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."