zoidar replied, "Is this like looking if I have fruit in my life? I hear it all the time if you don't have fruit in your life you are not a born again believer. Ok, let's say I notice I don't bear fruit, then what? No one seems to say what to do if you don't bear fruit."
Yeah, the issue that you bring up is one that really needs to be addressed. It really cuts
to the core of what it actually means to have a true, living, saving experience and
relationship with he One True God through Jesus Christ.
What to do if we do not bear fruit? Well, what really needs to be understood here is how
that fruit is produced. It is critical to understand that God will produce fruit in those,
and only those, who have experienced the new birth (John 3:3-8). All who have received the life-imparting seed of the Holy Spirit will, to one degree or another, produce fruit.
Matthew 13:23,"But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Galatians 5:22-23,"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."
We cannot get "the cart (fruit) before the horse (Holy Spirit regeneration)"... it is from
this perspective I now approach this topic. There cannot be any "fruit" until there is
actually a "root"... and that "root" is in essence the impartation of the Holy Spirit's
regenerative work at a person's new birth experience. (Titus 3:5).
With that said, the key questions here can now be re-worded to say, "How does a person know that they have received the new birth experience?"..in other words, "What are the actual, perceivable, knowable, changes take place in a person's mind/heart as a result of their conversion/new birth experience?"
It has commonly been said, and rightly so, that the Christian faith should not be based upon feelings or emotions. But it is also true that feelings and emotions will necessarily
accompany a person's full and free pardon of ever sin they ever have, or ever will commit. And when I say, "feelings and emotions" here I am specifically referring to the aspect of (the subjective or personal) knowing that they have experienced a full forgiveness of their sins through a new birth experience. Can a person's sins be forgiven without that person realizing that their sins have been forgiven? How can a person have any confidence at all that they have been accepted before God without this knowledge? Do we say after receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, "I think I became a Christian today, I don't know if I really believe it or not, or if I will actually go to heaven when I die, but I'm excited anyway?"... this really sounds ridiculous to me, but yet that is the theology of many professing Christians, whether they realize it or not.
So, in a nut-shell, what is necessary here is honestly evaluating if we have in actuality
experienced this new birth event. Right along side of the aspect of owning the general
qualities listed as the fruit of regeneration is the aspect of the renewal of our minds;
that is, the incredible "re-shaping" of our "world-view" that occurs and originates at our
regeneration concerning the fallen, sinful state of mankind, our relationship to God..our
ultimate reason, and purpose for existing.. the driving force that inspires us to wake up
each morning.
Titus 3:5," not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,"
Many have greatly underestimated, and failed to grasp the magnitude of the renewing, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, and His radical transformational effect upon the
believer's nature. The Apostle Paul regards this change from sin to righteousness, from bondage to freedom, from death to life, as summed up in one definite act of the past; potentially available to all men in Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection, and actualized (effectual) in each individual when they place their trust in Christ's atoning work. It is the definiteness, the absoluteness of this change, considered as a historical crisis, which forms the central idea of St Paul’s teaching, and which the aorist marks.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21,"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
What is the condition of renewal? ‘If any man be in Christ’-how distinctly that implies something more than human in Paul’s conception of Christ. It implies personal union with Him, so that He is the very element or atmosphere in which we live. And that union is brought about by faith in Him.
How does such a state of union with Christ make a man a new creation? It gives a new aim and center for our lives. Then we live not unto ourselves; then everything is different and looks so, for the center is shifted. That union introduces a constant reference to Him and contemplation of His death for us, it leads to self-abnegation.
It puts all life under the influence of a new love. ‘The love of Christ constraineth.’ As is a man’s love, so is his life. The mightiest devolution is to excite a new love, by which old loves and tastes are expelled. ‘A new affection’ has ‘expulsive power,’ as the new sap rising in the springtime pushes off the lingering withered leaves. So union with Him meets the difficulty arising from inclination still hankering after evil. The new love gives a new and mighty motive for obedience.
That union breaks the terrible chain that binds us to the past. ‘All died.’ The past is broken as much as if we were dead. It is broken by the great act of forgiveness. Sin holds men by making them feel as if what has been must be-an awful entail of evil. In Christ we die to former self.
That union brings a new divine power to work in us. ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ It sets us in a new world which yet is the old. All things are changed if we are changed. They are the same old things, but seen in a new light, used for new purposes, disclosing new relations and powers. Earth becomes a school and discipline for heaven. The world is different to a blind man when cured, or to a deaf one,-there are new sights for the one, new sounds for the other. All this is true in the measure in which we live in union with Christ.
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith."
My friends, here is where "the pedal hits the metal," This is where we are heading full speed into a reality check that brings with it eternal implications. All who profess to be followers of Christ must subject themselves to a sincere evaluation of their spiritual condition.
What is the test of genuineness?... in other words, What is the evidence that a person is a true believer (that they have truly been born again - John 3:3-8)? The following is
certainly not a comprehensive listing, but a brief overview of the critical characteristics
that true followers of Christ possess :
(1) A love for, and longing to be with other believers. (1 John 4:7-8,20).
(2) A hunger for, and ability to understand the Bible. (John 6:33-35; Matt.5:6; Ps.119;
1 Cor.2:14-16).
(3) A desire to see others receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior (and rescued from eternal destruction). (Rom.9:1-3; Jude 1:23).
(4) A repulsion or abhorrence towards sinful behavior. (Ps.45:7; 97:10; Proverb 8:13;
Heb.1:9).
(5) A supreme love for God (Matt.22:37-38; 1 John 4:19), and desire to please and obey Him. (1 John 2:15; 1 John 2:5; John 14:21-25; Ps.119:47-48).
(6) An assurance of being a child of God, and experiencing a future reception of the
heavenly inheritance. (John 5:24; 6:40; 10:28; Rom.8:16,38-39; 2 Cor.5:4-5; Eph.4:30;
Phil.1:6; 1 Pet.1:23; 1 John 3:14,19,24; 5:11-13).
Hope this helps... Blessings!