Stories, Part 1

Adventure of the day, June 6

I just got off the phone with a dear younger sister after praying in authority with her over her daughter. I’ve known her ever since I gave her a ride home from school when I was a theater teacher, over 16 years ago.(Theater teacher, I know, right?) Since then, I’ve watched her rejection of Christ grow into less animosity, to interest, to seeking, to finding, to being reborn and now, having the joy of her first born being baptized last weekend. After the baptism, a guy said he “saw” something in the “spiritual realm” over her daughter before she went into the water. When this guy communicated what he saw, my friend was scared and told him so. She called me, somewhat anxious and asked me to speak into it. I explained to her the authority she has in Christ, and explained how she can walk in it. We then prayed and broke off anything that was not of Jesus spoken over her daughter, and spoke blessing into the life and destiny of her daughter, in the name of Jesus.

Adventure of the day, June 2

She sat in our porch last week, in the white wicker chair with the red patterned cushion, decaf in her hand. She poured out her heart. She doesn’t recall others speaking life into her, only where she was a failure in every relationship she had. 2 ½ years ago, she was invited into community for the first time in her adult life. She’s heard life giving words, and has been prayed over so often in this community, with others speaking and calling out the gifts of the Spirit they see in her, that she is beginning to believe she has value and worth in the Body of Christ. She wants more of the abundant life God has promised. She has seen us, even through the hard times, filled with the Spirit and walking in His gifts. She has seen God resource us with more of Himself and although it still makes her nervous, wanted to pray He would fill her with more of everything He wants to give her. We prayed together in agreement. As we prayed, she received a little healing in an area that has been hurting her for awhile, just because God wanted to give that to her. I didn’t know this until the next day, when God prompted me to text her, asking her about this very area. He laid on my heart that she had an issue with this area, through a word of knowledge about it. By faith I asked her about it. She affirmed she had an issue, told me about the partial healing the day before, and after we prayed, she was completely healed! Woo hoo God!!!

Time and Timing

Originally begun January 25, 2017.......

I was struck by a detail of the story of Issac today. I've read this story many times, but today, as I was reading, the Holy Spirit gave revelation. I need revelation these days, because it's been hard to process what He is doing and where He is leading us as a family. It's been hard to wait, to listen and honestly, to hear. And I'm frustrated that it's been hard to hear. Yet I know He will speak as I am still. But being still has been hard....but that's for another time to write about.

Abraham was faithful to send out his servant to find a wife for Issac. His servant had instructions to go to his family and find a wife. His servant carried all sorts of gifts for the family of the girl he would, by faith, find for his master. He carried what he needed for himself for the journey, as well as all the gifts for her, and for her family on camels as he made the trek. Finally, he ends up at a place where he can rest, where his camels can rest, and he calls on the name of the Lord, asking Him to identify a wife for Issac. He asks that the wife of God's own choosing would be the one who would offer to water his camels, which would be no small feat. Rebekah comes to the watering spot with her own sheep, and after giving water to the servant, offers to water the camels. After he finds out she belongs to Abraham's family, he makes request of her family that she journey back with him to marry Issac. Her family agrees if she agrees. She agrees, and leaves her family, her home, all she has ever known, to journey back with the servant to meet her new husband, and live with him and raise a family.

Issac is the Son of Promise. He knows his own life came about because of the sovereignty of God Himself. He knows he will have descendants as numerous as the stars. He knows the covenant God made with his father Abraham. Issac knows that through his own children, this covenant will continue.

Some time passes. No children. A few years pass. No children. A decade passes. No children. Two decades pass. No children.

My mind was struck by this today. God made a promise. Issac believed it. Rebekah left everything she knew to be the wife of Issac, and I have to think she had a belief in God, had to have a sense of destiny to leave all she knew to become Issac's wife. She went to a land barren of friends, of family, of everything familiar to be.... barren.

