In John 15 we read: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine keeper (husbandman). Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, no more can ye, unless ye abide in Me. “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples. As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in My love.”
What does it mean to ‘abide’ in the Lord? As I pondered these scriptures one day it became so obvious. I think very often we are all guilty of over spritualizing scriptures to the point they become some deep pondered ethereal mystery and we just kind of acknowledge the deepness of a passage like it isn’t MEANT to be understood. New Agers love doing this. It makes them feel special like they understand something you don’t on a level you couldn’t possibly comprehend because after all you are YOU not ME. Granted there are some deep truths that we cannot comprehend in our finite minds and granted sometimes God, I believe, allows us to be gripped by a spiritual truth and not comprehend it so we WILL spend time with Him and seek understanding. That being said….this isn’t one of those times.
Abide speaks of where we live. I physically abide in a house in the coastal area of NC. So I got thinking about these scriptures. Jesus gives a very vivid and clear instruction and insight here. He says if you abide in HIM and He abides in you can ask what you will and it will be done to you. So I may live physically in a house at the coast but spiritually I live and abide in HIM. This is so DEEP yet so SIMPLE. He is saying when you become born again…you move in with ME. You reside where I reside. And what is so great about it is it is a spiritual house that no matter where you are physically…mentally and spiritually you can be in my house! When you are going through a difficult time, you are in my house. When you are unemployed, you are in my house. No matter what you are going through rather than walk out in the street and deal with it just look out the window of my house. Things will look different if you will just stay in my house. If anyone needs to go out in the yard and deal with any situation I will handle it. This is GOOD NEWS! But it also begs us each to answer the question: WHERE DO YOU LIVE? Too many Christians are living in the past…living in depression….living in fear…living in doubt…living in religion and tradition…and I could go on. You need to ask yourself, WHERE DO YOU LIVE? Maybe you need to be honest before God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where you REALLY live. There are some of us that are living in our houses of false contentment but are secretly looking out the window at the house across the street where the Lord lives, when He is inviting us to come and dine. God desires so much more for our lives than where most of us are. Yet He has said throughout His word that His kingdom is within. It is a kingdom unlimited, unfettered, unaffected by the things of this world. You are in the Father’s house no matter where you go or what your circumstances are. No matter the storm outside you are safe in His house.
Look at Psalms 91: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
There is that word again, ABIDE. David wrote this psalm. David made a lot of bad choices in his life. He fell to a lot of temptation but when all was said and done he knew where to turn to or I should say RETURN to. When David wrote this Psalm it is said that he would often get up before the sun rose and bow in the shadow of the sanctuary of that temple the children of Israel carried where the Ark of the Covenant was housed, the presence of God appeared in that holy place. It is said that as the shadow moved David moved from sun up to sun down literally in the shadow of the Almighty. Look at the words he uses: He DWELLS in the secret place of the most high, he ABIDES under the shadow of the Almighty. In His house there is peace and protection…in His house is healing…in His house there is salvation. Praise God! Man, Psalms 91:1 is my 911 scripture! When I am going through something that challenges my faith, that challenges my sanity…911! I go bow myself in the shadow of the almighty…I remind myself whose house I dwell in…I remind the enemy of my soul where I live, where I ABIDE! I remind my troubled mind whose child I am and in whose house I abide in! I stand upon the promise of His word that though ‘a thousand fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand it shall not come nigh me!’ Why? Go on down to verse 9 ‘because I have made the Lord my refuge, even the most High, my habitation’ and in verse 14-15 ‘because I have set my love and my focus upon Him, He will deliver me: He will set me on high, because he has known my name. 15 I shall call upon Him, and He will answer me: He will be with me in trouble; He will deliver me, and honour me.’
