After years of apartment living, an overseas move, first jobs, two small children, and nearly ten years of marriage, we bought our first house. It was perfect: huge picture windows, original wood floors, a yard for our children to play in, and a front porch where we envisioned sitting outside and chatting with neighbors as they walked by. The only challenge was that it had been a foreclosure and it needed a ton of work, especially on the outside. The yard, full of weeds and metal, wasn’t quite what we envisioned our toddlers pushing trucks in or where we saw them running through the sprinklers.
In our yard, we dug out broken glass, found too-many-to-count beer-bottle caps, and uprooted years of overgrown bushes. We even let a neighborhood guy take his metal detector around to look for treasures (sadly, none were found!). Bryce recruited friends to help build a fence creating a safe space for kids to play. It took hours of labor, research, and plenty of muscle to begin making this house a home.
We loved sitting on our porch sipping a cold drink and talking with neighbors who expressed gratitude that we’d begun fixing up the house. But change took a whole lot longer than we thought, and it required intention, planning, and work. For the house and yard to become habitable, we needed the help, encouragement, and brawn of our friends to work alongside us too.
The same is true of our spiritual lives. Growth in the Christian life requires being acted on—like the ground being leveled and planted—so that something more life-giving can grow. Growth also requires others who work alongside you, and growth requires you follow a vision for what could be.
The Process of Spiritual Growth
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ vision of the good life for his disciples (then and now). Such a life is fruitful: oriented to the flourishing of individuals and communities and a visible, tactile example that the kingdom of heaven has come in Jesus. Our lives as Jesus’ followers are good news; they are like juicy pieces of fruit that testify to the goodness of life in Christ!
When we talk about fruitfulness, we mean “growing to look more like Jesus, living and loving as he did” (a phrase that both Dallas Willard and Steven Garber are fond of using). Toward the end of his most familiar sermon, known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses this same metaphor of fruitfulness and says that it’s by our fruits that people will be able to recognize us as Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 7:20).
Healthy fruit comes from healthy plants (Matthew 7:17). But how does this happen? In John 15, Jesus uses this same fruit-bearing imagery: he calls himself the vine and says that his disciples (us!) are the branches. The Father is the gardener who prunes and cares for us so that we will bear fruit as we are attached to the vine, as we remain in Jesus.
We are dependent on him, and we must remain connected to Jesus to grow. How do we remain in Jesus, like branches on a vine? Jesus says we do so by keeping his commands, some of which he lays out for us in the Sermon on the Mount (John 15:10). How can we do that? Through the work of the Spirit!
Staying Connected to Jesus for Growth
As we study Jesus’ most famous sermon, and as we put it into practice, we expect that God’s Spirit will work in our lives to grow spiritual fruit. That’s Jesus’ promise! Fruit bearing is evidence of being Jesus’ disciple.
But this doesn’t happen in an instant. Just as fruit trees take time before they produce fruit, growing to look more like Jesus takes time. Just like the transformation of our home, the cultivation of healthy spiritual fruit requires time with a vision, renewed intention, and a plan to get there. Ultimately our fruitfulness isn’t just for us—it spills over so that our communities flourish too.
Seasons of Spiritual Growth and Pruning
Fruitfulness also happens in stages. There will be seasons of fruit bearing, seasons when all you feel is God’s pruning, and times of underground germination when all you can do is hope that roots are growing beneath the surface. All of this is normal. Through it all, we practice remaining connected to Jesus and his people.
Cultivating a Life of Lasting Fruit
Perhaps you’re muscling through your Christian life but not experiencing growth. Dallas Willard often said that grace isn’t opposed to effort, but it is opposed to earning. You’ll be encouraged that Jesus fulfills all of what he’s asking of you in himself. Everything worth doing requires intention and effort. And in the Christian life, you know that the effort you put in flourishes because of the Holy Spirit who comforts, convicts, and promises to be the presence of Jesus with you.
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Adapted from A Fruitful Life by Ashley Hales and Bryce Hales. ©2025 by Ashley Hales and Bryce Hales. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com.
