“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name He might give you.”
John 15:16
Shalom,
It has been quite some time since I have written a blog, or have even written at all. To those who have faithfully followed the Well Trodden Road, please forgive me for this period of silence.
This year has been one of the most challenging and trial-some years I can ever remember. It has been a roller coaster ride to say the least. I have never had my faith tried so much, and the enemy fight so hard to wreck the man I have become since 2011. But what the enemy failed to realize is that the harder he tried to wreck me, the more of the beauty of Abba’s love began to wreck my innermost being. You see, I had to realize something. I have been chosen. And if I have been chosen by Him, who sees every one of my days laid before Him, then what can I do but hold on tight to what He has already seen.
“Who shall separate us from the love of the Messiah?…”
Romans 8:35a
As I begin to write again, I will share little tidbits of what I/we have gone through–not to esteem the enemy, but to esteem the Anchor of our souls.
What is our response to Him who has chosen us? Bearing fruit is our response of being chosen first, not us choosing Him first. Our decision to follow Him is not a one time choice, but a daily professing through our actions in how we conduct ourselves towards others. He chose us and we respond everyday by choosing Him. This produces fruit within, and daily as we choose Him again and again, our fruit will consistently remain. Why is this important? So that when we pray we will receive whatever we ask for, because He knows us by our fruit.
We are to remain bearing fruit because we never know when someone who is hungry will come to our tree to take of it. If we fail to produce fruit in season or out of season, then we will end up like the tree that Messiah accursed because it failed to provide Him substance in the season He was hungry.
“Proclaim the Word! Be urgent in season, out of season. Reprove, warn, appeal, with all patience and teaching.”–2 Timothy 4:2
What kind of effect will we have on advancing the Kingdom of Light if we never have anything people are hungry for? Why should our prayers be answered if we do nothing with the gift He has given to us? The gift of being chosen.
It is for this gift that we should rise up out of what the enemy has used to hold us down, and reach for the higher calling through Him who gave up all for the sake of restoring peace to our souls. He wasn’t kidding when He said that He would prune those who bear fruit. If it doesn’t hurt, the reward isn’t worth it.
We thank you for all of your prayers for us. The breaking of the dawn is near. Hold on little ones. And in the meantime, fervently love each other, forgiving one another.
Severely pruned,
Derek
This is a great post for Beleievrs and followers of Christ. It’s always a sobering passage of scripture when Jesus talks about bearing fruit and casting into the fire the branches that don’t bear his fruit. It was convicting and a great reminder that the things we go through in life should never prevent us from bearing good fruit. Sometimes when we go through pruning it’s not only for ourselves but so that later on in life someone can come to our tree and pick the Godly fruit that came as a result of allowing the father to trim and prune us to his likeness.
So true Derek, so true! May Yah bless you and keep you, and may His Face shine upon you, as you lean on Him for strength and shalom in these trying times.
Blessings and much love to you and yours,
Deborah