Even as I

Good morning dear sisters. Last night, the Intercession Team met to pray for us. We let the Spirit lead the “conversation” and His heart is for our strengthening, our healing, our marriages. We spent a long time praying for those who feel weary and heavy laden, and for those who feel lonely and without community. He desires our unity, and for His love to pour into us and through us. It was a sweet, sweet time of prayer. The prayer team at large would be glad to continue to pray through any specific requests you have, even anonymously. We believe He speaks, He listens and He intimately cares for the needs of His own sheep, who know Him and hear His Voice and follow Him (John 10) May we be encouraged today by a strong sense of His presence and may the meditation of our hearts be pleasing to Him. You may email requests to nicolechapingiven@gmail.com

If Ye Keep My Commandments, Ye Shall Abide in My Love, Even as I have Kept My Father's Commandments, and Abide in His Love--John 15:10

We have had occasion more than once to speak of the perfect similarity of the vine and the branch in nature, and therefore in aim. Here Christ speaks no longer in a parable, but tells us plainly out of how His own life is the exact model of ours. He had said that it is alone by obedience we can abide in His love. He now tells that this was the way in which He abode in the Father's love. As the Vine, so the branch. His life and strength and joy had been in the love of the Father: it was only by obedience He abode in it. We may find our life and strength and joy in His love all the day, but it is only by an obedience like His we can abide in it. Perfect conformity to the Vine is one of the most precious of the lessons of the branch. It was by obedience Christ as Vine honored the Father as Husbandman; it is by obedience the believer as branch honors Christ as Vine.

Obey and abide--That was the law of Christ's life as much as it is to be that of ours. He was made like us in all things, that we might be like Him in all things. He opened up a path in which we may walk even as He walked. He took our human nature to teach us how to wear it, and show us how obedience, as it is the first duty of the creature, is the only way to abide in the favor of God and enter into His glory. And now He comes to instruct and encourage us, and asks us to keep His commandments, even as He kept His Father's commandments and abides in His love.

The divine fitness of this connection between obeying and abiding, between God's commandments and His love, is easily seen. God's will is the very center of His divine perfection. As revealed in His commandments, it opens up the way for the creature to grow into the likeness of the Creat or. In accepting and doing His will, I rise into fellowship with Him. Therefore it was that the Son, when coming into the world, spoke: "I come to do thy will, O God"! This was the place and this would be the blessedness of the creature. This was what had lost in the Fall. This was what Christ came to restore. This is what, as the heavenly Vine, He asks of us and imparts to us, that even as He by keeping His Father's commandments abode in His love, we should keep His commandments and abide in His love.

Ye, even as I--The branch cannot bear fruit except as it has exactly the same life as the Vine. Our life is to be the exact counterpart of Christ's life. It can be, just in such measure as we believe in Him as the Vine, imparting Himself and His life to His branches. "Ye, even as I," the Vine says: one law, one nature, one fruit. Do let us take from our Lord the lesson of obedience as the secret of abiding. Let us confess that simple, implicit, universal obedience has taken too little the place it should have. Christ died for us as enemies, when we were disobedient. He took us up into His love; now that we are in Him, His Word is: "Obey and abide; ye, even as I." Let us give ourselves to a willing and loving obedience. He will keep us abiding in His love.

Ye, even as I. O my blessed Vine, who makest the branch in everything partake of Thy life and likeness, in this too I am to be like Thee: as Thy life in the Father's love through obedience, so mine in Thy love! Saviour, help me, that obedience may indeed be the link between Thee and me. . .

Lord thank You that You are intimately acquainted with our need. Thank You that You know all that we go through as people Jesus, because You consented to be born in the flesh, so that we would have a Redeemer. You understand and sympathize with our weaknesses because You were tempted in every way as we are, You experienced the limitations of the body, as we do, yet You were without sin. You understand, and You are our Savior. O teach us to boldly approach Your throne of grace to find the mercy we need and the grace we need. Teach us to admit our need. Give us courage to confess our need to one another, give us Your love to love one another through frailty, through sin, through weakness. Your agape love heals and restores… may we be Your willing conduits of grace and love toward one another. Let us not be so easily offended, let us keep no record of wrongs against one another. Especially in this next week O God, give us Your gift of forgiveness toward others, release us from our own rights that lead to bitterness and resentment, and let us see ourselves in the light of Your glory. We have been forgiven of so very much. Give us Your agape love to walk in forgiveness of others, for our freedom, their freedom and our mutual joy. We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen. 

