24. I Bear Much Fruit

In this My Father is glorified, that you should bear much fruit. – I chose you for Myself, and I set you forth and established you, that you should be led forward; that you should bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.

In order to understand the meaning of our bearing much fruit to the Father, we must consider value. How much value have I brought into peoples lives, that is, what would people pay for the value I contribute to them? Consider one wealthy man, Simon Cowell. Let’s say the value of enjoyment he has given me over 20 years is worth $1000 and that he has brought that same value into the lives of 100 million people. That means he would be worth 100 billion.

Bringing Value to Many. Then consider how much people in this world pay for joy each year. You see, so much expenditure, including alcohol and drugs, is an effort to purchase joy. We could surmise that people in this world pay more than 2 trillion a year to purchase very fleeting joy.

If 100 million Christians were to buy my books, I would pocket 4 billion dollars. Yet if they were to connect with God through what I share such that their lives are filled with the same overflowing joy I live in, would that not be worth more than $40 each? In all of this, I am NOT talking about “making money”: I’m talking about bringing value into the lives of many.

The Most Valuable Thing. What is the single most valuable thing that can be given to humans on this earth? And what is the value of that one thing to them, that is, if they had to pay to receive it, how much would it be worth?

John is taking us towards Chapter 17, the speaking of the New Creation into existence. Jesus begins that prayer with these words. – “Father the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son might glorify You.” May I suggest that the single greatest value to humans and to all creation is the Father glorified. The Father glorified is worth more to people than the entire planet and all valuation in it.

Fruit that Remains. With that thought in mind, consider these words again. – In this My Father is glorified, that you should bear much fruit. – I chose you for Myself, and I set you forth and established you, that you should be led forward; that you should bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.

So, if the greatest value to all created things is the Father glorified and the Father is glorified by you and me bearing much fruit, fruit that remains, what does that mean?

Let’s go back to joy. If a person’s joy came each day from a bottle of wine, they would have to buy a new bottle every day for life, for their joy would never remain.

Four Questions. There is nothing you or I could do to bring value into people’s lives that would be worth more to more people than our bearing much fruit. We have four questions, then. What is this fruit? How do we bear it? How does our bearing fruit glorify Father? And how is Father-glorified the most valuable thing to everyone everywhere? We don’t necessarily have the answers, but we’re half way there when we have the right questions.

Let’s come at this same thing from a different angle. These are things I wrote before I realized I had left out the most important thing – the value of Father glorified.

God’s Metaphors. God is very metaphorical and John reflects that quality. The only time and place where God ceases to show Himself through metaphors and shows Himself for REAL is the Walk of the Atonement. We must understand that God uses groups of metaphors, slightly different ways to see and understand the exact same substantial truth being revealed.

The tree of life and the grapevine are two views of the exact same thing, that is, Jesus and our relationship with Him, specifically, John 14:20. …I will give him to eat out from the tree of life…

Life Is the Issue. What we eat is Word. What we keep guard and watch over is Word. What we ask God to fulfill in our lives is Word. – It is the Spirit that gives Life… The Words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are Life (John 6:63).

The tree of life is the larger of the two metaphors; in fact, the primary purpose of the metaphor of the grapevine is Jesus’ words, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” This is also the meaning behind the command “Stay inside of Me.” – No sufficiency in yourself; all sufficiency in Me. Of truth, I want to expand on the meaning of “the tree of life” again and include in it the meaning of the vine and branches.

Renaming the Two Trees. Our understanding of all reality must be absolutely clear, and so we don’t mind some repetition. In fact, one of the lines I place into “The World Hates Me” is that we not be ensnared by the world, but that the Father keeps us from the evil one. The world is all relationships found among those who eat of the tree of knowing good and evil.

Let’s rename the two trees. First, let’s call them “the tree of death” and “the tree of life.”  Then let’s call them “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and “the tree of the knowledge of the Father and of Jesus Sent.”

One Reality. Finally, let’s call them “the tree of imagining reality as a continual struggle between good and evil” and “the tree of knowing reality as the good words of Jesus sustaining all.”

“Sustaining all by His power-filled words” (Hebrews 1:3) is not one of two options, but the only reality there is. Adam did not choose between two realities. He chose between a soul filled with confusion or a soul filled with JOY. In other words, the choice between the two trees is entirely a choice of what story of words I embrace as my own. Anyone whose self-story includes struggling against “evil” is eating the tree of death and has no thought of Life.

