Abiding: An Anointing - Part 7

I am sharing a little book with you that has helped me tremendously.  The Title: The Branch and the Vine.  By Frank Phillips.  Frank Phillips was an Evangelist when he came upon these truths and spent the last ten years of his life sharing them.  They are so good that I have permission to share them with you.

Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 1:21,22  "He which establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God; Who has also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."  So not only are we established and anointed in Christ, but God also seals and grants the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts.

Now lets turn to 1 John 2:27,28.  "But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you. . Notice the anointing is there again.  "But the anointing which you have received of Him".... of Whom?  God!  John says this anointing is of God.  "But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you and ye need not that any man teach you."  Isn't that interesting?  "Ye ned not that any man teach you."  Why?  Because the Holy Spirit will.

The person who is honestly and consistently abiding in Christ will be constantly receiving his instructions from the Holy Spirit....he is constantly being taught.  It isn't a matter of some man coming along and teaching; rather it is a matter of receiving instruction from the Holy Spirit.  Now notice, "But as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, an is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in whom?  "Him".  "Ye shall abide in Him!"  Now verse 28:  And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming."  Jesus said, "Abide in Me."  Can you see that there is much solemn truth involved in this abiding business?

What does this abiding do for us?  Why does God want us to abide in Christ?  Why is this whole thing given to us?

1 John 2:6  "He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."  Abiding enables a person to walk, even as He walked.

Keeping this in mind, let's return to John 15:5, where John is quoting the words of Jesus when He said "I am the Vine, you are the branches.  He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."  We already touched on the fact that the branch has only one purpose: bearing fruit---the illustration is absolutely crystal clear.  Yet we need to establish a bit more of a foundation about what is accomplished before we get into the profound yet simple truths of the illustration.  Grandma Joan is sharing from the book 'The Branch and the Vine"

I hope you are really learning how to abide in Christ and what the results of abiding in Him does for us.  Continued tomorrow.  Grandma Joan

How is Purging a Part of Abiding?- Part 6

Let's check out some more verses that will help us with what we are studying.

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 1:21, 22.  Paul said, "Now He which establishes us with you in Christ...
What did he say?....He which establishes us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is...Who?
"God"  God does this; God places us in Christ.  He not only places us in Christ, but then He actually follows through.

Now notice verse 22: "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."

God puts us into Christ, anoints us in Christ, and than tells us that instead of our doing this, it is the Holy Spirit who is doing it.  The Holy Spirit puts us in Christ, keeps us in Christ, and then seals us.
The Holy Spirit is God's Spirit working in us.

I didn't mention purging, so let's talk about it for a moment. Purging is not an after kind of thing; it is a while thing.  Purging takes place while other things are going on.  Here is what happens.  The purpose of the branch  is to bear fruit; purging makes it bear more fruit; more purging makes it bear much fruit.  So you go from fruit, to more fruit, to much fruit, and Jesus said that His plan for you and me is to bear much fruit.  So a lot of purging is going to take place along the way.  This is absolutely a fact, because when the Gardener--the Husbandman--sees the branch and recognizes that it needs a little pruning here and there, He goes ahead with the pruning whether the branch likes it or not.

Purging is pruning away at the things that don't belong in our life.  Yes, God does the pruning, His Spirit works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.  We need this pruning to produce much fruit.  Hold on until tomorrow and we will discuss more about this.  Grandma Joan

Our Relationship with God - Part 5

Let's read verse 6 now:  "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth  as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

How important is it for us to abide in Christ?  If we don't, it says that every branch that does not abide in Him is cast forth and withers up and is burned in a fire.  I won't dwell on the fire right now, the importance of it all is that we abide in Christ and bear much fruit, but we must realize that without Him we can do nothing, so the most important part is abiding in Him.

Verse 7.  "If you abide in me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you."
A lot of people have taken the part out of context which says you can ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.  So what is the meaning of these words, well, lets look at the next verse and it is explained.

Verse 8  "Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples."

What glorifies the Father?  That we bear much fruit and then we will be His disciples.
What can we ask for?  We can ask for more fruit to bear, that glorifies God.
And then if we are His disciples we will bear much fruit and glorify our Father in Heaven.  I can't wait for more fruit and for spending time with Him, it is so rewarding.  Grandma Joan

Our Relationship with God - Part 4

Let's read Verse 4 now: "Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abides in the vine: no more can you, except you abide in Me."

How much effort does it take for the branch to bear fruit?  None, so can we make ourselves bear fruit?  In Verse 4, it says, we can only bear fruit if we abide in the vine.  The only thing that takes effort is 'abiding'.  We have a free choice if we want to abide in the vine and bear fruit to His glory or if we want to be a withered branch and bear sickly fruit that no one wants to pick.  This would be caused by not abiding day by day in Christ the Vine.

