Eternal Fruit

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV

This material is based upon teaching and preaching by Ian and Jane McCormack. We have placed a link to a recorded delivery of this message in Tauranga City C3 church right below.

We also present the scripture passages he refers to, so you can follow along.

For many long time followers of the way, you will benefit from hearing Jane's brief summary towards the end of this video.

Are we truly eternal fruit bearers?

The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Gen 2:8 NASB

Man was placed, by God, into this garden to tend it, take care of it, and to have dominion over it.

Man did not do too well with this assignment and in fact got cast out of this garden.

Fast forward to the end of the book and we see another garden, this too with the tree of life at its centre. The cross has provided the means of access to this garden.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Cor 3:9

Here we are described as a field, a paddock. A bit of dirt.

However we are not just left alone as this field.

“And the Lord will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:11

So God's desire is that we become / are a beautiful garden.

“You are a garden spring, A well of fresh water, And streams flowing from Lebanon.” “Awake, O north wind, And come, wind of the south; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, Let its spices be wafted abroad. May my beloved come into his garden And eat its choice fruits!”

Song of Solomon 4:15-16 NASB

God has this desire to see us flower, bloom and grow to become a fragrance to the whole earth.

We will be known by our fruit. Come and taste, see that the Lord is good.

Psalm 1:3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

- referring to being trees planted by the stream of living water, bearing fruit in each season. We are the planting of the Lord. Trees of righteousness.

So He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” Luke 13:18-19 NASB

A seed of faith, planted, ready to grow. Love grows, righteousness grows, you grow in the knowledge of God. We grow in the fullness of God.

It starts from a small seed and is destined to grow into a full tree.

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Matt 7:16-20

Fruit comes from a tree ......

Bad trees bear bad fruit, good trees bear good fruit. By our fruit we will be known.

Trees come from a seed.

And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matt 13:3-9 NASB

The seed is the Word of God, it is good, it is truth. It is light, a lamp to our feet.

This seed is sown into different soil types. No farmer sows seed along the side of the road. Neither then does he sow seed into rocky places - didn't do much good there. Then sown into thorny ground - choked out. Then some planted into good soil where it bears 100x, 60x and 30x - much fruit!

It is the Lord who gives the increase, it is Him who gives the growth.

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” Matt 13:18-23 NASB

Jesus here unpacks this parable. He spoke mysteries to the people but reveals the meaning to His disciples.

The objective is that we bear much fruit, nothing wrong with the seed, but what kind of soil are we?

Key is the condition of the field / soil

There is nothing wrong with the Seed {Word of God} it is truth, sets us free, sharp 2 edged sword, lamp unto your feet & a light unto your path. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh.

The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and brings conviction of sin, righteousness and judgement.

The work of the seed is to bring us to repentance.

Isaiah 55:11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

He who has ears to hear, hears what the Spirit says, but we can harden our heart, listen to lies from the evil one,

We can prevent the word achieving its desired intent.

The condition of the soil matters!

Before a farmer plants anything he must first clear the land of bad trees / gorse / twitch etc.

To get rid of a tree ... no use pruning it ... it might seem like you have cut off the bad fruit. But it is only temporary, as the next season you will get a bigger harvest of bad fruit.

No use cutting it off at the stump .... As it might take a number of years, but that tree can still grow, as you've left the roots in the ground.

“For there is hope for a tree, When it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And its shoots will not fail. “Though its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the dry soil, At the scent of water it will flourish and put forth sprigs like a plant. Job 14:7-9 NASB

The Holy Spirit comes like rain, He can water both good and bad seeds / roots.

The key is to cut it off at the roots.

The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Matt 3:10

Roots must be dealt with.

We must de stump the ground, maybe allow the power of Holy Spirit ( dunamis) to blow it out of our lives.

“You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: For with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms; Jeremiah 51:10 NKJV

God wants to use us to deal with trees of unrighteousness, but first these must be removed out of our own lives.

Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it. Mark 11:12-14 NKJV

The next day as Jesus and the disciples pass by the tree, Peter notices and says:

Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” Mark 11:20-21 NKJV

Jesus cursed the roots and the tree died. Jesus would love to get to some of the trees and roots in our lives. What does Jesus say?

But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Matt 15:13 NKJV

This could be quite painful, it could mean going quite deep. Some things are deep rooted in our lives. They didn't just happen. When we first come to Jesus are all these old trees just sorted? No.

We have typically nurtured and fed them, due to our incorrect world view, our not seeing things like He sees them. We must continually be washed by the water of the Word, allowing Him to search our hearts as they are deceitfully wicked.

Hebrews 12:15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

We can have roots of bitterness, roots of unforgiveness, roots of anger.

Deuteronomy 29:18 so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood.

God's desire and promise is

In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, And they will fill the whole world with fruit. Isaiah 27:6 NASB

We are grafted in as the wild branch to the stump of Jesse, so we can fill the whole world with the fruit of righteousness.

The farmer must first clear the way - remove any rocks. e.g. Northland / UK farmers move the rocks and make fences / walls out of them. Memorials

We must also break up the fallow ground

Hosea 10:12 Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

It is a lot of work to prepare the soil. De-stumping, removing rocks, ploughing.

Matt 13:25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.

So while we are preparing the ground we also have an enemy throwing a bit of stuff our way. That is why the farmer ploughs / Discs / Harrows the ground. Some farmers then roll the ground.

Harrowing exposes the roots of the bad seeds to the sun. It also allows the weed seeds to germinate and then be killed.

All this allows Jesus to expose the deeds of darkness to the light.

The bad seeds grow quicker, thus this process allows them to germinate and then be killed.

Matt 3:8 Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;

The fruit of restitution comes with repentance. How deep do you want this to go?

Restitution is part of repentance!

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:8-10 NIV

If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. Exodus 22:1 NASB

Bring forth fruit with repentance. Putting your money where your mouth is.

There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers. Prov 6:16-19 NASB

Fruit of the Spirit :

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 NASB

Most of us are still dealing with these:

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The key is that we cannot produce fruit.

We must Abide in the Vine.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit [a]of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15:4-6 NASB

Jane shares how it was for her. Whereas Ian had come from and very aware of the bad trees and much rotten fruit, Jane came from a lovely family, church background. However as Ian was going through this process, she saw that while there was not much bad fruit, afterall, she was constantly pruning the bad trees, she did not see much fruit. Then Holy Spirit showed her below the surface, totally root bound. No place for the good seed to germinate and grow. Ian refers to this being like bonsai plants, constantly trimmed and pruned but ultimately root bound and bearing no fruit.

Once the ground is prepared and the seed sown, the farmer doesn't do much. God sends the early and latter rains. Then its harvest time.

Eternal Fruit!