Multiplication Of Fruit
Café Menu for Thursday, August 28, 2014
Today’s Special is: Fruit That Will Last
Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Robin Jones
Main Ingredient:
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
John 15:16 NIV
Entrée:
In all of God’s creation, human beings are the only created things given the opportunity to exercise free will. The rest of creation is on autopilot. As they participate in the earth’s life cycle, they act in their ordained purpose without consent. Watch a bee. Observe an oak tree. Consider the cow. Let’s investigate the tomato together.
Tomato plants bear fruit. They are used as food, and the seeds can multiply into other untold number of plants which in turn will continue bearing fruit.
They act on their appointed purpose without the ability to choose otherwise.
Humans have a purpose and an appointed season to be born, grow, and die like the plants and animals around us. However, unlike plants and animals, God doesn’t make us fulfill His purpose and multiply in it.
He calls us and we are given an option to respond.
In our verse, Jesus says,
so that you might go and bear fruit…
That “might” means that even though God chose us and appointed us, the God of the Universe, Creator God gives us a choice.
We get to choose to act in our God ordained purpose and multiply or not.
Perhaps you are saying:
I don’t know how to multiply in my purpose. I don’t even know my purpose.
Our job is to find our purpose in Him and leave the multiplication up to God.
Consider the tomato again. Let’s say your purpose is to be a tomato plant. You job is to make more tomatoes which have more seeds which produce more tomato plants. Your potential as a tomato plant to bear fruit and multiply is infinite.
Jesus says that we must abide in the Him because we cannot be productive apart from His love. As we dwell in God’s will and love for us, we will automatically multiply in our purpose. Our lives which are rooted in Him, will produce other lives that can be rooted in Him. Those lives that are produced from our initial investment, can go on and produce more fruit. This cycle of investment, growth, and reproduction is exponential in God’s hands.
Jesus invested in 12 men. Those 12 men turned the world upside down by investing in some people in the first century. Right now, in 2014, there are approximately 2.18 Billion Christians in the world because of the Imperishable Seed of Jesus Christ.
Take Out:
Roll this example over in your mind. Pray over it in your spirit. Investigate a tomato and a tomato plant with your five senses.
You are a first generation tomato plant. You produce 12 tomatoes which have 12 seeds.
1st Generation = 1 plant produced 12 tomatoes. Each tomato produced 12 seeds. 144 seeds were created to invest in the next generation’s crop.
Because of your life invested in God’s garden, your second generation begins with 144 more potential plants (i.e. lives potentially dedicated to Christ). And on and on and on the numbers just keep getting bigger.
In the first century, 12 men of faith left a legacy which carried on for two thousand and fourteen years and produced fruit which number in the billions.
Your legacy of Faith will live on after you have passed on. Invest nothing, reap nothing. Invest everything, reap infinitely.
Dessert:
Lord, I come today with the song “Thrive” as my prayer. We were made to THRIVE. You’ve built us to dwell in the land and flourish. Fill our hearts and flood our souls. God we thirst for more of you. Fill our hearts and flood our souls with one desire: To know you and to make you known. We lift your name on high. Let us invest our lives in knowing you so that as you flow through us we will reap joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable, and love unstoppable. All things are possible with You! In Jesus Name, Amen.
© 2014 by Robin Jones. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Thursday, 28 August 2014.
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