Saving Souls or Bringing In People? ***

The Holy One calls to me this morning to share the beginning of a new day.  His voice is clear and His directive undeniable:  "Focus on souls, not on the temporal things, and ask that the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into His harvest fields".

Taking care of an elderly, dependent parent brings a sense of responsibility not unlike taking care of a child.  We can worry about provisions and meeting the temporal needs of another human to the exclusion of the great commission. 

The Holy One is not telling me to ditch my assignment to go to the front lines of the war for souls but His gentle message does cause me to look at my priorities.  I know that the battle for souls is raging and time on the clock and calendar is running out.  The sand in the hourglass is almost all in the bottom chamber and we must realize time itself is about to end.

One of the things I love and appreciate about eternity is that eternity is time-less and I look forward to that aspect of our eternal destiny: leisurely living.  The older I get, the slower I go, so eternity as a clock-absent existence gets more and more endearing as the years on earth fade into history.

Here on earth and throughout my life, time has provided a sense of urgency and been like a whip driving me on to the next thing I feel that I need to accomplish.  Its a flesh thing and I will be glad when it is no longer a calculation to be considered.  The clock and calendar represent a time cycle of needs vs getting the resources to meet them and priorities can start with pursing the god of this world AKA money.

I hear His voice and my inward thoughts go to the objective of the "church".  We are made up of commissioned individuals who come together for community.  We are like-minded and like-commissioned people with different gifts called to accomplish the objective: to grow the Kingdom of Heaven for our King.   For He is not content that any should eternally perish without Him. 

When I read about the beginnings of the "Church of the Way",  on the day called Pentecost, the message delivered to the audience of listeners brought 3000 "souls" into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Acts 2:17, Peter addressed the crows, "In the last days, God says, "I will pour out My Spirit on all people:" and he proceeds to tell of Jesus and how prophecies from ancient days spoke of Him.  The power of the Spirit was so strong upon Peter and his message, that 3000 accepted his message, believed in Jesus and were baptized and were added to their numbers that day. 

The church as a community of like-minded people who believed and were saved was established.

The early church is a model for us of true fellowship and family love but then I come to the question and wonder is there a difference between winning souls and adding people in our efforts to grow the church today?  Then there is the issue of persecution and how does that factor into church growth or withering?  Persecution is one litmus test in the issue of loyalty to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The early church knew the danger of following Christ and many had to face the decision between death or denial. Therein also became their life and death dependency on each other as they lived under the persecution and its threats.

The church today is much different, at least here in America.  We live far removed from dire persecution and our belief in Jesus can stem from an intellectual religious schematic rather than a deep emotional attachment from our hearts and soul.

Priorities are different when we are committed to winning souls for the Kingdom rather than people for the Church.  We are all brought to a place where we must decide where we place the priority of monetary pursuits and the church is no different, just corporate in that decision making. Building the Church on earth as opposed to building the Kingdom of Heaven has different priorities and I wonder if the Lord is pleased with our efforts?

Money to keep the doors open and programs functioning is a necessary part of the administration of an organization, but the Church is not to be so much an organization as an organism with each committed individual doing his or her part.  At the top of the "must do" list of each and very one of us should be the priority to pray for lost souls "that the Lord of the harvest" send workers to reap those His Holy Spirit has made ripe unto harvest.

This conviction leads me to to pray for "eyes" to see others as the Lord sees others which may be the key to viewing souls as Jesus does: lost and in need of a Savior.  And then to co-labor with Him in His mission to bring these lost souls into His Kingdom.

If we can just diligently pray for more souls to come into the Kingdom of Heaven, I trust that more people will be brought into the church.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

Saving Souls or Just Adding Bodies?

The Holy One calls to me this morning to share the beginning of a new day. His voice is clear and His directive undeniable: "Focus on souls, not on the temporal things, and ask that the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into His harvest fields".

Taking care of an elderly, dependent parent for years brings a sense of responsibility not unlike taking care of a child. We can worry about provisions and meeting the temporal needs of another human to the exclusion of the great commission. However, wherever we find ourselves in the boundaries of our circumstances, there is always something we can do to advance our Kingdom and glorify our King.

