Obtaining food is a basic necessity of life. We are admonished to eat healthy foods. As part of that healthy lifestyle we are further reminded to eat fruit. Further we should always try to eat fresh fruit. We think of scenes of people carefully inspecting each pieces of fruit before buying them. The scripture in Galatians 5:22-23 comes to mind:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” – Gal 5:22-23
Just as we pause our busy schedules to get groceries and obtain carefully selected fresh fruit, we should take the time to carefully examine our fruit.
In the book of Luke, it says:
“And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. “ – Luke 8:9-14
The words ‘bring no fruit to perfection’ should be very disturbing. When we look at those words in the Greek, we discover that ‘perfection’ means ‘Absolute Maturity’. Maturity simply means perfectly ripe fruit. We often see in TV commercials, certain companies claim that they pick their vegetables and fruit at the ‘peak of freshness’. God wants you to have the patience to grow your fruit to the ‘peak of freshness’. And in the timing of the Lord, people can enjoy the fruit of your life and ministry that leaves a sweet taste in their mouth.
The Word of God is warning us here not to be those kinds of people that allow the ministered Word of God to become irrelevant. We are admonished not to allow so many concerns of life to overtake us, that we can’t embrace what God is trying do in our lives. If we allow the seed of the Word of God to be choked out by all of the issues of life then our spiritual fruit will not grow or mature.
Nobody likes to eat fruit that is not ripe. It is often tastes bitter, tart and starchy. Many times, people try to do religious works but have not taken the time to seek God or allow their spiritual fruit to mature. As a result, the people that partake of their fruit may find it to be bitter, tart and starchy. Religious works that are not groomed of God can leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.
We are reminded of the original purpose of man as described in Gen 2:15.
“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. ” – Gen 2:15
If we are to successfully grow out fruit, then we have to make an effort to consciously tend our spiritual garden. We have to watch over the soil of our heart.
God wants you to tend your garden. Pull out the weeds of fear, doubt and unbelief. Pull out the weeds of Stinkin’ Thinkin’. He wants you to receive the Word of God as seed into your heart. He wants you to cultivate a rich soil in your heart that can readily receive the ministered Word. Allow the Word of God to go down deep and establish a healthy root system of faith and trust. Water it daily with your prayers. Let the spiritual fruit in your life bask in the warmth of the Son.
We also must consider the different things that can cause fruit to go bad. Blight can cause fruit to go bad while it is yet still on the tree. When we look up the word ‘blight’, we discover that one of the definitions is ‘Fungus’. Fungus grows on fruit that has been negatively affected by the environment. Nobody likes a banana that has been left in the hot sun too long. Nobody wants to eat fruit that has fungus growing on it. No one will select fruit that is moldy or decaying.
Blight can cause mold to grow on things. Blight can make spiritual fruit that was supposed to be a blessing, damaged. People that inspect damaged spiritual fruit walk away with that feeling of ‘there was something just not quite right’ there. The blight of past failures, bad relationships, disastrous events, mistreatment by people and their negative impact can cause the spiritual fruit in our lives to become moldy. The blight could be in the form of pride, arrogance or jealousy. Perhaps, it is unforgiveness and bitterness. Perhaps, it is pettiness or the need for revenge. Perhaps it’s insecurity and loneliness. The fungus and mold needs to be destroyed no matter what or how it manifests.
When we examine our spiritual fruit, we have to make sure that there is no fungus growing on it. We have to make sure that blight has not affected our fruit.
We need to take a walk through the garden of our own spirit and look at our own fruit. We have to learn to become fruit inspectors. If we examine our fruit and discover that it has been affected by blight then we have to pray and ask God to heal our land.
If we find that our fruit has become bug infested, then perhaps we need to apply some Holy Ghost insecticide to the things that are bugging us. Perhaps we need to allow the Lord to kill our bwrong attitudes of things that bug us. It is always wise to allow other gardeners to come in and help us with our garden. It is wise to invite other gardeners that have an understanding of soil conditions and how to maximize the yield of your plant’s fruit. Simply put, we need to let these other gardeners (God’s minister’s and leaders) to speak into our lives.
We have noticed, that people always get excited about the spiritual gifts. To see the supernatural manifestation of prophecy, word of wisdom, the word of knowledge and miracles to name a few, is very exciting. And there is nothing wrong with that. The Bible tells us we are to ‘covet to prophesy.’ We should desire those gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes according to the Will of God. However, it should be noted that,
Gifts are given, but Fruit is grown
The supernatural gifts are great, but we must not forget to tend the garden of our heart. Cultivate your thinking process to hunger for more of God. Take on the Mind of Christ and embrace all that God wants to show you. Ask God to show you the Truth and let Him do exactly that. Learn to be a Fruit Inspector. And with that, we leave you with one last question…
How’s your fruit?
May God’s Grace Abundantly Reign In Your Life,
Apostle Ric & Prophetess Kathy Steele
Ric Steele Ministries 