Allow Him To Abide
John 15
This that you have given to us that we might rejoice and be glad in it; and we praise you and we give You glory. This day we magnify your name. Praise you for sending Jesus into the world that the world through Him might be saved. Oh Jesus, this morning we thank you that you chose to die for us. That we have life this morning, we have your life abiding in us and we give you praise and glory, Jesus. All honor is due unto your name. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.
In the Old Testament Jesus was called the branch that was to come out of Jessie. This scripture in John tells us that He was the branch out of Jessie, but He has become to us the true vine. He’s in the branch. Sometimes we can take a branch, especially like the roses out here; we can take a shoot off it and we can make new roses out of it. Jesus was a shoot off of Jessie, the lineage of David. He is to us more than that. He will always be the branch out of Jessie; to us He is something else. He is that vine that gives us life. We are His branches and without Him we have no life. If the vine dies the branches die. If you take out the vine then there’s no branches.
Jesus is saying something to us. I am the true vine my Father is the husbandman. Do you know what a husbandman is? They take the pruning, all of the vine, to make sure that vine produces. The Father still has a place in our life and His responsibility with us is to prune us and to water us. Jesus said, “… every branch that beareth not fruit He taketh away.” Who taketh away? The Father taketh it away. Every branch that bears fruit He purges it that it will bring more fruit.
I look out at these fruit trees in the early spring and they are pruning them until it doesn’t look like there will be anything left to them. But it’s to bring forth more fruit. “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
John 15:4
4: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”
5: I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6: If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are burned.
7: If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8: Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9: As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10: 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.
11: These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full.
12: This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15: Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17: These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18: If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.
19: If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20: Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21: But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22: If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23: He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24: If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25: But [this cometh to pass], that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.
26: But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.”
In the 16th verse He explains who we are. And who He is and what He has for us to do. He also explains what the Father has to do concerning our lives. We come to Him, He forgives our sins, heals us and takes us out of the kingdom of darkness. He puts within us His love, joy, peace and He commands us to love one another. Not with human love, that doesn’t work, because of our nature we love ourselves; we don’t love others. It takes God’s love in us to love one another. He is no longer just a branch. He is the true vine. It is His life in us that enables us to stand and allow the Lord to take our life and prune us.
Did you ever get led away with something? There’s such a thing as pride and a lot of Christians have it. They are proud they belong to this denomination or that one. They’re proud they are Pentecostal and all these different denominations; but the Lord wants us to be in Him where He can bring us into that place in Him. We’re not living He’s living in us. I can tell you I know the Father has to do a lot of pruning in our lives. Especially when we get up to think we are somebody. Somebody was told recently that as a preacher they can only go out and preach. And to go out and take care of animals that’s beneath you, or to be trained here like we train people. It isn’t done by these great preachers. Something happens. What happens? Pride comes. I’ve had visitors come they wouldn’t stoop to what these young people do. The kitchen is for the women and the men dare not touch it. Scrub the floor? No! Do anything? No! But the Lord says to abide in Him. Let’s remember where we’re taking our instructions from. We’re not the one that’s doing the instructing. Jesus is doing the instructing. “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you…” We have a lot of traditions and bondages.
Remember when God created Adam and Eve gave them, this beautiful country, beautiful animals, birds, flowers. Then He said, “Take care of them. You have charge of them.” The Lord is doing something in our lives. He wants us to bring forth perfect fruit. Last night I was going to minister on the sower, I thought when I came into the room; but someone said something and instantly the Lord changed what I was going to do. But Jesus said, “I am the true vine and ye are the branches…” Now remember: every one of those are important to the vine. Every branch is important to bear fruit. In the parable of the sower (Luke 8: 14) “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of [this] life, and bring no fruit to perfection.” What is the vine supposed to do? It’s supposed to give us life that He can bring forth in us His perfection, make us perfect in Him.
