“I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch which is part of me but fails to bear fruit, he cuts off; and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit. 3 Right now, because of the word which I have spoken to you, you are pruned. 4 Stay united with me, as I will with you — for just as the branch can’t put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can’t bear fruit apart from me. John 15:1-4
Today the message is more of the same, except in much ore depth. I read through John 15 for the 1,000th time and so much jumped out to me, more than normal. Actually almost every single verse hit me.
What also hit me was how deep John was in his writings, and what he taught. Supposedly John did not write the gospel of John, but it was him that spoke of it and someone else wrote it a few years later. This is the point about John. There really is not much need to read anything else other than his gospel and letters.
A second point, to tie in with the last statement is that so many people read Paul and quote him out of context and ignore things like what Yeshua, the son of God taught. Many ‘christian’ push a doctrine different than what Paul really was saying, but also very different than what Yeshua himself taught, and they justify it as what Yeshua taught was for the Jews, what their theology of what Paul wrote was for the gentiles or modern day “christians.” But there is no difference of doctrine anywhere from the beginning to the end of times. God is always the same and has the same rules or commands for everyone, sort of speaking.
Yeshua’s personal commands to you will be different from his to me, unless you have the same evil works I did. Then they will be similar or the same. But a man who has a problem with sex and drinking too much, will be different from a man who only had one partner and married them, but is a con artist and rips people off. Or has an issue with their temper and maybe jealousy or whatever.
The torah or law written is the same for everyone, it does not vary, but which of the torah laws you disobey vary from person to person. So the Lord’s commands to you will be different than what he will say to me, with the same end goal, to lead us into ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS! Not most or some, but ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Verse 5 says “Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing.” I do not know what the men teachers say about this because they never seem to teach on it, but skip over it. But the truth Yeshua shows me about it is simple, if you are in him (that is hearing and obeying him) you will bear a lot of good fruit, but if you are not in him, you will bear no good fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, so by their fruit you will know them.
The problem becomes that we see the fruit differently than God sees it. We have been taught by men teachers about family values and helping the family out first, and giving to the church system, helping your neighbor… But the church system does not define it, so we help and give to people we have no business giving to and helping. A simple example, you have a family member who is on drugs, so you want to help (who wouldn’t?) So you give money and more money and they just use it to keep buying drugs and getting worse. There are as many examples as there are people, but you get the point!
In verse 7 it says ““If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you.” This is another one so many of us take out of context, and also it does not apply to you if you do not know and obey God. An example of a friend of my wife’s from a very deep in the grace OSAS doctrine. She ate trash all the time and would pray before eating it, please God make this food healthy for me and nourish me in the name of Jesus, amen! It did not work, she got really sick and then called my wife for help to learn to eat better. Not sure what happened to her as she does not call my wife anymore?
Which brings up the next point, many walk with the truth for a while and then stop. They might stop because they were healed or their bad circumstances changed to being OK, so they went right back to it and do not need to hear the truth anymore in their minds. Or maybe she died from years of neglect? Don’t know???
But the point is if you are right with God, your prayers will be answered. A few examples, the main one is my son who the Lord promised to me. The Lord had also told me we would adopt someday. So my wife and I went out to get pregnant and went to a fertility doctor as I had been fixed years earlier. I was going to do a reversal, btu the doctor said there is a zero % chance of it working. So we followed his advice instead of seeking God’s will. We tried a few different things he suggested and nothing was working, so I went to the Lord (finally) and asked him what we should do because it is expensive and nothing is working.
He told me, adopt and then I will give you your son. I told my wife, thinking she would be excited, but she was really upset, telling me I was lying and did not want a baby… But later she agreed and we adopted the two daughters. A few 3 short years later we had our son, but even that was not without problems because my wife was bleeding for much of the pregnancy and the doctors always told us the baby would not make it, obviously he did.
So Isaac had a zero % chance of being conceived (I had a reversal that worked). And a zero % chance of making the term of the pregnancy, but he did. A miracle baby, and an amazing son.
