Bearing Good Fruit/ Daily Devotional And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day (Genesis 1:9-13 ESV). In these verses we witness the third day. On this third day we see the waters under the heavens gathered into one place and then out of the waters (oceans or seas) we see the rising of the continents, the weathering of the rocks, and the soil forming gradually to make preparation for the plant life. As awesome as this is; from the beginning of creation it has always been God’s plan for us to be more apt to see things more on the spiritual level than on the physical level. And with every Word we are to see who God is, what He does, and what He intends. Here we see God’s preparations for all that would ever be needed for life; in particular a life of faithfulness. We also see that human life on earth is divided. This is pictured as the land rises out of the waters. If you remember from last time the waters are a picture of human life. So we see rising up out of the ocean of human life, land. Not just any land, but land that is one hundred percent capable producing fruit. The water also represents the Holy Spirit and the source and power of life. So even at this point we see that from the beginning there existed that which is capable of producing fruit and that which is not. There is an old life that, by nature that is totally incapable of fulfilling what God desires (the life without Jesus), but there is a new creation called out of the old that has been given everything necessary to produce the fruit God desires (the life surrendered to Jesus). Someone once said, “The old humanity is all one fallen race--blinded, darkened, confused, restless, and, as the ocean is one yet divided, so fallen humanity is separated into divisions: nations, peoples, and tongues.” And Isaiah says, “the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud” (Isaiah 57:20). The old man that Paul speaks of is a race of people who have become wicked (because of sin) and unable to bear fruit. We must also realize at this point that there is a difference in being intentionally or knowingly wicked and ignorantly wicked. When people have been exposed to the knowledge of Gods purpose, His love, His will and the way He has provided to deliver us all fro sin’s bondage and we resist Gods work then we have become knowingly wicked. We have rejected the Savior whom God has sent and refused to yield to His gracious call. When this is the case we are a wicked people who are raising or fist defiantly against our Creator. Doesn’t this explain so well why so many have become so restless in this life? This is perfectly pictured by the ocean, with its wild, surging waves that are never still. We are constantly floundering from one false-form of happiness to another. We can’t be still because we can’t be satisfied. But out of that ocean comes a new life, new man, a new humanity, or the earth, a fruitful race of those who are in Jesus Christ (the church), who are all one originally in Him as the continents were once, but now divided and fragmented by the forces that have come in since to separate us, and yet there remains an ever-present unity found in Jesus. How do we know these people? Jesus said “by their fruit you will know!” It has always been part of God’s plan for us to bear fruit. And in Luke 13:6-9 Jesus spoke about the fruit of a harvest: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ Here is a vineyard owner who was looking for fruit. The same way God Himself is the owner of all people and He also is looking for fruit in every life. What type of fruit has God been looking for from the beginning? God has always been looking for the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in every life. He desires to see the fruit that comes from a person who is yielded to the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul meant in Galatians 5:22 when he says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” These are all the same attributes of God that He desired be prevalent from the beginning of time. They are the same attributes that were in Christ’s life. Therefore we can say that good fruit is being like Jesus. Bearing good fruit is only possible in a life engulfed by the Holy Spirit in such a way that it constantly reflects and reveals Jesus Christ to the world. So from the very beginning of time all creation was to bear witness and reveal Jesus to every other creation. God created us for his glory. He knew we could and would only bring Him glory when we look like His Son. So here we see God’s desire to shape His people, His creation into His image (the image of His Son). We must remember that sin had not entered the world yet, but nevertheless we can clearly see God’s plan for redemption was already in full swing. The only way we be all that God created us to be is by the Power of the Spirit molding, making, bearing an producing in and through us the good fruit that resembles our Creator, Jesus. How do we know when good fruit prevails in our lives? We look like Jesus! The question is: Do you?
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 13:07:49 +0000
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