Let’s return to John 15. He says HE IS THE VINE…WE ARE THE BRANCHES. He gives a very clear example here we can all relate to. How long does a branch live that you cut off of a tree? Not very long. As long as a branch stays connected to the vine He says it bears fruit…much fruit! If we don’t abide in the vine we wither…we are good for nothing except to be cast into the fire. And so it is with a Christian. They are worthless if they think they can do it on their own. We are to be branches not BRANCH MANAGERS. The best definition I can give you of a Christian is take CHRIST out of word CHRISTIAN and you are left with three letters, I-A-N. These three letters can stand for ‘I Am Nothing’. In other words, if you are truly a Christian you know what that means, you are nothing without Christ. The modern day church has created its programs and become all professional and slick in appearance to the point they can have church whether God is present or not. But that is just an illusion and a lie. It is still the same, without Him we are nothing. If we are not connected to the vine, and Jesus leaves no doubt who the vine is in verse 1 when He says HE is the vine, we are lifeless, we are powerless, we cannot produce fruit without being connected to HIM. Galatians 5 tells us what that fruit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. In that verse where it is listed, verse 22, what does it call this fruit? The fruit of US? No, the fruit of the SPIRIT. It is HIS fruit. HE produces fruit through us as long as we are connected to the vine. If you are not producing the fruit of the Spirit guess what? You just might want to check and make sure what vine you are connected to. You can’t truly produce real fruit…effective fruit, unless you are connected to HIM…or more properly said, the Holy Spirit cannot produce fruit through you if you are not connected into the true vine, Jesus. Just like it would be impossible for you to stand there and hold a branch out, no matter how well you held it out, it WILL NOT produce fruit. It will die. You can decorate a Christmas tree up all you want and it may look all pretty but guess what it is a dying tree. So many of us are like Christmas trees we look the part, we look all pretty and alive, but guess what, let someone hang around you long enough and they will figure it out…you are dead. You are fruitless. Like a Christmas tree withers and dies though it has beautiful decorations on it, the truth cannot be hidden long, it dies and all the world sees that what was all shiny and glittery and looked so beautiful and alive was nothing but artificial. Are you a Christian that looks the part, all sparkly on the outside, maybe fooling a lot of people but deep down you are dying or already dead. People don’t want your artificial promises like ‘I will pray for you’ knowing you really won’t. People don’t want your blessing to ‘go, be ye warmed and filled’ when you give them nothing to fill their belly or keep them warm. People don’t want a church that says ‘live holy’ when they are living no differently than the rest of the world. People don’t want a church to pray for them to be healed and filled with the Spirit but don’t really believe it.
So many these days love to quote that verse in John 15:7 that says’ if my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done to you’ when they want something from God, like God is just some vending machine that if I put the right combination of coins in will get what I want. People love to quote that verse that says He will give me the desires of my heart believing that means whatever selfish desire you have. That’s not what these verses are saying. That one verse means He will give you the desires you are supposed to have, the desires HE wants you to have. If His words are truly in you and you are TRULY connected to Him like a branch to a vine you will produce the fruit He wants you to produce…the things you will ask will be things that bring HIM glory. You will ask what you will but guess what your desires will be HIS desires. You will desire and ask for things that glorify Him…that will forward HIS kingdom…that will break the chains of darkness and deliver those that are bound. If you are not producing spiritual fruit Galatians 5 tells you what you will produce…it calls it the works of the flesh…” which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings” and then he goes on to say “of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
This is serious, saints! If you are producing the works of the flesh you SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. You might be saying well, I’m not doing any of that stuff you said. Guess what, just as guilty if you are producing artificial fruit. Jesus made it clear in John 15:6 “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” No matter how good you think you are if you are not connected to Him whatever fruit you are producing no matter how good it is if it is not of Him, it will starve the world just as sure as if you fed them wax fruit. There are many good civic organizations doing many good works but that is not the fruit that will win the eternal souls of men and women. It is only as we allow Him to work through us that we become the deliverers this world needs. The 12 disciples who walked with Jesus were EVEN told to go to an upper room and wait to be endued with power from on high. It is the same with us. We get saved and if we don’t watch out we let our religion, traditions and denomination decorate us like a Christmas tree when God has delivered us from all that artificiality so we could truly bear the fruit He desires us to produce. We, like the disciples of old need to get before God and cry out to Him to connect us to the true vine…allow His life to surge through us…allow His power to flow through us and bear fruit that glorifies Him and feeds the hungry souls of this world. I…A…N…Without Him we can do nothing.
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Benjamin Raven Pressley is a prolific writer and has authored many books and blogs. He is an author, artist and philosopher. His Cherokee heritage and his knowledge of living in harmony with the planet and God are evident throughout everything he writes. Raven welcomes your questions, input, and visits to his website at Ravens-Writing-Desk.com.
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