I hear Christians say nobody can be perfect on this earth. It’s a common expression. According to my bible that isn’t true. It depends on what we are going to allow the Lord to do with us. In I John it says that when we stand before Him, before the judgment we will stand there boldly. Because as He is so are we in this world. Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the ‘day of judgment’; because as He is so are we in this world. How do we get that way? Abiding in the vine and His word, allowing the Father to prune us, allowing Jesus to take out of our life, with the search light of the Holy Ghost and the word of God, to take out the things that are there that Jesus wants to bring forth perfect fruit– His perfect fruit through us. “Oh,” you might say, “I don’t like your habits or this person.” Maybe there’s something in you that doesn’t like it. Maybe there’s something in the person you don’t like. You know what I tell people? Don’t let it affect you. If you have His love it will keep it from affecting you.
By abiding in the vine, then you’re not going to be affected. There’s a lot of other branches that have a lot of other dead branches on it and dead parts to it. We are looking at the branches that need pruning. We need it taken out of your life we see the dead branches. Jesus says, “My Father is the one that prunes you.” So the Father comes to us, maybe in an instant it happens, we get on somewhat. Of course it’s the other persons fault. God is saying to us, “God is love.” Let Him come forth in us. Jesus said, “I am that true vine.” What is His truth: joy, truth, gentleness, kindness, righteousness, holiness, patience. “I am the true vine”; He wants to so prune us and change us that only the perfect fruit comes forth. No other fruit is going to come forth, because if you’re abiding in Him there can’t come any evil or bad fruit. When we get out of tune with Him, He said: “You have to keep my commandments and do them.
If we can only picture how the Lord is, individually how He is. He loves us so much that we’re not going to be one of those that the cares of this life and the riches and pleasures of this life are going to prevent us from this perfect fruit. If we get so worried and weighted down with the cares of this world. This is why Jesus said, “Unto me… come unto me ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” I used to be one of those. I worried about everything that happened and everything that was going to happen. All my life was a worry. One day the Lord took me out of it and He gave me His rest and that rest is forever if we walk into obedience to Him.
Jesus said, “I am this true vine, I want to abide in you. I gave my life for you. But there are certain things you must do. You’re My branches, not your own. You can’t work without me,” Jesus said. Why do we stress here that whatever we do we do it unto the Lord. Because we want the Lord to be the one who directs your life. We want you to feel like you fellows all felt yesterday as you flowed together by the spirit of the Lord. This should be a continual thing, because everything we do should be done unto the Lord. He said with a good round with an honest heart having heard the word and bring forth fruit and patience. The cares the riches the pleasures causes no fruit to come forth to perfection. But Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.
Jesus said, “My Father hath loved me, so have I loved you, continue you ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments ye abide in my love even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
The 10th verse and the 11th verses:
11: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full.
12: This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13: Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus is preparing us in this place to be filled with His love, peace, rest, joy, righteousness, holiness. It gets tough here because we’re in boot camp of the Lord and I can hear this: “This isn’t the way the church does it.” It’s the way the word does it. We are His church aren’t we if we do whatsoever He commands. He’s abiding in us, the Father is pruning us. The Holy Spirit is guiding us, we are His church.
We’re not abiding by the rules of other churches, we don’t know about them, but we do know that we are His church and we want His church to be perfect. We want to give the truth that the truth might make us free, set and keep us free. In order to be free we have to be pruned, but first we have to abide in the vine. Abiding in the vine we are going to grow, because the Father is going to nurture us. If we’re standing still something is wrong. We are being nurtured by the vine. The food that comes from the vine doesn’t stop unless we stop it. We get in our reasoning; analytical, philosophical reasoning and we waste a lot of time. All we need is abiding in the vine. His wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, spirit and the spirit of the fear of the Lord. This is all a part of us if we abide in Him.
“If my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… Do you know why this is happening? Because we realize we aren’t abiding in the vine. Everything comes from Him. It isn’t how great we are or what we’re accomplishing; because we’re going to acknowledge one thing. We’re worthless unless we abide in the vine. We’re of no use. A time is going to come that, what bears not fruit shall be cast into the fire. It doesn’t matter what church you belong to or what you profess, it’s whether you possess the vine. All the other things will count as nothing unless we abide in Him. Unless the garden we live in is good ground and with a good and honest heart we hear the word and keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. Then it is up to us. If we’re willing and obedient we will eat the good of the lamb. A very simple truth indeed: very wonderful, so marvelous to be centered in Jesus Christ. He is the answer. Don’t you think He’s not going to prune you. He’s going to do it with every one of us, because He wants us beautiful. He wants those branches perfect with that beautiful fruit to glorify Him with His love, peace, joy so that we can carry this gospel of the kingdom to the ends of the earth.
