“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. . . I am the vine, you are the branches.” John 15:1, 5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
In the Words of Jesus at the Last Supper that we are now considering, Jesus gave a teaching that He revealed at no other time to His disciples. And in this teaching you learn how I partnership and fellowship with you, what your relationship is with Me and My Son, and how the Holy Spirit flows My life into you and enables you to be fruitful, in other words, how the original blessing and purpose I gave to man is activated within you to produce and increase until full maturity is reached and goodness released.
In this teaching, which is not long, Jesus capsulizes in one sacred and yet earthy image, the way in which I, My Son, and My Spirit empower and relate with you and how you relate and function with (draw upon) us. You are not alone, you can be a partaker of the divine nature and filled with My very being by joining with (attaching, putting your roots deep down into) My Son, like a branch on a vine, and from Him flows the gift of My Spirit.
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 1:6-7.
And in that relationship power to produce goodness through love flows into you—spirit, soul, and body.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10.
Jesus is the Vine. What does that mean to you? The vine determines the type of fruit that is to be produced, and the health and strength of the vine determines the amount and quality of production that can be brought forth by firmly attached branches. The branches grow out of the vine. They are of the vine, they carry the image and likeness in what they produce, but if they are cut off or detached from the vine they wither and die and produce nothing. They can do nothing apart from the vine, but by remaining in the vine they will produce naturally from the flow they receive from the vine.
“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.
The branch can produce abundantly when that pathway from the vine into the branch is firmly connected with no hindrance or resistance in the branch. Just as electricity needs a connector (conductor) to flow its current into the homes of the recipients and give them power to light their homes and run their devises and appliances, so too a vine needs branches to produce fruit in the earth. And in both analogies to the relationship between My power and promises, indeed My very self, being received and manifested in and for you, the connector (conductor) for the divine power to flow into humanity to manifest in the earth is faith.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. John 14:12-14.
Jesus explains this:
“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. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:6-7.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide 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.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17.
A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse— after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she was saying, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you; go into peace and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:25-34.
I am the vinedresser, the owner, the creator, the overseer from within whom all creation, all life, and motion, matter, time and space proceeds. I have ultimate control but that does not mean I control your decisions and your fruitfulness. I have supplied all you need for life and godliness, as you see in the analogy of the vine and the branches, everything the branch needs for its growth, fruitfulness, and goodness is in the vine and completely available for the branch to empower and enable it to bear lovely flowers and fruits for the benefit of all.
To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:1-4.
Think of the cherry blossoms, people travel from all over the world to Japan to see the beauty of these glorious blossoms, but though all the admiration and credit goes to the branches, it is actually the trunk and its roots that have made it possible for the branch to produce such beauty and then the precious cherries that are so good for your body.
The analogy, however, is merely that. Branches on a vine have no choice, they are on the vine from which they spring forth and remain there unless severed by an outside force. You, however, can choose what vine (source) you attach to and abide in, good or evil, fruitful or unfruitful. You all come forth from Me and are of Me, but the decision whether you remain and abide with Me is your own. I want you with Me, My desire is for all to be saved and know the truth and to prosper and be in perfect health even as your soul (your mind, will, and emotions) prosper by knowing and walking in the truth, but if you reject Me by rejecting My Word, I have to let you go your own way.
This may surprise you, but you can make Me act contrary to My Will. But before you think I mean something different than what I am saying, let Me explain. Consider the Israelites I redeemed out of slavery in Egypt. It was My Will to bless them with the abundance of the land I had promised Abraham I would give to them, and I was right on schedule with what I had promised him. They, however, refused to go in. They had doubts and fear and refused to do My Will no matter how many proofs I gave of My power and My love for them. So I had to go with their decision to go back out into the wilderness and wander around for the next forty years. But please note, I took care of them even in their disobedience, even though they were acting against My Will I fed them everyday with manna from Heaven, I kept them in health, I provided everything they needed and continued to forgive them and provide My Word and My care for them throughout their sojourn in the wilderness. I blessed them and increased their families, their flocks, their herds and their lives even though they were out of My Will.
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:44-45.
But ultimately, yes, My Will will be done. It just takes longer. The next generation went with Joshua and Caleb into the promised land. They connected with Me by faith and the power flowed. It makes a difference who you listen to. If the older generation had listened to Joshua and Caleb instead of the ten doubting, fearful spies, then history would have been very different and well as the lives of the older generation. Be careful not to miss the time of your visitation, stay attached to Me by abiding in My Word.
Look again at the analogy of the vine and the branches. Who should you be listening to? My Son. He is your vine.
Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” Matthew 17:1-5.
In the past I spoke in varied ways to you by My prophets but now I speak to directly through My Son.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. Hebrews 1:1-3.
The vine and the branches, the shepherd and the sheep, and the Father and His children are all ways in which Jesus described your relationship with Me and My Son, but the most attached and continuous flow occurs in the analogy of the vine and the branches. This is the closest to how I view our relationship as one, neither the branch nor the vine can produce without the other. The relationship is so intertwined that nothing fruitful takes place on the earth without the two working as one. There is a never ceasing connection that keeps My life flowing into you in abundance of grace upon grace until it overflows out into the world.
“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.
I love you and the vine and branches should make you know how much I want you to be One with Me, a partaker of the divine nature. You were not made to be alone, you were made to be complete in Me.