Obey and Abide

Good morning : ) I pray as we continue to read and soak in John 15, that the “how” of abiding will become more and more clear. It’s not by striving to abide, but by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. I’m learning that praying, resting and abiding, are pretty synonymous in the spiritual realm. We (the prayer team) continue to pray through your requests, and are so glad when you update us. We are grateful to see how He is fulfilling His promise of peace that guards our hearts and minds, as we by faith, with thanksgiving, submit our requests to Him. At the end of this post is prayer for us. 

Today’s reading is entitled Obey and Abide, and comes from John 15:10

If Ye Keep My Commandments, Ye Shall Abide In My Love—John 15.10

In our former meditation reference was made to the entrance into a life of rest and strength which has often come through a true insight into the personal love of Christ, and the assurance that that love indeed meant that He would keep the soul. In connection with that transition, and the faith that sees and accepts it, the word surrender or consecration is frequently used. The soul sees that it cannot claim the keeping of this wonderful love unless it yields itself to a life of entire obedience. It sees too that the faith that can trust Christ for keeping from sinning must prove its sincerity by venturing at once to trust Him for strength to obey. In that faith it dares to give up and cut off everything that has hitherto hindered it, and to promise and expect to live a life that is well pleasing to God.

This is the thought we have here now in our Savior’s teaching. After having in the words, “Abide in my love,” spoken of a life in His love as a necessity, because it is at once a possibility and an obligation, He states what its one condition is: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” This is surely not meant to close the door to the abode of His love which he had just opened up. Not in the most distant way does it suggest the thought which some are too ready to entertain, that as we cannot keep His commandments, we cannot abide in His love. No; the precept is a promise: “Abide in my love,” could not be a precept if it were not a promise. And so the instruction as to the way through this open door points to no unattainable ideal; the love that invites to her blessed abode reaches out the hand, and enables us to keep the commandments. Let us not fear, in the strength of our ascended Lord, to take the vow of obedience, and give ourselves to the keeping of His commandments.

Through His will, loved and done, lies the path to His love.

Only let us understand well what it means. It refers to our performance of all that we know to be God’s will. There may be things doubtful, of which we are not sure. A sin of ignorance has still the nature of sin in it. There may be involuntary sins, which rise up in the flesh, which we cannot control or overcome. With regard to these God will deal in due time in the way of searching and humbling, and if we be simple and faithful, give us larger deliverance than we dare expect. But all this may be found in a truly obedient soul. Obedience has reference to the positive keeping of the commandments of our Lord, and the performance of His will in everything in which we know it. This is a possible degree of grace, and it is the acceptance in Christ’s strength of such obedience as the purpose of our heart, of which our Savior speaks here. Faith in Christ as our Vine, in His enabling and sanctifying power, fits us for this obedience of faith, and secures a life of abiding in His love.

If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love—It is the heavenly Vine unfolding the mystery of the life He gives. It is to those abiding in Him to whom He opens up the secret of the full abiding in His love. It is the wholehearted surrender in everything to do His will, that gives access to a life in the abiding enjoyment of His love.

Obey and abide. Gracious Lord, teach me this lesson, that it is only through knowing Thy will one can know Thy heart, and only through doing that will one can abide in Thy love. Lord, teach me that as worthless as is the doing in my own strength, so essential and absolutely indispensable is the doing of faith in Thy strength, if I would abide in Thy love.

Lord I am thankful Your command is a promise: If you obey or keep My commands, you will abide in My love. Lord we must trust You for the strength to obey, even in the very small, if we are to trust You to keep us from the sin that so easily entangles. Abba teach us to reject the lie that “it’s no big deal if I do…. “ or “it’s not that big a deal if I…” Anything that keeps us from experiencing the abundant life You have promised, must go. But we cannot make it go in our own strength. We are entirely dependent upon You to fulfill Your very command to us! O teach us again that to surrender our will to Yours is far easier in the long run and produces the very thing we seek: Rest in You. Joy in You. Peace in You. Abiding in You. Again teach us to cease striving and know You are God. Again may Your Spirit speak louder than our “old hag”, our sin nature, who wants what she wants when she wants it. May Your promise of abiding in Your love, through abiding in You, be proved true in each of us today. May You show each of us the time You have set aside for us to just be with You, to learn the sound of Your Voice as You speak through Your word, Your Spirit, our hearts abiding. You are faithful and true. We belong to You if we have put our faith in Your finished work on the Cross. We desire more than just salvation and assurance of heaven. We desire You, to know You, to walk intimately with You and know Your voice and heart. O give us the courage to walk in obedience, even in the very small, and give to us what You promise: abiding joy, abiding love. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen. 