What could those years have been like for her? What did she battle in her mind? What regrets did she have, what prayers did she cry out to God? What promises did she cling to? What comfort did she have as day after day, year after year, her purpose, her reason for leaving all she knew, never came to bear, to light? There had to have been a purpose for her too, a reason for the delay. There must have been much the Lord spoke to her as she waited, as Issac waited. Or maybe I just imagine this to be true, want this to be true as I so identify with her situation. But God is a God of Hope, and though Scripture doesn't record what her thoughts about the wait were, she must have been crying out to Him, and I know He heard her.

We know that Issac prayed for her, and she conceived. What were those 9 months like, as she literally felt the promise grow within her? And as the "war within her" of twins grew, before she knew they were twins, what were now her thoughts? Was she afraid she would lose the baby? Did she cry out to God, wondering why this, after such a delay?

5 Months Later

I began this post over 5 months ago, and just now, as I am prepping for another post, saw that I had yet to finish this one. I began writing that as we were in the midst of one probably the hardest seasons our family has ever experienced. We had no home of our own, part time work for both of us, a very clear call on our lives that came after 20 days of fasting and prayer, with no foreseeable resources of our own to "make it happen." We had friends who empathized but no partners in the vision. We had Job friends who thought it must be something we had done to cause such calamity in our lives, and shared this openly with us. And we would soon have people specifically speaking against what God had spoken to us, people we had loved and shared life with.

Like Rebekah, I left everything good to come to Hershey. I had deep friendships in Indiana, joy in serving in my sweet spots, love, others who were on mission and with whom we kept pace, vision for the future, security of a beautiful home with land and a garden that even provided shelter for a young couple living with us. Like Rebekah, we left everything dear to follow what we thought was a promise. Like Rebekah, 5 months ago I asked, "If this is so, why then am I this way?" Why do we find ourselves without a home, without what we thought of as security, struggle with those we had loved, struggle within ourselves. All I could do was cling to the hope that there had to be a reason. God is Faithful. That's all I knew.

What I would say to myself 5 months ago is.... hold on. Things you could not even conceive will happen in a very short amount of time. Within 3 weeks you will be in your new home, (the small kind, the one of your dreams, with hydrangeas, rhododendron, clementis, azaleas, all your favorite perennials, just for you.) People you don't know yet will become key influencers in your life. God will visit others in dreams and tell them about you to encourage and heal you in one of your darkest moments. He will give you mentors to walk out the command to church plant. He will deliver you of strongholds. Your joy will exponentially increase. You will be invited into a body of believers who are closing the gap between what the Bible depicts as the "normal" christian life and what you see in the typical American church. He will open financial resources to follow His call to church plant. He will send you on adventures that require courage but will increase faith and joy. You will see others healed through you. He will be EXACTLY who He says He is and empower you to be EXACTLY who HE says you are... not whom others say or expect you to be.

Oh for the perspective of time in the waiting! Courage dear hearts, as you follow Jesus and wait for His timing!

Time

As a storm buffets a tree it pulls at the seed, trying to take it away from its security high on the branch, surrounded by others of it's kind. From this vantage point, the seed could see all around, see the branches, see how it connected to other seeds, see the fields with countless other trees and seeds just like it. It was growing, secure, and hidden within the tree. Secure it thought, ready to bring forth fruit in due time. But the storm pulls and tugs and will have its way in dislodging the seed from its place. It hurls the seed to the ground. The seed is seemingly lost. It is forgotten, alone, and soon... lonely.  

But God sees it in the secret place. God carefully watches over that seed, and for it's own joy, which it cannot see at the moment. God allows the seed first to be covered by debris, and after a while, to be buried beneath it, to be pushed down into the soil. It is to be worn and eroded and broken by the soil and its surrounding. It is the death of the seed, to be sure, as the earth sets into it. And it is dark, it is a lonely and an alone place.

