Poster | Thread |
| Can we do a study on "Fruitful Growth" in the Faith? | | Hi Brothers and Sisters, someone mentioned doing a study on the fruit of the Spirit next. The studies we've been doing have been very helpful. This passage of scripture speaks volumes. If we practice these things we will never stumble.
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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| 2017/8/12 17:27 | | twayneb Member
Joined: 2009/4/5 Posts: 2256 Joplin, Missouri
| Re: Can we do a study on "Fruitful Growth" in the Faith? | | John 15:1-8 15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 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. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
The key to fruitful growth is staying connected. Our walk with God is a relationship with our Lord and Creator, not an adherence to a set of rules, laws, or methods. It is not an intellectual understanding, but a spiritual fellowship. We cannot grow and be fruitful apart from abiding in His presence and in His word. We must learn to have every aspect of our life flow out of Him. Our entire life must be in Him.
_________________ Travis
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| 2017/8/13 8:21 | Profile | StirItUp Member
Joined: 2016/6/4 Posts: 949 Johannesburg, South Africa
| Re: | | Just checking in :)
Great contributions so far. I hope to contribute, Lord willing, as soon as I have some quality time to give to this.
Blessings,
_________________ William
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| 2017/8/14 3:44 | Profile | AbideinHim Member
Joined: 2006/11/26 Posts: 5185 Louisiana
| Re: | | "The key to fruitful growth is staying connected. Our walk with God is a relationship with our Lord and Creator, not an adherence to a set of rules, laws, or methods. It is not an intellectual understanding, but a spiritual fellowship. We cannot grow and be fruitful apart from abiding in His presence and in His word. We must learn to have every aspect of our life flow out of Him. Our entire life must be in Him. "
Travis quoted the scriptures in John 15 as the way to fruitful growth, and so it is.
It would be helpful to break down these scriptures one by one.
Who is the Vine? Who is the gardener? Who are the branches? What is pruning, and what purpose does it serve? _________________ Mike
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| 2017/8/16 14:24 | Profile | StirItUp Member
Joined: 2016/6/4 Posts: 949 Johannesburg, South Africa
| Re: | | Yes, and how do we abide/ continue in the vine?
_________________ William
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| 2017/8/16 14:43 | Profile | twayneb Member
Joined: 2009/4/5 Posts: 2256 Joplin, Missouri
| Re: | | I think we have a tendency in the U.S. to try to boil things down to formulae and steps that we can take. Abiding in Him is not a formula and it does not have steps that we can take. Abiding in Him is simply intimate relationship. If I am in relationship with Him, I will want to spend time in His presence and I will want to fellowship with Him. I will want to read His word so that I can, through the word, be changed more and more into His image. I will want to read His word so that I can know Him more. Abiding means dwelling continually in Him and in His presence. It is having my roots sunk deep into Him so that His Holy Spirit is the sap, if you will, that flows through me so that my branches will bear fruit. Abiding in Him means cutting off things in my life that take me out of continual fellowship with him. _________________ Travis
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| 2017/8/16 15:39 | Profile | StirItUp Member
Joined: 2016/6/4 Posts: 949 Johannesburg, South Africa
| Re: Can we do a study on "Fruitful Growth" in the Faith? | | Hi brethren,
So much can be said but many words can cause more confusion than good, SO i WILL ATTEMPT TO KEEP IT AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE :)I agree with bro Travis regarding the simplicity of it: Fleshly works may need a formula but fruit bearing does not, it simply requires that the tree be rooted in the correct soil, or the branch be connected to the vine from which the sap flows and produces fruit. A tree does not "strain" to bear fruit, the fruit appears in season.
The answer is partially in the title of the OP: "Fruitful growth in the faith... because fruit bearing begins and ends with faith. The fruit of the spirit is borne by faith. Walking in the Spirit is done by faith.
What is this faith? Total dependence upon Christ...Not I but Christ.
Remember that we were saved by believing the message concerning Christ and making our heartfelt confession that He is Lord. So we found our entrance into Christ and were grafted in to Him, and so we continue in Him, by faith, by continuing in a sincere heart belief and holding fast a sincere profession of our faith and not being drawn away from the simplicity of devotion to Christ
The Galatians had to be warned not to once again be "duped" into self effort, perfecting things in the flesh, in obedience to the Law because by doing so they would be cutting themselves off from the grace which is in Christ...separating themselves from the Vine, as it were.
"The fruit of the Spirit is the expression of Christ's nature"
Having begun in the Spirit let us continue to walk in the Spirit!