There was one thing that distinguished us in other countries. We were in a cannibal village and some of you heard me tell the story. We were in another village, they were called Satan worshipers. They didn’t know the Lord, neither did the cannibal village. As we came into that village they immediately knew that it was God that sent us and it was God’s love and not Satan’s. The chief of the village said, “Welcome! We’ve waited too long.” They gave us a place under their Satan tree. Next to their Satan worship building. The spirit of the Lord began to move, they knew God sent us, they knew it was God’s love. They received us.
If you go out of here unprepared you’re going out without God sending you or without Jesus doing these things in your life; you’re not going to be a true witness. But you’re abiding in the vine, until the Lord perfects Himself in us. Until as you go out among the people, they aren’t going to judge you, they are going to know who you are. The heathen knows, Americans don’t know. They are great judgers in America. They don’t know how to judge the truth. The heathen knows.
We were in this cannibal village, if it weren’t that the Lord sent, us I think we would have been afraid. As we went in, in the afternoon the Pastor showed us where they used to have meetings. They didn’t have what we had. They couldn’t withstand the powers in that village so the church was vacant. We had everything happen to us that day. All of Satan’s powers were at work. We were late getting in there. They were very angry. One of them came up and pinched me and one of the young people. We didn’t know if we were being prepared for dinner or what was going to happen to us.
We had a film with us, but they forgot the cord that connected the generator and so we had no lights in a cannibal village. We had sat up our platform, if you could have seen it! It was 5ft high the steps were made with rails. You could see me climbing those steps. I got there, I said I have a feeling we need to get this show on the road fast. The heat was coming up. Teresa started to sing and they booed her. They threw dirt at us. They found the cord and connected it. I said, “You better get that movie on the road fast.” If something doesn’t happen here… They showed the film and we left. They had planned an ambush against us. I didn’t know this about these cannibals. In going home that night, I hear these weird stories. I said, “They can’t be true.” But the Lord intervened and we got home that night.
We have one more night; we weren’t afraid. One of the big trucks with all of their judo equipment headed straight at us. We swerved off the road and we were alright. They said to us, “Don’t come late.” These weird things began to happen to us. The hood of our car flew up, the door flew open; it was a station wagon. We tied the hood down with wire. We tied the doors shut with a sheet. We’re going down the road and here’s a huge mud puddle. I said, “I hope he doesn’t go into the mud puddle.” But he did, we got mud, dirt and water in the, car our shoes, feet everything. We had to go back to the Pastor’s place and clean us up. It was getting late we remembered the word of the cannibals, don’t come late.
But we went. That night Teresa sang and the Holy Ghost came and the presence of the Lord came. We had no way of knowing how many cannibals there were. They were everywhere. They were painting; their drums were in the distance. As I gave the word, I don’t remember what word He gave; I know it was about Jesus. As we finished the word all of a sudden Jesus came in the midst of that cannibal village. I stood there in His presence couldn’t say a word. It was so awesome. He moved around that people, all the way around that people, and as He touched them they began to cry, “Jesus, Jesus.” It was so awesome, what if we hadn’t been trained by Him.
What if we had gone there unprepared? No matter how much we thought we had, what if we hadn’t held still and let Him train us. What if we hadn’t waited until He said to go; we could never have visited those people. He could have never have done the mighty work that He did with their lives. It’s our business to let God train us. It’s our business to let Jesus be Jesus in us. We need to yield to Him let Him tell us when He’s finished with our training, when He’s ready for us to represent Him, ready to take that fruit up there. That they might taste and see the Lord is good. It’s the Lord it’s not us. He’s the one that’s teaching us and training us.
