times. They abided in the Lord and in His Word, because the word is the power of God unto salvation. The Lord wrote His Book and called it His name He said, and the Word is God and God is omnipotent. The Word carries the omnipotent power of God when man is faithful to Him. Satan and all his forces bowed down to the Word and every high place in the heart of men bow down to the authority of the Word. The Word is power, the Word is faith. The more the Word dwells in us actively, the more active your faith in God becomes. For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Roman 10:17). We must love to glue to Him as branches in order to bring forth many fruit unto Him. And as we dwell or abide in Him constantly, He will anoint our eyes with eyesalve to be able to see clearly and receive great revelation and power from Him to prayer effectively. Most of our challenges will quickly solve. He will cover us with His garment of salvation and give us true and enduring treasure. But if we don’t abide in Him, we will not bear good fruit unto Him and if there is any fruit they will not be genuine. They would be bunch of hypocrites. It has happened before that the LORD says,
The priests said not, where is the Lord? And they that handle the law knew me not, the pastors also transgressed against me and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walk after things that do not profit (Jeremiah 2:8)
What was the result they brought to the LORD i.e. the fruit of that vine then, hear what the LORD says as par their fruit.
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed, how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me (Jeremiah 2:21)
When the apostles truly abide in the Lord, they brought forth good fruit unto the Lord. Apostle Paul was a man of great study and he prayed night and day for his converts to remain worthy of the Lord and that Christ may be formed in them and grow in knowledge and spiritual understanding. A good and faithful minister can’t do less than that. If any minister doesn’t abide in Him, he will be cast forth as a branch into the fire and are burnt. Let us set the Lord God on the table of our heart and seek for His will in His Word and in personal communion with the Holy Spirit so that we will yield endurable fruit unto God.
Seven
Divine Assessment
Several years after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, He examined the life and the works of the seven churches in Asian minor, but it was very painful that only the church in Smyrna and Philadelphia passed excellently while the rest received very serious warning for repentance or else, they would be cast away. What will the Lord say about your life today as individual, family, church, ministry, and denomination? Will He give you pass mark or rebuke you for your spiritual negligence, luckwarmness, worldliness or your candlestick has been removed before His throne. Have you compared your ministry with any church among the seven, which one do you belong? Or are you even far from any of them? It is good to labour, but bad to labour in vain. Let us humbly go before our Lord and plead with him to lead and guide us by His living Word and Spirit and give us His strength and power to meet His requirement and to bring forth precious fruit unto Him so that we will not be cast away or cut down like a fruitless tree before the Lord. The tragedy of many people and churches today is that the cares and the riches and pleasures of this life have choked out the life and the seed of God out of their lives that they cannot bring forth any fruit unto perfection (Luke 8:14).
The Divine Amazement
It was very appalling for the Lord to see the whole land of Israel with their population and saw no good fruit in her. The Lord was so surprised that the labour He had laboured on them had no impart in them, and instead of them to bring forth good fruit, they brought forth degenerate fruit, instead of growing up, they were growing downward. The Lord said of them,
I have planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned to degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me (Jeremiah 2:21)
Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes (Isaiah 5:1-2).
He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none (Luke 13:6-7).
We can see vividly the labour of the vine Dresser over the vine, the great work of love He bestowed upon the vine and His expectation from the vine. He was expecting the fruit of righteousness, holiness, justice, mercy and faith but the reverse was the case. Instead of them to bring forth good fruit pleasing to the Lord, they brought forth the fruit of hatred, adultery, fornication, stealing, idolatry, occultism, mammonism, worldliness, pleasures of this life, pride and all kind of sins. They were all tainted with sin and the ministers help them further by telling them that God is so loving and they relished themselves in the covenant of their fathers until the judgment of God came upon them.
Why Is It So
The reason for this is not far-fetched; it is contained in the Scripture,
O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts (Isaiah 3:12-15).
Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still (Isaiah 9:14-18).
And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. (Micah 3:1-3,5,9-12).
The problem of the vine is the husbandmen, (the leaders, priests, pastors, prophets, Bishops, General overseer, and the likes) those the Lord set over them to teach, guide and lead them are the problem. The don’t know that the call of God is the call to achieve God’s purpose, to live by His Word and pass it to others. It is to put the interest of the Lord first, then the people before their own interest. It is a call to self denial. The Lord has expressly told them that gift blinded the eyes of the judges, it would not allow them to see clearly. They will pervert judgment. But these leaders pass beyond that, they are actually leading the people with the mindset of extorting their money and property and even those that are not willing to release theirs can receive
their curse. HE THAT PUTTETH NOT INTO THEIR MOUTHS, THEY EVEN PREPARE WAR AGAINST HIM (Micah 3:5). All their target is the total amount that enter into their coffer every service day. They are less concerned about those that are genuinely saved, their spiritual growth and welfare. Rather what they supposed to give to them, they gulp it alone and in their bid to maintain the continuity of their flow of income, they lessen the standard of the Word of God. They are ministers of their goal, gold, self-ambition, fame, while they put the will and the Word of God behind them. Many of them don’t even have time for God in their secret but they just want to manifest their own worldly glory. They want to enjoy the glory of the world. Such ministers cannot lead men into the way of heaven, because they have never come to the knowledge of the way of God and some willingly ignore it because of their greed. They have not come to grip with the message of the kingdom of God. They are souls’ traders instead of souls’ saver. They trade in the souls that come to their assemblies. Their goal is the treasures and the gold of the people and once they achieve that, the work of God is progressing to them. The numbers of houses built, bevy of cars