FPCB Women's Retreat 2015, "Daughters of the King"

Abide in My Love

Good morning friends. It is good to be back home, and good to start back into the rhythm of our retreat. Thank you, those of you who prayed for me, who prayed for Brenda Hollenbach over the weekend as each of us spoke at different retreats. Your prayers helped us be just the branch, allowing God to give us His own strength, and His own words so that what was produced would last. So, so thankful. Today’s reading is Abide in My Love, and is from John 15:9 Instead of the highlights, I’ve included the entire devotional below. It is in public domain. If you missed the prior readings, here is the link to the online PDF. Even as the Father Hath Loved Me, I Also Have Loved You: Abide Ye in My Love—John 15.9 Abide in My love—We speak of a man’s home as his abode. Our abode, the home of our soul, is to be the love of Christ. We are to live our life there, to be at home there all the day: this is what Christ means our life to be, and really can make it. Our continuous abiding in the Vine is to be an abiding in His love. You have probably heard or read of what is called the higher, or the deeper life, of the richer or the fuller life, of the life abundant. And you possibly know that some have told of a wonderful change, by which their life of continual failure and stumbling had been changed into a very blessed experience of being kept and strengthened and made exceeding glad. If you asked them how it was this great blessing came to them, many would tell you it was simply this, that they were led to believe that this abiding in Christ’s love was meant to be a reality, and that they were made willing to give up everything for it, and then enabled to trust Christ to make it true to them. The love of the Father to the Son is not a sentiment—it is a divine life, an infinite energy, an irresistible power. It carried Christ through life and death and the grave. The Father loved Him and dwelt in Him, and did all for Him. So the love of Christ to us too is an infinite living power that will work in us all He delights to give us. The feebleness of our Christian life is that we do not take time to believe that this divine love does really delight in us, and will possess and work all in us. We do not take time to look at the Vine bearing the branch so entirely, working all in it so completely. We strive to do for ourselves what Christ alone can, what Christ, oh, so lovingly, longs to do for us. And this now is the secret of the change we spoke of, and the beginning of a new life, when the soul sees this infinite love willing to do all, and gives itself up to it. “Abide ye in my love.” To believe that, it is possible so to live moment by moment; to believe that everything that makes it difficult or impossible will be overcome by Christ Himself; to believe that Love really means an infinite longing to give itself wholly to us and never leave us; and in this faith to cast ourselves on Christ to work it in us; this is the secret of the true Christian life. And how to come to this faith? Turn away from the visible if you would see and possess the invisible. Take more time with Jesus, gazing on Him as the heavenly Vine, living in the love of the Father, wanting you to live in His love. Turn away from yourself and your efforts and your faith, if you would have the heart filled with Him and the certainty of His love. Abiding means going out from everything else, to occupy one place and stay there. Come away from all else, and set your heart on Jesus, and His love, that love will waken your faith and strengthen it. Occupy yourself with that love, worship it, wait for it. You may be sure it will reach out to you, and by its power take you up into itself as your abode and your home. Abide in My love. Lord Jesus, I see it, it was Thy abiding in Thy Father’s love that made Thee the true Vine, with Thy divine fullness of love and blessing for us. Oh, that I may even so, as a branch, abide in Thy love, for its fullness to fill me and overflow on all around. Lord we would be with You where You are that we may see Your glory. We would learn to abide in Your love. We would desire to desire to have You alone as our greatest hope, our greatest joy. Lord strip away for us that which is in the way, and grant us the grace to believe, by faith, it is for our good, our joy, our heart’s desire to abide in Your love. When we would strive, let us hear Your Spirit say, “rest daughter, in my Love.” Your love strengthens, confirms and heals. Your love invigorates all we do, think and speak. And this abundant life that has been so elusive for so long… is very near. You alone can make it true in us. O make it true in us Abba. We are branches, only branches. You are the Vinedresser and You intimately care for each branch, pruning each to encourage more fruit, abundant fruit, fruit that will last. Let us rest in that. You are the Vine, we are the branches. Do what You will, only make the truth of an abundant life, abiding in Your love, true in us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen..

