2: 1I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. 2I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ  Himself. 3In Him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

 

 

4I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. 5For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. 7Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

 

8Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powersa of this world, rather than from Christ. 9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.b 10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the Head over every ruler and authority.

 

 

 

We want to obey God...to emulate Christ...yet, we'll fail...or we'll be trying and trying in our own flesh...unless we learn to do it a different way. Not too long ago in our recent history the WWJD movement began. However, it faded, but why?  This article has an idea about that....

http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/wwjd.htm 

 
 
 
 

We cannot do anything 'God derived' in our flesh, so as to bear the kind of fruit that accomplishes His purposes. This is why it behooves us to stand back for a time and ask God to teach us to be fruit bearers, instead of 'trying' and exerting ourselves to bear fruit.

 

 

 

Then even when we do bear fruit by own efforts, what comes of it? Is it lasting fruit? This is the question that the believers before us perhaps did not understand...which is why the movement that had good intentions, sunk into near nothingness ~ like a house built on sand...or wine skin that burst ~ because it had old wine put into it.

 

 

 

Evil wars against the human body that is already weak, then fights to sway our mind away from Christ so it can't cooperate with the things of the Spirit. ~ Who will give us the victory over these things...so our body and mind can be used for God, instead of against Him?  

 

 

 1 John 5:4 For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

 

 

Faith in what or whom? In ourselves? In our own abilities? In our own actions? In our own common sense? In our own knowledge and wisdom? In our own feelings? In our own ways? In our own talents? In our own intellect? In our own interpersonal skills?

 

 

 

OR

 

 

 

Faith in Christ Jesus? In His abilities? In His actions? In His common sense? In His knowledge and wisdom? In His feelings? In His ways? In His talents? In His intellect? and In His interpersonal skills?

 

 

 

Which source do you have faith in so as to be a  'happy tree'? A fruit bearer who is living it's purpose and shares in the blessings??

 

 
 
 

You who have been born of God...so you have been planted IN Him...and your roots have complete access to the Source...to Christ Jesus. He has given you a new nature, He is inside and with and around you....as well as His written word is before you...He has hemed you in on everyside!  Psalm 139:5 "You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand of blessing upon me". Jesus is your everything...including your teacher.

 

 

John 13: 12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.

 

 

 

14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

 

 

 

He wants to be our example. He desires to teach us, and then His Holy Spirit remind us, how to live. Our spirit, which has been made new, is very willing, ready and able! However, our body is weak, and is used to doing things the old way. Jesus said in Matt. 26:41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

 

 

Then Paul, who emulated Christ, is saying the same thing Jesus said here in  Rom. 7: "21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

 

 

The disciples walked with Jesus and learned from Him...so we can also walk with Christ through the gospels and learn from Him there as well. John 2: 20“What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.

 



Paul also learned from and emulated Jesus (1 Cor. 11:1), and so when we go there and read his letters and learn from him...this is also learning from Christ.  Phil. 4:9 'Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me--everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you."

 

 


We must remember as we are in this process, that God has not left us clueless at all!! He has shown us in His written word all the specifics...so you and I can become more familiar with what comes from His Spirit and what doesn't. Perhaps the WWJD movement didn't last because the fruit trees were expected to keep on growing and producing God's fruit even when the things not of God began coming out of the same trees?

 


 

 

James 3: 9-18 "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

 

 

Light and dark can not exist together...and even a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Or perhaps Christ grew into a mere idea, instead of a real Person who was God in the flesh and Who's every word and every action represented God exactly.


 
 
 

13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

 

17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of impartiality and hypocrisy. 18Peacemakers who sow seeds of peace raise a harvest of righteousness."

 
 
 
 
 

Gal. 5: 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.


 

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