“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”-{John 15:16},
“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. “-{John 15:8 NLT}
Confidence!
We can be confident in the LORD, in who He is and what He has for us. Confident faith is what Abraham showed in Romans 4;19-21. Confident faith is what the Hebrew youth showed when they refused to compromise and testified that God could save them if He desired from the flames but if He did not they were content with Him and His choice for them. Confident expectation is what the word “wait” means in Isiah 40:31 -“They who wait {in confident expectation} upon the LORD will exchange their strength.” You too can be confident in the LORD. Your EXPECTATION is from the LORD, and rightly so!
Here then is FOUR Promises to encourage your CONFIDENCE in Him!
You will bear Spiritual fruit! It will remain! Your life will be productive for God! Your prayers will be answered when you ask in accordance with the Character of the LORD Jesus!
Promise of Spiritual Fruit
Promise of Answered Prayer
Promise of Glorifying God the Father!
Promise of Belonging To Jesus Christ.
He is Your Confidence; Jesus chose you. He picked you out before the foundation of the world, for Himself and He appointed you to to go and bear Fruit!-{Read Eph 1:4}.
As apple trees produce apples or orange trees produce its kind so those who have been :born again to a living hope and have been gifted a new spiritual heart produce new life, the life of Christ. Where once we produced in our lives that which was natural and without thought at the heart of our character such as mentioned in Galatians 5 the “fruit” of the flesh.
“For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”-{Gal 5:17-21}
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.’”-{Luke 6:43-47}
We produced what we were, people who were dominated by sinful lusts, self centered and even the “good” we often did was rooted in self-centeredness as at times it made “us” feel good about ourselves. It was never done out of love for GOD because we had no love for God, unless things got bad, then we tried to manipulate, bargain try but influence with Him,crying out to Him to get us out of the hole we were in or difficulty we faced, or sinful mess we were in or to help a loved one.
IT WAS NOT Until, like Paul we too were confronted by the Lord and convicted of our sin and turned to HIM and “threw in the towel,” like someone in the corner of a boxer would throw in the towel to quit, give up, did we throw in the towel of self rule and quit living our lives on our terms and turn to GOD, conscious we had sinned against Him as He is our Maker and rightful Owner and has rightful ownership to our lives and we submitted to His Son to rescue us from the penalty of sin, the control of satan,the wrath of God and asked Him to forgive us and cause us to follow Him did we experience this new life. A life where our ambition changed, to now one of desiring to please Him; a new goal to to know Him and a new boast- in the cross of Christ. We begin to love and desire the things He loves and desires and hate the things He hates. We are what the Bible calls, “New creatures In Christ.” Changed with our standing with God and being changed in the way we see life and do life according To His Word. We are not perfect this is why we need Him to continually work in us and He does. He has promised “He who began a good work IN you will complete it… God is at work IN you both to desire and do for His good pleasure.”-{Read Phil 1;6; 2:13}. We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His Beloved Son!-{Col 1;12-14}. We are now children of God. And with it he imparts the Holy Spirit to empower us to live this new life. For apart from Him it would be like having a car without an engine. On the outside looks fine but no power to move. Apart from the Spirit of God we have no power to live the Christian life. “But God… through His Divine Power has given us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and Godliness.”-{Read 2 Peter 1:3}.
Just as trees produce after its own kind so now we produce after our new nature and produce what the Bible calls “FRUIT. You don’t see an apple tree shaking, groaning, striving, stressing to try and produce apples. It is the natural outcome of the nature of the tree. So the new life, Godly fruit is the natural outcome of being connected united with Christ. His Spirit produces in us what is “natural” to Him…the fruit of His life in us!
“So then, you will know {recognize} them by their fruits.-{Matt 7;20}. There is a definitive difference from the pattern of peoples lives whether they are truly followers of the LORD Jesus versus those who are not. The follower of Christ’s life is not a life of sinless perfection, but there is a new direction their lives which are evident! It is an”either,” “or.” Either the fruit of the flesh, the self life apart from God producing its natural tendencies or the fruit of the Spirit producing Spiritual characteristics, which there is no law against,as it is loving!
“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” -{Luke 6;45}
” My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. “-{John 15:8 NLT}. God is glorified when we bear spiritual fruit and He says as we do we “prove,” what? “… to be My disciples.” We belong to Him, there is evidence and God is glorified!
Jesus Promised you would produce spiritual fruit among which are the Fruit of Repentance, Fruit of Obedience, Fruit of the Spirit, Fruit of Righteousness, Fruit of Soul winning, Fruit of Thanksgiving. Do you pray to be fruitful? Pray for an increasing spiritual fruitful life, more and more, for His glory and the benefit of others!
God is being Glorified as you show forth His fruit and you prove you belong to the Lord Jesus. He is Glorified when you ask and He answers your prayers.
Your Confidence is in Him and what He has promised. You can confidently say. I am confident in Him! I am Confident I will bear spiritual fruit that remains. I am Confident He will answer my prayers. I am Confident my heavenly Father is being Glorified. I am Confident I belong to Him as evidenced in the spiritual fruit He is producing in and Through me. I am CONFIDENT in the LORD!
4 Reasons To be Confident…
- The Promise of Spiritual Fruit that remains
- The Promise of Answered Prayer
- The Promise of The Father Being Glorified through you
- The Promise of Belonging To Him through the fruit you are exhibiting in your life