The Father Glorified

Good morning! Today I leave for Tuscarora Conference Center to speak at a retreat there. I am really excited to share what He has given to me to share with these precious women. Would you pray that those who do not yet know Jesus would come to know Him this weekend? And would you pray that I speak with clarity, and boldness through the strength and wisdom of the Spirit, speaking, as it were, His words after Him? Thank you so, so much.

Today I am including the link to the devotional. Tomorrow and Sunday, I will not be posting, but I so encourage you to begin to read through the devotional on your own. Many of you have said how much John 15 is impacting you. May you continue to spend time with Jesus, learning from Him as you read through on your own.

Today’s reading is very encouraging because it helps us see our purpose, and begin to see just how much fulfilling our purpose depends upon God.

The reading is entitled The Father Glorified and the verse is John 15:8

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. John 15:8

Here are some highlights:  
How can we glorify God? Not by adding to His glory or bringing Him any new glory that He has not. But simply by allowing His glory to shine out through us, by yielding ourselves to Him, that His glory may manifest itself in us and through us to the world. In the disciple who bears much fruit, the Father is glorified. Before men and angels, proof is given of the glory of God’s grace and power; God’s glory shine out through Him.

Men judge of God by the fruit that the branches of the Vine of His planting bears.

Let us learn the secret of bringing glory to God, serving of the ability which God giveth. The full acceptance of Christ’s Word, “You can do noting”; the simple faith in god, who worketh all in all; the abiding in Christ through whom the diving Husbandman does His work and gets much fruit – this is the life that will bring glory to God.

Much fruit: herin is my Father glorified. Let the very height of the demand be your encouragement. It is so entirely beyond your power, that it throws you more entirely upon Christ, your true Vine. He can, He will, make it true in you.

Throw yourself in much prayer on your vine and your Husbandman. Cry to God and your Father to give you fruit to bring to men. Take the burden of the hungry and the perishing on you, as Jesus did when he was moved with compassion, and your power in prayer, and your abiding, and your bearing much fruit to the glory of the Father will have a reality and a certainty you never knew before.

Father, glorify Thyself in me.

Lord, we pray for the prayer requests that have been coming in these past few weeks. Lord, we are in need, and You alone can meet our deepest need. Abba continues to reveal to us Your own glory, keep our eyes fixed on You. When we do, we have perspective on our circumstances. It is so difficult to see You in the midst, but by faith we trust that You see us, and You know our frame and remember we are dust. Father, in these circumstances that we are in, glorify Yourself. May You bear Your fruit through us in the midst of sickness, difficult relationships, death of our rights. We want, more than anything, to be fruit bearers. Give us Your compassion for those in our midst who are walking through difficulty, or who are dry, withered. Give us Your compassion for those who find themselves walking out consequences of their own sin. Send us Abba, and give to us Your compassion and words of comfort and exhortation. You have called us to bear fruit, and it is up to You to cause it to grow. Let us then yield to Your pruning, that we may bear much fruit. In Jesus’ name, for Your glory and our joy, amen.

If Ye Abide

Good morning! Yesterday was a great reminder that as we abide, we rest, we pray. They will happen together as we grow in our understanding of what it means to abide. Do take some time to simply talk with God today. Ask God to help you. He promises that He is already in the secret place waiting for you. (Matt 6).

Our reading today is entitled, If Ye Abide, and the verse is John 15:7

If you abide in me and My words abide in you, ask what ever you wish and it shall be done for you. John 15:7

Here are some highlights:
If you abide: Here is the difference between the branch of the natural and the branch of the spiritual Vine. The former abides by force of nature: the latter abides, not by force of will, but by a diving power given to the consent of the will. // the branch can abide in the Vine.

If we are to live a true prayer life, with the love and the power and the experience of prayer marking it, there must be no question about the abiding. // we must gaze on that little branch and its wonderful power of bearing such beautiful fruit until we truly learn to abide.

And what is its secret? Be wholly occupied with Jesus. Sink the roots of your being in faith and love and obedience deep down into Him. Come away out of every other place to abide here. // Let Christ be first. // Do not be occupied with the abiding – be occupied with Christ! He will hold you, He will keep you abiding in Him. He will abide in you.

“I in you. If my words abide in you”- //  all these words enter into your will, your being, and constitute your life – if they transform your character into their own likeness, and you become and are what they speak and mean, ask what you will; it shall be done for you.  Your words to God in prayer will be the fruit of Christ and His words living in you.

Ask what you will, and it shall be done for you – believe in the truth of this promise. Set yourself to be an intercessor for men and women – a fruit bearing intercessor, ever calling down more blessing. Such faith and prayer will help you wonderfully to abide wholly and unceasingly.

