The first word God said to the man He has created in His own
image is, “Be fruitful.”
The
Scripture states: “So God created man in His own
image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the
earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of
the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen. 1:27-28
NKJV).
This
clearly reveals that above all things God delights in your fruitfulness.
Barrenness is not from God. God does not want you to be barren, but to be
fruitful. Your barrenness in any form or sphere of your life does not glorify
God.
It
is your fruitfulness that glorifies God. Jesus pointed this out to His
disciples, saying, “By this My Father is
glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (John 15:8
NKJV).
A
call to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is essentially a call to bear much fruit,
thereby glorifying God. As a born-again believer, it is your primary calling,
purpose, or responsibility to be fruitful in life.
Jesus
said, “You did not choose Me, but I
chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your
fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give
you.” (John 15:16 NKJV).
You
are chosen by God in Christ to bear Christlike fruit!
Naturally,
a tree is known, identified or distinguished by its fruit. The Scripture
states: “For every tree is known by its
own fruit…” (Luke 6:44 NKJV).
The
fruit is the exact representation of a tree; it contains all that is in a tree.
Similarly, the fruit the believers are called and chosen to bear in Christ must
be Christlike. Your fruit must clearly reveal Christ’s true nature and
character.
Being
fruitful in Christ is simply reflecting or manifesting Christ. It is receiving,
drawing, or appropriating grace upon grace from the fullness of Christ and
manifesting the same increasingly and consistently.
The
Scripture states: “And of His fullness we have all
received, and grace for grace.” (John 1:16 NKJV).
It
is absolutely impossible for anyone to bear Christlike fruit without abiding in
Christ, receiving, drawing, and appropriating grace upon grace from Christ.
Jesus
clearly said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, 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, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do
nothing.” (John 15:4-5 NKJV).
Many
believers today are barren, not bearing Christlike fruit, simply because they
are not constantly receiving, drawing, and appropriating grace upon grace from
the fullness of Christ. Just as no branch is expected to bear fruit on its own,
God does not expect or command the believers to strive, struggle, or labour to
bear fruit on their own.
Just
as the branches in a tree don’t struggle to bear the fruit of the tree, the
believers in Christ must not struggle to bear Christlike fruit. You are expected
to bear fruit in Christ supernaturally!
Jesus
said, “I am the vine, you are the
branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me
you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5 NKJV).
The
believers who continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ will bear much fruit effortlessly, without any striving,
straining, sweating, or struggling. It is simply an exercise in failure,
futility and frustration for any believer to attempt to bear Christlike fruit
from his own resources and not Christ’s.
Jesus
clearly pointed this out, saying, “…Without Me you can do
nothing.” (John 15:4-5 NKJV).
Without
you daily, regularly, constantly or continually drawing grace from Christ and
depending on the grace of Christ, you cannot bear Christlike fruit.
Jesus
warns: “If anyone does not abide in
Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw
them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:6 NKJV).
Beloved,
the moment you stop receiving, drawing, and appropriating grace upon grace from
the fullness of Jesus Christ, you will begin to wither, shrink, shrivel or dry
up. Therefore, from today, quit striving, straining, sweating, or struggling to
bear Christlike fruit in your own strength.
Drawing
from your own resources and depending on your own abilities will only result in
fleshly fruit and not Christlike fruit.
God
said, “…Your fruit is found in Me.”
(Hos. 14:8 NKJV).
This
simply means that all that you need to constantly, consistently, and abundantly
bear fruit is in Christ, who is the brightness of God’s image and the express
image of His person, and who was sent by God to reveal, manifest, declare,
dispense or distribute God’s grace to all men (Heb. 1:3, John 1:17-18).
Therefore,
arise today and begin to constantly receive, draw and appropriate grace upon
grace from the fullness of Jesus Christ by constantly beholding the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ in the mirror of God’s Word and meditating on the gospel
of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will undoubtedly without any stress
or strain be transformed into Christ’s likeness from glory to glory by the
Spirit of God.
