The Lord wants to give each of us a “heart of flesh” so that we will be pliable and responsive to Him. When touched by the finger of God, a tender heart yields to the pressure and assumes the form He desires, much like a lump of clay that allows the potter to determine the shape of the vessel.
To aid in this process, God has sent the Holy Spirit to indwell each believer and awaken responsiveness in him or her. By yielding to the Spirit’s promptings with ready obedience, the heart becomes increasingly tender and sensitive to His leading. The Lord is able to impart greater understanding of His Word to a soft heart because it has faithfully accepted and obeyed previous teachings.
Any resistance to God will result in hardening. But those who are accustomed to intimacy with Christ–which is the result of submission to Him–will be quick to deal with sin and return to the place of obedience and blessing.
People with tender hearts stay closely connected to the body of Christ, seeking to build up and encourage others in their walk of faith. Such individuals are not only receptive to what God wants to tell them; they are also teachable, in that they are willing to listen and be corrected by others.
This week when you read your Bible and pray, let your heart be soft toward the words of God. As He pokes His finger into each hard area, listen to His instructions, and rely on the Spirit’s power to help you yield and obey. Let Him shape you into a beautiful and useful vessel.
Listen to God’s purposed fruitfulness for you in John 15:16. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
Beloved one, your Father chose you and appointed you to bear the fruit of the nature of his Son within you. The more you abide in him, the more fruit you will bear. His Spirit is working in you his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Do not be discouraged when you feel that the fruit of your life is barrenness or ugliness. Jesus is the seed of God planted within you. He prunes, feeds, and nurtures you to your full potential of the beautiful fruit of the Spirit and all the full qualities of Jesus in you. You do not produce this fruit alone; he does. Rest in his nature and his power to live through you. He is the Fruit of the Spirit. Every good and perfect fruit is him living his life in you.
Receive this truth in 2 Peter 1:3-4. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
You already have within you everything you need to bear the fruit that remains. In him you can choose to step into those inner qualities commanded in 2 Peter 1:5-7. “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” All these are spirit qualities that the Spirit of Christ Jesus works in you with your obedience and active participation. And you have God’s promise that you are blessed if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, because they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:8).
Be blessed as you let your Vine dresser take you through the process to be fruitful. God is tender to give the right amount of sun and rain for the branch that you are. He must fertilize, tend the soil, and prune you for maximum fruitfulness. Be blessed with fruitfulness in his determined and appointed place and time for you. Be blessed in your unique identity, legitimacy, authority, anointing, and birthright in the Spirit of liberty, for with him there is full freedom and fruitfulness. “The fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). That’s the harvest of the nature of Jesus in you.
Paul poured out his heart for his friends in prayer in Philippians 1:11 that they would bear the fruit of their salvation. That’s what the fruit of the Spirit is. Hear him praying this for you. “[I pray that you will be] filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” He prays again in Colossians 1:10. “[I pray that you will] lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
Receive this promise in Psalm 92:12-15. “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The LORD is upright; he is my Rock”‘
Be blessed in the Lord, in whom you flourish and bear fruit. (Psalm 92:14).
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