HOW TO BE FRUITFUL PT.2

THEME: BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY

MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY THE 27TH OF MARCH 2016

Topic: How to be fruitful Part 2

Introduction: Like we saw last week, our fruitfulness is rooted in the prosperity of our souls. We are only fruitful to the extent we develop our souls to walk in the ways of God as opposed to how we used to live before we got saved [Isa.55:8; Jos.1:8; 3Jn.1:2 and Rm.12:2]

Today, we shall be looking at the process that lead to our ability to exercise dominion as God originally intended. In Gen.1:26 when God made the purpose of His intention for making man known, He put it in these words: “Let us make man in our image and after out likeness and let them have dominion…” in other words, God made man to rule over the earth. In the 28th verse of that text, God also disclosed the process by which man was to rule in these words: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. …” in other words, the process where we are productive to the extent of fulfilling our purpose goes like this: Be fruitful, Multiply, Replenish the earth, Subdue it and have dominion over all that God said we should have dominion over. We shall look at these in details here:

Be fruitful: To be fruitful is to procreate after your kind. We want to restrict this here to having biological children. However, there is more to fruitfulness. There is the fruitfulness of your life in the area of your specific purpose. So while being productive in your body, you must be spiritually and soulishly productive as well so you can rule your world. See the parable of the pounds and the talent in Lk.19:12-26 and Mt.25:14-30. In these parables, the master wanted to see how productive they were going to be with the opportunities they were given. What you do with your time and money would tell how well you convert opportunities to wealth and would determine your rating and placement in life.

We can clarify this message by simplifying it this way. Bear fruit of your body at the right time. This means that when you get married, you are authorized to have children of your own by this scripture. See Ps.127:3-5 and Ps.113:9.

The next level of fruitfulness is that of your spirit. Following the fall of man into sin, we became spiritually dead and therefore could no longer bear fruit spiritually. When Jesus came to take our place of punishment, all who receive him would become new creations and have eternal life. But they will come into the faith as spiritual babies who must grow to the point where they can bear fruit for God. Note that if you do not grow, you cannot bear fruit and if you persist like that, you will wither spiritually and cannot attain to your potential. 

The third level is the fruitfulness of the soul. The soul is the part of man that contains the mind, will and emotions. When man sinned against God, his soul became corrupted and since his spirit had been severed from God, the soul came under the control of the flesh that had become subjected to death and its influences. Man’s mind became unproductive as a result and even though the potential of all he could be were still there, corruption had set in to mess man’s mind up and keep him in bondage to sin and therefore the devil. All the suffering of man afterwards is the product of his association with sin and therefore the devil. All the work of the flesh we see around today is the fruit of the association of man with the devil[Gal.5:18-21 and John 15:1-5]. The result of this is unfruitfulness. However, by the grace of God, since the Lord Jesus Christ came to pay the debt for our sin, anyone who receives Him as Saviour and Lord would receive eternal life or the life of God. This life has the ability to quicken the soul and body to make them all God intends for them to be. [Jn.5:24-29; 6:53-58].

In summation here, the first step towards our exercise of dominion therefore is to produce a fruit. Your fruit is what you birth following the leading of the Holy Spirit. It could be a ministry, a book, a business etc. Even your biological children can be fruits depending on how well you have raised them to follow the ways of God so that they can become seeds of the Lord. A seed shall serve him and it shall be accounted to God for a generation. So serving the Lord with your life makes you as seed sown. See Ps.22:30.

Multiply: Whatever fruit you produce is not good enough being alone. The fruit must be multiplied. For instance, if you produce a book, you have to multiply it by technology to enable it to get to many people through distribution. If you raise your children to walk in the ways of God, they would multiply and replenish the earth [Gen.18:17-19]. This is why your fruit must be multiplied. After multiplying your fruit, you have to come up with a good distribution network to spread it around the world. See Isa.9:8 and 68:11.

Replenish the earth: You replenish the earth when the fruit you have multiplied is taken from where you made it to other places where it is needed by others. The more you replenish the earth with your fruit, the more your purpose finds expression. For instance, a nation with more fruits like human resources, products from the nation’s raw materials like minerals, petroleum, vegetables and so on; is more productive than one with these same raw materials which is not producing fruits from them. This explains the existence of poor and rich nations on earth today even though all nations have the basic natural resources – man and time in it.See Is.52:7; Mk.16:15-17; Mt.28:18-20.

Subdue it [that is the earth]: The more you spread your fruit around the earth, the more you are considered valuable provided your fruit delivers on its promise everywhere it goes. The result is that wherever your product goes, the land is subdued before it. When God had made the children of Israel a great people in the Promised Land, the bible says the land was subdued before them. See Joshua 18:1. In Egypt, pharaoh became threatened by Israel because God so caused them to multiply that the land was filled with them. See Ex.1:7. The greater your fruit becomes, the more tendency it has to subdue the earth. This was the fear of the religious leaders that drove them to murder Jesus Christ and attempt to stop His fruit - the gospel. But the Gospel is God’s product and cannot be stopped because of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end [Isa.9:7]. See Jn.11:47-53 and Acts 5:28. The more this is done on a consistent basis, the more likely you are to exercise dominion as God intends. This is why the Church is taking over the earth on a daily basis because she is the fruit of Jesus Christ.  

Have dominion or reign: The ultimate purpose of God for man is that the man leads in the area of his or her calling. Leadership is attained when a person has demonstrated faithfulness in servicing the needs of others with their fruits to the satisfaction of those people. This is why the Lord said the greatest among us must be the servant of all. This is why He made us, this is why He restored us after the fall and this is what we are expected to do on earth before the return of the Lord. No one has exemplified this truth better than Jesus Christ and his followers. See Gen.1:26-28; Jn.12:24; Acts 6:7; 19:18-20.

However, dominion cannot truly be exercised in man’s fallen state. This is why we must be born again so that we can bear fruit unto God. See Rom.7:4. Should you desire to make that transition from death to life now, you can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be saved:

Heavenly Father, 

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name!

Amen. 

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nannaand on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or     www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.   

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!