Focus: Fruit of Faith

Text: Hos.14:8

"Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From ME is thy fruit found."

The Christian life is impossible in this world without the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Who can live like God on earth without God in him? 

The Christian life requires that our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees who were known to be very meticulous in their practice of the Jewish religion. In fact, they were known as separatists who were extremely addicted to their faith. So the believer in Christ needs divine enabling to effectively and successfully represent Christ in the world.

God has given the believer in Christ His Spirit to live in him and be with him. He is filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, enabled by the Spirit, governed and influenced by the Spirit. With the Holy Spirit in the believer, the impossible becomes possible. Through Christ the believer can do and bear all things.

The fruitfulness of the believer is due to his connectedness to Christ. Christ is the tree; the believer is the branch. The branch bears fruit by abiding in the tree, according to the teaching of Christ in John 15. A branch dies if cut off from the tree, but as long as it remains connected to the tree, the branch will always bear fruit.

Ephraim has come to the place in his life where he is sick and tired with idols and fake gods - things that his own mind concocted and his own hands fabricated. He now realizes that nothing in this life can displace or replace God. He has come to the place of repentance. The truth is beginning to dawn on him, and he is giving up on the idols of the heart and mind. He is clinging again to his God and embracing his love.

God is now pleased with Ephraim, seeing the state of his heart as being repentant. God now says, "I have heard him; and I have seen him as a flourishing fir tree. From ME is thy fruit found." Ephraim has been chasing shadows, but now he is done with foolishness. He quits worshipping idols - the works of his own hands. See how the Message Bible captures it. It says, "Ephraim is finished with gods that are no-gods. From now on I'm the one who answers and satisfies him. I am like a luxuriant fruit tree. Everything you need is to be found in me." God speaks boldly and loudly. He is everything Ephraim needs and will ever need. The time of rigmaroling is over for Ephraim. He's back to his roots. God is home to Ephraim, and to every believer in Christ. The psalmist declares, "All my springs are in thee" (Ps.87:7). Jesus Christ declares, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jh.4:14).

Apart from Christ, the Christian can do nothing. He cannot bear fruit without the Lord Jesus Christ.

The psalmist says, "But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever" (Ps.52:8). O His grace and His mercy! How we depend on the grace and mercy of our God! All the gods that our minds can imagine or our hands can make, all of them put together cannot take the place of our God. Our many gods never satisfy; only the one true God can quench our spiritual thirst and satisfy our longing. We can have all the gods in the world and still be missing God. Man-made gods are not God.

The believer bears fruit by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Like the moon, the believer has no light of his own. He only beams and reflects the light of the Sun of righteousness.

Let me reiterate that the Father is the vine dresser, Christ is the vine, and the believer is the branch. The branch cannot bear fruit on its own; it has to be connected to the vine itself. The psalmist says, "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper" (Ps.1:3). He says, "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing" (Ps.92:14).

If there is a cut off of the branch from the tree, then the branch will lose its life and the ability to bear fruit. Prophet Haggai reprimanded the people, and said to them, "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit" (Hag.1:10). 

We can't live holy without the Holy One living in us. We cannot produce the fruit of faith without the Christ of our faith taking His rightful position in our lives. We cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit without Him living in us and empowering us. Self-effort is not enough. We need the experience of, 'It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.' Our fruit of faith comes from Christ. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter