Hello Lovely Ladies!
My PC has been returned to the manufacturer (HP) with an estimated turnaround time of 2-5 weeks! So there will be no daily blog-spot in the foreseeable future. I am sorry about that however I have no access to my resources, Bible program, books or ... ... 

Please know that I pray for you each day and that You are never far from my thoughts. I am wondering whether God is changing up my life and the way I 'do' priorities and what will come out of this lifestyle challenge! Keep me in your prayers. Perhaps I am in a new season and some things need to be 'dropped' and new ones picked up? I'll keep you posted as to the outcome of my ponderings! Currently I am in the 'pencil pushing' phase of noting from books and copying out Scriptures Holy Spirit leads me to. Back to the future??!!

In the meantime ... I wait, waiting - expectant of some interesting revelations, insight, wisdom and more.
Keep in touch ... you are all on a very interesting journey and I am grateful to be able to share in it with you.
Love and blessings
xoM

Hello Lovey Ladies!
Well ... I am still off air and praying for a miracle. My PC came back without the internet established ... here that is. it worked well in their office. HOWEVER ... for some strange reason I am missing Office 2016 which features Word and all the docs I have created in the past 20 years!! So back to Geek Squad tomorrow or Monday and we'll see if they can re-load Office and recover all my docs. Currently they are presenting as a PDF 'unopenable' file!!

So my question is ... does our Lord want me to leave behind ALL of the past writings and start afresh because I am a new creation OR is the evil one really ticked off a my writing that I have been planning to publish that he has thrown a spanner in the works ... temporarily?

Questions! Questions! I'll keep you posted!
Miss you heaps!
Love and blessings
xoM

Hello Lovely Ladies!

I am still off air ... my PC has gone in for repairs and it may be another 5 days 

before I get it back. I do miss my daily contact with you and 

look forward to it being reinstated! 

Love and blessings to you all. 

xoM

 

My apologies lovely ladies!

 

Blogspot is off for the duration

until I am able to have a virus removed

from my lovely laptop

that prevents me from connecting to the

internet.

 

God bless you all ...

you are in my prayers!

xoM

 

43. Obey and Abide

John 15:10 (NRSV)  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, 

just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Reference has been made to the entrance into a life of rest and strength which has often come through a true insight into the personal love of Christ, and the assurance that that love indeed meant that He would keep the soul. In connection with that transition, and the faith that sees and accepts it, the word surrender or consecration is frequently used. The soul sees that it cannot claim the keeping of this wonderful love unless it yields itself to a life of entire obedience.

This is the thought we have here now in our Savior's teaching. After having in the words, "Abide in My Love," spoken of a life in His Love as a necessity He states what its one condition is: "If you keep My Commandments, you shall abide in My Love." This is surely not meant to close the door to the abode of His Love that He had just opened up. No—the precept is a promise. "Abide in my Love," could not be a precept if it were not a promise. Through His Will, loved and done, lies the path to His Love.

Obedience is the positive keeping of the commandments of our Lord, and the performance of His Will in everything in which we know it. Faith in Christ as our Vine, in His Enabling and Sanctifying Power, equips us for this obedience of faith, and secures a life of abiding in His Love. It is the Heavenly Vine unfolding the mystery of the life He gives. It is to those abiding in Him to whom He opens up the secret of the full abiding in His Love. It is the wholehearted surrender in everything to do His Will, that gives access to a life in the abiding enjoyment of His Love.

42. Abide in My Love

John 15:9 (NRSV)  As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; 

abide in my love.

Abide in My Love—we speak of a man's home as his abode. Our abode, the home of our soul, is to be the Love of Christ. We are to live our life there, to be at home there all the day—this is what Christ means our life to be, and we with Him really can make it so. Our continuous abiding in the Vine is to be an abiding in His Love.

The Love of the Father to the Son is not a sentiment—it is a Divine Life, an infinite energy, an irresistible power. It carried Christ through life and death and the grave. The Father loved Him and dwelt in Him, and did all for Him. So the Love of Christ to us too is an Infinite Living Power that will work in us ALL He delights to give us.

All too often the feebleness of our Christian life is that we do not take time to believe that this Divine Love really does delight in us, and will possess and work ALL in us. We do not take time to look at the Vine bearing the branch so entirely, working all in it so completely. We strive to do for ourselves what Christ alone can, what Christ so lovingly longs to do for us.

