Abide in Me

I have a fairly large garden, and when people ask me what I grow, my answer is, “I grow dirt.” I have learned over the years that gardening is not about growing plants but about growing dirt. Plants need the right conditions to bear fruit, and it starts with the soil being good. Once we have prepared the soil, we then plant, weed, prune, feed, and water the plants. But God causes the growth and causes the plant to produce fruit. Jesus uses the analogy of a fruit vine growing in a garden as a way for us to understand what it means to abide in Him.

““I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.””   John 15:1-11

What does it mean to abide in Christ? Some of the standard answers to this question include maintaining a relationship with Jesus, remaining dependent on Him, being in God’s word regularly, praying regularly, having regular fellowship with other believers, bearing fruit, obeying God’s word, participating in worship, church attendance, service, giving, etc. These are all correct answers, and there are many others, but it is possible to do these things and not actually be abiding in Christ. These activities can become a list of things we do to check off. We can find ourselves doing these things but realize we do not have an intimate, daily, minute by minute relationship with Jesus. How do we abide in Christ? What does this mean?

One way to get a better understanding of this passage is to look at the parable of the sower.

““Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”” Mark 4:3-9

The disciples did not understand the parable, so Jesus explained it to them:

“”The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.””  Mark 4:14-20

In this parable, Jesus is showing us how to abide in Him and bear fruit. He warns us of three things that will cause us to not abide in Him, and one that will. The first seed falls along the road, and the devil snatches it up. The second seed falls on the rocky ground and withers because it has no depth of root. The third seed falls in the weeds and is choked out. But the fourth seed falls on the good soil, and bears fruit. Abiding in Christ is being good soil.

First we see that there is an enemy who will oppose us even getting planted in Christ. Satan will steal the word of God from our hearts and minds the minute we hear it if we let him. The first thing we must do to abide in Christ is to resist the devil. We are told that if we do this, he will flee (James 4:7). We must let the word be planted in our lives, just as the seed must be planted in soil, in order to germinate and become a plant. Without being planted, the seed remains a seed and never becomes a fruit bearing plant. This is a picture of us being born again. We must hear the gospel message and believe it in order to start abiding in Christ. This is the first step.

But the devil does not go away once we are born again. He prowls around like a roaring lion seeking ways to destroy our walk with Christ and ruin our ability to bear fruit (1 Peter 5:8). Just think of some of the people whose ministries have been destroyed by the devil over the years. Bill Hybels and Ravi Zacharias come to mind as recent examples of this, both men falling into adulterous affairs that destroyed their ministries. We must resist the devil and his attempts to destroy us. If we do not, we could lose everything , and might even lose the ability to do ministry in the future as well. So not only can he prevent us from being born again by stealing the word from us before it is planted, but he can lure us into a trap that can completely wipe out our witness. Like a full grown lion crouching in the corner of our room, a beast that could pounce on us and kill us at any moment, sin in our life can kill our spiritual life, and prevent us from abiding in Christ and bearing fruit. We must remove sin from our lives, putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:12-14), in order to safeguard the word of God that has been planted in us – in order to live, to be a living witness of the gospel of Jesus.

The seed on the rocky ground warns us that if we do not develop some depth to our faith, it will not stand. Once we are believers, we have to learn about God, learn Jesus’ words, and build our life on them (Matthew 7:24-27). It is the word of God that prunes us, removing the things from our life that would keep us from being fruitful. The disciples had Jesus speaking words directly to them, and this is what He refers to in John 15:3. Today we have the Holy Spirit speaking to us through God’s word, the Bible. It is critical that we put God’s word into our heart and minds and let the Spirit prune our lives. By doing this, we develop deep roots and we will be able to bear fruit.

The seed that fell among the weeds warns us that even if we are born again and put God’s word into our hearts and minds, the word can be choked out by the things of the world. Money, possessions, sex, fame, power, comfort, etc. are some of the first things we think of when we read this. But there are many other things that can choke out the word and keep us from being fruitful that are harder to spot, like legalism, licentiousness, lust, peer pressure, idolatry, addictions, excessive time spent watching TV or surfing on our phones, etc. 1 John 2:15-17 describes them for us in a unique way:

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”  1 John 2:15-17

 The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life are the three main categories of the weeds that will choke out the word of God that is in us, preventing us from bearing fruit. Just as weeding a garden is a daily thing that we must do constantly if we want to have a fruitful garden, weeding our life of the things that will choke out the word in our life is also a daily thing we must do, in order to abide in Him and bear fruit.

