ABIDE OR BE CAST INTO FIRE
Tuesday – March 3, 2020, Adar 7, 5780
Greetings precious saints of God and welcome back to this engaging and course correcting Bible Study of the Book of John. Our course is corrected only if we have ears to hear, that is we choose to not just hear but focus and allow the Holy Spirit to impart revelation knowledge of what is being said. Once we have received it, we choose to believe it, speak it, and walk in it by faith. The featured picture today is of a beautiful location on the coast of Maine. If you are reading this on Facebook please take a moment to hit the “love” and “share” buttons to give us feedback and to expand the reach of this Ministry. God is so good my friends. Now, let’s turn our attention to our Bible Study for today by first reading our primary text aloud.
John 15:5-8 (KJV)
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.
Have each of us chosen to abide in the vine? The word “abide” in our text is also commonly translated as stay. Stay in the vine, stay in Jesus or might we say stay in the Word. We are to stay in Him, in the Word and He goes on to say that when He abides or stays in us, we will bring forth or produce much fruit. We not only must make the Word a significant part of our daily diet but we must keep the Word. We can read the Bible, devotionals, teachings such as this, check our religious box, and not retain a bit of it or be changed in the least. This is not abiding in the vine nor the vine abiding in us. We have to choose, on purpose, to take the Word in and make it a part of ourselves changing our thoughts, our words, and our actions producing increasing amounts of fruit. Apart from this relationship we can not produce fruit for the Kingdom of God. Now, we may be producing other fruit because we are connected to another vine. There are many false vines and they all lead to Hell and do not produce fruit of righteousness for the Kingdom of God.
We cannot be connected to two vines no more than Adam and Eve could partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and remain in the Blessing. When they fell for the devil’s deceptions, when they let their faith (what they believed about God) be stolen they came out from under the Blessing and came under the curse. Any vine that is not God is evil. The devil comes as an angel of light but the fruit in our lives will be stealing, killing, and destroying. Focus on the Word and give no place to anything else. We must become more God inside minded, continually listening and being sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to help us stay out of the clutches of our adversary. Even when we don’t know why the Holy Spirit will warn us and at some point, we will learn, He will lead us to acquire knowledge of the why. We do not need to know why; we just need to do. When our parents replied “because I said so” when we were children, they were more like God then perhaps we realized or would have testified. Sensitivity and immediate submission to the Word of God and the promptings of the Holy Spirit is key to the function of the Blessing in our lives and the exclusion of the curse. Just as with our parents in times past we may not have an adequate foundation to understand the why but we will. Our God is a good God and wants to do us good all the time but He must have our obedience (agape – love).
As we go into verse six of our primary text, we find that any branch that does not stay in the Word, in Jesus, the Vine, the only source of nourishment for the branch (us) is cast forth. The text tells us that branch is withered, they are gathered up and cast into the fire to be burned. The Word of God is the only source of power for our lives in the Kingdom of God. The Word of God is the change agent for all good, the source of all creation. All other words, thoughts, ways are of the world, of the flesh and are death. As I mentioned in a prior teaching, I do not see the statements of the unproductive branch being burned as being cast into Hell. Unproductive branches in the Kingdom of God are set aside and do not have a role in the plan of God but in the end will be saved. I wonder if the Apostle Paul is speaking along these lines in the following passage with regard to our work and reward?
1 Corinthians 3:11-13 (KJV)
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
I for one do not want to show up before my Savior on the last day, at the Judgement Seat of Christ, and have nothing to show for my time in the earth. Let us determine to stay in the Word, the pure Word of God.
Until our next publication, as a Bible Teacher and Prophetic Voice I speak this blessing over each and every one of you, receive it, believe it, and speak over yourself and your family by faith in Jesus name! Quit asking God to bless you, you are already blessed, you have the Blessing, give Him something to do by the words of your mouth. Once you know the will of God, decree the thing (Job 22:28, Isaiah 45:11, Mark 11:23). (The Blessing is the Holy Spirit) We have left God way to long with nothing to do in our lives.
Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)
24 The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
26 The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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