Horticulture 101- Abiding in the Vine

Jesus said if we want to bear fruit we must abide in Him, and He in us.  The word abide has a sense of permanency about it.  It doesn’t mean to come in and go out.  It refers to the place where you remain and dwell continually. 

The moment a branch is broken off from the vine, it begins to die.  It doesn’t matter how close they are to one another. You can lay that branch beside the vine, but if the union has been broken, there will be no life flow. There will be no sap (no life) flowing from the vine into the branch. The same is true for us.  When we get too busy to spend time with God in prayer and in His Word, when we get preoccupied with natural or sensual things, earthly things and we become disconnected from communion with Him, we immediately begin to wither.

So often we are hindered from living a spiritual life by our minds that think like the world instead of like God.  I think Spiritual groweth is determined by how much our soul is changed by the Word of God.  The more Gods word is implanted within you, the more you conform to the image of Jesus. 

The old life we used to live is now dead, and the new life that we now live; we live it by faith, not fashioning ourselves any more to the former life we use to live, but being changed by the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus.  

So we need to remember to live according to our new life in the Holy Spirit. This way we won't yield unto the old sinful nature. The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite of what the Holy Spirit wants. If we follow the desires of our old sinful nature, our lives will produce sinful results, on the other hand, when we yield our lives by faith unto the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, our lives will produce the fruits of God's Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of Gods Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Listen to what Jesus states in Matt. 7:20; "Therefore by their fruits you will know them.  What kind of fruit does the world see when they look at you and me today? 

How many times have we heard someone say, it’s just a little white lie, no big deal.  But the fact is that sin is a big deal! It never stays the same size.  Like a hardy vine, it grows, spreading its roots into all areas of our life.  Jesus tells us the danger of allowing sin to remain in our life.  He said that hated is related to murder, and lust is related to adultery, because the big sins are linked to the small sins.  No one ever murdered unless he first allowed hatred to grow within him.  No one ever committed adultery before he first lusted in his heart. 

The Bible is clear in telling us to get rid of sin in our life.  We are not to allow sin to reign in our bodies, that we should obey it.  Jesus tells us that if our right eye causes us to stumble, we are to pluck it out and throw it away.  It would be better for us to lose one of the parts of our body, than for our whole body to be thrown into hell.  He said if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut if off and throw it away from you. So what the Bible is saying is to sever sin from our life.  We are to cut it out, and get rid of anything in our life that causes us to sin.

To often have we made allowances for sin in our life.  “Well God knows that I can’t help the way I am.  He understands that I am weak and that I’m going to sin”.   No!  God calls us to be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.  God desires fruit from our life.  And the only way to activate the life of God flowing within us today is to choose to live according to the Word of God.  When we abide in the Vine, then the power and the blessings of God begin to flow within us, springing up into an abundant life in Christ.

But it’s when we deviate away from Gods Word that allows roots of sin to spring up within us, just like the weeds in our own gardens, and when they take root and begin to grow; our branches become dried up and withered, no longer producing the fruit of God in our life.  I believe that sin separates us from God, and it also hinders us from receiving the blessings that God has for us.  So we need to be constantly abiding in Christ.

Colossians 3: 8-10 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.

So many times we read these words yet we don’t always know what they mean.  Bitterness is animosity or resentment against someone, Wrath is forceful often vindictive anger, leading to punishment, Anger is to enrage or provoke to hostility, Clamour in insistently demanding attention, and to complain.  Malice is a desire to harm others or to see others suffer, to get back at them.

After becoming a Christian, the bible instructs us to “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness”.  That means we are to conform to the image of God’s Son (Romans 8:29).  You and I ought to act like Jesus!

So as Christians today, who have the very life and nature of God abiding within, we are to look upon our old sin nature as being dead, and unresponsive to sin.  Paul says, ‘I am crucified with Christ, so our body of sin is dead, nevertheless I live, yet it’s not me who lives, but now it’s Christ who lives in me”. 

John 15: 1-4 Jesus is speaking here when He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes it to make it bear more fruit.  Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me”.

In horticulture, there is a term called “Renewal Pruning”.  This is when an entire hedge or shrub is cut back, clear to the ground!  Then it grows back again without all the dead wood.  Bushes like Forsythia, Honeysuckle and spring flowering shrubs like to be cut back from time to time right down to the ground. 

Many shrubs bloom much better and produce more fruit after being completely cut back to the ground.  Red Raspberries and Blackberries are two of these plants that produce much larger and better fruits when you cut them back in the fall. 

John 15:1 Jesus said, every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. To purge means to prune or to trim a vine.  In the Greek language it means to cleanse from sin and impurities.  So God, the Master Gardener prunes us, or purges us to cleanse us from sin and impurities.

12 years ago, when we built our home, we planted a couple of chestnut trees on our property; we really enjoy stuffing with chestnuts at Thanksgiving time.  We were told we would need to plant two trees together for them to bear the chestnuts.  Well one of those trees died early on, and years have gone by and no chestnuts. 

Every year I think about cutting down that chestnut tree, but then I think I will wait one more year to see if it will produce anything.  A couple of years ago we found for the first time a few chestnuts that have fallen from the tree around Christmas time.

James 5:7 the Gardener waits patiently for the precious fruits from the trees he has planted.  I’m so glad to know that our Lord is patient with us.  He lets us stay for a long time waiting to see whether we are going to produce the fruits that He desires.  The Master Gardener takes great love and care when it comes to working in our lives.

He knows all about us, He knows what kind of tree we are, and what type of fruit we will produce.  He knows the right time for us to be pruned and cut back, that our lives may produce more fruit of His Spirit within our lives.