I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The heart of the Eucharist is the abiding life—a covenant life of oneness, unique but united in love, one in purpose, power, and direction. It is all about agreement, which is the Greek word “homologia,” which means speaking the same Word in complete agreement as one.
If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7.
Jesus explained the abiding life the night He instituted the true Passover memorial covenant meal of His own Body and Blood. So let us begin to explore what took place at that first institution so you will always do it as He asked in remembrance of Him.
At that night of the Last Supper as it is called, although it was really the first or the one that brought the temporal into the eternal and the shadow into the substance, I revealed to you in Him how to live the abiding life, which is the abundant life, so you will bear much fruit and your fruit will remain. Apart from the vine, the branch can do nothing, but firmly attached to the vine, the branch can bear fruit in great abundance, as much as it can hold. A fruitful branch gives glory to the vine and is a blessing to all who have the joy of partaking of its fruit. All sufficiency for you and an abundance for every good work.
The abiding life is a fruitful life but above all it is a life of love, joy, and peace beyond understanding where you know Me, the One true God, and the One I sent for you, Jesus Christ. And here you see the abiding life is eternal life, an eternal relationship of love with the One who is Love that will never end but will be enduring as ever maturing.
The abiding life is not new, it is from the beginning. When I created man, it was in the setting of a garden enclosed and My first words to him were a blessing to be fruitful, bearing much fruit, and of dominion over the works of My hands, over the whole earth, which I made for you. The highest Heaven is Mine, but now, in Jesus, it has pleased Me to give you the Kingdom as well to reign with Me forever, but the earth I entrusted to mankind as your own special domain from the start. You have the leasehold but I, as its maker, still hold the fee. And when the lease expires is when My Son breaks the seven seals of the title deed and returns to take possession of the earth.
The abiding life was to be your life with Me, I abiding with you and you with Me, a life of sweetness, love, provision, and power. One of authority under authority. And that is the most powerful authority, when your authority is from the One who is the Most High, the Almighty, the Creator, and the Sustainer of all.
I blessed you, and first words are the cornerstone of the foundation of your life. And these empowering words were to prosper and increase you as you took dominion with the authority and power you share with Me in Me and I in you. My abiding presence with you and your abiding presence with Me. I raise you up higher and higher in Me as you increase in your relationship with Me. There are no limits in the abiding life.
The first man and woman lived the abiding life with Me and in union with each other. And Jesus prayed for that the night He instituted the Eucharist as the perpetual Passover memorial that I had commanded Moses to speak to the Israelites. Do you recall?
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23.
Adam and Eve cut off the relationship, like a branch severed from the vine, when they no longer abided with Me in My Word, and it brought sorrow, toil, and death to them and their descendants but I kept seeking to establish the abiding life with you again by Covenant where I could bring you back again to the relationship like in the Garden free from sorrow, toil, and death. But most were not interested, until I found man whom I named Abraham. He was willing to agree with Me and we did things together.
The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” Genesis 18:17-19.
I taught Abraham the gospel ahead of time and showed him the day of Jesus and he rejoiced and was glad in it. And I revealed just how I would do it to him in a visual enactment when he offered Isaac, but Isaac did not qualify being born of the corruptible seed of Adam. He did not have an eternal life to give for the eternal life you lost in Adam. But My Son, being born of My Word, did.
So let us go to the Passover supper with Jesus which He so earnestly desired to celebrate with you and still does. He wants to gather you under His protection, provision, and blessing, just as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Do not turn a deaf ear to so great a salvation.
Jesus knew from revelation from Me just the place He was to go to celebrate this meal and gave His disciples careful directions on the preparation.
At the first Passover it was the same. Moses gave very specific instructions on preparing and eating the Passover meal, even down to the clothes and shoes they were to wear and the stance they were to take to eat it. And every detail is symbolic, a type and shadow of the good things to come in Christ.
Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the LORD’s Passover. Exodus 12:11.
They ate it ready to go forward at My command. Ready to be delivered from slavery to the freedom of My children headed for the abundance of the Promised Land.
When I instituted the appointed times there were three pilgrimage feasts when all had to come together to the temple in Jerusalem where I had put My Name to celebrate. They were
Pesach (Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread), Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths)). So Passover remained a pilgrimage feast, a passage way to freedom and abundance.
The night of the Passover when Jesus celebrated with His followers, they gathered together in the upper room and reclined at table. But Jesus got up and washed the feet of His disciples. He, who was teacher and Lord, took the form of a slave and cleansed the feet of His disciples. As He had served, He told you to serve as well. When Peter protested at Jesus, his Lord and Messiah, stooping to wash Peter’s feet, Jesus told Peter that if He did not wash him, Peter had no part with Him. So Peter immediately requested that Jesus not only wash his feet but his hands and his head as well. John 13:5-9.
Jesus was telling you that He must cleanse you first for you take part in Him and Peter understood, not only how he walked but what he thought and what he did he wanted pure and cleansed by his Lord and Teacher. Jesus redeems you and washes your sins away in His pure, eternal blood, but He cleanses your mind and transforms you by His Word.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes (cleans, purges) it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you.” John 15:1-3.
