The Life Of A Fruit Bearing Christian
“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members
of one another” (Romans 5:12 NKJV).
Some years ago, I closely followed the life and ministry of a man in Christ. For the sake of this article, we would call him Brother Jones (not his real name). When Brother Jones committed his life to the Lord in the early 1990s through his zeal and love for Christ, he moved the hearts of many brethren who lost their joy in the Lord by demonstrating to them the basic value of having faith and having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Having been only a few months in the Lord, I remembered Brother Jones receiving answers to his prayers regarding some of his most critical and trying problems. The closer and more faithful a person walks with the Lord, the harder the trials become (2 Timothy 3:12), and the greater the JOY of the Lord.
Without the ‘permission’ of his pastor, Brother Jones took to the streets as a sole witness after having received a strong conviction through his reading of the Bible to obey the Lord in fruit-bearing (John 15:16). Generally, the Church's denominational spirit limits the effectiveness of individual Christians. I can recall a good few years ago, how a pastor rebuked me for going out witnessing without his permission. It must be mentioned an individual Christian represents Christ and the will of God (Matthew 7:21-23) and we should not be a stumbling block to those who exercise their faith through the Will of the Holy Spirit (Mark 9:38-41) that is why the bible says that each one will receive from the Lord the things he or she did in the body (Ephesians 6:8; 1 Corinthians 4:5). In other words, we will be judged as individuals for our works which will follow us (Revelation 14:13).
Using Talents To Garner Heavenly Rewards
Furthermore, as we have encouraged before in some previous articles, the Lord will not be pleased with any Christian who hides his or her talents behind the Church system (Matthew 25:14-27) which administers funds in a collective way to sponsor mission work or feed the hungry, we are individually called to bear fruit and bring glory to our Heavenly Father (Ephesians 1:11-14; John 15:16). We are still being challenged even in this late eleventh (11) hour (Matthew 20:6) to witness and be soul winners (Mark 16:15), to feed the hungry and clothe the naked (Matthew 25:35-40).
In conclusion, it is natural that when things get murky around us and out of desperation, we resort to complaining and when that happens fear appears and it chokes our faith and our joy in the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:2; Matthew 14:28-31). Consequently, this opens us up to sinning resulting in us disobeying the Lord (Romans 6:23). Now we cannot allow discouragement and the pressures of our times to ‘disconnect’ spiritually from Christ we need our faith and perseverance to outlast the challenges of our times. Let us, therefore, press on our redemption is most definitely at hand than when we first believed (Romans 13:11-12).
Blessed Grace
Brother Glenn