But here also is where a different life begins to germinate. The seed rested (like a weaned child O God, like a weaned child against its mother is my soul within me) and accepted the circumstances as from God's hand.  There are nutrients in the soil - unknown and unseen perhaps until the seed is buried. The nutrients aren't meant to feed the seed, but to help it die so that the true life within the seed might be brought forth. And that life must come from within the seed - it is the seed's true nature, the purpose for which God created it.

All the seed has known is a violent separating from its home, then burial, then this death. Life, as the seed knew it, is over. It has accepted it's death and is content enough to rest here. Yet it cannot rest long. New life begins within the shell of the seed (for the seed recognizes it's body was but a shell, a casing for this new life) and with this new life, a new hope. Yet the hope somehow also contrasts its own lonliness, it's aloneness. All this trial, difficulty, pain and hurt has been so solitary. There is growth to be sure, but for what purpose? More confinement? More loneliness? Or worse, for itself alone?

Something stirs within the young plant. Surely I was made for more than just myself - surely there is purpose for me too, even beneath the soil? No answer comes. Time, water and food are the only constants. The plant grows and gets stronger. The conviction of purpose grows along with it but the evidence of what it can see speaks to the contrary. The plant continues to grow though, and soon hits what seems to be the reaches of its space. It cannot grow taller yet all within it yearns to stretch farther - but something seems to be blocking - there is no more room! Yet the plant continues to grow, and now it is painful again - it cannot stay where it is, surrounded by the dark and dirt and damp and rotting and it's former shell - it must have more room! There must be more purpose to all this pain!  Is this it? Is this what I have been created for? To exist in this hidden place, alone, with no purpose, no vision, no light? Aren't there others? Surely there are the others! Am I alone?

Then, the deluge. And now the plant fears another kind of death - drowning. This is too dark, too much, too much for life to grow. The plant will die. Though the rain at times is gentle, it is relentless. Other times the rain is so pounding it causes the buried plant to hold onto anything it can find for fear of being driven into deeper darkness. The plant is now gasping for breath, accepting, waiting for death that will surely be the final call through this incessant pounding, this relentless outpouring. Then- a voice - faint through the sorrow and the mud and the years -

Arise! Arise my darling, my beautiful one and come along - for behold the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. Arise my darling - come out of the ground, your temporary tomb, your place of protection as I created my Life within you. Raise your head! Burst forth out of the ground! The deluge made a way for you. Its purpose was to cleanse and break and release you. Raise your head dear one and look at Me! See in Me, My Purpose and plan for you - Raise, oh raise your head from what you thought was your place of death but was My means of generating My Life in you! Oh dear one My Son has gone first - He too was buried for a time - but at the right time - I called Him forth. I rose Him by the power of My Spirit from the dead - His place of death was My means of bringing Life to you! Raise your head dear one  -and look at Me! Find your deepest longings met in Me. Find your yes-es to all of your heart cries. Find My embrace to end all your loneliness. Find, if you still need, My reasons for your burial, your death and now, your resurrection. (Yes, there are many such resurrections that I will offer to you. Many are willing to die... not many are willing to be resurrected!)

And look around dearest one! See where I have planted you? Look at the field. Look at the others I have planted. I brought them here, perhaps not from the same tree or by the same means, but nonetheless, I brought them here to My field to be planted in the hidden place, the secret place for a season so at the right time I might bring to Myself a harvest of many, ready to bear My fruit. Look around. You have not been alone, though you could not see. Look around. The time is right. The time is ripe. I will feed many through you. What I have taught you my beloved, in the hidden, will be food for many. But though you are now being brought out of the hidden into the seen, continue to cultivate a hidden life. Be with Me in the secret place. There is more of My life I desire to cultivate, germinate in you. Will you accept My invitation to go again, now that you know the pain? I know you will my much loved one. You do not despise the hidden. Indeed-you have not. Press into the lonely places even as My Son did. There, rich treasure continues to hide in the open for you. Just for you. You are My Beloved. In you dearest, I am well pleased.

