What seeds are you sowing in the garden of your mind and your heart?
What seeds are you sowing into the lives of people?
How can you be a tree that bears good fruit?
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Matthew 7:15-20
Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
James 3:12
What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
Romans 6:21-22
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."
Matthew 13:31-32
The Kingdom of GOD comes into our heart when we accept the LORD JESUS into our life and commit our life to Him. It is like the mustard seed sown in our heart!
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
If your life is yielded to GOD, you are like a tree that is planted in GOD's vineyard and that is bearing good fruit. You cannot bear good fruit without being connected to the LORD JESUS. The end of your life on earth will then continue in heaven as eternal life.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
James 3:17
The wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit results in good fruits.
What is good fruit?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
Faith, meekness and self-control in ourselves, love, joy and peace through our relationship with the LORD and patience, kindness and goodness towards others - these are the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit that is Love.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise.
Proverbs 11:30
The life of a righteous person who lives by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, is like a tree of life that influences other souls towards salvation in CHRIST.
Bearing fruit to GOD
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
Romans 7:4
Just as a wife bears her husband, children, we bear fruit to GOD.
The children resemble the husband because they are his and they are of him.
When we are in intimate relationship with the LORD, the fruit we bear would be the characteristics of CHRIST because it is of the Spirit.
The spiritual fruit we bear is of Him, to Him and for others.
It glorifies the LORD and blesses others.
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Ephesians 5:1-2
To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
Isaiah 61:3
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.
2 Corinthians 9:10-11
Good works, kind gestures including generous giving, are like sowing good seed. They bear good fruit not only in your life, but also in the lives of those who are recipients of these blessings, as their hearts are filled with thanksgiving to GOD and prayers for you. Thus, the fruits of righteousness increase, bringing glory to the LORD!
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.
Philippians 4:17
Fruitfulness a must
He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.' "
Luke 13:6-9
The LORD expects us as His followers to bear good fruit in this life. If we persist in not bearing fruit despite the many opportunities He gives us, our life on earth will be cut off.
And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 3:10
Fruitfulness is a result of GOD's blessing
Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."
Acts 14:17
So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
Genesis 1:21-22
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Genesis 1:27-28
More fruit
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.
Hebrews 12:11
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
John 15:1-2
Pruning is painful for the tree, but it causes it to bear more fruit in due time. The LORD chastens His children so that they may bear more fruit. Chastening may come in the form of losing a job, friends being cut off from your life, inability to partake in activities you enjoyed because of ill health, programs you planned, strangely hindered supernaturally and so on.
Pray for fruitfulness
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask ... that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Colossians 1:9a-10
The above is a meaningful prayer that we should pray for ourselves and for others: LORD, make me, make ---, fruitful in every good work.
Is your fruit seasonal?
Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?" So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
Matthew 21:18-22
If your attitude is, "I will do it in my time", you are like the fig tree mentioned in the above parable which the LORD caused to wither away.
But if you are living in absolute obedience to the Holy Spirit, your faith will be powerful enough to move mountains! Your faith will move that mountain of selfishness and enable you to promptly obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. Thus your life will display GOD's power and glory.
These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;
Jude 1:12
Selfishness and the lack of the fear of the LORD will make us unable to bear fruit in season and out of season.
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
2 Timothy 4:2
We should be ready to serve the LORD in any way, anytime He requires.
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:2
In heaven, the tree of life is not seasonal. It bears fruit every month!
A life that is totally connected and yielded to the LORD is like a tree that is blessed and flourishing. A life that is selfish, not serving the LORD and others sacrificially in all seasons, is like the fig tree that whithered when JESUS cursed it!
Bearing fruit in heat and drought
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
It is easy to bear good fruit when things go well for us. When we go through suffering and trials and worldly temptations, we can bear the fruit of love only if we are strongly connected to the LORD JESUS and deeply rooted in His word. Then we will be overcomers!
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
John 16:33
He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
Psalm 1:3