And once you have been saved and released from your sins by His blood you become a member of His body, the glorious church, and that is the way I clean every member of His body, the Church, by the washing of water with the Word.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27.
And in His body, the church, you abide. And this is the heart of the Eucharist which is the heart of the church.
For now let us consider the vine and the branches. Jesus is the Vine. I am the Vinedresser. I am the overseer of the Vine and the owner of the vineyard, but I have leased it out to tenant farmers who are to bear fruit by abiding in the Vine. But let us not look at the vineyard but at the vine and the branches. For I blessed you to abide in Me for a fruitful life from the beginning.
How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. Psalm 128:1-2.
How does a branch abide in a vine? It stays attached. And on a grapevine, the branches look more and more like the vine itself, but it is the branches that bear the fruit. But branches apart from a vine cannot bear fruit because without the vine they have no life in themselves. Their life and growth depends on receiving the life flowing into them from the vine. And they produce the fruit of the vine to which they are attached.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5.
And these words should give you joy for this means you do not have to, in fact, you cannot, bear fruit, that is, do the works that Jesus did and greater in the world, without being attached to Him, without His divine life, which is My life, flowing in to empower you to do the works He did and greater. My life flowing to you in Him gives you My power, strength, love, joy, and peace, and through you, as it did through Jesus, My divine love can flow out into the world to heal, prosper, bless, and save. Abiding in My Word, for Jesus is My Word, makes you a channel of My love as I pour it into your heart by the gift of the Holy Spirit. For it is the fruit of the Spirit that is being produces in you as you abide in the Vine of Jesus.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15:6.
Without Me, without My life in you, without My love to empower you, without My Word, like Adam you dry up and die. A life lived without Me is not beautiful. Just look at those who reject My Word and abide in the world, the flesh, and the devil.
But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shameless deeds like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. Jude 1:10-13.
But it is not like that with you who have heard and loved My Word. You will have fruitful lives filled with the beauty of answered prayers because you know where to abide. Stay in the body, stay in communion with My Son. Keep in contact continually with the Head and you will know where to go and what to do.
If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so become My disciples. John 15:7-8.
And here Jesus is teaching you how you stay attached to the Vine and receive maximum input of divine life which gives you authority, skill and all you need for your life here on earth and forever and for godliness—by remaining in My Word and letting My Word remain in you. Being transformed by the renewing of your mind in My Word—making My Word the plum line and absolute authority in your life. Total immersion in My Word till it becomes your Word. Homologia.
And My Word is consistent, line upon line, precept upon precept, it is building you up in Christ. For Jesus told you how to become My disciples and what happens when you do. Freedom from all that would bind you from living the life of divine love.
“If you continue (abide, remain) in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32.
Free from fear, free from doubt, free from anxiety and worry, free from depression, free from confusion and darkness, free from illness and pain, free from poverty and lack, free from sin and free from eternal death. In other words, free from the curse and abiding in the blessing. For Christ has redeemed you from the curse of the law and in Him you are blessed with the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit by faith. Galatians 3:13-14.
And Jesus at that Passover the night He was betrayed continued, saying,
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 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. John 15:9-10.
If you love Me you will keep My Words, and I reveal Myself to you and make My dwelling place within you. If you do not keep My Words you do not love Me and I cannot abide with you. Hard hearts do not open to My knock. Hard hearts receive no revelation for they count My Word foolish and of no effect. But My Words are the power that makes all, sustains all, and recreates all. My Words are not idle words, they are your very life. Without abiding in them you dry up and die, unfruitful and a carcass of flesh.
And what are My commandments that Jesus is speaking of that He kept so perfectly? He summed that up for you in two:
Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31.
And what is His commandment that He is speaking of for you to keep? He tells you a few lines later in the conversation:
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” John 15:12.
And how did He love you? He went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil. He went about preaching the good news of the Kingdom, teaching how to live according to My Word and walk in authority over all the forces of the evil one, and healing all who were bound by illness, sickness, and pain—whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual. He brought My forgiveness, light, and peace to a world trapped in shame, bitterness, darkness, and confusion. And He laid down His life for you, emptying Himself of seeking His own glory to give Me glory by doing the works to show My goodness, power and presence among you, My people whom I love and want with Me forever. He came to reconcile us. And I ask you also to be ambassadors of reconciliation.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.
And what does all this Jesus shared with you, the Word of life, give to you? My joy. For I am My Word and My Word gives you joy unspeakable filled with glory for My Words are Words of eternal life. They are Spirit and life to revive you and make you whole.
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. John 15:11.
Jesus shares My Word with you to give you joy. Joy of who you are in Him. Joy of that all My magnificent promises as expressed in My Covenant Names are “yes” to you in Him. The joy of being forgiven, and not just forgiven, but all your sins gone so that I remember them no more. And that abiding in My Word and My Word abiding in you, you will bear fruit that will bless you and the whole world and be of eternal value.
I love you. We will talk more about the extraordinary revelations that My Son gave you when He instituted the true memorial meal of the Passover that is eternal, the sharing of Himself with you, His very body and blood.