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John 15:5  (ESV)
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

1 John 4:9b (ESV)
God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

Have we found ourselves not being fruitful in God's kingdom?  Have we come to the conclusion that we are not accomplishing much at all of real spiritual value?  Jesus is saying that abiding in Him is the key to being fruitful.  What does it mean to abide in Jesus?  What does it mean to live through Jesus?  Let's look at some of the other Scriptures where Jesus speaks of abiding in Him and living through Him...

Abiding in Jesus Christ

John 6:56 (ESV)
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

John 8:31-32,36 (ESV)
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  ...  36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 15:4-10 (ESV)
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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.

The passage has to do with abiding; the condition of prevailing in prayer is abiding in Christ. But whereas before he has spoken of his own abiding in believers, now he speaks of his words abiding in them (cf. 14:21,23). This is not a different attitude to prayer from what was in the previous chapter. There prayer must be offered "in the name" of Christ (14:14) and obedience is strongly insisted on. The same spiritual attitude is in mind here, but from a different standpoint. The prayers of those who are truly abiding in Christ will certainly be "in the name of Christ," that is in accordance with all that Christ stands for. And if they are really abiding in Christ they will live in obedience to the words of Christ. We should not overlook the importance of "my words." The teaching of Jesus is important 20 and not lightly to be passed over in the interests of promoting religious feeling. When believers abide in Christ and Christ's words abide in them, they are in accord with God's will and they will be fully answered.

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, Revised. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 596. [emphasis added by webmaster]

1 John 2:6 (ESV)
whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. [for example: spending a lot of time in the presence of His Father through prayer]

1 John 2:27 (ESV)
But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

1 John 2:28 (ESV)
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

Ephesians 6:18 (ESV)
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication [abiding]. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints

Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him [abiding],
    and he will make straight your paths.

Living Through Jesus Christ

Romans 5:2 (ESV)
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 8:37 (ESV)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 11:36 (ESV)
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

2 Corinthians 1:20 (ESV)
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

Ephesians 2:18 (ESV)
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Philippians 4:13 (ESV)
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Colossians 1:16 (ESV)
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Colossians 1:20 (ESV)
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 3:17 (ESV)
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Hebrews 7:25 (ESV)
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

1 Peter 1:20-21 (ESV)
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

 

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"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. "-- JOHN 15:7.

PRAYER is both one of the means and one of the fruits of union to Christ. As a means it is of unspeakable importance. All the things of faith, all the pleadings of desire, all the yearnings after a fuller surrender, all the confessions of shortcoming and of sin, all the exercises in which the soul gives up self and clings to Christ, find their utterance in prayer. In each meditation on abiding in Christ, as some new feature of what Scripture teaches concerning this blessed life is apprehended, the first impulse of the believer is at once to look up to the Father and pour out the heart into His, and ask from Him the full understanding and the full possession of what he has been shown in the Word. And it is the believer, who is not content with this spontaneous expression of his hope, but who takes time in secret prayer to wait until he has received and laid hold of what he has seen, who will really grow strong in Christ. However feeble the soul's first abiding, its prayer will be heard, and it will find prayer one of the great means of abiding more abundantly.

But it is not so much as a means, but as a fruit of the abiding, that the Saviour mentions it in the parable of the Vine. He does not think so much of prayer--as we, alas! too exclusively do--as a means of getting blessing for ourselves, but as one of the chief channels of influence by which, through us as fellow-workers with God, the blessings of Christ's redemption are to be dispensed to the world. He sets before Himself and us the glory of the Father, in the extension of His Kingdom, as the object for which we have been made branches; and He assures us that if we but abide in Him, we shall be Israels, having power with God and man. Ours shall be the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man, availing much, like Elijah's for ungodly Israel. Such prayer will be the fruit of our abiding in Him, and the means of bringing forth much fruit.

To the Christian who is not abiding wholly in Jesus, the difficulties connected with prayer are often so great as to rob him of the comfort and the strength it could bring. Under the guise of humility, he asks how one so unworthy could expect to have influence with the Holy One. He thinks of God's sovereignty, His perfect wisdom and love, and cannot see how his prayer can really have any distinct effect. He prays, but it is more because he cannot rest without prayer, than from a loving faith that the prayer will be heard. But what a blessed release from such questions and perplexities is given to the soul who is truly abiding in Christ! He realizes increasingly how it is in the real spiritual unity with Christ that we are accepted and heard. The union with the Son of God is a life union: we are in very deed one with Him--our prayer ascends as His prayer. It is because we abide in Him that we can ask what we will, and it is given to us.

There are many reasons why this must be so. One is, that abiding in Christ, and having His words abiding in us, teach us to pray in accordance with the will of God. With the abiding in Christ our self-will is kept down, the thoughts and wishes of nature are brought into captivity to the thoughts and wishes of Christ; likemindedness to Christ grows upon us--all our working and willing become transformed into harmony with His. There is deep and oft-renewed heart-searching to see whether the surrender has indeed been entire; fervent prayer to the heart-searching Spirit that nothing may be kept back. Everything is yielded to the power of His life in us, that it may exercise its sanctifying influence even on ordinary wishes and desires. His Holy Spirit breathes through our whole being; and without our being conscious how, our desires, as the breathings of the divine life, are in conformity with the divine will, and are fulfilled. Abiding in Christ renews and sanctifies the will: we ask what we will, and it is given to us.