In faith we are to cast ourselves on Christ to work it in us—

this is the secret of the true Christian life.

Q: But how to come to this faith?

… Turn away from the visible if you want to see and possess the invisible. Take more time with Jesus, gazing on Him as the Heavenly Vine, living in the Love of the Father, wanting you to live in His Love. Turn away from yourself and your efforts and your faith. Abiding means going away from everything else, to occupy one place and stay there. Come away from all else, and set your heart on Jesus, and His Love and that Love will awaken your faith and strengthen it. Occupy yourself with that Love, worship it, wait for it. You can be sure it will reach out to you, and by its Power take you up into itself as your abode and your home.

41. The Wonderful Love—

John 15:9 (NRSV) As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; 

abide in my love.

Even as the Father has loved Me—

Q: and how did the Father love Him?

The infinite desire and delight of God to communicate to the Son all He had Himself, to take the Son into the most complete equality with Himself, to live IN the Son and have the Son live IN Him—this was the love of God to Christ. It is a mystery of glory of which we have no concept—we can only bow and worship as we try to think of it. And with such a love, with this very same love, Christ longs in an infinite desire and delight to communicate to us ALL He is and has, to make us partakers of His own nature and blessedness, to live IN us and have us live IN Himself.

However, this question arises … if Christ loves us with such an intense and infinite Divine Love, what is it that hinders it triumphing over every obstacle and getting full possession of us?

… The answer is simple. Even as the Love of the Father to Christ, so His Love to us is a Divine Mystery, too high for us to comprehend or attain by any effort of our own. It is only God’s Holy Spirit Who can shed abroad and reveal in its all-conquering power without ceasing this wonderful Love of God in Christ. It is the vine itself that must give the branch its growth and fruit by sending up its sap. It is Christ Himself Who must by His Holy Spirit dwell in the heart—then we shall know and have in us the love that passes all understanding and knowledge.

40. The Wonderful Love—

John 15:9 (NRSV) As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; 

abide in my love.

Here Christ leaves the language of parable, and speaks plainly out of the Father. As much as this parable teaches us, it cannot teach the lesson of love. All that the vine does for the branch, it does under the compulsion of a law of nature: there is no personal living love to the branch. We are in danger of looking to Christ as a Saviour and a supplier of every need, appointed by God, accepted and trusted by us, without any sense of the intensity of personal affection with which Christ embraces us.

Christ seeks to point us to this.

Q: And how does He do so?

… He leads us once again to Himself, to show us how identical His Own Life is with ours. Even as the Father loved Him, He loves us. His life as Vine dependent on the Father was a Life in His Father's Love. That love was His Strength and His Joy. It was in the Power of that Divine Love resting on Him He lived and died. If we are to live like Him we must share in this also. Our life must have its breath and being in a Heavenly Love as much as His. What the Father's Love was to Him, His Love will be to us. If that Love made Him the True Vine, His Love can make us true branches. 

"Even as the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you."

39. True Disciples—

John 15:8 (NRSV) My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and 

become my disciples.

Bear much fruit—so shall you be My disciples …

AM begs every reader to consider these words seriously. We are not to be content with the thought of gradually doing a little more or better work. We are to take the words, much fruit, as the revelation of our Heavenly Vine of what we must be, of what we can be. We are to humbly accept fully the impossibility and the utter folly of attempting it in our own strength.

Let the words call us to look anew upon the Vine and the undertaking to live out its Heavenly fullness in us. Let the words awaken in us once again the faith and the confession: "I am a branch of the True Vine; I can bear much fruit to His Glory, and the Glory of the Father." Let us ask Him to reveal to us how He asks and claims a life wholly given up to Him, to be as full of His Holy Spirit as He can make us.

Let our desire be nothing less than perfect cleansing, unbroken abiding, closest communion, abundant fruitfulness—true branches of the True Vine.

38. The Father Glorified—

John 15:8 (NRSV) My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit 

and become my disciples.