In that season of my life, the Holy One was not telling me to ditch my assignment to go to the front lines of the war for souls but His gentle message caused me to look at my priorities. I know that the battle for souls is raging and time on the clock and calendar is running out. The sand in the hourglass is almost all in the bottom chamber and we must realize time itself is about to end.

One of the things I love and appreciate about eternity is that eternity is time-less and I look forward to that aspect of our eternal destiny: leisurely living. The older I get, the slower I go, so eternity as a clock-absent existence gets more and more endearing as the years on earth fade into history.

Here on earth and throughout my life, time has provided a sense of urgency and been like a whip driving me on to the next thing I feel that I need to accomplish. Its a flesh thing and I will be glad when it is no longer a calculation to be considered. The clock and calendar represent a time cycle of needs vs getting the resources to meet them and priorities can start with pursing the god of this world AKA money.

I hear His voice and my inward thoughts go to the objective of the "church". We are made up of commissioned individuals who come together for community. We are like-minded and like-commissioned people with different gifts called to accomplish the objective: to grow the Kingdom of Heaven for our King. For He is not content that any should eternally perish without Him.

When I read about the beginnings of the "Church of the Way", on the day called Pentecost, the message delivered to the audience of listeners brought 3000 "souls" into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Acts 2:17, Peter addressed the crows, "In the last days, God says, "I will pour out My Spirit on all people:" and he proceeds to tell of Jesus and how prophecies from ancient days spoke of Him. The power of the Spirit was so strong upon Peter and his message, that 3000 accepted his message, believed in Jesus and were baptized and were added to their numbers that day.

The church as a community of like-minded people who believed and were saved was established.

The early church is a model for us of true fellowship and family love but then I come to the question and wonder is there a difference between winning souls and adding people in our efforts to grow the church today? Then there is the issue of persecution and how does that factor into church growth or withering? Persecution is one litmus test in the issue of loyalty to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The early church knew the danger of following Christ and many had to face the decision between death or denial. Therein also became their life and death dependency on each other as they lived under the persecution and its threats.

The church today is much different, at least here in America. We live far removed from dire persecution and our belief in Jesus can stem from an intellectual religious schematic rather than a deep emotional attachment from our hearts and soul.

Priorities are different when we are committed to winning souls for the Kingdom rather than people for the Church. We are all brought to a place where we must decide where we place the priority of monetary pursuits and the church is no different, just corporate in that decision making. Building the Church on earth as opposed to building the Kingdom of Heaven has different priorities and I wonder if the Lord is pleased with our efforts?

Money to keep the doors open and programs functioning is a necessary part of the administration of an organization, but the Church is not to be so much an organization as an organism with each committed individual doing his or her part. At the top of the "must do" list of each and very one of us should be the priority to pray for lost souls "that the Lord of the harvest" send workers to reap those His Holy Spirit has made ripe unto harvest.

This conviction leads me to to pray for "eyes" to see others as the Lord sees others which may be the key to viewing souls as Jesus does: lost and in need of a Savior. And then to co-labor with Him in His mission to bring these lost souls into His Kingdom.

The Lords final words to His followers was the "Great Commission": "Go into all the world and make disciples".......

If we can just diligently pray for more souls to come into the Kingdom of Heaven, seek and seize the opportunities we are given to model what it is to be a "Child of the King", I trust that more people will be brought into the church as well as into the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

               

Perspective: From Battlefield To Throne***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Questions abound as the devil plays his hand of evil in the great game of life.  It would seem that he holds all the cards and has stacked the deck against us, yet I know the Lord has promised victory and just wonder how and when it will come to pass for His Beloved.

It's the old question of "When"?   "When will You fulfill Your Word and answer what I know to be a personal promise?"  Of course the Lord brings daily and even hourly blessings as I journey with Jesus, but the biggest problems seem to stretch out for so long with no speedy relief or resolution.

I am a warrior type and I see life as a battlefield and the devil with his demons as enemy combatants.  Being a warrior type I am one who wrestles the reasons I go to war.  Kingdom causes are my motivations not "land disputes" on earth.  Personal rights however, must be surrendered as Holy principles are enforced. 

