Remain
For the past few weeks Father has been talking to me about remaining. He began the diaologue with a song from John 15 and questions in my heart and mind about what it means to remain in Him and what His commands are and how to follow them and how to resolve old feelings of having to do something to be a good fruit bearer in order to remain and get Him to remain while knowing He is always remaining in me and all I have to do is rest there and the fruit just happens but I couldn't make sense of it. My heart knows it understands but my mind needed help.
As I prayed for His revelation and read the first part of John 15 and talked to Him about it I began to see more clearly. In John 15 Jesus says to His disciples: 1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." I used to think that if I didn't bear fruit - by doing things like witnessing and volunteering at the local church and participating in mission projects - that I could get cut off from Him and that even if I did those things He was going to be hacking away on me with the garden shears so I could bear more fruit. Neither of those sounded very appealing yet I felt I had to keep doing and doing to be living the Christian life like I should. And I skipped over verse 3 because it made no sense. What word had He spoken? And how are branches cleaned?
Jesus went on to say: 4 "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." So, in my previous way of thinking, this verse was telling me that I had to remain in order to bear the fruit that He wanted me to bear and so He wouldn't cut me off. And it added the fear that if I couldn't figure out how to remain that He wouldn't remain in me. It was conditional in my mind. Remaining seemed impossible to accomplish but I set about giving it my very best shot.
Jesus continued: 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." My old way of thinking through these verses left me totally jazzed to be a fruit bearer deluxe so that I would not get thrown away or withered or tossed into a fire and burned. So I was all about the bearing of fruit and the showing myself to be a disciple by doing all the right things. But I failed. I never fully understood what it meant to 'remain in Him' and I got exhausted with all the doing and with the constant mental exercises of wondering if I was doing it right and doing it enough to bear fruit and not get whacked off or if I was about to suffer a searing blow from the Gardener's pruning at any moment. At one time in my life I decided it was just too hard to do all this and even doing all the hard work could still mean pain and I never felt like I was remaining and so I never felt like He was remaining and I just gave up. I resigned from my job as a branch.
But He remained. He did not accept my resignation. He didn't cut me off and throw me away. I didn't lose my salvation and get tossed into the eternal fires of hell. And He loved me and wooed my heart with His faithful love and here I am, a branch - still attached to the Vine. Only now, I have come to understand His truth about my branch-ness. And this week as I've been chatting with Him about John 15 our dialogue has helped me explain it to myself so that I won't be confused anymore. He's an excellent Gardener. He talks to His plants. And I am so glad!
The first thing He said to me was to read verse 3 and ask Him what it really means. So I read it over and over in as many translations as I could and I asked. And He said it meant that Jesus was telling His disciples - and all of His followers then and from that point forward - including ME - that because we believed in Him as the Messiah who was the Son of God and in His words that told us He was sent to reconcile us to God, then we were cleaned - pure - holy - righteous - saved - in His sight. And then He went on to show me that the word "clean" as used in verse 3 is the same word in the Greek as "prune". So if I, upon choice to believe and follow Him, was pruned already, then I was a branch securely fastened to the Vine, being tended by the Gardener. And I would not be cut from the vine or pruned any further. And I could count on being fruitful. He said so in verse 2. That's good news.
Then he told me to investigate the 'remaining'. So I did. And even though I had always thought verse 4 was a conditional thing - that He would remain in me IF I remained in Him, I couldn't find anything conditional about it in any translation or study. In fact, I was reminded that once I am a believer, I am IN HIM and He is IN ME, and that cannot be changed. My last blog mentioned how His Spirit is deposited in us and Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from Him and His love. So why does He tell us we are to remain in Him? We can't NOT remain. So He said, "Amy - look at the relationship between the branch and the vine. I'm giving you an illustration here..." So I looked at branches and vines. A branch is attached to the vine and draws its life from the vine and grows from the vine with the life of the vine living in it. The branch cannot remove itself from the vine. However, if I am a branch attached to Him as the Vine, I can choose to ignore the Vine or forget I am attached. But that doesn't mean I've become my own Vine. And the branch cannot grow and cannot bear fruit unless the life of the Vine flows into it causing growth and fruit to come forth. The branch cannot do a thing on its own to produce and it cannot force the Vine to make it produce. So when I was trying to do enough and do it right and bear the fruit so I could be a good branch - I was not remaining. I was trying to remove myself so that I could operate on my own instead of simply remaining aware and at peace in the fact that I was a branch attached to the Vine whose life flowed through me and would produce growth and fruit in His way, in His time, and in great bounty. I was wearing myself out when I should have been hanging loose like branches do...