The longer version of the story tells about how it was a major thing of faith and trust in what God told me personally, and I obeyed his commands so he blessed us with a son. The son he promised us, well mostly me. Also, unlike the “christians” I did not say give me a son in the name of Jesus, amen. I was not even planning to have any more kids when I met Cinthya, it was her who wanted more kids. So I pried about that also, and God said yes, and this time do it right! At the time I did not understand exactly what he was saying, but I obeyed and now I understand what he meant. An entirely different story some day.
I can give all kinds of examples of God doing me favors from changing the weather a few times to giving me sunshine when it was raining and supposed to all day. So some of the things were selfish. But the Lord flights in giving you things when you ask in faith and it does not affect other people. But the real thing is your prayers will eventually line up with the Lord’s will and you find you do not need selfish prayers anymore. I have not asked for anything for many years like that, my prayer now is always “your Kingdom come and your will be done). Normally I say it like this, “you know what I need Lord and what is best for me, so please do it!”
To continue with verse 10 “If you keep my commands, you will stay in my love — just as I have kept my Father’s commands and stay in his love.” This verse says exactly what we are talking about, Yeshua listened to the Father and obeyed, and he expects you to listen to him and obey, this is LOVE. Not some mushy feeling, LOVE is obedience to the one you say you love. Keeping in mind the divinity and perfection of God which he cannot go against his perfect will. God is the almighty power, nothing is above him and more powerful or knowing. He knows what is best for everyone, and his commands are for your best. We just do not like to be bossed around, but instead most of us prefer to boss others around. This is the main reason for such a high divorce rate and family problems. Most of us think we have the best answer to life and expect everyone to follow what we tell them, because even if you do not see love as obedience, in our soul we know it is. So if someone does not obey you, they do not love you. My wife tells me often I do not love her, because many times I do not obey her and do it her way. I see how perfect God’s way is and how imperfect man’s way is (including mine and hers). So why would I obey her over what God is showing me? That is what Yeshua was saying when he said “he who loves his mother, father… More than me is not worthy of me.”
It causes problems at times, many times. But if God shows me something to do a certain way, and anyone including my wife comes along and says I should do it differently, I obey God, not man.
So onwards to verse 18-19 ““If the world hates you, understand that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would have loved its own. But because you do not belong to the world — on the contrary, I have picked you out of the world — therefore the world hates you.” This is the tough one to understand, because in our worldly view we need to be agreeable to people so they come to Yeshua. But Yeshua did not side with the worldly views and became popular. He sides with the Fathers views and remains in perfection. A perfection he earned by allowing the Father to prune him, Yeshua was made perfect from the things he suffered… And so will we if we let him have his way.
So we do what the world wants to hear, and they come to our church and we associate or think we saved them. But they are no better off for salvation than before. Man cannot save man, so how does a person say they saved someone? People have no idea how bad that sounds to God.
To keep this a little more short let’s jump to verse 26 ““When the Counselor comes, whom I will send you from the Father — the Spirit of Truth, who keeps going out from the Father — he will testify on my behalf.” This is one of two differences between the times before Yeshua and after. The sending and or receiving of the Holy Spirit (if you actually received him and died unto yourself to do so). And send a new covenant with Yeshua, one where you have a direct relationship with God through him and the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all righteousness and perfect you.
We must understand this one point, we cannot be made perfect and without being perfect we will not enter into the Kingdom of God. Unless we hear and obey the Lord through the Holy Spirit in all ways. We must get to that point to say “your will be done Lord, show me your will!” And then when he shows you, then do it.
Last point, as I was also reading the old testament in Chronicles, and it was more of the same. One King obeyed the torah and God through the prophets, the next one did not and even murdered a prophet. The ones who obeyed everything went well for them, those who did not obey lost it all. Most of the time ending up dying a bad death. Today it was by his own people.
The point is “obedience” is the central theme between the old days before Yeshua and after Yeshua. That has never changed and never will. The difference is simply now we have a helper who can make us Holy and pure like God because it is God living inside us. But do not think he lives inside you if your fruit you are bearing has not changed and you are now bearing good fruit according to his will. In the old days it was impossible to be perfect because they did not have the helper, now we do, so obey him.