Power-filled Words. At the same time, one who simply pursues the lusts of the flesh also has no thought of Life.

The thing about the tree of life, Jesus and the Words He speaks, is that they are POWER-FILLED Words. This is why I say that, although I have no interest in the overt pursuit of fleshy lusts, yet I refuse any deliverance that does not come out from the increase of knowing Father inside of me, that is, Life. I cast myself utterly upon REAL, that is, “dwell in Me.” Yet John 15 gives us a very practical approach to how we are to LIVE.

Another Tree. Somehow, the realization that there is ANOTHER TREE in the garden has to penetrate into the minds of our fellow Christians, as it will happen to all. Reality is LIFE only, with no shadow in it. The entirety of “good versus evil” is found ONLY inside the confusion of the human soul: mind, emotion, and desire.

Life, then, is the penetration of reality into that confusion. We could even say that redemption is the penetration of love into that confusion, love that draws us towards reality. This is why our joining together with the Father had to happen inside the confusion of Jesus’ soul – for us.

The Question. That brings us to the question of this Jesus Secret Page – and of John 15. “How do we bear fruit?” That is, “How do we glorify the Father?”

The fruit itself is the topic of the next two pages, “Love one another.” We will not include that meaning here. The topics on this Jesus Secret page, then, will include asking God to fulfil His word in us, bearing much fruit, and the joy of Jesus fulfilled and made complete inside of us. The defining thought, however, is that the Father is glorified as I bear fruit out from my response to the Word. Let’s now bring in the enflowing of faith.

The Enflowing of Faith. I dwell always inside of Jesus through faith; I am never apart from Him. I am pure and just by the words of Jesus. I dwell inside of Jesus; I bear much fruit. Apart from Jesus I can do nothing. I am never apart from Jesus. I never look to myself for any sufficiency in myself. Rather, I want God to complete His words in me, as He intends. I ask whatever I desire, that God would fulfill His word in me. God’s Word becomes me. I bear much fruit. My Father is glorified because I bear the fruit of His word.

Jesus loves me; I dwell inside of His love. I keep Jesus’ words to full completion. I bear much fruit, and my fruit remains. The joy of Jesus is inside of me; my joy is filled full and complete. Whatever I ask the Father inside Jesus’ name, inside of the completion of His word in me, God gives to me. I ask God to fulfill every Word that He speaks in my life, every Word that is Jesus, and I receive all that I ask. I possess all the joy of Jesus fulfilled and made complete inside of me. My joy is full and complete.

How We Receive. The issue is entirely our response to Word, as John presented in Chapter 1 – “Received Him not” versus “To as many as received Him.” Yet in John 15 Jesus gives us HOW we receive the Word. – Ask!

Ask whatever you desire, and it will become for you. – So that whatever you might ask the Father inside of My name, He would give it to you. – In that day, you will ask nothing of Me. …Whatever you might ask the Father inside of My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing inside of My name. Ask, and you will receive…

Ask What? Ask what? – Whatever you want.

At this point, ANYONE who has failed to catch THE most important thing any human could ever WANT will mis-interpret this whole passage. – My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our home in intimate participation with him. What else is there to want? 

Yet God always puts His doorway between Himself and any human passing by His Word. Here it is in the KJV. – He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them… If a man love me, he will keep my words…

What Do We Pray? Some see the door as if it is tightly closed and refuse to believe, others dishonestly claim, “I will hear and obey.” Because we are honest, our only response is – “Look at me, God, I belong to You. Let it be to me according to Your Word.” This response comes from those who KNOW they can do nothing, but who WANT to know Father anyhow.

Consider most prayers you have prayed or have heard prayed. Almost all asking is for outward things. And if there is an asking for inward things, it’s almost always, “God, help ME to DO better,” meaning “do better at my ‘great struggle’ inside the tree of death.”

Inside Jesus’ Name. To “ask inside Jesus’ name,” this one who comes to us as a Personal, Living, Spirit Word, can mean only to ask God to fulfill all His wondrous Words of Completion inside of me. And then, I obey Jesus; I believe I have received from God ALL that I have asked, for God is and does what He says.

God has magnified His Word above all His name (Psalm 138:2). The fulfillment of His Word in completion in our lives right now, entirely and only through faith, is the only thing that glorifies the Father. Jesus is the Word God has exalted, the All-Speaking of God. His “name” means Jesus proven faithful and true, that is, all Word fulfilled.

