Welcome to God Today, my name is Bobbi Kumari and I am the founder of Living In Light. I am so stoked to be able to share the word of God with you today! But before I do that, I would love to release a blessing over you, and declare steadfast patience, joyful endurance over you, as you trust God to fulfill every single word that He has spoken over your lives. I also want to declare breakthrough and favor and fruitfulness over each and every one of you.
It is actually fruitfulness today. I want to begin by going to Psalm 1, in the Passion Translation verses 1-3, which I absolutely love. It speaks about our capacity to bear fruit in every single season. So this is what it says, “What delight comes to the one who follows God’s ways. He won’t walk a step with the wicked, nor the sinners’ way, nor be found sitting in the scorned seat. His pleasure and passion are remaining true to the word of I Am. Meditating day and night in the true revelation of light. He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God’s design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of His life. He is never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.”
What an encouraging passage! Wow! It is the kind of passage that you really want to meditate on. Especially in those seasons where it doesn’t feel fruitful and feels quite barren. But what I want to remind us of today, whatever it might feel like, whether it feels fruitful, or whether it feels barren, the Bible tells us that God, our vinedresser, chose us to bear rich and excellent fruit that abides eternally as we abide in the vine which is Jesus. And so, I actually love John 15, where Jesus uses this analogy of a vineyard to help us understand the process and the stages that are involved in growth before we even see the fruit manifest in our lives.
And actually, those different stages, involve leaves sprouting that actually don’t bear fruit. They involve the branches and the leaves needing to be cleaned and washed and lifted up and repositioned. They include dormant, seemingly barren seasons where there is nothing happening on the outside, but under the ground, where you can’t see anything, the roots are going so deep. They include stages where the actual character, the aroma of the fruit, of the grapes is being cultivated. They include stages and seasons of deep pruning.
And so it is with us. Before the fruit often even begins to show in our lives, we have to go through all those different stages. We have to yield to those stages. And just like in the Word, we have seasons where God is pruning us, God is training us, He is correcting us, He is repositioning us. There are times where seemingly nothing is happening on the outside, but God is working on our roots, on our capacity to actually abide in Christ. He is working on the sweet, sweet aroma of Jesus and His character being cultivated in us.
And, actually, the wonderful thing about this cycle of great production is just before the harvest, the whole vine tree needs to be stripped back. It needs to be pruned so much. And actually, the vine tree ends up looking so barren, and so empty, it looks like there is no life in it. And it looks like there is no fruit. But actually, that vine tree is on the cusp of blossoming and stepping into harvest. And so it is with us. When we, sometimes, feel at our most barren, like we have been abiding, and we have been faithful, and we have been yielding to the process, but it seems like there is no life, and it seems like there is no fruit…be encouraged! Because it is then that we are on the cusp of harvest.
I actually want to read a scripture from Habakkuk 3:17-19, which actually speaks about this in such a beautiful way. It says, “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and there is no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive fails, and the fields produce no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there are no cattle in the stores, yet I will choose to rejoice in the Lord. I will choose to shout in exaltation in the victorious God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, my source of courage, my invincible army. He has made my feet steady and sure, like hinds feet. And makes me walk forward with spiritual confidence on my high places of challenge and responsibility.”
So, be encouraged. Even though it might look like the fig tree isn’t blossoming, and that there is no fruit on the vines, we are making spiritual progress. And actually, we are on the cusp of harvest. So, we have every reason to rejoice and trust the vinedresser. As we abide in the vine.
Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you are the most trustworthy, loving vinedresser. And that you are invested in cultivating rich and excellent fruit in us. And thank you, Jesus, that we get to abide in you and cultivate intimacy. And we can trust that as we abide, we will surely bear fruit. And so, Lord Jesus, I just release, right now, such a fresh place of expectation and rejoicing over each and every one of us, as we bear fruit in every season of our lives. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Be so blessed, God Today family.