That Where I Am

John 14
"Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you: for I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself: that where I am, (there) you may be also. And you know the way where I am going. ... I am the way and the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father but through Me....And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever: (that is) the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold him or know Him, (but) you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. .... I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you...After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you (will) behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.... 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 (dwelling place!) with him. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father and you in Me, and I in you. 


It wasn't until a few years ago that I really began to look at this passage. When Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you," I assumed He meant He would die, go to heaven, get everything ready, and then we would either die and go to heaven and live in one of those dwelling places, or that He would come back and whisk us away to join Him to live there (I preferred the latter). I remember being blown away by the thought that Jesus wasn't just talking about going to heaven to prepare this ginormous place with a ton of rooms (dwelling places) in it. He was also talking about preparing a relationship for me with Himself.

Jesus, in John 14 is in the Upper Room, having the Passover Meal with His friends. He knew in a few short hours, He would be betrayed, judged, and crucified. But He also knew that only through His crucifixion, burial, resurrection and ascension could I come into relationship with Abba Father. The dwelling place that He was preparing for me was in my own heart, a dwelling place for Father, Son, Holy Spirit to dwell in relationship with me. The many dwelling places were the hearts of many people who would also put their faith in Christ's death, burial, resurrection and ascension, resulting in relationship with Abba Father.

The other day I was thinking on these few verses again, and the Holy Spirit revealed something else to me as I meditated on the verse:

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself: that where I am, (there) you may be also. 

Jesus wants me to be with Him. Like, right now, this moment.  In John 17:3 He prays,

Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me. For You did love Me before the foundation of the world. 

It is true that heaven is the dwelling place that Jesus' death, burial, resurrection and ascension bought: (Revelation 21)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

but it is also true that the place of Jesus' dwelling, His abiding, is in me, my own heart.  He desires relationship with me. But, He desires this relationship in an ongoing manner. (John 15) He doesn't desire this so that He can now be my "co-pilot" and come with me where ever I go. He desires me to be where He is so that I can see His glory, see what He is doing, see Him. 

In this relationship with God, I now have an ability to know the heart of the Father through the Spirit (1 Cor 2:9-13) to go with Him where He goes, to love with Him whom He loves, to follow Him into the hard places, the dark places, because He desires everyone to know Him. 

God has not rescued me so that I can now live out my own agenda with power. He has rescued me because He loves me. And this love is so incredible, so unbelievable, so fulfilling and joyful and life-giving, that out of the overflow of it, He empowers me to love others whom He is drawing to Himself. Loving others can look like serving, encouraging, praying, or sharing the truth of who He is. It can look like mourning with those who mourn, and rejoicing with those who rejoice. It can look like forgiving others, hating what is evil and clinging to what is good, providing for others needs, and even leaning into the sanctification process so that others will see Jesus more clearly through me. But at the end of the day, my life is no longer my own. 

It is not that I am saved to have God's blessing to do what I want with my life. It's that I am rescued to play a part in the rescue of others. And I can't even do that apart from His Spirit at work in me. 

The question is not, "God will You bless my work today?" The question is, "God, where are You at work today and how may I join You in it, through the love and power of Yourself dwelling in me?" 

Prayer For the Weary

This came into my inbox today, and was so encouraging to read. May it bless you as you read through it, and know I've prayed for you through it too.

Abba, I come alongside my friend and lift them into Your presence. Thank You for Your love for them. You have given Your word that You have set apart Your godly ones for Yourself. I claim that for my friend today. Give them a fresh touch of Your love in all its fullness. Meet all their needs today, because those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.

Please give my friend wisdom and understanding, so that they will take only Your yoke and make only the plans that agree with Your divine purposes. Grant them Your favor and blessing. Increase their confidence in Your ability and presence at work in their lives to evict all fear and doubt.