Blessings, _________________ William
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| 2017/8/17 10:06 | Profile | AbideinHim Member
Joined: 2006/11/26 Posts: 5185 Louisiana
| Re: | | If you abide in Him, you will bear much fruit (John 15:5, 8, 16). Fruit does not mean behavior or good deeds; it is the expression of a life. To bring forth fruit is to live Christ out in your daily life. Expressing Christ in your daily life depends upon your fully realizing that you are one spirit with Him. He is the vine, and you are a branch. Together you are one organism. This is the real Christian life: a mingling of God with man.
Watchman Nee _________________ Mike
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| 2017/8/17 16:34 | Profile | AbideinHim Member
Joined: 2006/11/26 Posts: 5185 Louisiana
| Re: | | Every Branch That Beareth Fruit, He Cleanseth It, That It May Bear More Fruit--John 15.2 Andrew Murray:
There are two remarkable things about the vine. There is not a plant of which the fruit has so much spirit in it, of which spirit can be so abundantly distilled as the vine. And there is not a plant which so soon runs into wild wood, that hinders its fruit, and therefore needs the most merciless pruning. I look out of my window here on large vineyards: the chief care of the vinedresser is the pruning. You may have a trellis vine rooting so deep in good soil that it needs neither digging, nor manuring, nor watering: pruning it cannot dispense with, if it is to bear good fruit. Some tree needs occasional pruning; others bear perfect fruit without any: the vine must have it. And so our Lord tells us, here at the very outset of the parable, that the one work the Father does to the branch that bears fruit is: He cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
Consider a moment what this pruning or cleansing is. It is not the removal of weeds or thorns, or anything from without that may hinder the growth. No; it is the cutting off of the long shoots of the previous year, the removal of something that comes from within, that has been produced by the life of the vine itself. It is the removal of something that is a proof of the vigor of its life; the more vigorous the growth has been, the greater the need for the pruning. It is the honest, healthy wood of the vine that has to be cut away. And why? Because it would consume too much of the sap to fill all the long shoots of last year's growth: the sap must be saved up and used for fruit alone. The branches, sometimes eight and ten feet long, are cut down close to the stem, and nothing is left but just one or two inches of wood, enough to bear the grapes. It is when everything that is not needful for fruit-bearing has been relentlessly cut down, and just as little of the branches as possible has been left, that full, rich fruit may be expected.
What a solemn, precious lesson! It is not to sin only that the cleansing of the Husbandman here refers. It is to our own religious activity, as it is developed in the very act of bearing fruit. It is this that must be cut down and cleansed away. We have, in working for God, to use our natural gifts of wisdom, or eloquence, or influence, or zeal. And yet they are ever in danger of being unduly developed, and then trusted in. And so, after each season of work, God has to bring us to the end of ourselves, to the consciousness of the helplessness and the danger of all that is of man, to feel that we are nothing. All that is to be left of us is just enough to receive the power of the life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit. What is of man must be reduced to its very lowest measure. All that is inconsistent with the most entire devotion to Christ's service must be removed. The more perfect the cleansing and cutting away of all that is of self, the less of surface over which the Holy Spirit is to be spread, so much the more intense can be the concentration of our whole being, to be entirely at the disposal of the Spirit. This is the true circumcision of the heart, the circumcision of Christ. This is the true crucifixion with Christ, bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus in the body.
Blessed cleansing, God's own cleansing! How we may rejoice in the assurance that we shall bring forth more fruit.
O our holy Husbandman, cleanse and cut away all that there is in us that would make a fair show, or could become a source of self-confidence and glorying. Lord, keep us very low, that no flesh may glory in Thy presence. We do trust Thee to do Thy work. _________________ Mike
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| 2017/8/17 16:46 | Profile |
| Re: | | AbideinHim said:
""""""The key to fruitful growth is staying connected. Our walk with God is a relationship with our Lord and Creator, not an adherence to a set of rules, laws, or methods. It is not an intellectual understanding, but a spiritual fellowship. We cannot grow and be fruitful apart from abiding in His presence and in His word. We must learn to have every aspect of our life flow out of Him. Our entire life must be in Him. """"""""
Amen, it really is that simple.
AbideinHim said: """""""It would be helpful to break down these scriptures one by one.
Who is the Vine? Who is the gardener? Who are the branches? What is pruning, and what purpose does it serve?""""""
The vine is Jesus
The gardener is God the Father
We are the branches
Pruning is God's chastening and going through various trials to test our faith.
Hebrews 12: 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
James 1: 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing
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| 2017/8/20 19:33 | |
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