The Key to Producing Lasting Results

UV 2168/10000 The Key to Producing Lasting Results
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.
John 15 v 16

The manger leader or manager is chosen by Jesus to be His representatives on earth. Jesus holds the “ key of David”- the key to the kingdom of God is given to those He chooses As Jesus said about the kingdom of God, “ Many are called but few are chosen.” If we choose, then we could claim the credit of being followers of Jesus. But, the fact is that we are chosen by grace, the grace of Jesus. Does it mean that the believer has no part in his being chosen? It is certainly not his good deeds or his wisdom that leads him to be chosen by Jesus. But, Jesus sees our faith, the inclination of our hearts, our orientation or the extent we desire to be part of the kingdom of God. It is His sovereign choice. Our faith enables us to recognize that we are chosen and we heed the call. Faith like reasoning, imagination, creativity is a faculty or gift- the ability to see into the unseen. Scripture says that He has compassion on whom He chooses to have compassion on, mercy on whom He chooses to have mercy on.

Regardless of our past record, our failures and misdeeds or good deeds, we are chosen. But after being chosen, we are “ ordained”. Synonyms for ordained are appointed, anointed, consecrated, installed, established or invested. After we are chosen by Jesus like the first disciples or the twelve were chosen, we are prepared or trained by the Spirit of God even as Jesus trained the twelve. We are prepared to “bring forth fruit”- or in other words to produce results. The results must be seen both in our own inner transformation as well as in the transformation of the lives of others. Even among the twelve, one namely, Judas turned against Jesus and betrayed Him at the garden of Gethsemane. It was not as if it was predetermined or that Judas was chosen in order that he betrayed Jesus. Jesus would have been identified even if Judas had not betrayed him by kissing Him. But Judas surrendered his free choice to the enemy of his soul. This implies that even after being chosen and trained or discipled by and for Jesus, we can fall away. The manger leader or manager needs to be vigilant at all times and guard his heart and his salvation.

The uni-verse states that our fruit should remain. We should leave a spiritual legacy of our faith, our words and our works. One leader who died recently in a plane crash said that “ success is not what we do when we live but what succeeds or follows us after our lives on earth.” The fruit or results of our lives should outlast it and remain to inspire faith, hope and love in others. The uni-verse ends with a promise of provision. Whatever we lack in order to produce results, the Lord will provide so that there is no ‘hamartia’ or shortcoming in our lives. Resources or its absence or shortage will never be the cause of our failure to produce results but our lack of wholehearted faith. We ask in Jesus’s name as it is not on our own merits but by grace from beginning to end that we approach the Father.

Prateep V Philip