Father, my friend might be tired and in need of Your divine strength, because they might be running at the edge of their endurance. Heal and strengthen them body, soul, and spirit. Foil Satan's plans to attack in physical and emotional areas that are vulnerable. Let their roots tap deeply into You and enable them to keep on keeping on in the demands on them. Lighten their steps; let them mount up with wings as an eagle, as they wait on You. Reveal any sin that is hindering them, and speak to their heart, as You draw them closer to You. Give them grace for today, and then tomorrow give a whole new supply of Your provision of Yourself. Give them Your sweet presence each moment, and let them feel secure in You. When they don't know the outcome of their situation, show them that in You it is safe not to know, because You are good.

Father, overcome my friend's fears with Your perfect love. Heal my friend where there is pain and hurt. Give them a breakthrough in the situations closest to their hearts, the ones that have wearied them most. Touch and restore the places that have been bruised and shut down. Open them up to new trust in You. Press through walls of disappointment, self-protection, separation, and pain. Minister reconciliation, so that all relationships might enjoy Your unity and sweet fellowship. Release Your fresh touch into each life that has claim upon their spiritual, emotional, and practical responsibility.

We come to Your cross and hide there from all stresses and pressures. Your glory outshines all the plans of the enemy to oppress my friend. Mighty Warrior, reveal the real battle that they are up against. Let them rest in You, and stand steadfast, and see that the battle is the Lord's. Let no fiery arrows pierce their safe place in Your refuge. Give them confidence that no weapon formed against them will prosper.

Place my precious friend in the refreshing stream of Living Water flowing from Your throne. Refresh them each moment in Jesus. Make them oaks of righteousness planted by streams of water, whose leaves do not wither. Bless them according to Your perfect will, as You watch over their way. Show them Your power and the glory of Your great love. In Jesus' name, Amen

Based on "Why Know The Father's Heart," Prayer Portions, page 47, © 1991 by Sylvia Gunter. There are two other pieces on the Father Heart of God, p 45-50. Available at www.thefathersbusiness.com  An archive of past devotionals is available on the website. 

Prevailing Prayer

Good morning! As we prepare to leave for Refresh Retreat today, many of us who have been praying have a sense of great expectation…. God is moving and will move. Some have been earnestly praying for Him to demonstrate that He is here, and the Kingdom of God is near. This morning my heart is that while we earnestly desire Him to do great and mighty things among us, let us ask and expect that He would do great and mighty things within our hearts. This is the greater miracle when women are willing to agree that we have been hindered by the sin that so easily entangles us… and we have made peace with it. The greater miracle is when we agree that we have sought God’s favor according to our righteousness and have felt condemned when we fall short. O sister, let us expect great things in our hearts from the One who knows our hearts and loves us enough to expose! Let us ask for the grace to see ourselves and to see our own need. Let us ask for the grace to have our own sin exposed and confessed, that we might receive healing and forgiveness and freedom to run our race with perseverance and that we might run in unity with one another.  Let this weekend be marked by agape love in us for one another. Let us go to the Father on behalf of one another to pray and ask for healing and freedom and joy. Let us ask this not only for our own joy, but that this joy in Him and our love for one another might testify that You Abba, You are who You say You are and You Abba can do what You say You can do – Let us keep in step with the Spirit, allowing Him access to our hearts to expose what is hindering our relationship with You, the kind of intimate relationship we have LONGED for, but have given up hope to have. O expose Abba, the places of our hearts that are hard, are wounded, and heal these places O God, that we might be free to receive the fullness of the freedom and relationship You have purchased for us, at such a great cost- that we might freely share this joy with others. O God give us courage to see ourselves and our capacity of need – O God give us courage to receive Your healing in our wounded hearts. O God give us courage to risk loving those who might not be able to love us back. O God give us courage to life our eyes to Your eyes and rest in belief of Your great love for us… we wait, we hope, we rest Abba. Do what You will among us this weekend. We are Yours. We are Yours. In Jesus’name, amen.