The devil has a part to play but in the end, it all boils down to the relationship between me and my God.  The Holy One speaks into my wrestle today, "Are you sure this is what you want Me to do?"  

Perspective is interesting and can change depending upon where you stand on any issue. I am suddenly taken up from the battlefield to the Throne in my thoughts.  The question from the Holy Spirit requires me to think at a different level.  He is not asking me to be God and I am not demanding to have His power.  This is just the sweet blessing of our friendship and the privilege of being in unity with Him.

Our trials can last a long time on the earth clock and calendar.  But to our eternal God, time is not an issue. It may seem cruel to our carnal mind that we struggle and suffer without immediate resolution or speedy victories even those we think would glorify God.  But today as He asks me to wrestle yet again I grasp a little more of His wisdom in the struggle.

I have taken great comfort in the parable of the "Persistent Widow" of Luke 18:2-8:

"In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men and there was a widow in that town who kept coming  him with the plea, "Grant me justice against my adversary".  For some time he refused but finally said to himself "even though I do not fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't wear me out with her coming."

And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says and will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night.  I tell you the truth, He will see that they get justice and quickly, however, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"

Re-reading the parable I can get caught up on the temporal word, "quickly" unless I remember that God's timetable is eternity.  Since the justice of my "causes" are ultimately in the Lord's hands, I can focus on my end of the parable as the petitioner.  Will He find me faithful in the waiting?

When I am bringing my grievance to the Sovereign Judge, I find that the wrestles are an important part of the petitioning process.  Delayed resolutions,  allow time for me to do deep and personal soul searching.  I have an opportunity to search the Word for the Will of the Lord as I am required to wait for an answer.

I have seen over the course of my life that my opinions and conclusions can lack an understanding of the great principles that Holiness has to teach.  Knee jerk reactions to pain and confusion of emotions have caused me to cut off  more ears than I can count and brought more regrets than I care to mention.

The truth is that in our relationship with the Lord, we grow in our understanding of Him and His ways and mostly through the wrestles that come from His delayed responses to our painful circumstances and urgent requests. In light of eternity most things look different.  In the perspective of our carnal nature Holiness can be elusive unless we pursue it with all of our will.

The delay of answers seems to work in different ways.  We can give up and resign ourselves to accept delay as denial or we can remain persistent and continue to make our petitions known.  In the process of being persistent something interesting begin to take place in me.

It is subtle at first, when my sense of right and wrong, good and bad gets challenged. Of course, I look for human justification for my opinions.   I  look through the Word to find my argument and His promise of Divine intervention.  Promises are there to claim but not always with the precision or exact replication of my personal circumstances.  In an effort to under gird my "right" to an answer, if I am honest, scripture begins to challenge my position.  I come to realize my own accountability for where I am.  Repentance clears the air and the wrestle continues. 

I press in, not with the same justification but with a better picture of the principle upon which I stand, and the wrestle continues.  Other things get exposed like unbelief and fear; layers like the skin of an onion begin to get removed.  Deeper and deeper we go, the Lord and I, touching on things that have little to do with the problem at hand or so I think. And the wrestle continues.

Then comes a day like today when the Lord asks me to confirm, "What do you will that I should do for you?"  In the beginning of the issue, I might have given a "no-brainer" answer like when the Lord asked the blind man in Mark 10:51 NIV "What do you want me to do for you?"  In the KJV, the word "want" is actually transcribed as "wilt", and I catch a slight but important intensity difference to the question. 

What we "want" and what we "will" can actually define our petitions and could radically affect the Lord's intervention.  God has given us free will and I believe He wants us to passionately use it but not as a lone ranger or free agent.  God wants us to use our free will to accomplish His will.   So He asked the blind man to articulate his need and heart desire.  The man who was a beggar might have said, "I want a day's rations of food in my cup".  Fortunately his small cup did not define his petition and he walked away with a miracle he probably could not have fathomed before he met Jesus.

The blind man wanted his sight and the Lord wanted to give it to him.  There was a unity between the petitioner and the Provider.  Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

As I wrestle yet again the issues that touch my life I can confidently say, "Lord, the petition has not changed; the need and desire and principle remain the same."  Wrestles have strengthen the warrior but not changed the war.  There are times when our faith needs a different perspective than the one we see from the battlefield and I am so thankful to realize He is willing to let me see the war from His Throne.  Today I am confident of my petition and I am drawn closer to the One who will provide the answer to it. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?             

