Pursuit Of His Presence

John 15:1-8 

The Vine and the Branches

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Devotional

Overflow With His Fruit

by Gloria Copeland

“If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.” John 15:6
Jesus said if we want to bear fruit we must abide in Him. The word abide has a sense of permanency about it. It doesn’t mean to come in and go out. It refers to the place where you remain and dwell continually.
Contrary to what many people seem to think, you cannot live from Sunday to Sunday without spiritual food. You can’t fellowship with the Lord once a week at church, ignore Him the rest of the time, and still have the new man on the inside be the dominant part of you. John 15:6 makes that clear.
The moment a branch is broken off from the vine, it begins to die. It doesn’t matter how close they are to one another. You can lay that branch beside the vine, but if the union has been broken, there will be no life flow. There will be no sap (no life) flowing from the vine into the branch.
The same is true for us. When we get too busy to spend time with God in prayer and in His Word, when we get preoccupied with natural, earthly things and disconnect from communion with Him, we immediately begin to wither.
The word wither means “to shrivel, to lose or cause to lose energy, force or freshness.” That’s a vivid picture of what happens to us when we aren’t living in vital contact with the Lord. We still belong to Him. We still have His life within us, but His energy is not flowing through us so we can’t produce anything.
We lose our capacity for spiritual action. We may know what to do, but we find ourselves lacking the power to do it. We haven’t the strength to bear fruit!
On the other hand, when you do abide in the Vine, you are certain to bear fruit. In fact, it is inevitable! The power of the Holy Spirit flowing through you will just naturally bring forth that which God has placed within you. And you will begin to act like the loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle, good, faithful, meek and self-controlled person you really are! You will overflow with His fruit!
Speak the Word
“I abide and dwell in Jesus so that I bear abundant fruit.” —John 15:5, The Amplified Bible
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