Years ago, before I really became thoroughly invested in getting revelation on the New Covenant, Staying encouraged was a great challenge to me.  My spiritual sense of well being relied heavily upon my own performance and thus it ebbed and flowed like a tide on the shore of the ocean.

But even now that I have spent years committed to the gospel of grace and New Covenant truth the great challenge to me is to keep my mind renewed in that truth daily as I find that Old Covenant thinking and talk is most prevalent in church culture at large.

It seems that talk is always on how I am doing according to my flesh first and foremost.  How the church I am leading is doing according to some measure based on whoever is asking the question.  Everything inquired is generally aimed at what kind of performance I am yielding in some area regarded as being spiritual.

But is this the way it really ought to be?  Should the inquiry of others be about how they measure up spiritually or should it be about  being encouraged and rejoicing in Jesus?

You see I am finding myself desiring more and more to be immersed in the truth of what Jesus has done and less and less immersed in examining so much what I have done.  I am finding that I do that more and more I experience fruit in the Spirit.

Jesus said in John 15, “If you abide in me and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit because unless the branch abides in the vine it cannot bear fruit.”

The key to real fruit bearing in the kingdom is not found in the measuring evaluations of men who use fleshly methods for determine kingdom success.  It is found through our relationship to Christ and allowing our fruitfulness to be governed by Him.

To encourage fruitfulness apart from a strong emphasis on being captivated by Him and fully immersed in a revelation of what He accomplished and how it is applied to us, the end result is encouragement to produce by the flesh what is only supposed to be done by the Spirit.

The system of Christianity in the west has leaned heavily upon a mixture of Old Covenant and some New Covenant methodology to produce results.  This mixture is not what God is looking for.

It might appear impressive outwardly to those looking on, but God sees from the inside out everything with the clearest perspective of all.  He wants our boast to be in His Son not ourselves.  For that to be true I must take up the great challenge of looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of my faith as opposed to my own abilities and talents, or the lack thereof.  I must ;learn everyday how to rely even more on the Holy Spirit’s help in abiding in Jesus so I might bear the kid of fruit the kingdom is best known for, and Jesus is delights in.

I encourage you to Jon me today in looking to Jesus for encouragement and strength and to lat go of looking at yourself to see if you measure up spiritually.  Let His completed work be what you boast in today.