The final reading today is entitled. Prevailing Prayer.

I Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide: That Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask of the Father in My Name, He May Give It You—John 15.16

In the first verse of our parable, Christ revealed Himself as the true Vine, and the Father as the Husbandman, and asked for Himself and the Father a place in the heart. Here, in the closing verse, He sums up all His teaching concerning Himself and the Father in the twofold purpose for which He had chosen them. With reference to Himself, the Vine, the purpose was, that they should bear fruit. With reference to the Father, it was, that whatsoever they should ask in His name, should be done of the Father in Heaven. As fruit is the great proof of the true relation to Christ, so prayer is of our relation to the Father. A fruitful abiding in
the Son, and prevailing prayer to the Father, are the two great factors in the true Christian life.

That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.—These are the closing words of the parable of the Vine. The whole mystery of the Vine and its branches leads up to the other mystery—that whatsoever we ask in His name the Father gives! See here the reason of the lack of prayer, and of the lack of power in prayer. It is because we so little live the true branch life, because we so little lose ourselves in the Vine, abiding in Him entirely, that we feel so little constrained to much prayer, so little confident that we shall be heard, and so do not know how to use His name as the key to God’s storehouse. The Vine
planted on earth has reached up into Heaven; it is only the soul wholly and intensely abiding in it, can reach into Heaven with power to prevail much. Our faith in the teaching and the truth of the parable, in the truth and the life of the Vine, must prove itself by power in prayer. The life of abiding and obedience, of love and joy, of cleansing and fruit-bearing, will surely lead to the power of prevailing prayer.

Whatsoever ye shall ask—The promise was given to disciples who were ready to give themselves, in the likeness of the true Vine, for their fellow men. This promise was all their provision for their work; they took it literally, they believed it, they used it, and they found it true. Let us give ourselves, as branches of the true Vine, and in His likeness, to the work of saving men, of bringing forth fruit to the glory of God, and we shall find a new urgency and power to pray and to claim the “whatsoever ye ask.” We shall waken to our wonderful responsibility of having in such a promise the keys to the King’s storehouses given us, and we shall not rest till we have received bread and blessing for the perishing. “I chose you, that ye may bring forth fruit, and that your fruit may abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Beloved disciple, seek above everything to be a man of prayer. Here is the highest exercise of your privilege as a branch of the Vine; here is the full proof of your being renewed in the image of God and His Son; here is your power to show how you, like Christ, live not for yourself, but for others; here you enter Heaven to receive gifts for men; here your abiding in Christ has led to His abiding in you, to use you as the channel and instrument of His grace. The power to bear fruit for men has been crowned by power to prevail with God. “I am the vine, my Father is the Husbandman.” Christ’s work in you is to bring you so to the Father that His Word may be fulfilled in you: “At that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you.”

The power of direct access to the Father for men, the liberty of intercession claiming and receivingblessing for them in faith, is the highest exercise of our union with Christ. Let all who would truly and fully be branches give themselves to the work of intercession. It is the one great work of Christ the Vine in Heaven, the source of power for all His work. Make it your one great work as branch: it will be the power of all your work. In My name. Yes, Lord, in Thy name, the new name Thou hast given Thyself here, the true Vine. As a branch, abiding in Thee in entire devotion, in full dependence, in perfect conformity, in abiding fruitfulness, I come to the Father, in Thee, and He will give what I ask. Oh, let my life be one of unceasing and prevailing intercession! Amen!

Abiding Fruit

Good morning sweet friends, we are 24 hours away from day of departure, though God has been at work in us already. As a prayer team, we have had a front row seat in seeing how He has and is going before us with specific answers to specific prayer. One sister we pray with commented that much of what has been coming in has been requests for our heart attitudes, and spiritual freedom, even as the needs are physical. This is very encouraging. As a body we are desiring God to be at work in our hearts as much as we desire relief from physical ailments. Hallelujah.
 