Ask and Believe. Lord Jesus, You say that I am to ask the Father to give me anything I want. Lord Jesus, I want all that You are as every Word God speaks fulfilled in me to full completion. I want Father sharing my life with me, making our Home together.

God, my Father, I pause at every Word I find in the gospel and I ask You to fulfill that Word as the Lord Jesus inside of me to full completion. I ask that Your Word would become me, with nothing You mean left out. Father, I am convinced that I receive from You all that I ask.

Two Metaphors. We ask God to fulfill His Word in us as He means that Word, so that we might “bear fruit.” And the purpose of bearing fruit is that we might “glorify the Father.”

Here again, John gives us two metaphors of the same thing. One is a grapevine bearing clusters of grapes and the other is a woman in labor bringing forth a child. The clusters of grapes and the child birthed into the world are two ways of looking at the same thing. Look at John 16:19-24. It is evident that John intends both metaphors to speak of the same thing. This is the ONLY way, then, that we understand Revelation 12 – bearing fruit, bringing forth life.

The Reproduction of Life. In fact, these are the two metaphors of the reproduction of life, the first of plant seed and the second of human seed. WORD brings forth LIFE – by travail (you tread the grapes to make wine) and by the Spirit.

You see how this all fits together, for the travail is provided by “The World Hates Me,” and then, “The Spirit Leads Me inside of all Truth.” It’s clear and straightforward, and it’s all profoundly Biblical. Yet the fruit, the life brought forth, the place of all JOY, is the Church, brethren loving one another with pure hearts fervently, Christ Community.

Bearing Fruit. Because I highly regard every word God speaks and have asked God to fulfill every word in me to full completion and have believed that God gives me all that I ask, I know that I bear and bring forth the full fruit of that word as all completion inside of and through me. My fruit is Father-with-me; my fruit is God loving others through me. Yet I bear no fruit apart from my precious union with the Lord Jesus, for He alone fulfills all Word in power. My fruit is every Word God speaks fulfilled; my fruit remains forever.

A Vast New Testament Teaching. Now we begin to look at the New Testament doctrine of Completion, a vast interlocking of incredible verses, all of which have to do with God fulfilled inside of us. And this is really cool, for we have the full foundation from John of how and where to place that wondrous teaching that is the meaning of Salvation and that is all right now.

Now, the Greek word, chara, and the English word, joy, are the same. There is no need to transfer meaning. JOY is what it means. And chara is directly related to charis, which is gift, but usually translated “grace.” Joy, worth so much to so many, is the first part of our completion.

Joy Fulfilled. I have spoken these things to you so that My joy might be inside of you, and that your joy might be filled full and complete. – Your grief will become joy. – Because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. In the same way, then, you know grief; but again, I will see you, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. – Ask, and you will receive, that your joy might be full and complete.

Then the clincher, John 17:13. – But now I am coming towards You; and these things I speak in the world, that they might possess My joy fulfilled and made complete inside of them.

Defining Joy. In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures evermore. Joy to the full till my cup runneth over; in Thy presence is fulness of joy (Jesus – from Psalm 16).

Joy (Webster’s 1926): noun. 1. The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by a sense of well-being, success, and good-fortune, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exhilaration of spirits; delight. 2. State of happiness or felicity. 3. That which causes joy or happiness.

Joy: v.i. ; to rejoice; be glad; delight; exult. v.t. To gladden; to make joyful; to exhilarate.

Defining Full. The English words “full” and “complete” are almost identical in definition. This is common, because English is two different languages mashed together. “Full” is Saxon, that is, Germanic, and “complete” is French, that is, from Latin.

Full (from Webster’s 1926): adj. 1. Filled; having within its limits all that it can contain; having its normal or intended capacity supplied or its accommodations taken; entirely occupied.

– A human has the capacity to contain all the fulness of God!

3. With reference to appetite: satisfied with food or drink. 4. Having the attention, thoughts, etc., absorbed in any matter, and the feelings excited by it.

5. Serving to fill; occupying fully the (understood) space, place, accommodation, or capacity. 6. Complete; entire: a. Having a complete quota, quality, or period; b. Having reached the height of its development. c. Not wanting in any part or essential quality; perfect; adequate. 9. Having, attaining, or displaying the height of its characteristic quality, force, volume, or the like. 11. Having an abundant supply or a plentiful number.

Full: noun. Complete measure, utmost extent; the highest state or degree; fullness.