Simply stated, we have to stiff arm the devil, get in the word, and remove the things from our life that are keeping us from being fruitful. This is how we abide in Christ. Jesus is our life, He is the source of all life. If we do these three things, the Holy Spirit will be a river of living water pouring through us into the world (John 7:38-39). By stiff-arming the devil, we are planted in Christ. By getting in the word of God we build a firm foundation in our life that can support our growth in Christ. By weeding our lives we remove the things that will choke out the word. The Holy Spirit who lives in us will flow through us and bear fruit in our lives. The Holy Spirit will lead us, teach us, put to death the deeds of the body, and the very life of God will course through us like sap in a fruit vine (Romans 8:1-17). This is abiding in Christ.

What are some of the things that are keeping you from abiding in Christ? Have you been born again, or did the devil snatch the seed of the gospel out of your life, preventing it from ever being planted? Do you have a solid foundation in your spiritual life, or have you failed to put God’s word into your heart and mind? Are you seeing the fruit of Christ in your life increase (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control (Galatians 5:22-23)) or are the weeds in your life choking out God’s work in your life? Are you being led by the Holy Spirit, or are you drifting away from God, being led by the culture or something other than God’s Spirit?

What are some of the things that are choking out God’s work in your life? What is a way that will work for you to get the word of God into your life daily? Where in your life do you need to stiff-arm the devil and resist his efforts to prevent the gospel from doing its work in your life?

My garden requires a lot of work for it to be fruitful. There have been years that I lost control of it because of travel for work. I remember one year all I had by the end of the summer was a garden full of weeds that were 4 to 5 feet tall. I had to wipe everything out and start over. Have you lost control of your walk with Jesus? If so, what can you do to get back on track and begin abiding more fully in Him? What are three things you can start doing today that will make the garden of your life become more fruitful?

Lord God almighty, our father in heaven, we come before You now in the name of Jesus and ask that You would show us how to abide in Christ more fully. We pray that the life of Your Holy Spirit would course through our lives, putting to death the things in our life that are hindering us from fully abiding in You and bearing fruit. Deliver us from the evil one when he comes to steal from us the joy, peace, and love You have given us in Christ Jesus. Give us a hunger and a thirst for Your word and open our minds so that we can understand it more fully and come to know You better each day. Help us to practice Your presence daily. Speak to our hearts and our minds and lead us in the everlasting way. We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.

Clarifying the Message

To keep the above from getting any longer than it already is, following are some of the things that I left out, but that are worth mentioning.

Stiff-Arming the Devil

The devil does not want any of us to be born again, and will do whatever he can to stop that from happening in our lives, stealing the word of God from our lives any time we hear it. As believers, when we witness to others, we must pray for them to be given eyes to see and ears to hear so that the word of God can get into their hearts and minds and start to grow. we may have to plant the seed of the gospel in their lives over and over, until it finally takes root and grows. An example of this is my mother and father. I prayed for them and prayed for and witnessed to them over and over again for the remainder of their lives once I was born again. After thirty years, my mother was born again. But my father never was. The gospel continued to bounce off of him. The last time I shared the gospel message with him was a few days before he died, and he still rejected it, even knowing that death was coming soon.

In my case, their was a group of praying ladies that prayed for me for 20 years. Then in college their prayers were answered by the God Squad at Auburn when they prayed for me for 2 years then shared the gospel with me. I was born again in 1983, and it was a very dramatic conversion from Atheistic Judaism to Born Again Christian. But that is a story for another post. Bottom line, the first aspect of stiff-arming the devil is getting born again. Our part is to allow the word in, with an open mind and a willing heart attitude towards the gospel message and the words of Jesus. The believers around us have the responsibility to pray for us, share Christ with us, love us, etc., during this time, keeping the devil away so the seed can be planted.

