"The Fruit - Bearing
Christian"
" Ye have not chosen
me, but 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." John
15:16
According to the statistics, most soul winners burn out
within three to five
years. They meet up with obstacles and
problems they do not understand and
cannot seem to overcome,
so they despair.
I believe this passage contains one of the most encouraging
truths in all the Bible concerning soul-winning. I have taught
this principle in hundreds of churches, and people have
said,
" I have never
understood that before."
" I
would have quit soul-winning if I had not learned
that the difficulties I encounter in soul-winning, if I had not
learned are normal."
" Now I can see hope of
becoming a productive soul winner."
I am going to stay at it."In verses one through eight
and verse sixteen of John fifteen, there are five levels of fruit
bearing mentioned- no
fruit, fruit, more fruit, much fruit, and fruit that
remains.
The devil uses our ignorance of these levels or plateaus in
soul winning to
discourage us. The reason for it is what we do
not realize there are several
natural, normal, Scriptural
plateaus that every soul winner must encounter and
overcome.
There is a wonderful truth in verse 16 that will be a great
encouragement to
every soul winner who sees it and claims it,
God has ordained three things for
every believer's life:
#1 That we should GO.
#2 That
we should bring forth fruit.
#3 That our fruit should
remain.
We are to be fruit-bearing Christians who
will produce other fruit- bearing
Christians.
Dr. Dennis Corel