Let's look at verse 5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in Me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing."

How important is it that we abide in Christ?  If we abide in Him, we will bring forth much fruit:  How much can we bring forth without Him?  Without Him we can do nothing.  How simple is that?  So far I see the secret is ABIDING IN HIM MOMENT BY MOMENT, DAY BY DAY.  We will bring forth lots of fruit.

Let's read Galatians 5:22,23 again to refresh our minds as to what fruit is.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law."

I have discovered that when I  stay connected to the Vine, Christ, I have much love, joy, peace and my patience is getting better, I am more gentle with others, and I have learned that it doesn't all come at once.  We must be patient and wait on God to fill us with His Spirit which includes all these fruit.  The thing that thrills me the most is how much love God has place in my heart for nearly everybody that I come in contact with.  Even some who have never spoken to me before, I can still love them.  The best part of it all is that I really do have an abundance of love in my heart for all those that I thought I could never love.  It is so wonderful.  Please be a fruit bearing branch and bring glory to God with your fruit.  Grandma Joan

Our Relationship with God - Part 3

Today we are going to concentrate on Verse 3.  "Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you."

God's word is powerful and when He tells us we are clean through His word, we know this is a truth we all need and that is, 'to be clean'.  What does it mean to be clean?  The dictionary tells us the following:  Free from moral impurity, free from defilement, free from guilt, sanctified and holy.  I like the last one, 'free from guilt, sanctified and holy'.  I believe that is what the Bible definition is.

How do we get free from guilt, sanctified and holy?  Verse 3 tells us,"now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you>"  That's pretty simple, isn't it.  Spend time in God's word and accepting His promptings and counsel and before you know it, you will be bearing much fruit to God's glory.  All those things you wanted to be; will be a part of your character as you linger in His word, absorbing it day by day.  You also will be abiding in Him through His word.  It is such a simple thing to do, I was overwhelmed with the simplicity of it all.  Not through yet, we have some more verses to consider.  I pray that you are praying for strength and wisdom to grasp how simple it is to have a relationship with Christ and God.  So simple, but I have some more good news to add to this.
Grandma Joan

Our Relationship with God - cont. Part 2

Yesterday I shared John 15:1-8 and a little 'hint' that God is the husbandman and Christ is the vine.

Verse 2. "Every branch in me that bears not fruit He takes away and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit."

What is the fruit that God wants us to bear through Christ the vine?  Galatians 5:22,23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

These are the fruit that will be borne on every branch that is connected to the vine in Christ.  If we are abiding in Him we will develop the character traits of Jesus the vine of which we are attached.  This truth is pretty simple but because it is so simple, we skim right through it and don't apply it to our lives as we need to.

We need to abide in Him every minute of every day, so that He can purge our branch or us and cause us to bring forth more fruit as each day goes by.  My prayer for myself is:  "Lord Jesus, You are the vine and I am a branch and I want to bear fruit to Your glory all through this day, please keep me abiding continually in You and allow Your Spirit to cause me to bear more fruit to Your glory.  Thank you Jesus for blessing me with more of Your character traits."  Then you can continue to pray for those that you hope to influence by the new fruit that you are bearing.  Tomorrow is another part of John 15.  I hope God is impressing these truths upon your hearts and minds.  Grandma Joan

Back again! "Our relationship with God"

I am so sorry that I have been under the weather, it seems like it's just one thing and another, this time it was my lungs and so short of breath even at small exertions.  I hope you will all check back in again, I have something special to share with you that I think will give you peace in your heart and mind like nothing I have ever learned before.  God is so good!!!  I just have to share what He is doing in my life and can do in yours.   You will have to check in every day as I am going to do it in pieces and because I am still weak and expecting God to help me, I will do short studies to make it easy for you to grasp and easier for me to spend time with you.

"Our relationship with God".  or "Our relationship with Christ"  Whichever you prefer to call it.

In John 15, the subject is "abiding" which means, enduring, lasting, everlasting, eternal, unending, permanent, and steadfast.  They all mean the same thing, don't they?  Now let's read the first few verses in John 15.

John 15:1-8  "I am the vine and My Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;  no more can you except you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches:  He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing.  If a man abides not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.  If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples."

If you can read these verses over a few times, then tomorrow we will start at verse one and explain these verses one by one.  Read them very carefully and try to think what God or Christ is saying to you.  Hint: God the Father is the husbandman and Christ is the vine.  This is soooo good you will really appreciate how simple it really is.  Grandma Joan.