   

Shallow Love is Hard to Bear***

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Our friendship involves sharing my emotions and seeking His wisdom to navigate life here on earth. On some rare days, the Holy Spirit will share His grief, today is one of those days.

I hear Him say, "Shallow love is hard to bear". This makes for a deep sadness yet it gives me an opportunity to reaffirm my love and declare my complete dependency on Him.

The love relationship the Lord desires to share with all of us is a constant friendship, a constant companionship, a constant romance yet because He is Spirit we can sometimes forget, ignore, or otherwise get distracted and allow distance and emotional separation to come between us. Just as a side note on "love" defined is the understanding that love is and always has been a choice and decision. Conditional love is just that: a decision based on self-serving conditions. Unconditional love on the other had makes no conditions for it's decision.

What the disciples enjoyed in their flesh relationship with Jesus, we, through the Holy Spirit and in a mysterious and "super-natural" way, can enjoy His presence in a much more "intimate" way. In flesh, Jesus was constrained to a physical body. As He was limited by geography, He was therefore limited in His ability to touch hearts and minds of people not present with Him while in the body of His flesh.

Before Jesus, Abraham and Moses knew God in a personal spiritual way, but again their relationship was external and while it served God's purpose to reveal Himself as the One True Sovereign God to the Nation of Israel, the people did not experience the God-intimacy that we can and do through the indwelling Holy Spirit of our Lord. 

Try explaining in human terms the indwelling Presence of God and there is just no way for words to describe it. We can see the evidence of Him within a person's life but the mystery of that unity is beyond explanation. Here is where it becomes a matter of the heart and where we can and must nurture that love relationship with the Lord.

The whole of scripture is about God reaching out to His Beloved creation, humanity. The Old Testament is the picture of His love through a nation, Israel. The New Testament is a picture of His love for us through a person and not just any person. That person who came to show us the Love of God is none other than His only begotten son, Jesus the Christ.

But then, as the ultimate love story reaches its climax, God brings us into complete personal intimate unity through His indwelling Spirit. God pursues, God reveals Himself and God awaits for us to accept His proposal. There is no greater love and no greater romance than the one we have available with the One who created us for Himself.

As I ponder His words about "shallow love" I see how in life today, busyness and work, even good work, can separate us from Him and what may be His idea of our love relationship. In the human arena we all have ideas, expectations, and even requirements in our love relationships with each other. So many "love" relationships end up in a ditch for failure to meet the expectations of the other person.

While we do not consider that our love relationship with God can end up in a ditch, it can be put on a shelf. We can leave Him for other loves and return to look for Him on that shelf only when other lovers disappoint us, whether that other "lover" be a person or persons, a "mistress" business or a "siren" chemical that numbs the rejected heart. 

As He speaks to me about shallow love, I understand He is calling me to a deeper one. His goal is not to shame me but to open my eyes to a perspective outside my own self- centeredness. To further my understanding, He takes me to Numbers 11. This is a part of the wilderness journey the children of Israel made on their way to the promised land. It holds some important symbolic elements for me to ponder today.

Moses was in the lead of 600,000 men (not counting women and children). They left Egypt with nothing they could not carry. They were taken through the Red Sea and ended up in a wilderness and with few supplies to sustain them.

They were living on a daily ration of "manna" that the Lord had supernaturally and graciously supplied but the people were bitter and complaining all the way. They seemed to have no appreciation for the most outrageous blessing a human could ever experience: God was with them!

His Holy Presence was in the midst of their community and was visually seen by them
.

In Ex 40:34 it is written:
 

"Then a cloud covered the tent of meeting and the Gory of the Lord filled the tabernacle". . And vs 36 says, "In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out but if the cloud did not lift they did not set out until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day and fire was in the cloud by night in the sight of the House of Israel during all their travels."

What a powerful image and picture of God's Presence, and yet they grumbled and complained. They focused on their immediate displeasure rather than on the future Promised Land. They did not consider the Presence of God among them nor appreciate the love of God for them as the most valuable and promising aspect of their lives.

