Dear one, I know the love you have for Me, yet still there have been times that you have turned to the things of the world for help. In times of stress or trouble I have not been the first of your heart. You have turned to familiar things, retreated to your comfort zone and hidden away to seek relief.
But My child, those are such shallow waters. Anything the world offers cannot quench your thirst or give you the guidance you require. Remember, I am the way, the truth and the life. The depth of relationship that you require can only be found by abiding fully in Me.
Come to Me, dive into deeper waters and you will see the fruit it will bring in your life. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and I will be found by you. I am calling you to nourish your spirit, to go deeper, to eat the bread of Life and to carry that with you into every situation that you encounter.
For you have been called to bring forth My light, do not squander your call. Dive in with courage and boldness, abide in Me and I will lead you to places that you have never even thought or imagined.
Activation:
Read John 15:4-7 (AMP) through once, then come back here to allow the Lord to speak to you as you ponder over each verse:
4 Remain in Me, and I [will remain] in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself without remaining in the vine, neither can you [bear fruit, producing evidence of your faith] unless you remain in Me.
5 [a]I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for[otherwise] apart from Me [that is, cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken off] branch, and withers and dies; and they gather such branches and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you [that is, if we are vitally united and My message lives in your heart], ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
John 15:4-7 (AMP)
Footnotes
[a] John 15:5 – John 6:35 Jesus uses the words “I am” over twenty times in this Gospel. Especially memorable are those places where “I am” is followed by a metaphor that declares His deity and His relationship to mankind as Savior (this is the first of seven such references); see 8:12 (Light); 10:9 (Door); 10:11 (Good Shepherd); 11:25 (Resurrection); 14:6 (Way, Truth, Life); 15:5 (Vine).
v. 4 – Ask Jesus Christ what remaining in Him really means and how to enhance this mutual relationship further with steadfast faith and obedience. Ask Him to reveal to you the areas of your life in which you need to depend on Him more for spiritual sustenance and growth.
v. 5 – What does it mean to bear much fruit? Talk to Holy Spirit about it and ask Him to give you an image of what it may look like in your life both in the everyday and in the long term.
v. 6 – In agriculture, unproductive branches are pruned and thrown into the fire. Ask the Lord to show you the areas that have been burned off in your life, and any areas that He still requires to prune. Release any feeling of loss to Him, and ask for His comfort and healing.
v. 7 – Like a vine and its branches, the relationship with Jesus Christ should be intimate and continuous. His teachings are not just to be heard but lived out. Only then, being so aligned, will even our requests reflect God’s perfect will and therefore come to pass. Ask the Lord to show you where you haven’t been fully aligned with Him. Consider how to spend time with Him in different and deeper ways. Then gradually make it a habit to come back to being in His presence for increasingly extended periods of time.
#lionbites
Unapologetically Marcia 