In close connection with this is the thought, that the abiding in Christ teaches the believer in prayer only to seek the glory of God. In promising to answer prayer, Christ's one thought (see John 14:13) is this, "that the Father may be glorified in the Son." In His intercession on earth (John 17), this was His one desire and plea; in His intercession in heaven, it is still His great object. As the believer abides in Christ, the Saviour breathes this desire into him. The thought, ONLY THE GLORY of GOD, becomes more and more the keynote of the life hid in Christ. At first this subdues, and quiets, and makes the soul almost afraid to dare entertain a wish, lest it should not be to the Father's glory. But when once its supremacy has been accepted, and everything yielded to it, it comes with mighty power to elevate and enlarge the heart, and open it to the vast field open to the glory of God. Abiding in Christ, the soul learns not only to desire, but spiritually to discern what will be for God's glory; and one of the first conditions of acceptable prayer is fulfilled in it when, as the fruit of its union with Christ, the whole mind is brought into harmony with that of the Son as He said: "Father, glorify Thy name."

Once more: Abiding in Christ, we can fully avail ourselves of the name of Christ. Asking in the name of another means that that other authorized me and sent me to ask, and wants to be considered as asking himself: he wants the favour done to him. Believers often try to think of the name of Jesus and His merits, and to argue themselves into the faith that they will be heard, while they painfully feel how little they have of the faith of His name. They are not living wholly in Jesus' name; it is only when they begin to pray that they want to take up that name and use it. This cannot be. The promise "Whatsoever ye ask in my name," may not be severed from the command, "Whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." If the name of Christ is to be wholly at my disposal, so that I may have the full command of it for all I will, it must be because I first put myself wholly at His disposal, so that He has free and full command of me. It is the abiding in Christ that gives the right and power to use His name with confidence. To Christ the Father refuses nothing. Abiding in Christ, I come to the Father as one with Him. His righteousness is in me, His Spirit is in me; the Father sees the Son in me, and gives me my petition. It is not--as so many think--by a sort of imputation that the Father looks upon us as if we were in Christ, though we are not in Him. No; the Father wants to see us living in Him: thus shall our prayer really have power to prevail. Abiding in Christ not only renews the will to pray aright, but secures the full power of His merits to us.

Again: Abiding in Christ also works in us the faith that alone can obtain an answer. "According to your faith be it unto you": this is one of the laws of the kingdom. "Believe that ye receive, and ye shall have." This faith rests upon, and is rooted in the Word, but is something infinitely higher than the mere logical conclusion: God has promised, I shall obtain. No; faith, as a spiritual act, depends upon the words abiding in us as living powers, and so upon the state of the whole inner life. Without fasting and prayer (Mark 9:29), without humility and a spiritual mind (John 5:44), without a wholehearted obedience (1 John 3:22), there cannot be this living faith. But as the soul abides in Christ, and grows into the consciousness of its union with Him, and sees how entirely it is He who makes it and its petition acceptable, it dares to claim an answer because it knows itself one with Him. It was by faith it learnt to abide in Him; as the fruit of that faith, it rises to a larger faith in all that God has promised to be and to do. It learns to breathe its prayers in the deep, quiet, confident assurance: We know we have the petition we ask of Him.

Abiding in Christ, further, keeps us in the place where the answer can be bestowed. Some believers pray earnestly for blessing; but when God comes and looks for them to bless them, they are not to be found. They never thought that the blessing must not only be asked, but waited for, and received in prayer. Abiding in Christ is the place for receiving answers. Out of Him the answer would be dangerous--we should consume it on our lusts (Jas. 4:3). Many of the richest answers--say for spiritual grace, or for power to work and to bless--can only come in the shape of a larger experience of what God makes Christ to us. The fulness is IN Him; abiding in Him is the condition of power in prayer, because the answer is treasured up and bestowed in Him.

Believer, abide in Christ, for there is the school of prayer--mighty, effectual, answer-bringing prayer. Abide in Him, and you shall learn what to so many is a mystery: That the secret of the prayer of faith is the life of faith--the life that abides in Christ alone.

Andrew Murray, "Chapter 21 -- So Will You Have Power in Prayer", https://www.worldinvisible.com/library/murray/5f00.0562/5f00.0562.21.htm

PRUNING THE BRANCHES

03 October 2018

Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2).

Our goal is to abide in Christ, not to bear fruit. Jesus promised that if we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit (John1 5:5). In order that we may bear more fruit, God the Father prunes us. Sometimes well meaning Christians have cut too much too soon, hindering growth.

Neil Anderson, "Freedom in Christ Course App - Devotionals: October 3, 2018", http://www.ficminternational.org/app

Proverbs 3:6

    In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.     KJV

         Do you want the assurance that God is in control of your way, your life? That He is directing and guiding your decisions and ready to solve your problems?

         Those words are the key to that assurance. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him,” that is, the Lord. At every pause, at every turning point, at every moment when you can, relax and just breathe for a moment, and you are not pressed for some particular decision.

         Acknowledge Him. The best way to acknowledge Him is simply to thank Him. Thank Him that He is in charge. Thank Him for His faithfulness. Thank Him for all the help that you have received from Him in the past. Thank Him for His wisdom. Thank Him for His power. As you thank Him, you are acknowledging Him. You are continuing to have Him in control of your life and your situation. And in that way you continue to have His guidance and direction.

         Acknowledge Him every moment just with a brief prayer, a brief “Thank You, Lord. Thank You that You are in charge of this situation. Thank You that You have the answer to this problem. In every step, Lord, I acknowledge You. Every question I bring to You. Every decision I submit to You. Thank You, Lord, that You’re in charge. Thank You that You are willing to accept responsibility.”

         When you acknowledge Him like that at every step, you can be sure that He really will direct your paths.

Derek Prince, "Acknowledge Him", https://www.derekprince.org/Articles/1000154198/DPM_USA/Resources/Word_from_the/Acknowledge_Him_01.aspx


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