# From What God Has Given to Fruitfulness

# Living in the Spirit ###

**Kingdom Principle:** God has already provided everything pertaining to life and godliness in Christ; fruitfulness occurs as we receive what He has given, cultivate it through meditation of the Word, and yield to the Holy Spirit.

Peter makes a remarkable statement in 2 Peter 1:3. God's divine power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to glory and virtue. Through His exceedingly great and precious promises, we become partakers of the divine nature.

Notice that God's provision comes first. We are not beginning from unwillingness but from provision. We have received Christ, His life, His promises.

Yet Peter does not stop there. He tells us to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. When these abound in us, they make us neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord.

There is a difference, then, between what God has given and what has become fruitful in our experience.

## Given Is Not the Same as Experienced

A farmer may possess a bag of seed without possessing a harvest. The seed contains the potential, but the harvest requires that it be received into the proper environment and allowed to develop.

This brings us back to the parable of the sower. The Word is the seed; the heart is the ground. God gives the Word; we receive it, keep it, meditate upon it, and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us. Then it produces fruit.

This is not trying to make God give what He has refused. It is learning to live from what He has already provided.

## The Place of Knowledge

Peter repeatedly emphasizes knowledge. God's provision comes through the knowledge of Him—not mere information about God, but a living understanding of who He is, what He has done in Christ, and how His kingdom operates.

As that knowledge becomes established in us, it affects the way we live. Spiritual growth cannot be reduced to collecting Bible information. The Word must move from information to conviction, from conviction to faith, and from faith to obedient living.

The Holy Spirit is central to this. He takes the truth we have received, gives us understanding, bears witness to it within us, reminds us of the Word, and leads us in its application.

Spiritual fruitfulness, then, is not simply trying harder to behave like Christ. It is the result of knowing Christ, receiving His Word, yielding to His Spirit, and allowing His life to be expressed through us.

## Waiting on God

There is a legitimate place for waiting on God—seasons of preparation, matters requiring His timing, circumstances in which we need direction before we move. But waiting must be consistent with knowledge.

Imagine the hen that has laid her eggs. She says, "I am waiting on God for these eggs to hatch," but refuses to brood over them. Her waiting would not be consistent with what she knows—that the eggs must be brooded over.

So she waits while brooding.

Likewise, waiting on God does not mean becoming passive about what He has already revealed. We wait while remaining in the Word, meditating, obeying, listening to the Holy Spirit, doing what we already know to do.

## A Fresh Look at Some of Our Thinking

This challenges some assumptions we have passionately embraced. Sometimes we say, "God will do it when He is ready," when He has already made His provision known through Christ. Sometimes we continue asking God to provide what He has already given. Sometimes we call inactivity "waiting on God" when what is actually required is that we receive, believe, meditate upon, and act upon what He has already said.

We are not called to manufacture God's promises through human effort. Neither are we called to sit passively while ignoring His revealed Word. There is a place for faithful participation in what God has already established.

## Fruitfulness Through the Spirit

The Holy Spirit brings these truths together. He teaches us the Word, gives understanding, bears witness within us, leads us, works in us, transforms us—and brings forth the fruit of Christ's life as we yield to Him.

This is why fruitfulness is ultimately not self-effort but dependence—upon God's provision, the Word, the Holy Spirit. Our obedience does not earn what Christ has already accomplished; it is our response to what we have received.

## Practical Application

When you encounter a need or an area where you desire fruitfulness, ask: *What has God already said? What has He already provided in Christ?*

Receive that Word. Keep it in your heart. Meditate upon it. Do not let the cares of life choke it. Seek the Holy Spirit for understanding. Then obey the direction He gives you—and wait on God where waiting is necessary, but wait actively and intelligently, in agreement with what He has already given.

## Reflection

> What has God already given me that I need to learn to receive, cultivate, and experience rather than continually wait for Him to provide?

**Hassan Thomas Nenger** Author, *My Divine Identity as the Righteousness of God* Living in the Spirit Series