Much fruit—God asks it of us and we are to see that we give it. God can be content with nothing less and we are to be content with nothing less. Let these words of Christ—fruit, more fruit, much fruit—abide in us, until we think as He does, and we are prepared to take from Him, the heavenly Vine, what He has for us—much fruit. In this way our Father is glorified. Let the very loftiness of this demand be our encouragement. It is so entirely beyond our power, that it throws us more entirely upon Christ, our True Vine. He can and He will, make it true in each one of us.

Much fruit—God asks because He needs. He does not ask fruit from the branches of His Vine for show, to prove what He can do, no! He needs it for the salvation of men and it is in that He is glorified. We are to throw ourselves in much prayer on our True Vine and our Vine-grower. We are to cry out to God and our Father to give us fruit to bring to mankind. We are to take the burden of the hungry and the perishing upon ourselves just as Jesus did when He was moved with compassion. It is in His Power in our prayer, and our abiding, and our bearing much fruit to the Glory of our Father that we will have a reality and a certainty we have never known before.

37. The Father Glorified—

John 15:8 (NRSV) My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit 

and become my disciples.

Q: How can we glorify God?

… Certainly not by adding to His Glory or bringing Him any new Glory that He has not. We bring Glory to God simply by allowing His Glory to shine out through us, by yielding ourselves to Him, that His Glory may manifest itself in us and through us to the world.

In a vineyard or a vine bearing much fruit, the owner is glorified as it tells of his/her skill and care. In we disciples who bear much fruit, the Father is glorified. Before men and angels, proof is given of the glory of God's Grace and Power—God's glory shines out through us.

Let us learn the secret of bringing glory to God, serving in the ability which God gives us—the full acceptance of Christ's Word, "You can do nothing" … the simple faith in God, who works all in all; the abiding in Christ through whom the Divine Vine-grower does His work and gets much fruit—this is the life that will bring glory to God.

36. If you Abide—

John 15:7 (NRSV)  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

And what is its secret?

Be wholly occupied with Jesus. Sink the roots of your being in faith, love and obedience deep down into Him. Come away out of every other place to abide here. Give up everything for the inconceivable privilege of being a branch on earth of the glorified Son of God in Heaven. Let Christ be first. Let Christ be ALL. Do not be occupied with the abiding—be occupied with Christ! He will hold you, He will keep you abiding in Him. He will abide IN you.

If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you—

These are the words He give us not only in meditation but in memory, in love, in faith—all these words entering into our wills, our beings, and constituting our lives. It is then they transform our character into the likeness of the Divine Words themselves and we become and are what they speak and mean … ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. 

Our words to God in prayer will be the fruit of Christ and His Words living in us.

35. If you Abide—

John 15:7 (NRSV) If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, 

ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

The reason the Vine and its branches are such a true parable of the Christian life is that all nature has one source and breathes one spirit. The plant world was created to be to man an object lesson teaching him his entire dependence upon God, and his security in that dependence. He that clothes the lilies will much more clothe us. He that gives the trees and the vines their beauty and their fruits, making each what He meant it to be, will much more certainly make us what He would have us to be. The only difference is what God works in the trees is by a Power of which they are not conscious. He wants to work in us with our consent. This is the nobility of man, that he has a will to co-operate with God in understanding and approving and accepting what He offers to do.

If you abide—

Here is the difference between the branch of the natural and the branch of the spiritual Vine—the former abides by force of nature: the latter abides by a Divine Power given to the consent of the will. Such is the wonderful provision God has made that, what the power of nature does in the one case, the Power of Grace will do in the other. The branch can abide in the Vine.

If you abide in Me ... ask whatsoever you will—

If we are to live a true prayer life marked by the love, power and the experience of prayer there need be no question about the abiding. And if we abide, there need be no question about the liberty of asking what we will, and the certainty of it being done. There is the one condition: "If you abide in Me." There must be no hesitation about the possibility or the certainty of it—we must gaze on that little branch and its wonderful power of bearing such beautiful fruit until we truly learn to abide.

34. Whatsoever you Will—

John 15:7 (NRSV) — 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

By now we realize that we can only fulfill our calling to bear much fruit, by praying much. IN Christ are hidden all the treasures we need; in Him all God's children are blessed with all spiritual blessings. He is full of Grace and Truth, however it needs prayer, much prayer, strong believing prayer, to bring these blessings down. Let us equally remember that we cannot appropriate the promise without a life given up for others. When our hearts are burdened with the needs of souls, and we have heard the command to save them—then the power will come to claim the promise.

