What is the key to bearing fruit as a Christian?

[Jill]

I think the key to bearing fruit is being on FIRE for Christ everyday. Revelation 3:15-22 talks about this and is a good way to grade what you are doing for Christ on a daily basis. In my experience I've found that the more I go to God's word, the more He reveals himself to me. The more He reveals himself to me the more on fire I become. That plus going to church where we hear the word. Just this past week in my quiet time with the Lord all these scriptures kept coming to mind. Worship and listening to Christian music too. I love Jeremy Camp and Selah radio on Pandora. I get so fired up to do the Lords will and feel very close to the Vine when I am worshiping God in spirit and truth.

[SERay]

Do feelings and emotions constitute a reliable guide in religion? Should we design worship according to what excites our moods? What is the proper standard of authority and guidance in worship and service to God? Can we know we are right because we feel right? Does excitement prove we are spiritually close to God and prove the Spirit is moving? Should we shout "Amen" and "Praise the Lord"? Can we trust the Bible to guide us in all service to God?

Choose to refrain and reverse course from the lusts and ambitions of the world is often an avoided attribute of the living faith. It is easy to become militant about spiritual disciplines like prayer, bible study, worship and church attendance, all spiritual functions whose purpose is personal benefit. Where conformity to a code of conduct and disciplines is a natural attenuation of the human ego, thus how legalism springs forth as works righteousness. It is elating to "feel good" about our position in Christ when our efforts align us to perform a list of religious duties. In truth, the Christian experience has little to do with finding ways to "feeling good," where none of the missionary journeys or documented lives of revered saints had any inclination to seek emotional gratification as an end. Getting on “fire” is always temporal and requires frequent maintenance. The elation of being “hyped” for Jesus will be lost in the valley of sorrow and pain, where faith either is found relevant or questioned as a religious metaphor.

While spiritual disciplines are very important, they can divert the heart from some real core issues. We cannot expect a measurable stride in the faith without deep soul purging repentance. And indeed, when we think we have fully been turned inside out, we have not actually begun. The deceit of the heart is desperately clinging, holding on for its very existence. Lust of the world can include wasting time with online games or television shows, when a person could be reaching out to hurting saints. Planning entertainment events in front of service to the needy in the inner city. Buying that new expensive gadget or some toy that we could live without, instead of supporting missions that all who name of Christ should be intimately involved. Placing family in front of service to the Lord (Luke 14:26-35), certainly a prominent idol among those of Western Christianity. List any pet sin, and ask why it still has dominion... overeating, eyes of adultery, envy of others, strife among family… name it. We are called to lay the axe to the root of everything that strangles our time and focus from the Kingdom of God, keeping in balance the duties of life. These details are often overlooked, because it is not pleasant and requires genuine sacrifice.

"If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth" 1 John 1:6.

If our Christian experience is only about drinking at the fountain of what meets our needs, which doesn't include giving ourselves completely away, daily to the purposes of God and for others, we will become poisonous to ourselves and others. As a body of water that does not flow out becomes poisonous, the modern Christian has a consumerist mentality. What is in it for me? I want it to make me feel good. Many indeed argue that we have “rights” to enjoy all the things of the world, and it is part of living. However we gave up all our personal rights to choose what we prefer when God points in another direction. We confessed to give ourselves away in death as a bond-servant when we accepted the blood of Christ, and the cost, we are to take up the yoke of submission which entails everything: time, money, family, passions… it all belongs to Christ. I am sure this post will cause the flesh to revolt... as the truth would

"And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing." 1 Cor, 13:3. Love entails patience with others, vulnerability, selflessness, complete and utter sacrifice, without these virtues, Scriptures say we are still blind (1 John 2:11), and cannot bear fruit. "For he in whom these things are not found is blind, because he does not see that he has forgotten the purification of his former sins." 2 Peter 1:9.