The
Scripture states: “But we all, with unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into
the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor.
3:18 NKJV).
You
cannot be constantly beholding the glory of Jesus in the mirror of God’s Word
and not end up becoming increasingly like Jesus in your mind, emotions and
actions. You cannot be constantly enjoying intimacy with Jesus and not end up
manifesting Christlike fruit.
The
Scripture states: “Beloved, now we are children
of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that
when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1
John 3:2 NKJV).
Friend,
it is your calling, purpose and destiny to bear Christlike fruit and God has
graciously supplied to you in Christ all that it takes to bear much Christlike
fruit.
The
Scripture testifies that: “His divine power has granted
to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of
him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” (2 Pet. 1:3 RSV).
Heavenly
Father has charged and blessed us to be fruitful, to multiply, and to subdue
the earth that we might become like Him.
Thank you, Tabernacle
Choir, for that sweet tribute to the Savior of the world.
In the day that God
the Father called upon His Only Begotten Son to make man in Their image and
likeness, He blessed His children, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion … over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth.”1 Thus, our mortal
journey began with both a divine charge and a blessing. A loving Father gave us
the charge and the blessing to be fruitful and to multiply and to have dominion
so that we can develop and become even as He is.
Brothers and sisters,
this afternoon I invite your faith and prayers as I share some thoughts with
you about three fundamental attributes of our divine nature. My prayer is that
we might all more fully recognize and fulfill our sacred responsibility—our
Father’s charge—to develop our divine nature so that we may navigate our
journey more successfully and obtain our divine destiny.
First, God Charged Us to Be Fruitful
An important part of
being fruitful that is sometimes overlooked is that of bringing forth the
kingdom of God upon the earth. The Savior taught:
“I am the vine, ye are
the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. …
“If ye abide in me,
and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto
you.
“Herein is my Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”2
We become fruitful as
we abide in Christ and as we “take upon [ourselves His] name [and] … serve him
to the end”3 by helping
others come unto Him.
In our day, living
prophets and apostles continue to lift their voices to invite each one of us to
become fully engaged in the work of salvation according to our abilities and
opportunities.
The starting point of
a response that yields much fruit is to “be meek and lowly in heart.”4 We can then more
fully come unto Christ as we yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and keep
all the covenants we have made.5 We can seek and
receive the gift of charity and have power to invite our own families, our
ancestors, and our member and nonmember neighbors and friends to receive the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Laboring in the spirit
of charity is not a duty but a joy. Challenges become opportunities to build
faith. We become “witnesses of [the goodness of] God at all times and in all
things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death.”6
All of us can and
should become fully engaged in the work of salvation. The Savior has given us
the following responsibility with a promise: “I have chosen you, and ordained
you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should
remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it
you.”7
Second, God Charged Us to Multiply
Our physical bodies
are a blessing from God. We received them for the purposes of fulfilling
Heavenly Father’s work “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of
man.”8 The body is the
means by which we can attain our divine potential.
The body enables
Heavenly Father’s obedient spirit children to experience life on earth.9 Bearing children
gives other spirit children of God the opportunity to also enjoy life on earth.
All who are born in mortality have the opportunity to progress and to be
exalted if they obey God’s commandments.
Marriage between a man
and a woman is the institution that God ordained for the fulfillment of the
charge to multiply. A same-gender relationship does not multiply.
A legal and lawful
marriage sealed in the temple and in which the sealing covenants are honored
gives parents and their children the opportunity for the best experience of
love and preparation for a fruitful life. It offers them the ideal environment
in which they can live their covenants made with God.
Because of His love
for us, Heavenly Father has provided that all His faithful children who do not
or are not able to enjoy the blessings of a covenant marriage and children or a
fulness of those blessings for reasons not of their making will, in the Lord’s
appointed time, enjoy these blessings.10
Living prophets and
apostles have counseled all who have the opportunity to enter into the covenant
of eternal marriage to proceed in wisdom and faith. We should not put off the
time of that sacred day because of worldly pursuits or hold our expectations of
a suitable companion at a level that disqualifies every possible candidate.