So to remain, I do not concern myself with growth or bearing fruit. I let the life of the Vine flow in and through me and let the Gardener tend me as a branch on the Vine and I trust that I am securely attached, that I can do nothing to produce on my own, and that as He lives I will grow and I will bear fruit. I don't have to do anything but hang on the Vine. He does it all as I remain there, letting Him live His life in me and through me. Everything I need for life I draw from the Vine. Peter said it in II Peter 1:3. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." More good news.
The word "remain" has several synonyms including abide, live, stay, tarry, endure, rest, and wait. So if I am remaining in Him as a branch remains in a vine, I am abiding in Him and with Him. I am living where He lives. I am staying where He is staying. I am tarrying as He tarries. I am enduring as He endures. I am resting as He rests. And I am waiting as He waits. And if it is spring in His Kingdom, I will have new green leaves. And if it is summer in His Kingdom, I will have growth and new fruit. And if it is fall in His Kingdom, I will be letting go of fruit for the Gardener's harvest. And if it is winter in His Kingdom, I will be barren but still alive with the flow of His life in me, nourishing, renewing, and preparing me for the next spring.
Are you remaining? Go outside and examine a branch and its relationship to its vine or tree trunk. Watch how it hangs there securely attached but hanging loose and drawing its life from the source. You'll see that being a branch is a restful thing. And very peaceful. I like being a branch attached to the Vine and tended by the Master Gardener. And every time a new leaf or the beginning of a new piece of fruit pops out of me I am so overwhelmed by His handiwork and with His joy!
Being a branch,
Amy
As I prayed for His revelation and read the first part of John 15 and talked to Him about it I began to see more clearly. In John 15 Jesus says to His disciples: 1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." I used to think that if I didn't bear fruit - by doing things like witnessing and volunteering at the local church and participating in mission projects - that I could get cut off from Him and that even if I did those things He was going to be hacking away on me with the garden shears so I could bear more fruit. Neither of those sounded very appealing yet I felt I had to keep doing and doing to be living the Christian life like I should. And I skipped over verse 3 because it made no sense. What word had He spoken? And how are branches cleaned?
Jesus went on to say: 4 "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." So, in my previous way of thinking, this verse was telling me that I had to remain in order to bear the fruit that He wanted me to bear and so He wouldn't cut me off. And it added the fear that if I couldn't figure out how to remain that He wouldn't remain in me. It was conditional in my mind. Remaining seemed impossible to accomplish but I set about giving it my very best shot.
Jesus continued: 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." My old way of thinking through these verses left me totally jazzed to be a fruit bearer deluxe so that I would not get thrown away or withered or tossed into a fire and burned. So I was all about the bearing of fruit and the showing myself to be a disciple by doing all the right things. But I failed. I never fully understood what it meant to 'remain in Him' and I got exhausted with all the doing and with the constant mental exercises of wondering if I was doing it right and doing it enough to bear fruit and not get whacked off or if I was about to suffer a searing blow from the Gardener's pruning at any moment. At one time in my life I decided it was just too hard to do all this and even doing all the hard work could still mean pain and I never felt like I was remaining and so I never felt like He was remaining and I just gave up. I resigned from my job as a branch.
