Trent's weekly muse 21st Oct - Abide in Christ
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.
John 15:5
In this wonderful verse Jesus says “I am the vine – you are the branches. I don’t know about you but that makes me feel very safe. See he doesn’t tell me that I have to try to be the branches. He doesn’t say that is I am good enough then maybe one day I might be a branch. No! He says “you ARE the branch. He wants us to realise that, that is already our position – we do not have to struggle or work to become the branches.
What must we do then? As His branches our task is simple – we have to abide or remain in Christ, our vine. How do we that? We live with that consciousness of our position in Christ. The Bible is emphatic in telling us that by receiving Christ we are now in Him and we are accepted as part of the beloved. (2 Cor 5:17, Eph 1:6)
Where we get into trouble is when we move outside of this revelation. Satan is always trying to get us to doubt our birthright and he tries to move us from focusing on our position in Christ to focusing on our condition. See our condition could be trouble at work or a disease or some hardship and if Satan can get us to focus on that instead of who we are in Christ then he can disempower us. He wants you to forget that you are an heir in Christ and that you are seated in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father (2 Cor 5:21, Eph 2:6) .
Why is that so important to him? Because when you live out of who you are and what Christ has done for you then you will have the power change your condition and circumstance. John 15 says that as we remain in him then we will bear much fruit. This means that when you pray against lack and sickness you can do so with confidence that the supply of what you need will flow into your life.
The picture of the vine is so strong – just as sap flows through the vine into the branches giving life and producing fruit so to it is with us as we abide in Him. How do we do that? We position ourselves to allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to flow through us and we dwell in the word ( I shared about how I do that in the my last sermon – check our webpage).
His life flowing through you will bring forth a bountiful harvest of healing and miracles and will pour out into your sphere of influence as the riches of the kingdom presence grows in you as you abide in Him. You only need to remain conscious of who you are in Christ