The promise to all who
are sealed in the covenant of eternal marriage and who are fruitful through
keeping their covenants is that the adversary will never have power to
undermine the foundation of their eternal companionship.
Third, God Charged Us to Subdue the Earth
To subdue the earth
and have dominion over every living thing is to control these things so they
fulfill the will of God11 as they serve
the purposes of His children. Subduing includes gaining mastery over our own
bodies.12 It does not include
being helpless victims of these things or using them contrary to the will of
God.13
Developing the ability
to subdue the things of the earth begins with humility to recognize our human
weakness and the power available to us through Christ and His Atonement. For
“Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever
thing is expedient in me.”14 This power
becomes available to us as we choose to act in obedience to His commandments.
We increase our ability by seeking the gifts of the Spirit and by developing
our talents.
I was born and raised
in humble circumstances typical to many families in Africa. I gained the
ability to lift myself from those circumstances by seeking and obtaining, with
the caring help of my parents, a good education. Developing a vision of what I
could become was essential to my progress. Later, as a young couple, my wife,
Gladys, and I found the restored gospel, which continues to bless our lives
with spiritual direction. Like every family, we have our trials and challenges.
But as we look to the Lord for help, we have found answers that bring peace and
comfort, and we do not feel overwhelmed by these things.
The challenges facing
human society today, including immorality, pornography, armed conflict,
pollution, substance abuse, and poverty, flourish because many in the world
have turned themselves over by choice “to the will of the devil and the flesh”15 rather than to
the will of God. “They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but
every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose
image is in the likeness of the world.”16
However, God
invites all His children to obtain His help to overcome and
endure the challenges of this life with these words:
“I am God; I made the
world, and men before they were in the flesh.
“… If thou wilt
turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy
transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only
Begotten Son, … ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things
in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you.”17
Faithful Latter-day
Saints who understand their divine potential and rely wholeheartedly on the
power available through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ are strengthened
in their natural weakness and “can do all things.”18 They are
enabled to overcome the enticings of evil that have put many under bondage to
the adversary. Paul taught that:
“God is faithful,
[and] will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with
the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”19
“For in that he
himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are
tempted.”20
Heavenly Father has
charged and blessed us to be fruitful, to multiply, and to subdue the earth
that we might become like Him. He has made help available that we may each,
according to our individual choosing, actually grow to become like Him. I pray
that we might all live our lives such that we will be guided by the vision of
our divine nature, claim all our divine privileges, and fulfill our divine
destiny.
I testify of the
living reality of God the Father and of His Beloved Son, our Savior Jesus
Christ; of His glorious plan of happiness; and of the keys He has caused to be
bestowed upon a living prophet on earth today, even Thomas S. Monson, whom
we love and sustain. I pray that we may have power to enjoy the fulness of His
blessings in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1. Moses 2:28; see also Moses 2:26–27; Genesis 1:26–28.
2. John 15:5, 7–8.
4. Moroni 7:44.
5. See Mosiah 3:19.
6. Mosiah 18:9.
7. John 15:16.
8. Moses 1:39.
9. See Moses 5:10–11.
10. See Handbook 2: Administering the
Church (2010), 1.3.3; Ezra Taft Benson, “To the Single Adult Sisters
of the Church,” Ensign, Nov. 1988, 96–97.
11. See Jacob 2:18–19.
13. See Jacob 2:12–16, 20–21.
14. Moroni 7:33.
15. 2 Nephi 10:24.
17. Moses 6:51–52.
18. Alma 26:12.
19. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
BE FRULTFUL
Reviewed by daniel oluwadamilola obaife
on
January 18, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by daniel oluwadamilola obaife
on
January 18, 2018
Rating:
Posts
No comments: