All believers are called to bear remaining fruit for God and His kingdom. We are called to make a difference on this earth, that echoes in eternity.

”You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…” (Jn. 15:16)

God wants us to bear fruit for Him both on a personal level and due to that we are part of a greater context than ourselves – through the fact that we are members of the body of Christ on earth (see 1 Cor. 12:7-27).

But how can we bear fruit for God? When Jesus spoke about this subject in John chapter 15, He did not focus on methods or strategies, but on the believer’s heart. It is not the procedures that are important, but our personal relationship with God and His word.

⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. ⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (Jn. 15:4-5)

The key to bearing fruit, according to Jesus, is to remain in Him. The one that remains in Jesus and His word bears MUCH FRUIT.

Bearing fruit for God is thus very simple – we just need to remain in Jesus and His work and tend to our relationship with Him. At the same time, it is completely impossible for us to bear fruit for God in ourselves. “Without Me you can do nothing”, Jesus said. It is a matter of our heart.

“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” (Prov. 4:23)

Branches do not need to strain themselves to bear fruit. If the branches are connected to the tree, and if the tree is healthy, the branches bear fruit automatically. It is the same when it comes to our relationship with God. When we are closely anchored to Jesus, His life in us will produce fruit. It is then not we who achieve the growth or the results, but Christ in us, and all the glory goes to Him (see 1 Cor. 3:6-7).

The fact that we cannot do anything without Jesus, means that we are totally dependent on the Holy Spirit. A prerequisite to a fruit bearing life is to let the Holy Spirit lead out lives, since it is God – through the Holy Spirit – who works in our will and in our deeds for His good pleasure (see Phil. 2:13).

Every believer can be led by the Holy Spirit, especially those who have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues (see Jn. 7:38-39). All believers have the capacity to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice (see Jn. 10:27). If we experience God as silent, the problem is not that God does not speak, because He always does. The question is, do we listen? To hear God’s voice we need to connect ourselves to His “frequency”, in the same way we must find the right radio frequency to be able to listen to a certain radio channel. If we do not find the right radio frequency, that does not mean that the radio channel does not exist. In the same way, if we have not connected to “God’s frequency”, that does not mean that God does not speak. We are the problem – not God – if we have difficulty hearing His voice.

In today’s society, where everyone are constantly connected to the internet and receive information via news medias and social medias etc., there is a great need for us to shut down all noises and various information sources, in order to hear God’s voice. We need to “be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). God speaks to us through a still small voice in our hearts. To be able to hear this voice, we sometimes need to put away our cell phones and computers and be quiet.

If we live a lifestyle of listening to the Holy Spirit, He will lead us into situations where we can be of rich blessing to God and other people. God will then open doors for us that no methods or “Christian activities” in the whole world ever could accomplish.

What has been stated above is relatively uncontroversial. However, there is also another aspect having to do with how we can bear fruit for God, that almost never has been taught or preached in Christian circles. Let us look at the following verse from the book of Romans:

”Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (Rom. 7:4)

Paul in this context explains how the believer has died from the old covenant marriage to the law, so that we in the new covenant instead can be “married to another” – Christ. To be “dead to the law” is a prerequisite for us to be able to “bear fruit to God”.

The believers’ death from the law is already an accomplished fact through the death and resurrection of Jesus. However, since most of the Christians in the world have never understood the difference between the old and the new covenant, and therefore mix law with grace, the Christian’s death from the law is not an experienced reality in our lives. Our spiritual adultery, by mixing law with grace, leads to that we cannot produce fruit for God in the same way as would have been the case had we been faithful in our “marriage to Christ”.

Legalistic Christians cannot bear much fruit for God. They may see all kinds of temporary results, but this so-called “success” will weigh light from an eternal perspective. Only the believer who lives in the freedom from the law of Moses, those who live in the reality of God’s grace as revealed in the new covenant, can bear lasting fruit for God.

Are your spiritual results small? Is the fruit from your life not what you had hoped for? If so, ask yourself these questions: Are you living in the reality of the new covenant? Do you mix law with grace, or do you live and preach only the unadulterated gospel of grace?

By remaining in Jesus, we bear much fruit. This is synonymous with living in, and preaching, the reality the gospel of grace and the new covenant, since legalistic Christianity is spiritual adultery against Christ.