God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Be fruitful, bear much fruit. First words set the course.
I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5.
And Jesus, My Word dwelling among you as one like you, gave witness to the same effect.
How do you be fruitful? Well, consider as Jesus did a branch on a vine. You abide, rest in, and attach to the vine and you continually draw from the vine what you need to produce. You flow with the grace, the divine life that is flowing into you from the connection. Abiding, continuing, remaining, speaking, and doing My Word keeps the connection strong, sinning and turning off communication with Me cuts the connection.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15:6.
Worry, fretting, taking offense, complaining are sin, they are wicked and cut your life short and render it unfruitful. Why? They sever the connection, they stop the divine inflow so there is no divine outflow. They stop the bloom and the fruit. That branch is dry, withered, and good for nothing but fuel for the fire. It is deadwood and stunts the whole body’s growth. All the members of the body must be producing for the work flow of the branch office to prosper with the head office. No anxiety to block the flow, just look to the source and flow with the inflow.
Attach to the vine and let the flow of the Holy Spirit, the sap of the vine, lead you, guide you, and produce the fruit of the Spirit in you. Be in one accord with Him. Ships without oars go with the current and set their sails with the direction of the wind.
But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals on which no boat with oars will go and on which no mighty ship will pass—for the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us, Isaiah 33:21-22.
Not your own course, as Adam and Eve detoured to, but the course set by the Spirit. Those who are led by My Spirit are My mature children. Let the breath of the Spirit fill your sails, a sailboat is better than a row boat when the wind has caught is sails.
First words to you from Me contained the blessing (divine empowerment) to be fruitful. You are to be fruitful, but that does not just mean busy about anything and everything. I have prepared a life of good works for you to do.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthe 5:14-16.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14.
A branch of itself is not producing fruit, it produces the fruit of the nature of the vine it is attached to, i.e., that it is receiving input from. You are not your own source, you must receive to produce for what you input makes what you output. What you allow in comes out in production of exactly what you have received and processed within. You can tell a tree by its fruit.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:33-37.
Examine your thoughts and words and it will reveal at any given time what you are allowing to input for what you are producing comes from what you are receiving. The first evidence is the fruit of your lips.
For example, when you take offense at something someone said to you and you begin an argument that then escalates and is going nowhere but becoming more and more contentious, even if you think you are right, if you then tell everyone you talk to that day after this encounter about what that person said or did to you, it shows you took in offense and are producing the fruit of the offense. You have wasted your time and not produced any good fruit that edified anyone and will not remain to life eternal. It will be burned up as useless to obtain reward. Paul, by My Spirit, warned believers about living a fruitless life of strife, malice, gossiping, blaming, and complaining, in other words, pursuing the lusts of the flesh and doing the deeds of the flesh. Remember, you have been redeemed by the precious blood of My Son from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers.
No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 2 Corinthians 3:11-15.
Many of you spend time in My Word and then spout out good words and do good and fruitful works part of the time and then get offended and let in evil and spout out idle, evil words and do wasteful and unfruitful works the rest of the time. Death and life are in the power of your tongue and you will eat the fruit thereof.
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. James 3:9-12.
Do not have a double tongue. Mixing sources does not produce the fruitfulness that I empowered you to produce.
Check where you are planted and learn from Psalm 92, it is a song for Shabbat, a song to enter My rest. It begins with what is good and goes on to tell you where you plant to find that source.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night, with the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre. For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. Psalm 92:1-4.
And what has happened from this goodness?
But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes. Psalm 92:10-11.
What input are you receiving to be flowing with the anointing of joy and filled with victory over the enemies of your soul? Where are you planted?
Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Psalm 92:13-15.
FRUITFULNESS IS YOUTHFULNESS.
Planted in Me you are full of the flow of the Spirit, who quickens your mortal body, and you are productive even in old age—not a withered dried up branch.
By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Hebrews 11:11.
Faith in the truth of My Word and My commitment to you plants the seed of My Word in your heart and grows it into harvest as you cultivate it as set out in Psalm 92, the song of Shabbat (rest in Me). Planted in My courts you will flourish (you enter My gates with thanksgiving and My courts with hymns of praise and that is how Psalm 92 begins with your entrance into the courts) and you will produce fruit continually like the tree planted with its roots in the stream of living water, then you will produce good fruit naturally by receiving from the correct source. And it focuses on what you are declaring, for the mouth speaks what is being input into your heart.
If you do not love the fruit you are producing the answer is simple, change what you are inputting into your mind and heart by how you respond to the events of your life each day. Where your life is now is not punishment, it is the fruit you have produced. The condition of your spirit, soul, and body right this moment is a result of what you have been putting into your mind and mouth both spiritually and physically. Input makes output.
Physically it is the same. What you are taking in (eating) and whether you are putting in exercise manifests in the appearance and health of your body. What you do in secret shows up outwardly.
It is the same with your emotions. Your input produces your countenance, bearing, and energy. Anger, grief, hate, depression, fear and the like take their toll in your life. But filling yourself with joy, peace, and purpose by spending time with Me in My Word makes you glow with Heaven’s light as it did Moses. And he was full of youthful vigor and perfect eyesight at age 120 years. It pays to fill yourself with My Words for they give life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.
The spirit of heaviness, listlessness, and fainting can by driven out by putting on the garment of praise. Isaiah 61:3. That is why I tell you to rejoice always (a cheerful heart is good like medicine and makes strong bones also). Faith rejoices at the good result promised in My Word and knows it can take it by perseverance in My Word and continues in that Word until it comes to pass and produces the result for which I sent it. I tell you to pray without ceasing, that is communicating constantly to receive the flow from the Vine and draw all I give you in Christ up into your life. Prayer is hope. Faith is assurance of things hoped for and evidence of things not yet seen. Faith gives hope substance to work with so My Spirit in you can manifest physically what you have hope for from My Word. I also tell you to give constant thanks for the promise you are standing on in faith and that is love. Love is thankful and love believes in the truth to manifest. Love notices provision, whether it looks big or small at first glance. Provision multiplies as you hold it up to Me in thanksgiving. Fruitfulness comes in the rejoicing, the constant communication, and the constant reception of the input in thanksgiving.
Love causes growth and fruitfulness. Walk in love in imitation of Me as My dear children and you will bear the fruit of the vine. I pour My love into your heart by My gift to you who are in Christ of the Holy Spirit. And that is a constant filling if you open your heart and mouth to My Word in song and melody in your heart. Spirit songs come from the stirring of My Spirit in your heart. Fan the gift into flame by meditating on My Word day and night and you will make your way prosperous and successful full of good fruit that endures unto life eternal as your very great reward.
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 2:6-7.
I love you. Make sure every moment you are planted in the right place, attached to the right Vine, and thus receiving the right input and flow so that your output is bearing the fruit of good works prepared for you to walk out in your life in Christ Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He will make known to you the path of life, fullness of joy in His presence, and the delights at My right hand, where I have seated you with Him, forever. I will talk more about this in the next Life Lesson for I do not want you to waste your life in unfruitful production. That was not the gift I gave you from the start.