Will You Continue to Abide When You Have Not Yet Tasted the Fruit?

Will You Continue to Abide When You Have Not Yet Tasted the Fruit?

"I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

God lives and walks among us—in and through us. We are His hands and feet. It's a partnership..... a relationship. Relationship with us has always been part of God's design, from Adam to Moses leading Israel, to the apostles. God does not need us, but He desires us.

God works in us to fulfill His good purpose. He provides the power, the grace, and the direction. He lights our path, opens doors no one else can open, and equips us for what He has called us to do. Our responsibility is to surrender, trust, and abide. God works through those who make themselves available to Him.

Let me ask you a question.

Will you continue to abide when you have not yet tasted the fruit?

Let's think about a tomato plant for a moment.

I remember when I was a little girl, Dad would always go out and pull off the leaves that were no good. He would remove the weeds so they wouldn't steal nourishment from his plants.

Then, when the plants began to grow, he would tie them up and give them extra support in anticipation of the tomatoes that were coming.

There is so much spiritual truth in a tomato plant!!

Let's begin with the roots. Let's call this our rooting season.

What do roots do for a plant?

They anchor it. They are essential. They draw water and nutrients that sustain visible life. It's the quiet work being done that can't be seen by the eye.

Much like our relationship with God.

It is what we do in our private time, the time we spend in His Word, praying, listening, and talking with Him. Relationship is what builds our roots. Our roots are our responsibility. It's our responsibility to keep our roots healthy. Deep healthy roots produce stability and sustainability.

Next....

The Season of Strengthening

Then our stems begin to develop.

This is our season of strengthening.

There are times during this season when we may begin to feel weak. But the beautiful part about this season is that when we are weak, He is strong.

This is when God comes alongside us and tenderly ties us up, just as my dad lovingly tied up his tomato plants, giving them extra support. We too are called to remain—not strain—but remain in Him.

This is an instruction …. To Remain.

He didn't say strive to be more or do more. He said remain.

Our part is not to manufacture the fruit. Our part is to stay close, allowing the Father to tend our tomato plants while the Son supplies the life. Through the Holy Spirit, the very life of Christ flows through us. Every leaf, every blossom, and every piece of fruit is possible only because His life continually flows through us. Apart from Him, we don't simply struggle to bear fruit—apart from Him, we can do nothing.

Then.....

The Pruning Season

Now let's talk about the pruning season. Jesus says He cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit. That is exactly what Jesus teaches in John 15. Fruit is the result of abiding, not the requirement to earn God's love.

 Pruning is purposeful. The cutting back is preparation. Pruning is not about making us belong because we have already been adopted into sonship. It is about shaping what is already alive.

It is the removal of whatever is draining life from us—distractions, unhealthy habits, and anything that displaces Jesus from the center of our lives.

 Trimming is not to become alive - trimming is so we thieve!!

After that.....

Comes the budding, or blooming, season.

Personally, I think this can be the most challenging season of them all.

This is the season where there are signs of growth. New leaves begin to appear. You can see that God is moving. Life is developing.

But...

There is still no fruit.

You aren't yet seeing the full outcome of what God has placed in your spirit or what you've been praying for.

This is the season where we have to remind ourselves that God will trust us with little before He trusts us with much.

This is also the season where it is easy to become discouraged because we want to judge the health of the plant by the absence of its fruit, when our focus should really be on the health of the roots. It is not our job to produce the fruit. The fruit will always come when it is time for harvest.

It is so easy to become complacent during this season. Our flesh wants to stop abiding before we ever get to experience the harvest God is preparing. I feel that many Christians fall away during this season. I have to keep myself in check during this season too. When frustration or impatience begins to creep in, I remind myself of what God placed in my spirit. Then I remind myself that He is incapable of lying.

So I hold firm.

I don't want to interrupt the process by failing to trust Him or by becoming impatient.

Galatians reminds us:

"Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

That brings us to our final season.

The season of ripening. The fruit season. This is the season where everything becomes tangible.

We begin to see it. We touch it. We experience it.

Ironically, this is also the season where we must be the most intentional about nourishing our roots. Because stability and sustainability have always been found beneath the surface. We can’t get caught up in the whirlwind. We must Abide in Him.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Even in our fruit season, we must stay planted. Because if our roots become shallow once the fruit arrives, the winds will eventually come, and what looked strong on the outside will not have the depth to endure.

So today, the question isn't whether God is able to produce fruit in your life.

 He is.

The question is this:

Will you continue to abide when you haven't yet tasted the fruit?

Will you trust Him in the rooting season?

Will you remain in the strengthening season?

Will you surrender in the pruning season?

Will you stay faithful in the blooming season?

Because if you do...

Harvest is not something you have to force. It is something God faithfully brings in its proper season.

Stay rooted…….Stay surrendered…….Stay abiding.

Your fruit is coming.

~Natasha~