Listening; abiding; staying within the vine, attached to the branch
Without Him we can do nothing
With Him,
we can ask what we desire
And it will be given to us.

This is taken from John 15:1-8, also a book called ‘Secrets of the Vine’ by Bruce Wilkinson.

Living under the Shadow of God

John 15:1-8 – I’m like wine, the best fruit is yet to come.
Psalm 1:3 tells us that if we walk in the Lord’s ways, if we lean on Him, if we learn from Him, if we feed from Him, we are like a tree planted by streams of living water, we’ll bring forth our fruit in season, our leaves will not wither and whatever we do shall prosper.

2 Corinthians 9:8 says that His grace will bound toward us, that as we have all sufficiency in all things we shall have an arena to bear fruit, opportunities will abound for us to do good work.

Bruce Wilkinson, in his book ‘Secrets of the Vine’ explains John 15:1-8 beautifully.

There are four baskets in the vineyard:

The first basket is empty – Verses 1-2

In some versions of the bible it says that those branches that bear no fruit are cut off. If we are already in the kingdom Jesus will not cut us off because we’re not bearing fruit, but He will cleanse us and lift us up. Vinedressers do not cut off new branches that are languishing in the mud on the floor; no, they go along with a bucket of water and a cloth, cleanses them and picks them up, so that they can bear fruit. Jesus does that with us, He cleanses us from our sins.

Hebrews 12:5 He rebukes, when we need it
Hebrews 12:5 If we take no notice of that He’ll chasten us
Hebrews 12:6 And if that doesn’t work He’ll scourge us, but only because He love us.
Psalm 118:18 The Lord has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death. If He doesn’t scourge us that is the time to worry; He doesn’t love us.
1 Corinthians 8:30 Our acts bring judgements on ourselves and others.

The second basket has a little fruit – verse 2

After the vine has been cleansed and lifted up, after we’ve been chastised and forgiven, we go to the second basket and there we find a little fruit at the bottom of the basket.

We can’t have both grapes and leaves, we can’t have busyness and more fruit. So now God will prune us if we’ll let Him. We might look good, and we might even bear a little fruit, but we are not productive. The vinedresser hacks away at the leaves so that the fruit will grow. This branch is already bearing fruit, but God knows it can bear more.

This is as painful as the cleaning process, but this isn’t because we’re doing something wrong, this isn’t because of sin in our lives, this is because He doesn’t want us to be so busy we haven’t got time to be in His presence.

James 1:3-4. As we grow older it’s not just the outside He wants to prune, but the inside also – testing us, teaching us to have more faith, we are made perfect and complete, lacking nothing. God isn’t just wanting to take away, but to make room, to add strength, productivity and spiritual power in our lives. He works faithfully – if we let Him – to bring us closer to the perfect and complete image of Christ – that to me is awesome Psalm 66:10, 12.

Pruning: 1. Letting go of people we love. I did this along time ago with my children, more recently with my husband. Yes it hurt, but He loves them even more than we ever can, and sometimes, infact more often than not, we get in the way.

2. Giving up our independence, giving up the right to understand what God is doing. At these times we may need to cling on to God with our finger tips, even though we may not understand. We need to be honest with God and say, ‘I don’t understand what is going on, but I trust You and know You’ll carry me through…’ If we don’t we’ll be the poorer for it.

3. Letting go of our possessions and money . He wants to be Lord of our lives not mammon. That doesn’t mean He want us poor, but He comes first. When Jesus told the rich young man to give away all his possession and give to the poor, that was because He knew while the young man trusted in his possessions, he could never trust in God.

4. Letting go of the sources of our significance. Our jobs, in or out of the Church, can be a source of significance, even our visions and ministries.

To the question God or…… my ministry etc. If we can honestly say we choose God over…. our home, family etc. then we probably have our priorities right. If not, maybe we need to find if this is our source of significance. Philippians 3:7-8, 13-18.

This prayer from John Piper says it all for me.

Lord, let me make a difference for you
That is utterly disproportionate to who I am.

The third basket is almost full – verse 3

As we respond to His pruning in a big way, a positive way, instead of seeing pain and focusing on that, as we see Christ and focus on Him so we go to the third basket and see the basket almost full.

Then we need to abide with God.

Songs of Solomon 8:5 Coming out of the wilderness, leaning on our lover’s arm.

Psalm 27:4 Dwelling in His presence – asking of Him.

Genesis 5:2 1 Enoch walked so close to God, he never saw death..

1 Kings 19: 12 Elijah in the cave and God’s still small voice.

The fourth basket is overflowing – 4

God doesn’t want us to do more for him, but to be more with Him. That’s when we look into the fourth basket and find it overflowing with fruit,.

He promised blessings, but there is a condition, that we wait on Him. Isaiah 40:20-31

Psalm 42:1 We pant, need, search for Him as a deer is driven to find water when he’s dying, literally, of thirst.

John 15:9 Jesus tells us to abide in Him, abide in God’s love.

As daughters we have captivated Your heart.
As sons You are telling us that we have got what it takes.