What Will You Show as Your Fruit?

There is a day coming when every believer will stand before the Lord and give an account of their life. They will give an account of their stewardship. An account of what they did with the gifts, the resources, the time, and the Holy Ghost that God entrusted to them. And on that day, one of the most searching questions that will be asked is this: what fruit did you produce for the Kingdom?

I want to press this question with urgency, because there are believers sitting in churches all across this nation who have been saved for twenty, thirty, forty years, and in all that time, they have not brought a single soul into the Kingdom of God. They have not nurtured anyone in the faith. They have not discipled anyone. They have not raised up a spiritual son or daughter. They have not invested in the spiritual formation of another human being. And if that is your story, I need you to hear this with love but also with clarity: that is a serious problem.

Jesus was unambiguous about the expectation of fruitfulness. In John 15:16 , He said: 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.' You were chosen and ordained for fruitfulness. That is not optional. That is not for the super-spiritual. That is for every believer without exception.

But here is where I want to introduce a concept that may liberate some of you who feel like you cannot produce fruit because you are not a preacher or an evangelist. Consider Cornelius. Cornelius was not a preacher. He was not an apostle. He was a Roman centurion, a military man, a Gentile who feared God and gave generously to the poor. Acts 10:2 describes him as 'A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.' He could not preach. He was not called to stand behind a pulpit. But he could give, and he did give, and that giving became the open door through which Peter came to his house, through which the gospel was preached, through which the Holy Ghost fell on the Gentiles for the first time, and through which the entire Gentile world was opened to the gospel.

Cornelius's fruit was not produced through preaching. It was produced through giving. His generosity created the conditions in which the Word could spread. And when he stands before the Lord, he will have fruit to show. Not the fruit of his own preaching, but the fruit of every soul that was reached because he created the conditions for the gospel to advance. That is a legitimate and powerful form of Kingdom fruitfulness.

So the question is not just 'have you preached?' The question is: 'have you given so that others could preach? Have you funded the missionary? Have you supported the evangelist? Have you sent the gospel worker where you could not go yourself?' If you have done those things, you have fruit. That fruit will remain. But if you have kept your resources for yourself, if you have held back your substance while the harvest was ripe and the laborers needed support, then you have no fruit to show.

Here is the sobering reality: the gospel will reach all nations. Matthew 24:14 makes this clear: 'And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.' The gospel is going to get to every nation regardless. God will accomplish His purposes. The only open question is whether you will participate. Whether your name will be attached to that harvest. Whether you will be able to stand before the Lord and say, 'I had a part in this. I gave. I went. I sent. I prayed. I invested.'

The gospel reaching the nations is not contingent on your participation. But your reward, your fruitfulness, your eternal legacy, that is contingent on your participation. The harvest will come in. The question is whether your hands will be among those who brought it in. Do not let this moment pass without asking the Holy Ghost what fruit He wants to produce through you in the time that remains.