In order to know how to flourish on the earth and in the kingdom, it is very necessary that we rediscover fruitfulness and it is also important to know how you came into being, because until you know who you are, how you came into being and from whom you came, fruitfulness won’t be your experience even though it is a possibility in God. As you read this piece, there are two factors I would be discussing; it will serve as a pointer to what fruitfulness entails and how it can become an experience in the life of the believer. 

I would love to begin my observation from John 1:10-13. The Bible says; “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ¹²But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” I am sure you are wondering why this article is beginning with this Scripture or perhaps asking what it has to do with fruitfulness? I would like you to note what verse 12 says; and begin our observation from there; It says as many as received Him, He gave right to become children of God. This is the prerequisite or condition for fruitfulness. If you haven’t received or believed in Christ, the access to be become fruitful will be denied. What believing and receiving does for you is to make you become a child of God.

I am sure would be asking is becoming a child of God a great deal? Must I become a child of God to be fruitful? The answer is yes! Loot at verse 13 closely; it says who were not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man. This is the summary of a life that is fruitful. The beginning of fruitfulness in the kingdom is traced to how you were born and who you are sourced from. This concept simply explained what Jesus said about the fact that He is the fine and we are the branches. The source of the branch is the vine, and the branch needs the vine to be fruitful.

In Genesis 2:26, The Bible says; “Then God said let us make man in our image and according to our likeness.” This was the intention of God prior to the existence of man. Then verse 27 says “So God created man in His own image.” Just as He had intended it to be. Then verse 28 opened us up to something very fundamental, it says; “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” This pronouncement was made to the man concerning the seed that had been sown into the man. So, according to verse 27, God created the man just as He has spoken in verse 26.  Then in verse 28 after God created the man, God blessed him by giving him seed, which was written in verse 29a. But the created man which is the spirit man or the man in God does not sow because the created man was still in God.

This means that even though the seed was a spiritual seed, the reality was to be physical. Remember we are talking about fruitfulness. But let me digress a little; because the reason for the digression is relevant for our understanding. There is something I want you to note in verse 27, the Bible says; “So, God created man in His ‘own’ image.” I want us to note that word “His own.” This means that every other thing was not created in His ‘own’ image even though they are products of the word. For the first time God referred to man as ‘His own’, the reason is because man was sourced from God. When you read the accounts of creation, God spoke to the earth, the sea, and to the ground to bring forth and they did. Another word for bring forth is to birth. Now, it becomes clearer, this is the reason for that Scripture we read at the beginning, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So, a fruitful man is man that must first be born of God.

So, when God made a statement in Genesis 1:26, let us make man, that making process was going to become a reality by the function of birth. So, man was a spiritual being carrying in His DNA the characteristics of God. Because he was birthed by God. So, John chapter 1 verse 11 says “He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.” I am inspired to say His own did not recognize Him. I just referred to this verse of the Scripture to show us that man was highly priced and occupies a space in the heart of God.

So, I want you to know that as long as you are a man you are His own. The understanding of this gives you a sense of identity and source. So, when the Bible says for God so loved the world, it was not the fish and the birds; God loved His own; the human race. Its specific, it was talking about man. So, in the natural order of things man is Gods own.

The basic text continues here. It says; But as many as received Him, to them He gave the [e]right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Verse 12 lays it bare for us, it is difficult to receive who you do not recognize, but if you can recognize and receive and believe in His name it says such a person is not born of blood or of the flesh, but such a man is born of God. But what does it mean to be born of God? It is to receive His Son, it is His Son that qualifies you as His own and that qualification gives you the power to become fruitful. There is a power that commands fruitfulness and that power dwells within every man that believes and receives the Son. The reason is because you simply cease to function as a man of the flesh or as a man born and taught by the flesh but a man who has come to an order that functions according to the power of an endless life. The Bible says He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.

Same concept Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus when He expressly answered Him in John 3:5, He said; “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” If you are born of the Spirit, you are a spirit, if your Father is the Father of spirits it means you are spiritual, you have no business with the flesh. God cannot give birth to the flesh His dealings are always spiritual and His sons are spiritual sons. This is the reason why those who are born of God live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. This is how fruitfulness is experienced. It is sourced by you when you are sourced in God.

For a man to be seen as a man God needed to create a balance. As much as He is a Spiritual man, remember we said the created man, the spiritual man was the man that was given seeds. So, the man needed to be formed and fashioned out of an earthen material in order to be able to relate with the earth, in order to be fruitful, to multiply and to fill the earth. These three realities are only possible on the earth not in heaven. Again the Scripture says in John 1:14, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. 1 John 5:6 says “This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.”  His manner of coming was by water and blood and by the witness of the Spirit. This process Genesis 2:7 explained it as; “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The breath of life which we could also say the Spirit of God.

So, haven being born of the Spirit which is the man’s core identity, the spirit was put in the body of the man via the breath of the almighty. That’s why the Scripture says there is a Spirit in man and the breath of the almighty gives him understanding. This is how fruitfulness begins. There is a nature you must have, there is a Spirit that must will and do according to Gods pleasure from within you. Let me explain this with an analogy. When a balloon is small, it is because it has not been inflated. Would you at that point determine the size, capacity or the largeness of the balloon? The answer is no! But when you fill it with air the beauty, shape, size and the activeness of the balloon is seen and appreciated. So it was with man, the earthen vessel was lifeless like the balloon until the air, the breath of God inflated it. And as a result man became beautiful, his shape, and size and functionality became visible and could be measured and appreciated.

So, haven been formed and filled with the Spirit of God, the Bible says God placed Him in a location. It is called the east of Eden. The Bible says in verse 8; The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. I want you note something from this Scripture; the man was in Eden but his location was eastward of Eden because that was where the Lord God planted the garden and put the man. You could be in your Eden but if you are not located eastward where God planted the garden, you will not experience fruitfulness.

Eden could also be another great geographic location, but as long as man was not put in the eastern part of Eden, his fruitfulness would not have been a reality. How did I know that? Verse 10 made it clearer to me; It says; Now a river went out of Eden. I want you to note that; why did God not plant the man in Eden? Where was this Eden? Why does the water have to flow from Eden to Eden? The Bible says; to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. This explains the Scripture that likened a man to being planted by the rivers of waters. The source of man is God, and there must be a link between God and man for fruitfulness to be sustained.

This means that the resources of God flows towards a particular direction for every man on the earth, it is your location that determines its availability. He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. If you are found in the secret place, what you require for fruifulness will be lacking. Imagine a scenario where the river is directed towards the eastern part of Eden but the man is at the south of Eden. Would he be fruitful?  The point I am trying to make is this; fruitfulness is location sensitive, and it is tied to what you do and don’t do, it is tied to responsibility. Verse 15 says the man was put in the garden to tend and to keep the garden. So, as long as the man was tending and keeping the garden the river flows towards that direction and nourishes, replenishes, and grow what the man is tending.  The river didn’t go to the other cardinal points of the garden but to a specific direction east wards. If your location, posture and connectivity is not correct, fruitfulness is unattainable.

 

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Apeh Francis Abah!

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