If we abide in Him and His words abide in us we can ask what we will. I want you to notice something here. He tells us something, “…all that my Father hath given me I make known to you.” If we don’t hold still how are we going to know what the Father did to Him. This is a training place by the spirit of the Lord. You might not like it and wonder why you’re here, because you don’t want to change. You want to keep what you have. There’s only one way you’re going to go out of here and truly represent Him, is to allow Him to abide in you in every part of your life until nothing shows but Jesus. Until no one is represented but Jesus. Then He said, “Ye haven’t chosen me, but I have chosen you. I am the true vine you are my branches, I have chosen you, ordained you that you should go and bring forth the fruit.” What fruit: joy, peace and all the fruits of the spirit; His righteousness, holiness. No representative of ourselves; but representing Jesus, only Jesus. “Ye haven’t chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you…”
Now what about all these coverings we have in our heads? What are we going to do with that? We have to have a covering here, a covering there. It sounds like Jesus covered us. He ordained you, He commissioned us, that you should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit shall remain and that whatsoever you ask of the Father. Remember the Father is the pruner. The Father that’s watching over us, “…whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name He may give it you.” If we only knew how mighty He is. We’re not going to step out of that, or do our own thing.
When I was 16 God gave me this verse. When He gave me this verse to go to Africa I was a missionary. He said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you to go to bring forth fruit, but your fruit shall remain. Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name He may give you.” I was barely ready to go. God you called me now I’m going, I just thought I was. Because I had to abide in the vine and the vine said ‘no’. Just because you’re called doesn’t mean your fruit is ready. He said, “I’m not going to send you in younger years I’m going to send you in your latter years at the end of time.” He said this, “Everything that comes into your life from this moment forward, you take it as a part of the preparation for the call that I’ve given to you.” That was long years ago. Not one promise failed down through those years of preparation.
You young people don’t have 40 years, but neither can you get ahead of God. Don’t think you’re going to do anything for God; but you can be changed by Him just as fast as you will let Him change you. Not what you think in your head, but He’s the keeper of the books. The Father is the keeper here. He’s saying to us here is a world today. I shuddered when God told me this because He not only showed me what He was going to do, but He showed me a lot of things that were happening today. I said, “Lord I’d rather not be there,” because I knew more about it by the revelation of Jesus than others know. He said to me, “You will.” He said, “The day will come when people will drive down your driveway,” He said, “You’re going to have to refuse to give them food because I tell you, you can’t feed them.” I said Lord, “I don’t want to be living then. They will be your friends and I will say ‘no’.
I think we’re getting closer to that day. I don’t want to fail the Lord in anything, but I want to be sure that you are all trained by Him, that you can bring forth perfect fruit. You can’t play around with it. If you refuse the natural; what about a branch is that natural? The vine is spiritual, but what about us branches. We still live in the world. We aren’t of the world. He’s taking us out of the world then He has to take the world out of us. He has to change all these things. What if we decide we’re not going to let Him do it? What if we decide we have our own way and we’re going to walk in it? The Lord doesn’t disqualify us; we disqualify ourselves; because we have to abide in the vine. We have to stay in Him. If we’re going to run it our way He’ll let us go our way.
I want you to know one thing you’re not living 50 years ago. You’re living at the end of time. So every decision you make may be your last one before God. Don’t play around with it, especially in this place; because God is here and when He does you maybe on the wrong side of it. Don’t play games with God: their souls out there! God wants to send us to abiding in His vine, to see lives transformed.
There was a couple that had two children. This young man was totally possessed of satanic powers. He was brought to me and God delivered him, but his wife I don’t know about her. One day the Lord spoke to me He said, “I want you to go to that family tonight.” I went to their home with my son and another friend, I talked to them. The Lord said to me for two weeks before He sent me, “The plum line is down. I’m not going to pass this way again.” I went to the family. The husband wanted to serve the Lord. I said to the wife, “Do you ever think of God?” She said, “Sometimes when I need Him.” My son was so shocked he stood there. I read them the scripture in Amos. God sent me with the plum line down. “I’m not going to pass this way any more.” I told them the word of the Lord. That husband walked out of that house that night and never walked back into it again. That wife never accepted Jesus. This little boy I knew him when he was in diapers. When he began to walk around he carried a bible. He was going to be a preacher.