Let us claim it as one of the revelations of our wonderful life in the Vine: He tells us that if we ask in His Name, in virtue of our union with Him, whatsoever it be, it will be done to us. Souls are perishing because there is too little prayer. God's children are feeble because there is too little prayer. We bear so little fruit because there is so little prayer. The faith of this promise makes us strong to pray so let us not rest until it has entered into our very heart, and drawn us in the Power of Christ to continue and labor and strive in prayer until the blessing comes in power. 

To be a branch means not only bearing fruit on earth, 

but Power in prayer to bring down blessing from Heaven. 

Abiding fully means praying much.

33. Whatsoever you Will—

John 15:7 (NRSV) If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, 

ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

The whole place of the branch in the vine is one of unceasing prayer. Without interruption it is forever calling: O my Vine, send the sap I need to bear Your Fruit. And its prayers are never unanswered: it asks what it needs, what it will, and it is done.

The healthy life of the believer IN Christ is equally one of unceasing prayer. Consciously or unconsciously, he lives in continual dependence. The Word of his Lord, "You can do nothing," has taught him that not more unbroken than the continuance of the branch in the vine, must be his asking and receiving. The promise of our text gives us infinite boldness: "Ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be done unto you."

This promise is given in direct connection with fruit-bearing. Limit it to yourself and your own needs, and you rob it of its power—you rob yourself of the power of appropriating it. Christ was sending these disciples out, and they were ready to give their life for the world; to them He gave the disposal of the treasures of Heaven. Their prayers would bring the Spirit and the Power they needed for their work.

To avail ourselves of the unlimited prayer promises, we must be believers who are filled with God’s Holy Spirit, and wholly given up to the work and glory of Jesus. His Spirit will lead us into the Truth of its meaning and the certainty of its fulfillment.

32. Withered Branches—

John 15:6 (NRSV) — 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

There is such a thing as not abiding in Christ, which leads to withering up and burning. The cause of this not abiding is generally that the believer was not truly rooted IN Christ. We need to let the word Abide ring through the church and our lives until every believer has caught it—for there is no safety but in a true abiding in Christ.

Ask yourself … Is my life fresh, and green, and vigorous, 

bringing forth its fruit in its season?

Psalm 1:3 (NRSV) — 3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

Psalm 92:13–14 (NRSV) — 13 They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. 14 In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap,

Jeremiah 17:7–8 (NRSV) — 7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

Let us accept every warning with a willing mind, and let Christ's "if a man abide not" give new urgency to His "abide in Me." To the upright soul the secret of abiding will become ever simpler because we are more conscious of the place in which He has put us—the childlike resting in our union with Him, and the trustful assurance that He will keep each one of us.

31. You can do Nothing—

John 15:5 (NRSV) I am the vine, you are the branches. 

Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, 

because apart from me you can do nothing.

Apart from Me you can do nothing—this is both a plea and a call to abide in Christ every moment! We have only to go back to the vine to see how true it is. Look again at that little branch, utterly helpless and fruitless unless it receives sap from the vine, and learns that the full conviction of not being able to do anything apart from Christ is just what we need to know to abide in our Heavenly Vine. This is the great meaning of the pruning Christ spoke of—all that is self must be brought low, that our confidence may be in Christ alone. Abide in Me—much fruit! Apart from Me—nothing! The choice is easy, is it not?

The one lesson of the parable is—as surely, as naturally as the branch abides in the vine, we can abide in Christ. For this He is the True Vine; for this God is the Vine-grower; for this each one of us is a branch. May we cry to God to deliver us forever from the "apart from Me," and to make the "abide in Me" an unceasing reality! Let our hearts go out to Who Christ is, and what He can do. Let our hearts go out to His Divine Power and His Tender Love to each of His branches. Then we will confidently declare

 "Lord! I am abiding; I will bear much fruit. My impotence is my strength. So be it. 

Apart from You, nothing. 

In You, much fruit." 

John 15:5 (NRSV) — 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. 

Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, 

because apart from me you can do nothing.