I have planted grass seed in my yard and then watched a flock of birds come in and eat most of it up before it can even germinate. Birds do this. The devil is the same way. Anytime we share the gospel with someone, it is vital that we provide prayer cover for them, spend time with them, maybe even help them stay away from situations that the devil can use to snatch the seed from their hearts and minds. We are to be led by the Spirit regarding what He wants us to do to protect the planted seed, so that it has a chance to grow and bear fruit.

Once we are born again, the devil usually changes his tactics, and now he is determined to destroy our witness. This often involves sin. If he can get us to commit a grievous enough sin, it will usually destroy any of the fruit we have. On one of my projects, I ran into someone I had not seen for a while that I knew from our children’s ministry at church. I asked them how they were doing, and they told me they were not a believer anymore and were no longer following Jesus. I asked why, and they told me that they had joined a new church, and the pastor was convicted of being a pedophile. When the pastor’s witness was destroyed by sin, it took many others down with him. All of his fruit was destroyed because of the sin in his life.

Imagine how your children would be affected if you committed adultery and left their mom. I know people whose children will not even speak to them because of things they have done like this. In the story of Cain and Abel we read:

“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7

God is speaking to Cain, warning him that if he does not deal with his anger towards Abel it will lead to a bad outcome. That sin is crouching at the door of his life, trying to get in and destroy him. Cain does not resist the devil, and he kills his brother. Imagine that there is an actual full grown lion in the room with you now. It is crouching in the corner, maybe hiding behind a piece of furniture, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on you and kill you. That is the picture here.

And sin kills fast, and we usually don’t see it coming. I once saw a bobcat, and then I didn’t. Once the bobcat saw me, it moved so fast that my eye could not even see it move. It was like it just vanished, and all I saw was the bushes shaking where it had gone. Most believers that are taken down by the devil in this manner never see it coming. Pow – it just happens. Bill Hybels, founder and pastor of Willow Creek Community Church went down like this. In one moment he lost everything because he let sin stay in his life until it finally had the chance to get him. It is like he let a full grown lion live in his house until it finally killed him.

The bible is clear that we all sin. In 1 John we read:

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10

We all have sin in our lives. We are selfish, greedy, lustful, covetous, etc., etc., etc. – the list is probably endless for each one of us. Every day we do something that is driven by the sin in our lives, like being angry at another driver in traffic. We have to realize that Cain wasn’t some rebel – he had a direct personal relationship with God, and yet he let the sin of anger bring him to a place where he killed his brother. A friend of mine’s father got into an argument his brother (my friend’s uncle), and he went out to his car, got a gun, went back into the house, and killed his brother – true story – and he went to prison. Sin kills. It can make us do things we will regret for the rest of our lives, like one of my friends who cheated on his wife and now regrets it probably for the rest of his life. So what are we to do about the sin in our lives?

The above 1 John passage tells us to confess our sins, and that God will be faithful to forgive us our sin. Romans 8:12-13 tells us we are to put sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 tells us bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Jesus told us to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). When we sin, we are to confess it to God, ask for forgiveness and repent. We are to put the sin in our life to death, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. But what of the devil, who is prowling about our lives waiting for a chance to pounce.

We also read in 1 John that we are to “Walk in the light.. and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us of all sin.” God is light, and there is no darkness in him. If we walk into a room at night, it is dark. When we turn on the light in the room, the darkness goes away. The light dispels the darkness. James 4:7 tells us that if we will resist the devil, he will flee from us. Ephesians 6:10-20 tells us how to put on the armor of God that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. The Bible has many useful passages and verses that we can use to combat the lion in our den and overcome the sin that so easily can entangle us, which brings us to the next aspect of abiding – having God’s word in our hearts and our minds.

Depth of Soil

Once we are born again, we have to get the word of God into our hearts and our minds. Whether it is reading the Bible on our own, going to church, listening to sermons online or listening to podcasts while we drive to work or exercise, joining a bible study, hanging out with other believers, etc., we have to put the word of God into our lives. John 15:3 clearly tells us that it is the word of God that the Holy Spirit uses to prune us. The word that is translated “clean” in verse 3 is the same Greek word translated “prune” in verse 2. It is the word of God that He uses to cut away the things in our life that are sapping our strength away as believers and keeping us from being so fruitful. And these things can be anything.