“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:
Prophecy has to do with the abiding life. So does the royal priesthood which I have called you to and Jesus has made you.
What is the abiding life? Jesus explained it to you, for He explains and shows who I am to you.
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John 1:18.
But before we go to the definition, let Me ask you a question. Have you ever had the desire to be so attached to Me that you are not apart from Me at any time, not even for a pico-second because you want My life, My healing power, My wisdom, and My presence to be with you every moment giving you answers, directions, revelations, comfort, protection, love, and joy? Giving you skill in what you are doing and making things work together for good? I have good news for you. I have already made it so you can be.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is the only way to Me because He is the only way that the judgment against you is paid and the sentence satisfied. Without Jesus sin and justice separate us but with Jesus the debt owed Me for the eternal life lost has been eternally paid and the rejection of My Word atoned for and in His blood you have been totally cleansed of all unrighteousness as if sin had never been. This is something no one born of Adam’s corrupted seed could do because no one had an eternal life in the flesh to give. Only Jesus, coming down from Heaven born again from above by My Word had an eternal life in the flesh to give.
Once you have received Him as your Lord and accepted My gift of My Son to you, however, you are a new creation in Him and I am in Him and He is in Me so you are in Me and I am in you as well through Him and that is the everlasting joining in My Covenant of Love. And in that relationship, you can abide in Me and I in you in Jesus. And that is the true Shabbat rest for both of us, the place of sanctification and unification with no strife between us, for sin is strife.
And Jesus told you how to stay attached to Him and thus to Me so that you become a partaker in our divine life and divine oneness. He likened it to a branch on the vine. The branch and the vine are inseparable. The branch pulls all its supply from the vine and produces the fruit of the vine. The branch is strong and bears the flower and fruit of the vine. If the branch is cut off from the vine it withers and dies. And that is what happened to Adam and through him to all his descendants when He rejected My Words and cut himself off from Me. He no longer had the source.
“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 it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 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. 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 15:2-6.
How do you attach? How do you stay connected to the vine? How do you abide in Him and thus in Me? Let Jesus explain:
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 prove to be My disciples. 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 15:8-10.
I want you to notice a few things here. A branch is not the servant or slave of the vine, rather the vine supplies and empowers the branch to be amazing. The vine empowers the branch to flower and that flower to become fruit. The beauty of a tree is not in the trunk but in the leafy, lovely, flowering branches. People will travel great distance to go behold the cherry trees in blossom.
But where are they seeing the beauty? In the branches. Jesus became ugly with your sins as He was beaten and hung on the cross which made Him cursed but made you beautiful with the blessings and beauty He poured out of Himself into you, as a vine does into the branch. I make you beautiful, fruitful, and sinless in Jesus. He became sin on your behalf so that in Him you would become righteous with My own righteousness.
Let them praise His name with dancing; let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre. For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation (Yeshuah, Jesus). Psalm 149:3-4.
When you are baptized into Christ you clothe yourself in Christ. I clothe you in the garments of Salvation and the robe of Righteousness.
But look at the vine and its branch again. It is a partnership relationship where both benefit. The branch withers and dies without the vine, but without the branch the vine cannot produce fruit in the world to feed the hungry or give shelter and shade. The vine supplies all to the branch but the branch must produce the fruit and not block it. The deeper it is attached the more it can receive the flow from the vine and the more fruit it will produce. There is mutual commitment for fruit production.
And Jesus told you the only way the branch can abide deep in the vine is if you remain in His Words and His Words remain in you. The abiding life is a life of love for My Word, which is loving Me for I am My Word and Jesus is My Word become flesh. And Jesus explained that:
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” John 14:23-24.
And loving Me means you keep My Word deep in your heart and you act upon that Word so that your life produces the fruit of the seed of My Word. And My Word is Spirit-breathed. I pour My love, and I am love, so I pour Myself, My divine life, into your heart by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23.
The fruit of the vine of Jesus is the fruit of the Spirit. All will know you by your fruit.
This relationship of the branch abiding in the vine, is abiding in My love. It makes your life a beautiful flow of grace upon grace. Grace is My divine life in you empowering you to do mighty works, wonders, and miracles by My power flowing into you.
You do not have to be even one moment without being connected with Me and living in that continuous live stream from My throne of grace into your heart and out into your life to give amazing fruit to the world.
Planted in My house, you will bear fruit even in old age, you will be full of sap (filled with the Holy Spirit) and fresh and green. Being attached to the vine, being rooted and grounded in Christ and thus in My love, renews your youth. Stress is gone when you know how to abide in Me by keeping My Words.
And ponder too the relationships I compare your attachment to Me as your source and supply, as the one who serves you. I tell you to be as little children and that you are My beloved children and heirs to all I have and am when you are created anew in Christ. So it is the relationship of a little child with a loving father who gives only good things to that beloved child. And the parent is the child’s source of supply, care, and comfort. The child knows that all he has to do when he needs something is go to the parent and it will be supplied. The parent is responsible for the well being of the child. The parent supplies for the current and future needs of the child. The parent would give his life to save his child.
I also talk of our relationship as one like a shepherd with his sheep. He is responsible for their care and sustenance. He is with them day and night to protect and raise them. He leads them to green pastures and good living water. He protects them in dark valleys and does not permit any enemy to take them.
So with Me you go from infants and little children, to sheep with their shepherd, to the branches on the vine producing fruit, and finally to the best of all, the mature believer that is reigning with Me. Of what am I speaking? Jesus again will explain:
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1:5-6.
I have called you out of darkness into My own marvelous light and made you a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart. This was My desire from when I redeemed My people from the slavery of Egypt and bore them on eagles’ to Myself.
Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own special treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” Exodus 19:3-6.
I want you at My side working with Me to save souls, interceding with your great High Priest as one with Him before Me shining as My bright lights in the world.
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5.
You see how you start as infants on the milk of the Word that you may grow thereby and as you become strong in the word you become living stones built into My dwelling place in the Spirit as My holy priesthood working with Me for the salvation of souls, being attached to and built upon the cornerstone of My Son.
But there is more. I wanted the entire nation of Israel to be My royal priesthood but they would not and went and made an idol—a golden calf—that they worshipped in disobedience to My Word, but one tribe remained faithful to Me and became My priesthood ministering to Me and the people in My dwelling place and I was their portion and they were Mine. And they were the descendants of Leah’s third son, Levi. And do you know what Levi means in Hebrew? It means “attached.” Yes, attached to Me, like the branch to the vine, like a sheep to its shepherd, and a little child to its parents so too is My royal priesthood.
And finally there is one more comparison and attachment. You are all members of the body of Christ, which is the glorious Church. The most powerful body on earth. And as such you are the bride of Christ. A bridegroom takes care of and cherishes his bride and in marriage the two join as ONE. So here we are back at oneness again. You in Christ, Christ in Me, and you in Me and I in you as I am in Christ.
“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 took the whole world on a detour but in Jesus I have brought you back into Me to reign with Me forever.
And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:5.
I love you. Seek the abiding life. It is there for you forever.