But He remained. He did not accept my resignation. He didn't cut me off and throw me away. I didn't lose my salvation and get tossed into the eternal fires of hell. And He loved me and wooed my heart with His faithful love and here I am, a branch - still attached to the Vine. Only now, I have come to understand His truth about my branch-ness. And this week as I've been chatting with Him about John 15 our dialogue has helped me explain it to myself so that I won't be confused anymore. He's an excellent Gardener. He talks to His plants. And I am so glad!
The first thing He said to me was to read verse 3 and ask Him what it really means. So I read it over and over in as many translations as I could and I asked. And He said it meant that Jesus was telling His disciples - and all of His followers then and from that point forward - including ME - that because we believed in Him as the Messiah who was the Son of God and in His words that told us He was sent to reconcile us to God, then we were cleaned - pure - holy - righteous - saved - in His sight. And then He went on to show me that the word "clean" as used in verse 3 is the same word in the Greek as "prune". So if I, upon choice to believe and follow Him, was pruned already, then I was a branch securely fastened to the Vine, being tended by the Gardener. And I would not be cut from the vine or pruned any further. And I could count on being fruitful. He said so in verse 2. That's good news.
Then he told me to investigate the 'remaining'. So I did. And even though I had always thought verse 4 was a conditional thing - that He would remain in me IF I remained in Him, I couldn't find anything conditional about it in any translation or study. In fact, I was reminded that once I am a believer, I am IN HIM and He is IN ME, and that cannot be changed. My last blog mentioned how His Spirit is deposited in us and Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from Him and His love. So why does He tell us we are to remain in Him? We can't NOT remain. So He said, "Amy - look at the relationship between the branch and the vine. I'm giving you an illustration here..." So I looked at branches and vines. A branch is attached to the vine and draws its life from the vine and grows from the vine with the life of the vine living in it. The branch cannot remove itself from the vine. However, if I am a branch attached to Him as the Vine, I can choose to ignore the Vine or forget I am attached. But that doesn't mean I've become my own Vine. And the branch cannot grow and cannot bear fruit unless the life of the Vine flows into it causing growth and fruit to come forth. The branch cannot do a thing on its own to produce and it cannot force the Vine to make it produce. So when I was trying to do enough and do it right and bear the fruit so I could be a good branch - I was not remaining. I was trying to remove myself so that I could operate on my own instead of simply remaining aware and at peace in the fact that I was a branch attached to the Vine whose life flowed through me and would produce growth and fruit in His way, in His time, and in great bounty. I was wearing myself out when I should have been hanging loose like branches do...
So to remain, I do not concern myself with growth or bearing fruit. I let the life of the Vine flow in and through me and let the Gardener tend me as a branch on the Vine and I trust that I am securely attached, that I can do nothing to produce on my own, and that as He lives I will grow and I will bear fruit. I don't have to do anything but hang on the Vine. He does it all as I remain there, letting Him live His life in me and through me. Everything I need for life I draw from the Vine. Peter said it in II Peter 1:3. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." More good news.
The word "remain" has several synonyms including abide, live, stay, tarry, endure, rest, and wait. So if I am remaining in Him as a branch remains in a vine, I am abiding in Him and with Him. I am living where He lives. I am staying where He is staying. I am tarrying as He tarries. I am enduring as He endures. I am resting as He rests. And I am waiting as He waits. And if it is spring in His Kingdom, I will have new green leaves. And if it is summer in His Kingdom, I will have growth and new fruit. And if it is fall in His Kingdom, I will be letting go of fruit for the Gardener's harvest. And if it is winter in His Kingdom, I will be barren but still alive with the flow of His life in me, nourishing, renewing, and preparing me for the next spring.
Are you remaining? Go outside and examine a branch and its relationship to its vine or tree trunk. Watch how it hangs there securely attached but hanging loose and drawing its life from the source. You'll see that being a branch is a restful thing. And very peaceful. I like being a branch attached to the Vine and tended by the Master Gardener. And every time a new leaf or the beginning of a new piece of fruit pops out of me I am so overwhelmed by His handiwork and with His joy!
Being a branch,
Amy
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