There is a deep conviction of the truth of this word that lies at the very root of a strong spiritual life. As little as I created myself, as little as I could raise a man from the dead, can I give myself the Divine Life. As little as I can give it myself, can I maintain or increase it—every action is the work of God through Christ and His Spirit. It is as we believe this, that we will take up that position of entire and continual dependence upon Christ which is the very essence of the life of faith.

With our spiritual eyes we are to see Christ every moment supplying Grace for every breath we breathe and every deepening of our spiritual life. Our whole heart is to say Amen to the word—You can do nothing. And just because our heart agrees with this word we can also say: "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." The sense of helplessness, and the abiding to which it compels, leads to true fruitfulness and diligence in good works.

Apart from Me you can do nothing—

29. You can do Nothing—

John 15:5 (NRSV) I am the vine, you are the branches.

Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, 

because apart from me you can do nothing.

In everything the life of the branch is to be the exact counterpart of that of the Vine. Of Himself Jesus had said: "The Son can do nothing of Himself." As the outcome of that entire dependence, He could add: "All that the Father does, does the Son also likewise." As Son He did not receive His life from the Father once for all, but moment by moment. His life was a continual waiting on the Father for all He was to do and say.

Christ says to His disciples: "You can do nothing apart from Me." He means it literally. To everyone who wants to live the true disciple life, to bring forth fruit and glorify God, the message comes: You can do nothing. What had been said: "He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit," is here enforced by the simplest and strongest of arguments … He says to us "Abiding in Me is indispensable, for of yourselves you can do nothing to maintain or act out the Heavenly Life."

28. Much Fruit—

John 15:5 (NRSV)  I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, 

because apart from me you can do nothing. …

Our Holy Vine reveals the law of sure and abundant fruitfulness: "He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit." The gardener cares for one thing—the strength and healthy life of his tree—the fruit follows of itself. If you would bear fruit, see that the inner life is perfectly right, that your relationship to Christ Jesus is clear and close. Each day take time to grow in the Truth that you are abiding in Him and He in you. Christ tells us that nothing less will do. It is not your willing and running, it is not by your might or strength, but—"by my Spirit, says the Lord." Meet each new engagement, undertake every new work, with an ear and heart open to the Master's voice: "He that abides in Me, bears much fruit." When you seek the abiding—He will see to the fruit because He will give it in you and through you.

It is Christ Who does it all! The Vine provides the sap, and the life, and the strength—the branch waits, rests, receives, and bears the fruit.

Take time and ask God’s Holy Spirit to give you understanding of the unspeakably solemn place you occupy in the Mind of God. He has planted you INTO His Son with the calling and the power to bear much fruit. Accept that place. Look only to God, and to Christ, and expect joyfully to be what God has planned to make you—a fruitful branch—bearing much fruit, out of the abundance of His Grace.

27. Much Fruit—

John 15:5 (NRSV) — 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. 

Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, 

because apart from me you can do nothing. …

Our Lord had spoken of fruit, more fruit. He now adds the thought: much fruit. There is in the Vine such fullness, the care of the Divine Husbandman is so sure of success, that the much fruit is not a demand, but the simple promise of what must come to the branch that lives in the double abiding—he in Christ, and Christ in him. "The same brings forth much fruit." It is certain.

Q: Have you ever noticed the difference in the Christian life between work and fruit?

… A machine can do work: only life can bear fruit. A law can compel work: only love can spontaneously bring forth fruit. Work implies effort and labor: the essential idea of fruit is that it is the silent natural restful produce of our inner life. The gardener may labor to give his apple tree the digging and manuring, the watering and the pruning it needs—he can do nothing to produce the apple: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy." The healthy life bears much fruit. The connection between work and fruit is perhaps best seen in the expression, "fruitful in every good work." …

Colossians 1:10 (NRSV)  so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, 

fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work 

and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

26. You are the Branches—

John 15:5 (NRSV) — 5a I am the vine, you are the branches. …

You are the branch—you need be nothing more. You need not for one single moment of the day take upon you the responsibility of the Vine. You need never to leave that place of entire dependence and unbounded confidence IN Him. You need not be anxious as to how you are to understand the mystery, or fulfill its conditions, or work out its blessed aim because the True Vine will give all and work all. The Father, the Vine-grower watches over your union with and growth in the Vine. You need be nothing more than a branch. Only a branch! Let that be your watchword—it will lead in the path of continual surrender to Christ's Working, of true obedience to His every Command, of joyful expectancy of all His Grace.

