Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit? Maybe you experienced a strong conviction in a moment of decision or heard a song that sent chills down your arms. While the Holy Spirit certainly helps us to feel certain things, He is much more than something to be felt; He is someone to be followed.
How do we know we’re following Him? Jesus says the sign is that we’re bearing fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…”
John 15:1-17 shows us that bearing this fruit requires three things: a pre-requisite, a process, and a point.
In verses 1-8, we see that the pre-requisite is remaining with Jesus. Verse 4 says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”
Here’s how I like to think of that word remain. When you love someone, you act like you’re with them, even when you’re not. You think of them often, even calling them often to check in. You consider whether the choices you’re making would make them happy.
That’s how we’re to be with Jesus. We can’t just act like we’re His when we’re in church; we’ve got to act like His all the time, constantly asking ourselves, Would this make Jesus happy? That’s remaining.
The process of bearing fruit is letting God cut and clean us with His word. In John 15:1-2, Jesus says, “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more…”
In God’s garden, there are two options: you get cut off for not bearing fruit, or you get cut back to bear more fruit. Getting “cut back” usually looks like being convicted by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we think feeling convicted is a sign that God has distanced himself from us because of our mistakes, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Just as a gardener doesn’t prune a plant from a distance, God doesn’t prune us from a distance. He’s always right beside us, lovingly cutting us back—graciously convicting us—so that we can adjust to bear more fruit.
Finally, the whole point of walking with the Holy Spirit closely and bearing fruit as a result is this: loving others well. John 15:16-17 says, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit… This is my command: Love each other.”
Friends, when our lives on earth are done, the love we’ve shown others is all that will remain. So let’s walk closely with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to help us bear lasting fruit in every season!
