The Vine & Fruit
In John 15:1-16 Jesus is talking about Himself being the vine and us being the branches that come off from the vine Jesus and produce fruit. He tells us that our Heavenly Father is the Vinedresser Who prunes us that we may bear much rich and excellent fruit. Some people misinterpret these verses and think of them as portraying painful and terrible things happening to us to prune us and purge us.
We see immediately in verse 3 that it is the Word of God that does the shaping and pruning in us and for us. So what does that say to you? Stay in the Word of God all the time and let the Word do the work by the power of the Holy Spirit. You and I do not have to prune ourselves or produce the fruit ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God being revealed to us so that we may yield ourselves to Him. When something comes our way to check our fruit, we must yield our flesh to the Holy Spirit.
My father used to have an apple orchard and you know not once did I ever hear a tree groaning to produce fruit or worrying about what was going to happen to the fruit. My father, the vinedresser, fertilized and pruned and took care of the trees so that they would produce maximum fruit without compromising the quality of the fruit.
Our Heavenly Father does the same thing with us. He helps us to produce the best fruit for others to taste and see that the Lord is good.
You will notice that these verses address the commandment of love. We are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. We are to obey His commandment of love, not considering ourselves, but rather considering others before ourselves.
He has chosen us; we haven’t chosen Him and when we allow the fruit to come forth as a result of His abiding Word, we shall ask what we will and it shall be done for us; there will be fullness of joy, which is His joy in us bubbling over. Remember that joy and love are fruit of the spirit.
Actually, we all know from Galatians 5:22 that all the fruit of the spirit come from love, Who is God—God is love. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. When the fruit of the spirit is operating in our lives, there is nothing that can be brought against us as a charge. There is no higher law. No other law can supersede the law of the fruit of the spirit. Why is that? Let me repeat what I said in the beginning of the paragraph. God is love and out of love come all the other fruit. Different translations of the Bible name some of the fruit another name other than what I have just quoted from the King James Bible. For example, some translations name the fruit of faithfulness, rather than faith. It is my understanding that according to the Greek, faithfulness is a better translation of that fruit. And some translations say patience, instead of longsuffering, etc.
What we must understand is that we cannot produce this fruit on our own. We can strain and try hard and determine that we will be joyful and walk in love and have peace and be gentle, but there will always be situations which will tempt our flesh to react. Without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we will fail miserably. There is always a situation that will cause a reaction from your flesh if you try to do it on your own. Yield, yield, yield, yield to the Holy Spirit on purpose when you see something coming that you know you are going to “blow your stack” on this one.
We have the fruit in our spirit when we get born again. What we must do is practice yielding to the Lord in every situation we encounter. These fruit are forces that will push away the opposite. Love will push away hatred and fear. Joy will push away depression. Peace will push away strife. Patience will push away inconsistency and impatience. Gentleness will push away harshness. Goodness will push away ungodliness. Faithfulness or faith will push away fear. Meekness will push away pride. And temperance will push away lack of control. But this is all by the power of the Holy Spirit. Enjoy your life and let Him do the work. It is so much easier that way.
We see immediately in verse 3 that it is the Word of God that does the shaping and pruning in us and for us. So what does that say to you? Stay in the Word of God all the time and let the Word do the work by the power of the Holy Spirit. You and I do not have to prune ourselves or produce the fruit ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God being revealed to us so that we may yield ourselves to Him. When something comes our way to check our fruit, we must yield our flesh to the Holy Spirit.
My father used to have an apple orchard and you know not once did I ever hear a tree groaning to produce fruit or worrying about what was going to happen to the fruit. My father, the vinedresser, fertilized and pruned and took care of the trees so that they would produce maximum fruit without compromising the quality of the fruit.
Our Heavenly Father does the same thing with us. He helps us to produce the best fruit for others to taste and see that the Lord is good.
You will notice that these verses address the commandment of love. We are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. We are to obey His commandment of love, not considering ourselves, but rather considering others before ourselves.
He has chosen us; we haven’t chosen Him and when we allow the fruit to come forth as a result of His abiding Word, we shall ask what we will and it shall be done for us; there will be fullness of joy, which is His joy in us bubbling over. Remember that joy and love are fruit of the spirit.
Actually, we all know from Galatians 5:22 that all the fruit of the spirit come from love, Who is God—God is love. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. When the fruit of the spirit is operating in our lives, there is nothing that can be brought against us as a charge. There is no higher law. No other law can supersede the law of the fruit of the spirit. Why is that? Let me repeat what I said in the beginning of the paragraph. God is love and out of love come all the other fruit. Different translations of the Bible name some of the fruit another name other than what I have just quoted from the King James Bible. For example, some translations name the fruit of faithfulness, rather than faith. It is my understanding that according to the Greek, faithfulness is a better translation of that fruit. And some translations say patience, instead of longsuffering, etc.
What we must understand is that we cannot produce this fruit on our own. We can strain and try hard and determine that we will be joyful and walk in love and have peace and be gentle, but there will always be situations which will tempt our flesh to react. Without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we will fail miserably. There is always a situation that will cause a reaction from your flesh if you try to do it on your own. Yield, yield, yield, yield to the Holy Spirit on purpose when you see something coming that you know you are going to “blow your stack” on this one.
We have the fruit in our spirit when we get born again. What we must do is practice yielding to the Lord in every situation we encounter. These fruit are forces that will push away the opposite. Love will push away hatred and fear. Joy will push away depression. Peace will push away strife. Patience will push away inconsistency and impatience. Gentleness will push away harshness. Goodness will push away ungodliness. Faithfulness or faith will push away fear. Meekness will push away pride. And temperance will push away lack of control. But this is all by the power of the Holy Spirit. Enjoy your life and let Him do the work. It is so much easier that way.
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 4:40 PM
<< Home