Our reading today is entitled Abiding Fruit.
 
I Chose You, and Appointed You, That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide—John 15.16
 
There are some fruits that will not keep. One sort of pears or apples must be used at once; another sort can be kept over till next year. So there is in Christian work some fruit that does not last. There may be much that pleases and edified, and yet there is no permanent impression made on the power of the world or the state of the Church. On the other hand, there is work that leaves its mark for generations or for eternity. In it the power of God makes itself lastingly felt. It is the fruit of which Paul speaks when he describes the two styles of ministry: “My preaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstrations of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” The more of man with his wisdom and power, the less of stability; the more of God’s Spirit, the more of a faith standing in God’s power.
 
Fruit reveals the nature of the tree from which it comes. What is the secret of bearing fruit that abides? The answer is simple. It is as our life abides in Christ, as we abide in Him, that the fruit we bear will abide. The more we allow all that is of human will and effort to be cut down short and cleansed away by the divine Husbandman, the more intensely our being withdraws itself from theoutward that God may work in us by His Spirit; that is, the more wholly we abide in Christ, the more will our fruit abide.
 
What a blessed thought! He chose you, and appointed you to bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide. He never meant one of His branches to bring forth fruit that should not abide. The deeper I enter into the purpose of this His electing grace, the surer my confidence will become that I can bring forth fruit to eternal life, for myself and others. The deeper I enter into this purpose of His electing love, the more I will realize what the link is between the purpose from eternity, and the fruit to eternity: the abiding in Him. The purpose is His, He will carry it out; the fruit is His, He will bring it forth; the abiding is His, He will maintain
it.
 
Let everyone who professes to be a Christian worker, pause. Ask whether you are leaving your mark for eternity on those around you. It is not your preaching or teaching, your strength of will or power to influence, that will secure this. All depends on having your life full of God and His power. And that again depends upon your living the truly branchlike life of abiding—very close and unbroken fellowship with Christ. It is the branch, that abides in Him, that brings forth much fruit, fruit that will abide.
 
Blessed Lord, reveal to my soul, I pray Thee, that Thou hast chosen me to bear much fruit. Let this be my confidence, that Thy purpose can be realized—Thou didst choose me.
 
Let this be my power to forsake everything and give myself to Thee. Thou wilt Thyself perfect what Thou hast begun. Draw me so to dwell in the love and the certainty of that eternal purpose, that the power of eternity may posses me, and the fruit I bear may abide.
 
That ye may bear fruit. O my heavenly Vine, it is beginning to dawn upon my soul that fruit, more fruit—much fruit—abiding fruit is the one thing Thou hast to give me, and the one thing as branch I have to give Thee! Here I am. Blessed Lord, work out Thy purpose in me; let me bear much fruit, abiding fruit, to thy glory.
 
Lord, let us walk in belief of this truth, that it is not in our preaching, or teaching or our own strength of will or power to influence through which fruit will bear in our lives. Nor Abba, is it the lack of any of these! It is not our personalities that will cause others to know You, or will give us purpose or position. O God, it is as we rest in You, as we abide in You, as we gaze upon You through Your word and the meditation of our hearts and You work these things out in us through Your Spirit, that You will bear fruit. Abba, any of us who have placed our faith in You, can bear eternal fruit, because it is You who has chosen and appointed us to do it. What a promise O God! And how our hearts are free when we believe the truth that it depends not on us, but upon You to produce it, as we believe You and abide in You, as we believe You and abide in Your love. Teach us again the difference between believing IN You, and BELIEVING You. Oh God, You must make the connection for us in our hearts. The work You have given to us is to prevail in prayer, to abide, to believe by faith. None of it we can do without You giving us the ability, and yet we must act on the belief You have given to us. O empower us through Your Spirit to act upon the very thing You want us to do… to prevail in prayer, to rest in You, to abide in Your love. In Jesus name, amen.