Their love of the Lord was shallow based on what He provided to meet their physical and temporal needs at the moment. The testing of their faith was really an indictment of their love, and it was shallow.

Reading this account of their relational failure causes me to think about how my attitude reflects my love for the Lord. As an indwelling Presence, the Holy Spirit of Christ governs my life and provides endless opportunities to grow and then show Him how much I care. Deeper love finds it's pleasure in Who He is not just in what He does for me. 

There will always be temporal discomfort and even things I must wait for Him to provide or resolve, but those things must never be allowed to define my love for Him. Today I can rejoice in His Presence and delight in His love not dependent on circumstances to be the reason. I truly "get" His point today and how "shallow love is hard to bear"

.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

 

Discernment Needed***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The recent celebration of the Jewish Passover has me thinking about that epic night of deliverance for Israel and their faith journey as a nation.

The Holy Spirit reminds me of something I read about a few days ago when He tells me "Beware of  "rabble-rousers". 

My indwelling Counselor is the "Spirit of Truth".    His role is defined by Jesus in John 14:15-16, If you love Me (says Jesus) you will obey what I command and I will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of Truth.  The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.  But you know Him for He lives in you and will be in you."

Many Christians  mark His  Presence with charismatic manifestations, but my personality and comfort zone  walks along a more academic and less emotional line.  The Holy One meets me where I am. I do have a firm belief in supernatural miracles.  I have seen and experienced the Hand of God move in completely supernatural ways.  In fact His intervention is a daily reality for those who are in vital relationship with Him.  There is no random event or coincidence in life but rather a calculated action by the Sovereign God of eternity that challenges us to look up and see Him, but the real joy I feel hones on the thrill I find in our relationship and how He brings me Truth and the wisdom to apply it.

I love a good  mystery and feel accomplished when I follow the clues to an "aha" moment as the mental mystery is solved. My God knows me as one He personally created and provides the challenges that make our relationship so exciting.

Not every mystery is solved in a day nor will the entire mystery of God's Being  ever be solved over even a lifetime on earth.  But as we traverse the turf here together, with the mysteries that abound the delight of my faithful Counselor and Guide, fills my heart with joy.

I take His commands seriously whether written in His Word or spoken in my ear.  "Beware the "rabble-rousers" comes out of a passage of scripture I was in some days ago while reading about the nation of Israel and their time in the wilderness after their deliverance out of Egypt.

The entire Nation of Israel had been brought through the Red Sea in a supernatural move by God.  The waters were divided providing a pathway of escape from Egyptian bondage AKA slavery.   This even was the end of a series of miraculous signs that Moses was sent to perform before the Pharaoh.  The supernatural wonders were not hidden from the Egyptian population. 

All in Egypt were touched in one way or another, which means that even the Egyptians had an opportunity to come to the knowledge that the God of Israel was more powerful and real than the gods of Egypt that they had worshipped.  As the Nation of Israel under the leadership of Moses began the exodus out of Egypt there was a similar opportunity for others (non-Israelites)  to follow them,  mix in with the migration and flow out of Egypt along with the people of this mighty and powerful God. 

Here in numbers 11:4, scripture identifies some who made up their numbers as "rabble".  This explains where the term "rabble-rousers" comes from.  This was a "mixed multitude" (KJV) among the people who were troublemakers and who incited God's people to rebel. 

True believers are trusted by God to trust in Him.  The Nation of Israel was asked to put their trust in the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Those who just came along for the ride and may have seen the end of the Egyptian way of life, but did not share Israel's faith legacy did not calculate on God's demand for obedience.  Not all who made the journey out of Egypt were true to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and became a source of trouble for the migrating nation.

Logic would suggest that God had not provided so spectacular a deliverance just to abandon them to death by another means such as starvation or dehydration, but that was the suggestion as they made their way through the wilderness.  The "rabble" among them were the mal-contents of the group.  They were a constant source of complaining and in that represented a dangerous seed of rebellion.

Have you ever noticed when you are facing difficult circumstances where faith is being honed and trust is hard, voices spring up to talk you out of trust and into rebellion?  The devil has an army of "rabble-rousers".  He uses people and speaks through others to accomplish his goal.

