A Fruitful Life: Abiding In Christ

A Fruitful Life: Abiding In Christ

By Apostle Felix

4  So you must remain in life-union with me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.
5  “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches. As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless. 

John 15: 4, 5

Every tree’s future is depended on its rootedness. We cannot speak of a fruitfulness when a tree is uprooted and left to survive on its on. No matter how big and strong a tree is, it cannot survive without the earth. The earth is the source of any tree’s sustenance. God spoke to the earth to bring forth trees.

Gen 1:11  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 

Genesis 1: 11

God said to the earth to bring forth trees yielding fruit after its kind. He never created any tree without seed after its kind. God had created everything with the potential to reproduce. When a tree is planted into the earth, it is settled in its environment where it can be fruitful. There is no other environment apart from the earth where a tree can be fruitful. The earth is its natural environment for reproduction. Given right conditions, a tree will not need prayers to grow. It will just grow. This is because the source and environment determines the tree’s fruitfulness.

The believers’ source is Jesus Christ. There is nothing one cannot do regarding the production of the righteous fruits without Jesus Christ. Man came from God and can only thrive in God. Fish does well in water. You do not have to educate a fish on how to swim. Swimming comes naturally to fish because every fish has been created to thrive in water. Man’s environment is God. Jesus explicitly said that disconnecting ourselves from the source, who is Christ, leaves one powerless and unfruitful.

How To Remain In Christ

1. Abide in the word of God

7  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 

John 15: 7

God can only be known through His word. It takes the knowledge of Christ to abide meaningfully in God. The disciples were with Jesus but did not know who He was. It took God revealing who Christ to Peter. They were around Jesus bit not necessarily abiding in Him. The disciples were with Jesus on the road to Emmaus but yet did not recognize Him. They were walking along side Him but were not abiding in Him. Not about Jesus is not enough. We need the revelation of Christ in order to abide in Him. Fruitfulness is as the result of abiding in Christ through knowledge.

16  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16: 16 – 18

The revelation Peter received of Christ changed his status immediately. Jesus called him Peter, meaning a rock. The Rock, Christ, the Son of the Living God, became Simon’s source. From that day, Peter transitioned from a nominal member to an agent of change.