John 15:7-8

P 3387 Just to be clear.

/ DVH

“But if you live in life-union with Me and if My Words live powerfully within you—then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done. When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are My Mature disciples who glorify My Father!” John 15:7-8 TPT.

What a great scripture eh? We are called to demonstrate His Ways and these verses tell us how to do it. When we live this life unified with Him, we will automatically bear fruit. Not just because we can quote the bible, but because we are living the bible day by day, minute by minute. Doing that writes His law on our hearts! No matter what comes at us, we’ve learnt to thank Him for showing us the way through. 

Anybody can argue with a theory. If we aren’t living out His Word every single day, then all we have is a THEORY. It’s not faith, because faith is a VERB, as well as a Noun. Just like LOVE — that’s a verb and a noun too! Nouns are names. Verbs, on the other hand are doing words.

This verse is telling us that when His Word has powerfully impacted our lives, we will only pray for what the things that Jesus would pray for if He were here. We can be trusted to have His mindset in our hearts, not our own. Things aren’t about me anymore, they are about Him and His kingdom. Our faith is not just nice words bundled up for us every week by the pastor – Jesus is our inspiration, our Leader, our passion. It’s “I am the Vine and you are the branches,“ in another form … I call it the NO SAP, NO FRUIT method. Be a good gardener and protect His fruit in your life ’til it is fully formed.

We all like to think that Jesus is with us, but sometimes we only want Him to be with us to answer our prayers, and bail us out of the dumb stuff we cheerfully jumped into. Many times in my own life the Lord has said to me: “Repent. You willingly walked into that mess now turn around and walk out.” I imagine not many people would like that theology – me included – so I asked Him for a scripture. He gave me too: “Samson, and Jonah.”  I checked, they both made a mess and had to walk it back, at personal cost – yet they experienced God’s mercy and redemptive power in the end.

The secret to growing good sweet fruit is staying alert to anything that might damage it. Repentance is not just saying ‘I’m sorry!’ Putting it into literary terms, repentance is a heading under which the real action occurs. We must do something that will produce fruit worthy of that repentance. That means concrete actions, not just tossing off “I’m sorry” and walking away, leaving the other person bleeding on the pavement. Here’s an illustration in Matthew 3:8,9.

“When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin!”

The bible is saying that when we repent, we need to ask the Lord what can we do to bring forth fruit worthy of our repentance, and then do it. Repentance is a fabulous deterrent … anybody can say they are sorry, whether they mean it or not, whether they cry or not … but bearing fruit is a whole other ball-game. You get SKIN in the game. It will cost you, and it will most definitely humble you. We will probably feel lower than a worm, but changing the way we think about sin is worth the ghastly bit in the middle. Sin is to be avoided, and repentance is not a back door out of the mess we’ve made. It is the entry way to an entirely different way to live.

Jesus’ disciples long to bear fruit, simply because we have chosen to follow Him. But that fruit has to flow from His sap, it cannot be forced. Real repentance softens our heart, and the other person’s heart, and it gives us both a heart like His. That allows the sap flow between us again. Next we yield to His greater judgment, instead of responding to our own inner angst and turmoil. He knows the way out, followers follow Him out of difficulties to a new better-for-everybody place, no matter what the cost.

“For we have already experienced “heart-circumcision,” and we worship God in the power and freedom of the Holy Spirit, not in laws and religious duties. We are those who boast in what Jesus Christ has done, and not in what we can accomplish in our own strength.” Philippians 3:3 TPT.

The need for approval is a tough nut to crack, but Jesus will help us and strengthen us. Just to be clear … if we read the bible as optional suggestions, or even as good things to aim at, nothing much will change – except you could give yourself a headache. The bible is a practical book, and things like repentance and a change of heart come from a quality decision to go in His direction, because we want to be where He is! Bye 👋

P 3356 ‘If’ and ‘then’ and ‘was’ etc.

/ DVH

“But IF you live in life-union with Me and IF, my words live powerfully within you—THEN you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done. When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are My mature disciples who glorify My Father!” John 15:7-8 TPT.

Some times those little words, when you notice them, will punch you right in the eye! You know the ones I mean, the little words that help string sentences together. Those little words in God’s book, can have the biggest meaning. There are times when we can be like little children in a candy store about scripture; grabbing …”one of these and one of those …” only taking the ones we like, so we probably don’t give a lot of thought to the little words. 

It can be easy to treat the bible like a story-book or a novel. However, those little words show us that what’s in the verse is conditional to the things we need to do. We cannot afford to read simply picking out the ‘lollies’ we like. I’ve already talked about the word ‘let” in another blog in the past. Look out for that word, it’s a sleeping giant despite only having 3 letters!

“But we are a colony of heaven on earth AS we cling tightly to our life-giver, the Lord Jesus Christ,” Philippians 3:20 TPT. It is easy to see this verse is conditional when I highlight the little word … as.

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for THEN you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters.” Ephesians 5:1 TPT. See what I mean? Everybody wants to be a beloved son or daughter, but that verse says we need to imitate Him in everything we do, and … then … we are His familial representatives. 

But what if the version of the bible I like to read is not the same as yours? The same thing applies, because I am not actually talking about the words per se, I am talking about a way to read.  When we deliberately take notice of the little words, we won’t just pick out the main point and run off with it. The bible is like Dr Who’s Tardis, bigger inside than what appears on the outside!

What I am highlighting today has nothing to do with grammar, I would thoroughly fail at that. My purpose is to highlight that we cannot read God’s word and digest it in the same way we do any other book. This book is alive. It is inhabited by Jesus Himself — He is God’s Living Word. It must to be eaten and digested.

Let’s look again: “In the beginning WAS the Word, and the Word WAS with God, and the Word WAS God. The same WAS in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him WAS not any thing made that WAS made. In Him WAS life; and the life WAS the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” 

This is the KJV of John, chapter 1, verses 1-4. Isn’t it astonishing how many times that little word “was’ appears in these verses? Yet we may not have ever noticed it before. That’s my point, the little words in the bible do more than just tie one word to another – they give the things said, context. We get a sense of Christ’s place in the Father’s purposes.

Colossians 1: 15-17. This verse also testifies that Jesus was with God right at the very beginning. “We look at this Son and SEE the God Who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and SEE God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started IN HIM and finds its purpose IN HIM. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.”

These verses clearly establish Jesus’ Deity. He is the light shining in the darkness all around us. So when we need light then we must go to His book. By all means ask your pastor, minister, etc. but go to him after you read the bible first, because Jesus knows what happened to Samson, or Jepthah or Ruth. He was there.

Those little, seemingly extraneous words can give us context and clarity, and they help us to live our lives displaying God’s will, God’s way. So they are worth taking the time to notice. The Holy Spirit wants to speak to each one of us, and our task is to take Him speaking to us seriously. We can’t trust our own judgment, or even our own personal insight, we need Him to teach us how to read so we can digest and act upon what we have read. We need even the little words. Bye. 👋.