The character of a branch, its strength and the fruit it bears, depends entirely upon the vine. Your life as a branch depends entirely upon your comprehension of Who our Lord Jesus is. Therefore never separate the two words: "I the Vine—you the branch." Your life and strength and fruit depend upon Who and What our Lord Jesus is! Therefore worship and trust Him. Let Him be your one desire and the one occupation of your heart. And should you feel that you do not and cannot know Him aright simply remember that it is part of His Responsibility as Vine to make Himself known to you! He does this not in thoughts and conceptions but in a hidden growth within the life that is humbly, restfully and entirely given up to wait on Him.

The vine reveals itself within the branch from thence comes the growth and fruit. Christ dwells and works within His branch so you need only be a branch, waiting on Him to do ALL. He will be to you the True Vine. The Father Himself, the Divine Vine-grower, is able to make you a branch worthy of the heavenly Vine. 

You shall not be disappointed! 

It is ALL of Him!

25. You are the Branches—

John 15:5 (NRSV) — 5a I am the vine, you are the branches. …

Christ had already said much of the branch and here He gives His Words to us personal application … You are the branches of whom I have been speaking. As I am the Vine, engaged to be and do all the branch needs, so I now ask you, in the new dispensation of God’s Holy Spirit Whom I have been promising you, to accept the place I give you, and to be My branches on earth.

The relationship He seeks to establish is an intensely personal one—it all hinges on the two little words I and You. It is as intensely personal for us as it was for the first disciples. Let us present ourselves before our Lord, until He speaks to each of us in Power, and our entire soul feels it: I am the Vine; you are the branch.

Hear His Voice saying this to you—whether you hear it softly or loudly—hear His Voice saying to you … You are the branch. You must be nothing less. Let nothing keep you back from saying:

"I will be a branch, with all that may mean—a feeble branch but yet as like the Vine as can be, for I am of the same nature, and receive of the same Spirit. A branch, utterly helpless, and yet just as manifestly set apart before God and men, as wholly given up to the work of bearing fruit, as the Vine itself. A branch, nothing in myself, and yet resting and rejoicing in the faith that knows that He will provide for all. Yes, by His Grace, I will be nothing less than a branch, and all He means it to be, that through me, He may bring forth His Fruit to the Glory of God."

24. The Vine

John 15:5 (NRSV) — 5a I am the vine, you are the branches. … …

"I am the Vine." Christ did not keep this mystery hidden from His disciples. He revealed it, first in His Words here and then in Power when God’s Holy Spirit came down. He will reveal it to us too, first in our thoughts, confessions and desires these words awaken in our hearts and then in Power by God’s Holy Spirit. Let us wait on Him to show us all the Heavenly Meaning of the Mystery. Let each day, in our quiet time, in the inner chamber with Him and His Word, our chief thought and aim be to get the heart fixed on Him, in the assurance that all that a vine ever can do for its branches, my Lord Jesus will do, is doing, will continue to do for me. Give Him time, give Him your ear that He may whisper and explain the Divine Secret: "I am the Vine."

Remember, Christ is the Vine of God's planting, and you are a branch of God's grafting. Wait before God, in Christ. Wait for all grace from God in Christ. Yield yourself to bear the more fruit the Vine-grower asks, in Christ. And pray much for the revelation of the Mystery that all the love and power of God that rested on Christ 

is working in you too. 

I am God's Vine, Jesus says—all I am I have from Him; 

all I am is for you—God will work it in you.

23. The Vine

John 15:5 (NRSV) — 5a I am the vine, you are the branches. … …

AM asks: Why is it that so much weary labor there has been in striving to understand what abiding is, how much fruitless effort in trying to attain it?

… Because the attention was turned to the abiding as a work we have to do, instead of the Living Christ, in Whom we were to be kept abiding. It is Jesus Himself Who holds and keeps us. We thought of abiding as a continual strain and effort—we forgot that it means rest from effort. Notice how Christ said, "Abide in Me; I am the Vine that brings forth, and holds, and strengthens, and makes fruitful the branches. Abide in Me, rest in Me, and let Me do My Work. I am the True Vine, all I am, and speak, and do is Divine Truth, giving the actual reality of what is said. I am the Vine, simply consent and yield your ALL to Me and I will do ALL in you."