Full: adv. 1. Quite; to the same degree; without abatement or diminution; with the whole force or effect; thoroughly; completely; exactly; entirely. 2. To the full; to fulness; to the utmost extent or degree.

Joy Filled Full. Jesus’ passion excited by the expectation of good fills me to all capacity. Jesus’ pleasurable sense of well-being occupies me entirely. That which causes joy inside of Jesus, His desire fulfilled, satisfies and absorbs my every moment. My happiness is at its height. I rejoice and make glad. I exult and cause joy. The pleasure of good fortune Jesus knows measures the same inside of me, thoroughly, exactly, entirely. I am filled with joy.

Completion. The Word fulfilled BEFORE anything outward is visible is the most valuable thing to God and it is the most valuable thing to all humans and to every part of creation. The outward tangible benefits of the Word fulfilled go in every direction, affect everything, and are beyond count.

A woman clothed with the sun is a relatively small number of believers in Jesus, clothed with Jesus, that is, clothed with the fulfillment of Word through faith alone, contrary to all outward appearance. This woman, in travail to bring forth LIFE, to bear fruit, to prove Jesus faithful and true, is the only thing real in the world. – Completion.

Every Single Word. And all we have to do is ASK. ASK and ASK and ASK that God fulfill every Word He speaks as He means that Word to be in our lives. And then believe it is already TRUE. Yet this Word of Completion is all the fulness of God fulfilled inside of us, God flowing through us into our world.

Many things in Scripture indicate to us that the wealth we would know is entirely up to us, entirely up to how many “containers” we “gather” to hold Word fulfilled. I am an ambitious man. The Jesus Secret II is me, asking God to bring to all completion in me every single gospel WORD I can find – and then believing that it is already TRUE.

Father Glorified. I hear the Father speaking to me, “My son, because you have honored My Word, I will honor you.” My Father is glorified as I expect God with me as we build our dwelling place together out from every Word He speaks combined with every step, moment, and circumstance of my life. I know that God’s Word is the only thing true; I see His Word fulfilled everywhere I look. I see God inside of my brothers and sisters, God as me loving them and they loving me. I see God with me taking the lower path for the sake of others, that they also might be lifted up into the joy that fills me full. I see the life of God flowing through me and my brethren together into the knowledge of all created things. My Father known is all glory towards all.

An Amazing Gift. Lesson 1.3 Connections to Pro-Thesis in Symmorphy VII: Completion sets out, from the Ruling Verse, the framework of this beyond-all doctrine that fills the Bible. I am calling it a “doctrine” deliberately, for I want to establish that this way of thinking is an essential tenet of true Christianity, a teaching we have never actually known.

Yet we have known it. And this is the most amazing thing. You see, God has graced us already with the one thing that lines us up to receive into our lives, BEFORE our bodies are swallowed up by life, the Completion of every Gospel Word. – That gift is The Jesus Secret II.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “I Love My Brethren.” For that lesson, read John 15 again. We will have just two pages here on this first part of the eighth ruling verse. Of truth there are many pages throughout The Jesus Secret II expanding on the meaning of “Love one another,” beginning with “Falling in Love with the Church.” Full, face to face, heart to heart reciprocity and friendship.

This is My full completion, that you love one another in full reciprocity just exactly as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that he should set forth his soul for the sake of his friends.

Let’s Pray Together. This time our prayer is synergeoing with God for the sake of our brothers and sisters across the planet, all who truly believe or will believe into Jesus.

“Father, we participate with You in intimate closeness and with the boldness that pleases You. Father, we ask that You look upon our brothers and sisters all across the earth, for they belong to You just as we do.

“God our Father, let there be an awakening all across Your Church, an awakening to the JOY of Your Word proven faithful and true, of Your Word fulfilled and complete as it is right now in our lives. Father, open the eyes of all who belong to Jesus to Your Word already fulfilled in them.

“Father, Your Word is Your will. There is nothing You desire more than to see Your every gospel Word fulfilled to full measure in the life of Your Church, millions of believers in Jesus all across this earth. Father, we speak Your Word fulfilled in the lives of Your people; we call Your people into JOY.

“Cause Your people to KNOW that they are filled with ALL the fulness of God as one body together. Cause Your people to KNOW that rivers of Spirit flow out from them, setting creation free. Father, cause Your people to KNOW that You are all reciprocal love among them. Cause Your people to know that You are always part of their lives. Let it be so; it is so.”