Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. Psalm 27:11
Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. Psalm 86:11
Last time, we learned from Moses that to know the LORD we must find and follow His ways. Here, David – the man after God’s own heart – is entreating the LORD to teach him His ways.
The LORD wants to be known and He has sent the Holy Spirit to teach us. We will trust Him to do just that as we continue searching out God’s way for bearing much fruit.
The following provides short summary of our discoveries in Part 1:
- The sole requirement for bearing much fruit is abiding in Christ (John 15:5).
- The full meaning of “abide” applies spiritually to our relationship with Jesus. It refers to place (to be kept or held), to time (to last or endure), and to state or condition (not to become another or different). Abide also means to wait for something or someone.
- The “fruit” produced by the vine and borne by the branch is the supernatural manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in the good works created by God for us to walk in for His glory (Ephesians 2:10 and Matthew 5:16).
- Abiding in Christ is a matter of intimate relationship (John 15:9-10) – knowing and loving.
- Knowing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit precedes – and is paramount to – everything, including our loving Them (John 17:3).
Part 1 goes on to list several ways of knowing God well:
- Studying His word,
- Practicing certain spiritual disciplines (e.g., solitude, prayer, and worship), and
- Keeping Him in the front of our mind as we go about our day and life.
Each of these exercises produce the greatest results when we focus on God – His character, His desires, and His thoughts – rather than what He means to us or what He can do for us. Several questions are provided to aide in this challenging discipline.
The Power of Abiding
Map 22 of The Map Maker (Streetman, 2015) explains “The Power of Abiding”. The following excerpt includes the more important keys to the abiding, fruit-bearing life.
Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 1John 2:24-25
All we have heard from God contributes to our abiding in the Son and in the Father: teaching, preaching, the reading of God’s word, reading Christian literature, and hearing direct words from God in prayer, meditation, dreams, godly counsel, etc.
This is great news! God wants to be known and he wants to be heard. He enjoys talking with His children.
But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. John 5:38
The word of God did not abide in the Jewish leaders because they did not believe Jesus was the Christ. It is not surprising that our belief in Jesus is important to the abiding life. And this is not a one-time, nor a one dimension, belief. For example, belief in Jesus’ assertions regarding the vine and branch empowers our laying hold of God’s grace for supernatural fruit bearing.
Furthermore, anyone who is “a hearer of the word and not a doer, is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was (James 1:23).”
There is more to the abiding life than knowing, loving, hearing, and believing; we must be obedient to the faith in the good work created for us to walk in. There must be the work of faith (James 2:14 and 17):
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Finally, those who desire to abide in Christ and bear much fruit for the Father’s glory must walk in a particular way.
But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 1 John 2:5-6
We must walk as Christ walked: humbly, sacrificially, and in perfect obedience to the Father.
The demands of the Christian life intimidate many into inaction. Many feel inadequate, and they are. Indeed, Paul made this emphatically clear for all of us.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God… 2Corinthians 3:5
We simply do not have what it takes to abide in Christ and bear much fruit. But, God is working in us to will and to do to His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), that we would know, love, hear, believe, and obey.
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 2Corinthians 9:8
Someone may want to ask, “So what are we left to do?” In my humble opinion, the answer is found in two words: “choose” and “let.” Choose what God desires for you, and let Him, by the Spirit, transform you into the very same image as the glory of the Lord (2Corinthians 3:18).
Now, hear this and believe: You are closer than you think. The gap you think you see is a deception. The life you have been born into is no further away than the threshold of a door which has already been opened. All that is required of you is for you to take the next step, and God has given you grace for that.
God has given us grace for everything He requires and desires, and He has deposited His desire for much fruit into our hearts. Judging the fruit in your life does not cause better or more fruit to appear. So take your eyes off the fruit (or the lack thereof), and pursue the abiding life.
Abundance waits on the other side.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3
God bless you with grace and courage for the abiding life, to take the next step into the glory of His good works and the fruit of the Spirit manifested through you and those entrusted to your care and responsibility. Amen.
Have a strong day in the Lord,
Rob
#iamjustthepen
Streetman, R. (2015). The Map Maker. Mind Shift Publications: Atlanta, GA