The Fruit That Never Came To Be
You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain so that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you. John 15:16
During worship time, John whispered to me, “I’ll give you a flower later”, but I shushed him. It was a warm day as usual at church. We don’t have enough stand fans, and the small chapel will benefit from a ceiling. It is hard to concentrate on a very warm day. I picked up the Book and read from 1 Thessalonians 5:19. It said: Quench not the spirit.
After the service, John handed me a bud; it was small, but its yellow was bright and lively — I thanked him with a smile. He apologized that it was too small. And then it dawned upon me that the flower could have been a pomelo in a few weeks, but it was nipped in the bud by an excited boy who wanted to give me something he knows will bring a smile to my face. I may have spoken of several illustrations to explain 1 Thessalonians 5:19, but John taught me a very basic thing that I may have missed.
God wants us to be attentive to the Holy Spirit so that its fruits will continue to grow and multiply in our lives. Poor spiritual nutrition will lead to spiritual death. Shushing the Holy Spirit when It speaks to us makes it sad. What a terrible day it is when we no longer hear its voice! The buds of grace growing in our lives need constant nurture by the word of God, good works and fellowshipping with believers. They are strengthened by prayer and recharged by fasting. They become better when we disciple others. No matter how puny we may think they are, we must guard the gifts/fruits of the Spirit in us, use them for His purposes, and give all of the honor and the glory to the One who makes them grow.
In the same way that John’s excitement destroyed the future of that flower, sometimes, we nip in the bud the fruits of the Spirit by disobedience — the reign of human nature again in our lives. While we may be output oriented, God is more interested in the process that leads to the output. He may not be as excited about what will be accomplished, but what the struggle of trying to suffer for righteousness’ sake will accomplish in us.
And so, because of this basic difference between how God thinks and how we think, there are many fruits that die as flowers — they never come to be simply because the difficulties which often results from following God’s commands have become too much to bear. There is a problem when we fail to see the sun of blessing beyond the cloud of trial to claim the reward of a Christlike character, that which overcomes and never yields to our enemy’s devices to steal eternal life from us. It’s nice to look at flowers — but they do wilt as they are. Jesus’ command is that we should bear fruits, and that our fruits should remain (John 15:16).
August 16, 2009
