Bearing Fruit

I have questioned for many years how I could know if a person was going to go to heaven when they died. I got a huge variation of answers. I feel like all this time, I was looking for a "professional" to explain it to me and tell me that if a person said the sinner's prayer they were guaranteed a place in heaven. I have been burdened for many years about the salvation of several of my family members and have prayed for them through the years. I have pleaded with several to truly evaluate where they stand with God. As I have begun to search the Scriptures myself, I find that there are many that teach us how to know who belongs to Christ and will be His in Heaven. It was there all the time, I just hadn't looked. Shamefully, many Christians will have this same experience as we are taught to look to those who know more than us, they have all the answers. But we are to be like the Bereans ( Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true) and search the Scriptures for ourselves and see what the Lord has taught us. We can know them by their fruit.

John 15:1-17

¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

I am often perceived as a super religious freak among my family members. I am not offended by that in the least. In fact I am glad to hear that I am not recognizable, that means that I am being sanctified (made to look more like Christ). That is the job of the Holy Spirit to work in us, molding us, breaking us and forming us into the image of Christ. Sometimes the chipping away is painful, sometimes it causes loss, in the end it makes a beautiful work of art as we are fashioned in the likeness of our Creator.

My prayer is that the Lord will draw these to Himself and be glorified in their transformation. I have seen this type of transformation first hand in my own husband, who I believed was a Christian when I married him, but when a huge hardship fell on our family, the Lord really brought him to Himself at that time and I am now married to a new man, a new creation in Christ.

I am burdened for their true salvation. I desire that they can know how amazing it is to walk in fellowship with the Lord and not fear what tomorrow brings because we know the One who is in control of all things! We who are in Christ will be about the business of bearing fruit.