Get ready because you are about to receive something that will change your life forever. There is a formula that will enable you to produce the life that God wants you to have. You are about to learn how to Grow a Good Tree. You will grow a tree that will produce good fruit in your life today, tomorrow, and the rest of your life.

 16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. - Matthew 7:16-18 (King James Version)

Here is the Five Step formula for Growing a Good Tree in your life.

1. Prepare the Soil

2. Plant the Seed

3. Water the Tree

4. Protect the Soil

5. Gather the Fruit

Prepare the Soil

One of the first steps that you must take to prepare your heart (your soil) is to follow David's example and give thanks to God.
 14Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: 15And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. - Psalm 50:14,15 (KJV)

Another thing that you want to do (also like David) is to praise Him.

Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. - Psalm 106:12 (KJV)

Praising God will show that you believe Him and trust Him. Believe that God is your source, God is your supply, God is good and He loves you. Praise Him with your words, praise Him with your actions, praise Him with singing and dancing, praise Him with your thoughts and words, and with everything in your being.

Next, spend time with God. You must make room for God every day. Even if it's just five minutes at first, start to spend time with God. Some ways to enter God's presence are through prayer, through reading the Bible, through talking to Him and about Him, through singing praise, and through thinking about Him and His goodness.

Finally, if you have unforgiveness in your heart, confess that sin and receive your healing. This will remove the bitterness that has tainted the soil of your heart.

Plant the Seed

Once you have prepared the soil, it is time to plant the seed. This is how Jesus explains the parable of the sower:

 18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
Matthew 18:18-23 (KJV)

You can see from this passage that your heart is your soil and the Word of God is the seed. When you receive God's Word, the soil knows what to do with it. So prepare your heart and listen to God's Word. Immerse yourself in His teaching. Follow His ways. If you have prepared the soil properly, the Word will be planted in the good soil that Jesus talks about. The soil that produces the multiplied harvest. A harvest that is 30, 60, or even 100 times what was sown.

Water the Seed

Often, the Bible discusses water in the sense of cleansing or repentance.

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Mark 1:8

This repentance, or change, is necessary for your tree to continue to grow. Behaviors that are corrupt will hinder the growth of the seed that has been planted in your heart. However, if you will follow God's formula for cleansing, you will add water to the seed that will enable it to grow.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

By removing this unrighteousness, we move closer to God. We are willingly submitting our will to God's Will.

Water in plants acts like blood does in animals. It carries the nutrients to all parts of the plant; thereby, giving even the extremities life. Water, then, in this comparison to the Word growing in your heart would be the messengers. In today's times, you can water the Word through going to church, listening to tapes, watching ministers on television, reading the Bible, confessing the Word, reading sound teaching on the internet, reading good books, and any other way of getting God's Word to the tree that is growing in your heart.

Protect the Soil

Just as important as watering the tree, is protecting it from anything that can harm it. If you look at the types of soil in Matthew 18, you can see that three of the soil types will not produce the harvest. The reasons are the following:

1. The seed sown along the path does not penetrate the soil before the devil comes to take it away. Thus, if the soil, or the heart is hardened, it is easy for the seed to be removed. This may come in the form of becoming offended at the messenger or numerous other ways for the heart to be unreceptive.
2. The seed sown in the rocky places does not develop strong roots. If the rocks are not removed, they will prevent the roots from taking hold. Thus, when the first sign of trouble comes, the plant is uprooted. This could occur if you keep friends or habits in your life that prevent you from getting nourishment to develop and grow.
3. The seed sown among the thorns allows distractions to choke out the plant. The plant may actually even grow and develop but it doesn't bear any fruit because worries, activities, and worldly wealth consume your attention and energy.

The good news for each of these issues is that they can be prevented or corrected if you will apply discipline and diligence. 

Gather the Fruit

If you wait for the fruit to fall off of the tree, chances are that it wiill not be good to eat. Thus, it stands to reason that you will need to do something to gather the fruit.

 26And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

 27And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

 28For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

 29But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. (Mark 4:26-29)

The seed knows what to do, and the soil knows what to do. By watching the progress of the plant, you will know when to harvest. The harvest is released when Faith is full-grown in your heart. When that happen, the Words you speak in Faith will release the fruit from the tree.

 14A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth: and the recompence of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him. (Proverbs 12:14)

The mouth produces the fruit (don't be misled, Faith requires corresponding action; otherwise, it is dead, See James 2). Once the tree is fully grown, the mouth will speak with Faith, which brings the harvest:

  45A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (Luke 6:45)

Words are the containers for our Faith. Words bring the inner image developed in the spirit man to manifest in the physical. It is when faith is fully developed that the image is ready to be released by the tongue.