Love Has Fruit

Hello dear and precious Beloved Family!

How awesome and exciting was this weekend together. Doing the Kingdom… doing it all day on Sunday… seeing many faces dawn with the enlightenment of Divine truth… AND my lovely, amazing, and anointed Bride bringing the Word to all my favorite people… WOW!

Something hit my heart pretty powerfully while Kay was ministering to us Sunday evening that I wanted to share with y’all today. It has really been stirring in my heart for quite some time, but I finally found some language for it while my original Beloved was ministering.

John 15
12This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 
17These things I command you, that ye love one another.

There is a connection between love and fruit that Jesus was making there… do you see it?

I have found in my life that the normal position for me is being the, “odd man out.” I was never a, “Kool Kid,” in the popular group, accepted in the majority position of nearly any gathering. Then, on top of it, was called by God to leave the conservative, Christian mecca of Texas to come to liberal, oppressive, and religiously saturated Illinois to be a super-minority. It almost seems punitive when you truly see the contrast between the pro-patriotic, pro-God attitude of Texas verses the pro-self, pro-socialism ideology of here. But, when I fully embraced the reality and revelation of being one chosen by God to go into dark places with His light, it all changed in a moment. Now, I do not look at things through the tense of demographics or politics… I see them through my Father’s eyes. This perspective gives me a fire of passion for my neighbors that is unique. It makes me burn with zealous desire to see change and liberty come to my region. It compels me to rise early, stay up late, go everyday at full throttle, and continuously be on the look-out for more ways and people to influence. I am accepted in the Beloved, and there is no other group I would rather be in!

It hit me while Kay was preaching… it is this strange and unique love that keeps making me the, “outsider.” Love is doing all of this in me and through me. Real, Jesus kind-of-love has fruit. This continuous well of desire, action, and motivation working in me is the fruit of authentic love for the people I have been called to. It is the Grace (Divine empowerment) that always accompanies the genuine things of God. It does not make us any more popular, just more productive.

Jesus perfectly and fully embodied this. He would forego sleep, food, leisure, and many other vises we embrace because He was compelled by love for His Father and the calling to you and I. To use the picture of a fruit tree being alluded to by these passages, Jesus’ tree was heavy on every branch with luscious and sweet fruit that replenish more-and-more every time one was given and consumed. That tree was ALWAYS making fruit, every season, every day. There was no winter of non-production… there was no tumultuous storm that broke branches and knocked off fruit to be wasted… there were no poachers that came in the night and stole the fruit… and the tree only would get larger and stronger with time.

He is the trunk and we are the branches. The fruit grows on the branches, not the trunk… Yet the branches cannot exist without the trunk’s life giving supply.

John 15:5 (AMP)
I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for [otherwise] apart from Me [that is, cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

The closer you and I are to his heart, purpose, and love, the more we bear out the sweet and beautiful fruit of the King and His Kingdom. If it is truly the love of God burning in a person’s life, then it will become fruitful and that fruit will remain (perpetuate). Also, I would like to note that the last part of verse 16 says, “that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” The position of perfectly answered prayers and a powerful prayer life comes directly out of fruitfulness that is rooted in love. Whoa…

This could be why many have a stagnant or ineffective prayer life or communion/fellowship time with the Word and Father in devotions. The motivation behind one’s actions is oftentimes more important than the action itself. If my prayer life is for MY wants, MY needs, MY friends, MY family, then it seems MY will is the motivation. It would be of incredible and infinite value for us to embrace the Christ-like position of, “not my will be done, Father, but thy will be done.”

Not my soul to be served, but the souls of those around me.

Not my health to be pursued, but the health of those around me.

Not my needs to be met, but meeting the needs of those around me.

Not me being lavished with love, but me being the lavish-er (I know, I like to make up words sometimes…).

Sooooo… how’s your fruit?

This is a clear indicator of your relationship to the trunk, the source, the King and His Kingdom. I am asking so you can be introspective about where you are and then exercise your will in the direction you desire to go. If you desire to be closer to the trunk, then your decision to do so will be honored. If you choose to exercise your liberty to move farther away (like the folks who reject the Kingdom culture in a church like ours), then the fruit in their life will be reflective of that choice. This is not a Heaven or Hell statement, this is a quality and quantity of life statement. A tree that makes tiny, terrible tasting, infrequent, and few apples is still an apple tree. But, wouldn’t the world be much better off (and we as children of our Good Father) if the fruit we presented them was large, sweet, flawless, incessant, and infinite!?!

Beloved, this is who we really are! We should allow the gardener of our heart, Jesus, to cultivate us in such a way that brings good fruit and makes that fruit remain!

I love your juicy, fruitful little selves greatly,
Steve