He invites us to: Come out of every other place, and every other trust and occupation, come out of self with its reasonings and efforts, 

come and rest in what I shall do. Live out of yourself; abide in Me. 

Know that you are IN Me therefore you need no more—

remain there IN Me.

23. The Vine

John 15:5 (NRSV) I am the vine, you are the branches. … …

In the previous verse Christ had just said: "Abide in Me." He had then announced the great unalterable law of all branch-life, on earth or in Heaven: not of itself / except it abide. In the opening words of the parable He had already spoken: "I am the Vine." He now repeats the words. He would have us understand the simplicity of the lesson—the key to the abiding life—is to have eye and heart fixed upon Him.

"Abide in Me ... I am the True Vine."

I have been challenged to study this holy mystery until I see that Christ as the True Vine, Who bears, strengthens, supplies and inspires all His branches, being and doing IN each branch ALL it needs, and the abiding will come of itself. I have invited you to join me on this quest and I pray you are being equally challenged to see yourself as a fully empowered and equipped branch serving Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour with a fresh fervor!

Gaze upon Him as the True Vine, until you feel what a Heavenly Mystery it is, and are compelled to ask Papa God to reveal this deeper understanding to you by His Holy Spirit. He to whom God reveals the glory of the True Vine, he who sees Who Jesus is and waits to do His Will every moment cannot help but to abide IN Him. The vision of Christ is an irresistible attraction. It draws and holds us like a magnet. Listen to the Living Christ still speaking to you, and waiting to show you the meaning and power of His Word:

 "I am the Vine."

22. Unless You Abide—

John 15:4 (NRSV) Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit 

by itself unless it abides in the vine, 

neither can you unless you abide in Me.

Our blessed Lord Jesus desires to call us out of ourselves and our own strength, to Himself and His Strength. Let us accept the warning to distrust one’s own self and turn to Him in love and willingness to allow Him to do His Work in us. How else can our life be hidden with Christ IN God?

That life is a heavenly mystery, hidden from the wise even among Christians, and revealed unto babes—the childlike spirit that learns that life is given from Heaven every day and every moment to the soul that accepts the teaching of not of itself, except it abide, and seeks its ALL in the Vine.

Abiding in the Vine then comes to be nothing more nor less than the restful surrender of the soul to let Christ have ALL and work ALL, as completely as in nature the branch knows and seeks nothing but the vine.

Therein lies our challenge … not in our own strength but IN His alone.

21. Unless You Abide—

John 15:4 (NRSV) — 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. 

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself 

unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.

AM poses this question … Must this abiding be taken literally? Must I, as exclusively, and manifestly, and unceasingly, and absolutely, as the branch abides in the vine, be equally given up to find my whole life in Christ alone?

He answers … Indeed I must.

If I am to be a true branch, if I am to bear fruit, if I am to be what Christ as True Vine wants me to be, my whole existence must be as exclusively devoted to abiding IN Him, as that of the natural branch is to abiding in its vine.

There is a lesson to be learned here … Abiding is to be an act of the will and the whole heart. Just as there are degrees in seeking and serving God, "not with a perfect heart," or "with the whole heart," so there may be degrees in abiding. In our regeneration the Divine Life enters us, but does not all at once master and fill our whole being. This comes as matter of command and obedience.

There is unspeakable danger of our not giving ourselves with our whole heart to abide. There is unspeakable danger of our giving ourselves to work for God, and to bear fruit, with but little true abiding. And what is true abiding? It is the wholehearted losing of ourselves IN Christ and IN His life.

There is unspeakable danger of much work with but little fruit, for lack of this one needful thing. We must allow the words not of itself and except it abide, to do their work of searching and exposing, of pruning and cleansing, all that there is of self-will and self-confidence in our life. This is what will deliver us from this great evil, and so prepare us for His further Teaching, giving the full meaning of the word in us—

"Abide in Me, and I in you."

20. Unless You Abide—

John 15:4 (NRSV) — 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.