Some years went by, the Father was in an accident. I went to the hospital; he was in a coma. He loved the Lord. Here’s this little boy, then I get a phone call 5 years after the father had died the mother was frantic. She told me, “Arthur was killed last night.” He was 16, he had joined Satan worshipers and all His friends wore black clothes. We went to that mortuary and as we sat there horrified at what we saw; only thought of this little boy with his bible wanting to preach the word.
She didn’t ask me to have the funeral and I was glad she didn’t. If you could have seen those young people, they didn’t look human beings. It was horrible. We told them about Jesus. We told them, “Arthur your friend, he’s in hell.” “No, not our friend, Arthur he can’t be in hell.” “Yes he is!” They trembled at it. We tried to help. The mother as far as I know never gave her life to the Lord. The daughter, things happened that ruined her life. I don’t know if she’s still alive.
Jesus is the true vine; if we reject Him we reject everything if we reject His training. We often think about it. How many thousands of people are we going to be held accountable for because we went our own way instead of abiding in the vine. Instead of allowing Jesus to perfect us so He could set us, so we can bring forth His perfect fruit to the nations. This is His training center. You’re here today because He wants you to be. Everyone that knows Him must bring forth and others will be changed.
One thing I’ve been aware all my life: that I was chosen by Him to bring forth His fruit to the glory of the Father that I could ask whatsoever I will of the Father in the name of Jesus and He would give to us if we only earn that privilege abiding in the vine. We only earn that privilege by allowing the Father to purge us and cleanse us and remove out of our life everything that would bring reproach upon Him to walk in His love, peace and joy.
How He longs today to bring everyone into that perfection. But first we have to learn that the cares of this life and riches of this life, pleasure of this life have to be given to Him that He may lead us and perfect us as He would have us to be abiding in His vine that He shall bring forth His fruit to perfection. We need to realize He can’t do a thing with that branch if we do not allow that fruit on that branch. He can’t do a thing with that branch if we don’t allow it to come to perfection.
I can tell you hundreds of young people come through those doors in 40 years and how few of them stayed to allow the Lord to perfect His fruit; not that He couldn’t do it: but the reason He didn’t do it is because we wouldn’t let Him do it. God’s called us to bring forth perfect fruit that the world out there might taste and see that the Lord is His Father, joy, peace that He wants to perfect in us. It can’t be perfected unless we get all the things out of us; so that we can be that light that shines in the darkness others can see Jesus and want to be like Him not because of who we are, but because we see Jesus.
Father, we thank you this morning for the revelation of Jesus. Jesus we thank you for the revelation of the Father. We thank you for your love, your peace, joy. We thank you for the pruning. We thank you for everything that you have used in our life to bring forth your perfection that the fruit may be found. Oh, this morning speak to our hearts, speak to each one of our hearts that we might be faithful in all things that you may bring forth your perfect things in us. Lord, there’s a world out there waiting for your love, but if we don’t allow you to bring it to perfection we will never be able to reach that people out there. Lord, we ask you to cast aside the hindering forces that prevent us from yielding our selves to you. We pray for those young men that you sent here to be trained by your spirit and they walked away from it. We pray for them today in the prisons. Oh God, we remind them they turned from you and chose their own way and today they are in prison.
Oh, God give us your way, counsel, knowledge and understanding. Father, I ask you to drop into the heart of every listener this morning your great love, your great peace and joy. God, teach us that responsibility that you’ve given to us to let you perfect us so that you can send us to the ends of the earth. We thank You for the word this morning, precious Jesus, thank You for Your life. We thank You for the pruning and the work you’ve done in our life. We stand before these people not of our self; because of what you have done in our life, Jesus. Today you are no respecter of persons. You want every person to be filled with your love, peace, joy, righteousness, holiness. Jesus, empty us out, fill us up with your kingdom, power, glory. We praise you for it. Oh mighty Christ, let none of us be the same after this word this morning.
We thank you for your hallowed presence in us and around about us. We realize we’re on holy ground because the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is in our midst this morning, in our hearts and lives to make us as He is in this present world in His perfection. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.