Life and circumstances we face are quite often like entering the Lord's gym for a workout.  If you are not a fan of exercise you may hate when He asks you to join Him there: especially when His invitation is at the end of a long hard day of temporal living and the mind becomes battlefield complete with a company of flesh sympathizers.

Rabble rousers unleash their toxic poison into our fellowships just as they did to the nation of Israel.  People who do not know God personally and try to undermine the faith of those who do.

Discernment of the spirit of who is talking is critical to knowing the difference between the two. But then as I ponder and process what the Lord is showing me in His warning today, I realize the potential in me to not only fall victim to rabble-rousing people who surround the Body of Christ but to actually join in with their agenda and speak in faithless terms about what we are experiencing in these end of days.

Am I complaining about the Manna when my flesh is lusting for quail?   Am I ready to erect a golden calf idol when asked to wait for a Word from the Lord being brought down from the mountain? 

A rabble-rousing spirit whether phantom or flesh is quick to remind us of "better" days.... when we were slaves to sin because they know nothing of the promised land that awaits us.  The rabble among us can get under or skin but they must never be allowed to get into our minds.  We must never forge an agreement with their message of faithless mistrust in God's goodness and mercy. 

"Beware of the "rabble-rousers"  is a warning I take seriously. Today I pray for Divine discernment and protection from without and from within.

The Spirit is calling.   Can you hear Him?       

    

The Mixed Fruit Tree And Me***

The Holy Once calls to me this morning.  Springs is here.  All the vegetation is starting to wake up and bloom.  My attention has been drawn to a favorite tree in my forest garden.  It is a unique tree in that it is designed to bear a variety of fruits on different branches of just one tree. It is a mixed fruit tree.

The Holy One uses things in the natural to teach and remind me of spiritual truth.  This morning He speaks abut that fruit tree and me,

"You are like that tree.  I designed and called you to bear a variety of fruit ".

My mind tracks back to the words of Jesus in John 15:16, "You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last." and He goes on to say, "Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.  This is my command: Love one another".

This passage in scripture has always been among my favorites because I know the truth.  The Lord did choose me otherwise I would not belong to Him.  Nothing I could ever do in and of myself would justify His choosing me.  The Lord has chosen all of us to come to Him but then permits free will to respond.

His choosing of us is intentional and eternal but the purpose in the temporal is that we bear fruit here on earth, otherwise once we accept His invitation we would be instantaneously translated to where He is AKA Heaven.

To understand and define the "fruit" we are to bear, The Holy One takes me to Paul's letter to the Galatians in chapter 5:22:  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

I know that Jesus said, that apart from Him I can do nothing, but by and through His  indwelling Holy Spirit all things are possible.

The John passage is an important link to understanding the whys and wherefores of my life and my journey with Jesus.

Jesus chose me and appointed me to bear "fruit".  Galatians tells me the "fruit" I have been appointed to bear is not possible in and of myself but only by His indwelling Holy Spirit.

Most all of the trials I face in this earth life are a challenge to one or more of the "fruits" I am to bear.  The trials are like a pruning of the branches that bear the individual fruit on my mixed fruit tree.

If I consider the trials as enrichment of the fruit that the trial challenges, an amazing perspective of life begins to appear:

The pruning of love may involve someone's hatred of me.

The pruning of joy may involve a situation of despair.

The pruning of peace may involve an agitation of my native soul.

And the list goes on to include the pruning of:

Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
and self-control

The interesting conclusion of our appointment to go and bear fruit is that THEN the Father will give us whatever we ask for in His Name.

The fruits we are called to bear individually and the complete fruit that they are, happen to be the character qualities that represent Jesus and His Name.  It is in "His" name that our petitions have their answers.  His name (as our name) is who He is. 

As we bear His fruit in our character, we represent a true picture of Him to the world.  And in response to that fruit bearing, The Father will give us whatever we ask in Jesus name.

Today I purpose to consider the trials of life I am facing, to consider what branch is being pruned and to consider what fruit is being challenged. Today, I am thankful for the lesson of the mixed fruit tree and me.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?