We know the meaning of the word unless—it expresses an indispensable condition, an inevitable law. "The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine. No more can you, unless you abide in Me."

There is but one way for the branch to bear fruit—it must abide in unbroken communion with the vine. Not of itself, but only of the vine, does the fruit come. In nature the branch teaches us the lesson so clearly and now for us it is such a wonderful privilege to be called and allowed to abide in the Heavenly Vine. But Christ knows so well what a renunciation of self is implied in this "Abide in Me". He knows how strong and universal the tendency is to seek to bear fruit by our own efforts. He knows how difficult it is to get us to believe that actual, continuous abiding in Him is an absolute necessity! He insists upon the Truth: Not of itself can the branch bear fruit; except it abide, it cannot bear fruit. "No more can you, unless you abide in Me."

19. Abide—

John 15:4 (NRSV)  Abide in Me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, 

neither can you unless you abide in Me.

IN—

The two parts of Christ’s injunction have their unity in that central deep-meaning word IN. There is no deeper word in Scripture. God is IN all. God dwells IN Christ. Christ lives IN God. We are IN Christ. Christ is IN us: our life taken up INto His; His life received Into ours; in a divine reality that words cannot express, we are IN Him and He IN us. The words, "Abide IN me and I IN you," simply tell us to believe this this Divine Mystery counting upon our God the Vine-grower and Christ the Vine to make it Divinely true.

No thinking or teaching or praying can grasp it—it is a Divine Mystery of Love.

AM states: As little as we can effect the union can we understand it! Let us just look upon this Infinite, Divine, Omnipotent Vine loving us, holding us and working in us. Let us in the faith of His Working abide and rest IN Him, ever turning our hearts and hope to Him alone. Let us count upon Him to fulfill in us the mystery: "You in me, and I in You."

18. Abide—

John 15:4 (NRSV) — 4 Abide in Me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.

When a new graft is placed in a vine and it abides there and there is a twofold process that takes place …

(i) the first is in the wood: the graft shoots its little roots and fibers down into the stem, and the stem grows up into the graft, and what has been called the structural union is effected. The graft abides and becomes one with the vine, and even though the vine were to die it would still be one wood with it.

(ii) the second process occurs when the sap of the vine enters the new structure: it uses the vine as a passage or channel through which sap can flow to nourish the young shoots, leaves and fruit. This is called the vital union.

When our Lord says: "Abide in Me, and I in you," He points to something similar to this process. "Abide in Me" refers more to that which we have to do. We have to trust and obey, to detach ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him sinking ourselves into Him. As we do this, through the Grace He gives, our character is formed, and our hearts prepared for the fuller experience: "I in you," God strengthens us with might by His Spirit in the inner man, and Christ dwells in our heart by faith.

17. The Pruning Knife—

John 15:3 (NRSV) You have already been cleansed by the word 

that I have spoken to you.

Q: What is the pruning knife of our Heavenly Vine-grower?

The knife is the Word of God—sharper than any two-edged sword, that pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit. It is quick to discern the thoughts and intentions of one’s heart.

Many believers think that affliction is the pruning knife of God however, it is only when affliction leads to the discipline of the Word that it can be a blessing—the lack of heart-cleansing through the Word is the reason why affliction is so often unsanctified. Not even Paul's thorn in the flesh could become a blessing until Christ's Word—My strength is made perfect in weakness—had made him see the danger of self-exaltation, and made him willing to rejoice in infirmities.

2 Corinthians 12:10 (The Message) — 10 Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

From the opening of His Ministry in the Sermon on the Mount to His Words of warning in the last night, His Word had tried and cleansed His Disciples. He had discovered and condemned all there was of self and they were now emptied and cleansed—ready for the incoming of the Holy Spirit.

It is as we give up our own thoughts and yield heartily, humbly and patiently, to the teaching of the Word by Holy Spirit that Father God will do His blessed work of pruning and cleansing away all of nature and self that mixes with our work and hinders His Holy Spirit. Along with our surrender and yieldedness may we in our study of the Word, receive it as a hammer that breaks and opens up—as a fire that melts and refines—as a sword that lays bare and slays all that is of the flesh. The Word of conviction will prepare us for the Word of comfort and of hope, and the Father cleanses us through His Word.

John 15:3 (The Message) You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.