Tuesday, October 01, 2013

In part one we determined that outward manners are no indicator of true spiritual fruit or the fruits of the Spirit being manifest in someone’s life via the Holy Spirit. The lack thereof of good manners is no clear indicator either. I have known men and women of God who were very much lead by the Spirit of God, serving God, and love God dearly but lacked in some area of manners, spiritual fruit, or had what one might call an Achilles Heel. In later segments, we will explore how lack of a specific fruit of the Spirit does not disqualify a person but manifestation of the wrong fruit/works can. In this part, we will examine the difference between fruit and vegetables, thus giving us a clue to how we can spot each within the spiritual and religious communities of our day.

The Bible directs us to be individual who bear fruit, not be spiritual vegetables. Spiritually speaking what would be fruit and what would be a vegetable. We will start by actually looking at the definitions of both words.

fruit =

noun = 2 : OFFSPRING, PROGENY
progeny = 2 : OUTCOME, PRODUCT
3 : a body of followers, disciples, or successors

Fruit, spiritually speaking, is a manifestation of what is left behind in other people that was passed on or poured into said people by the fruit bearer/individual. This type of fruit is not always found in the process but instead in the result, the outcome, the end product. Did the person have something that they passed on to others, which was spiritually sound and beneficial.

vegetable =

adj. = 3 : resembling or suggesting a plant (as in inertness or passivity)

inertness = lack of action or activity see INACTION

noun = 3 : a person whose mental and physical functioning is severely impaired and especially one who requires supportive measures (as mechanical ventilation) to survive

A spiritual vegetable can be spotted by their passivity and apathy toward the things of God. They often lack any spiritual activities beyond maybe church attendance, which does not make anyone spiritual or even a true Believer. Spiritually there seems to be no pulse in these individuals, they cannot see God in the world, in their lives, or in their communities. If they were ever truly spiritually regenerated in Christ Jesus they are now simply on spiritual life-support barely spiritually alive.

Our desire should be to surround ourselves with those individuals given to being spiritually fruitful versus hanging out with a bunch of vegetables.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.