In Life, you cannot produce trust at any level, either with a spouse, a client, customer, boss, in a relationship, a congregation, in leadership if you are not stable. You can be nice and do nice things but trust comes only through stability, until you are stable, you cannot be trusted.
God in His boundless mercies will not entrust some things to you, He will not bring certain opportunities in your direction until He has found you stable. Often times the word ‘Stability’ is taught outside the purview of ‘Fruitfulness’ and Fruitfulness is taught outside the framework of stability. Today, we want to bring these two concepts and join them in matrimony through the lens of scriptures because one is a consequence of the other. You will never need to worry about fruitfulness only if you can be stable. God is going to make you fruitful, just make sure you are stable.
Jesus began to teach His disciples and it was during the time He was about to be crucified, these were people that will take His message and fill the earth with it. it wasn’t a pep talk or a boardroom presentation, the final words of a man usually weigh the highest, then he began to teach this principle using agricultural metaphors to elucidate spiritual truths as recorded in St John’s Gospel chapter 15 beginning from verse 1 through to 8.
“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. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” — John.15: 1–3
The first point I want to show here is that fruitfulness is as a result of relationship, a man comes together with his wife, they pay the price of abiding in consummation, and the proof of that is a fruit called a baby. You can’t be fruitful in God if you don’t have a relationship with him. I don’t mean the relationship with your church or with your Pastor, I mean a relationship with God where you are in Communion with Him and the offspring of that Communion is a fruit. A man can look at his daughter and see a bit of himself in her and see a bit of his wife in her, in the same way, when God’s spirit is joined with your spirit, the offspring that is born will have a little bit of both in it.
Listen, it is not all up unto God and it is not all up unto you, the fruitfulness you desire requires a collaborative effort, it has pleased the Father to put this treasure in earthen vessel. You can’t just sit by and say “if it is God’s will, it will happen” (whatever it is) there is a union where you lift your hands like a child and the father will carry you into his arms. Even though you fruitful, God is still gonna cut you (prune) so that you can bear more fruit.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” — John.15.4
The Word “Abide” is mentioned three times, it means to be stable, to be steadfast. Just because you started something and it doesn’t immediately respond to you doesn’t mean it won’t if you invest time, energy into it, you start out a job and you are already ‘bored’, you get into a relationship and the first conflict, you want to quit, after six months in a church, you thinking of another church. You cannot be fruitful if you are flighty, plants don’t grow when you move them from place to place, you will never realise your truest potential in God if you are always running away.
Notice that Jesus started speaking about abiding right after the cutting, it’s easy to abide when you blooming and blossoming, but God wants you stable even when you are heartbroken, disappointed, when your gifts are not celebrated, when you are not certain, when you are paid below what you are worth. God is saying I need you to be most stable when life is most painful.
“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
Don’t worry about been fruitful, Just be stable, the fruitfulness is His prerogative. Again I say, if you will be stable, you will be fruitful, my God I can say that a hundred times. When you have lots of money, be stable, no money be stable, in tears be stable, in laughter be stable. In the kingdom we don’t measure success by the world’s standards, in the kingdom, success is once you put your hand on the plough, you don’t look back, once you say Yes, you don’t say No! Once you sign up, you don’t quit.
You can’t walk with God by yourself, you can’t build that career by yourself, you can’t build that marriage by yourself. Whatever you give, I don’t just mean money (ideas, concepts, wisdom, creativity) whoever you are, whatver you do, it’s only out of the abundance He has given to you for without Him, you can do absolutely nothing, that admission of humility is worship.
Someone is reading this and you thinking, “by this time, I should have…” who are you to determine when the plants should bring forth fruits? You are not the husbandman, you are just a branch, your responsibility is to stay connected. God knows when He can trust you with a blessing, God knows when you can withstand the pressure, God knows when to bless you, all you need is to abide.
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” — John.15.7
“By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. “ — John.15.8
If you get enough word into your spirit, it will change what you ask for, if you don’t have the word in you, you will ask according to the flesh.
God is excited, glorified when your needs are met, He is happier than you are, all He wants is that you abide, stable and steadfast, by then you are now a mature disciple and things won’t take you away from him, how you grow from fruit to more fruit and ultimately to much fruit is the Union Between Stability and Fruitfulness.
I pray for you, this week you are stable, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, you are unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Do have a remarkable week.
Micheal D. Olaniyi
@mdolaniyi