Reading the words that Jesus spoke in John 15:8, the Spirit draws our attention to the value God places on fruit bearing. This is part of our responsibility of faith, which is often either overlooked or misunderstood by believers; so let’s have a look, beginning with that verse.

John 15:8
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Giving glory to God has to do with returning to Him what He values. This means that when God’s expectation for fruit bearing is met, then the soul increases in His likeness. The purpose of knowing God is to be established in His knowledge and for the soul to bear the fruits of Christ in the inner man.

Faith must be joined to the stewardship God sanctified to oversee His church, and the priesthood of Jesus Christ, for the soul to bear fruit in the likeness of Christ. God’s expectation for increase is set by the terms of the new covenant commandments. God set conditions for the activity of faith within a framework of knowledge with the prescribed tokens of regeneration by which the soul experiences divine change through the effectual working of the Spirit.

God requires the active labor of faith with the anointing which describes our function within the house of God. The new covenant priesthood consists of all the tokens of Christ’s propitiation to sanctify faith as we build with the whole stones of His knowledge (the 12 elements of the gospel) which represent Christ perfectly. Nothing of Christ is missing and nothing of man is added. The root of faith grows downward for the fruits of righteousness to grow upwards. The righteous are the branches upon the True Vine of God; showing fruitfulness by faith’s obedience.

God, as the qualifier for faith, accepts only that which represents His Son perfectly. The terms and conditions for our tether to God are in the baptism of His Holy Spirit and instruction of His ordered knowledge. Those who serve God by His terms (through apostolic instruction) learn how to engage with Him, how to walk in faith and how to bear fruit that pleases Him.

As false doctrines and human philosophy entered in over time, many different faith systems developed which make up the many false religions that exist in the world today (including within Christianity). These stem from unsanctified stewardship, as false ministers preach and teach knowledge that competes with the grace and truth of God.

The soul that is yoked to the gospel of the flesh is naked (being fruitless and barren) and remains in despair and defilement. Our contact with God must take place on His terms because God is the qualifier of faith; He provides and sustains faith and feeds the soul with His substance for the purpose of birthing the virtue of Christ in the inner man.

Faith that follows the record of man refuses His elect stewardship and denies God His work in the soul. Faith then becomes about you, how to live a better life, being the best version of yourself, while the soul is striving for equity and peace apart from truth. This is the vanity and vexation of spirit that Solomon wrote of, whereas God’s peace is in the priesthood tokens wherein the soul partakes of the fullness of Christ.

When faith follows God’s design in covenant, justifying Christ, we labor to enter our rest in Him. True rest is that which God gives, not that which the imagination projects for in vain.

Satan uses the knowledge of the world that contradicts the knowledge of Christ. Faith is thereby exploited and used to address man’s vulnerabilities and the frailties of the flesh. Seeking resolve of circumstances rather than applying oneself with the tokens of Christ for fruit bearing, repeatedly brings the soul to the same point of frustration, guilt and shame.

This is not the will of God for believers, but a just outcome none the less for those who remain outside of the parameters of His care. The unconverted (to covenant) believer has no point of discernment except to draw from the facets of the flesh and apply his imagination to labor for peace. In contrast, those sealed to Christ through covenant faith, labor with the anointing for discernment and are increased and blessed with the fruits of God’s Kingdom.

It was Jesus who said by their fruits you shall know them (Matthew 7:20). To truly know Jesus, you have to be sealed with the Spirit of adoption (evidenced by speaking in tongues). The purpose of God calling us to bear fruit is for His pleasure. There is a qualifying standard by which God knows that we are of His House.

The source you draw from will be the deciding factor that will either qualify you or disqualify you. The increase that God puts His stamp upon is not in material substance but the substance of the virtue of Christ. The soul is made by God for God.

2 Peter 1:8
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When the fruits of Christ (which are made evident through the work of regeneration and renewing of the mind) are found in you, then the soul is filled with the treasures of the Lord. But as we read of, in those who opposed Jesus, not every believer is willing to consent to God’s due order; the protestors are unfruitful because they walk contrary to the new covenant of Christ.

When the function of faith is outside of the frame of knowledge God sanctified, then building faith becomes a fruitless journey. God knows those who belong to Him and are fruitful and increasing in the virtue of Christ.

Those who deny the stewardship of truth don’t have a priesthood in Jesus Christ and therefore are unable to give to God according to His value system. The righteous know God through the process of regeneration, because we actively labor with the tokens of the Spirit by the function of His spiritual priesthood. God births His fruit in us by our daily fellowship with Him.

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23). These fruits are the gifts of increase God births within, which testify of His ownership and His craftsmanship in the soul.

Matthew 12:33
Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

The highest value that God placed in the soul is attained only through the work of regeneration. The temperament of the Spirit is the reward God gives when faith labors with the tokens of Christ. You cannot mix the virtues of Christ with the works of the flesh because the fruit that is born from this labor does not reflect Christ or bear His likeness, but destroys, corrupts, and defiles the soul.

1 Corinthians 1:31
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Those who keep covenant with God eat the good fruit of His knowledge and are the crowning work of God’s glory.