If you abide. Yes, Lord, the power to pray and the power to prevail must depend on this abiding in Thee. As Thou art the Vine, Thou art the Divine Intercessor, who breathest Thy Spirit in us. Oh, for grace to abide simply and wholly in Thee, and ask great things!

Abba, may we learn to pray and intercede for one another. May we believe that we really can abide in You, and You in us, and that Your words can become our words for prayer. Lord, I ask that we may be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that we may walk in a manner worthy of You. Lord we desire to please You in all respects, we desire to bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge, the experiential knowledge of You. Lord we desire to be strengthened with all power, according to Your glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to you Abba, You who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light. Lord how thankful we are that we are counted as sons and daughters of You. May we remember we have been adopted for our joy, Your glory, and for the purpose of You bearing fruit through us, for drawing others toward You by Your Spirit through the grace displayed in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen

Whatsoever Ye Will

Good morning! I am working ahead on these devotionals as I prepare to speak at a retreat this weekend. I’d love, love your prayers for me, as well as Brenda Hollenbach, who is also speaking at a different retreat this weekend. Would you pray that we would speak boldly as we ought through the power of the Spirit, that He would finish the prep work that we need to accomplish, and that we would rest in His doing it all through us? We are well aware, thanks to this devotional, that apart from Him, we can bear no fruit. We rest in what He wants to do in and through us this weekend.

Please note, if you are reading these only on the blog or Facebook, we will not be posting devotionals on this Saturday or Sunday. I will post the ones we missed on Monday, and continue the normal posting Monday as well. Last Friday's post  contains the link to the devotional so you can read on your own those two days. 
 
The devotional today is entitled Whatsoever Ye Will and is from John 17:7
 
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask what ever you wish, and it shall be done for you. John 15:7
 
Here are the highlights:
The whole place of the branch in the vine is one of unceasing prayer. Without intermission it is ever calling: “ O my vine, send the sap I need to bear Thy fruit.” And its prayers are never unanswered: it asks what it needs, what it will, and it is done.//The healthy life of the believer in Christ is equally one of unceasing prayer. Consciously or unconsciously, he lives in continual dependence.//
 
The promise is given in direct connection with fruit bearing. Limit it to yourself, and your own needs, and you rob it of its power; you rob yourself of the power of appropriating it.
 
The promise is given in direct connection with the coming of the Spirit. //  To avail ourselves of the unlimited prayer promises, we must be men and women who are filled with the Spirit, and wholly given up to the work and glory of Jesus. // Let us realize that we can only fulfill our calling to bear much fruit by praying much. // Get the heart burdened with the need of souls, and the command to save them, and the power will come to claim the promise.
 
Let us claim it as one of the revelations of our wonderful life in the Vine. He tells us that if we ask in His name, in virtue of our union with Him, whatsoever it be, it will be done to us. Souls are perishing because there is too little prayer. God’s children are feeble because there is too little prayer. We bear so little fruit because there is so little prayer.
 
To be a branch means not only bearing fruit on earth, but power in prayer to bring down blessing from heaven. Abiding fully means praying much.
 
Ask what ye will. O my Lord, why is it that our hearts are so little able to accept these words in their divine simplicity? Oh give me to see that we need nothing less than this promise to overcome the powers of the world and Satan! Teach us to pray in the faith of this Thy promise.
 
Abba teach us to pray. We want to believe the promise that if we abide in You and Your words abide in us, we truly can ask whatever we wish, and it shall be done for us. Lord teach us to remember the pruning You do in us is for fruit to bear, for much fruit to bear through us. Continue to teach us to be still and be only the branch. Teach us to cease striving in trying to bear fruit. Abba awaken our hunger for You. Jesus You are the Bread of Life, and our Living Water. Awaken our hunger for you, give us eyes to see our desperate need of You. You promise that when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are satisfied. O God, so many of us walk around unsatisfied. We do not know how to be still, we do not know how to cease striving, we do not know how to simply be a branch. Today Lord, lift our eyes to be fixed on You, reveal to us moments of time we have to be still before You. Unveil Your word to us again as we seek You in the Word You have given to us. We would rest, we would abide, we would pray... teach us again to pray O God, humble our hearts and convince us of our utter need of You, again and again, until we believe it. You are our Living Hope, and Your words and promises are Life for us. Thank You Abba, in Jesus' name, amen.