Just returned from a wonderful week in Germany attending the 5th Youth in Mission Congress (YIM) held annually in the city of Mannheim. We were a group of fifteen young people who travelled from Sweden to Germany. I can highly recommend the conference to youth leaders and youth who are serious about their relationship with God.
The conference sets out to help young people to put their full trust in the word of God so that they may not only find a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ but also be better equipped to share their faith with the world.
Young people are also challenged through solid biblical preaching band teaching to share the eternal Gospel with lost people as they prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus. Discipline and balance are emphasized in all areas of the journey with God. This brings me to this week’s encouraging words: The Secret of True Revival and Spiritual Growth
Some time back my wife decided to buy me a gift as a symbol of our love and commitment to each other. The gift was a unique tree that I was to water and nurture. Unfortunately I have not inherited “green fingers” and failed to provide the tree with the necessary nurture and attention needed to thrive. In fact over the next few weeks the tree deteriorated and started to die before my very eyes.
Not wanting to disappoint my wife I decided that the only way to save the tree was to replant the tree at our camp site. I took the tree with me to one of our camps and planted it in several places but could not make my mind up where it would look best and more importantly start to grow again. Eventually I found the perfect spot next to the shower complex.
Unfortunately the tree did not survive. In the end it looked so bad from neglect and me replanting it all the time that I even managed to plant the tree up-side down because I could not determine which the roots were and which the branches were. If you attempt to copy what I have just described, not only will your tree fail to flourish but it will also struggle to survive.
Yet I have found working as a pastor that some people are like that with God. They decide to go to church, read their Bible, and pray regularly. They do this for a month or two, and then they uproot themselves and disappear for a few months. Then they come back again for a short period only to uproot themselves again and go back to the old life again. By repeating this behavior they fail to grow spiritually.
Jesus gives us the secret of true revival and spiritual growth when He said, “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” (John 15:4). That is the secret of spiritual growth: to abide.
Abide in the English language means to stay in a given place. For Christ-followers, it means to maintain constant uninterrupted fellowship with God. It is all about consistency and results in producing lasting fruit. In fact there is no quick fix or short cut!
Another way of abiding is walking with God. As 1 John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Practically this means setting time aside every day for the Word of God and for prayer. If you are too busy during the day, then get up earlier. Go to bed earlier. The truth is if you really want to you will find time for what is most important.
So let me ask you: Are you producing spiritual fruit?