“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:4-5 (NLT)
Many of us, if not all of us, want to grow. We want to get to a new level, to flourish, to breakthrough, to change. We don’t want to remain stagnant or complacent. Yet, many of us don’t know how to grow, how to breakthrough, how to let go, how to move forward. In John 15, Jesus shares that the key to growing and flourishing is to “remain in Him.”
John 15 opens and shares how the Father (God) is the farmer, Jesus is the True Vine, and we are the branches. The only way for a branch to grow and bear fruit is to remain in the vine. Just as it is for the vine, so it is for us. Jesus grabs our attention to understand that it is the desire of God’s heart to see us, as His children and His disciples, to flourish and grow. But the key to growing and flourishing is to “remain in Him.”
Our fruit and our lives reflect our life with Him because apart from God, we cannot grow. In other words, without God, we cannot flourish. Without His voice and direction in our lives, we are just existing. Therefore, we must remain in Him. We must remain in the Secret Place, remain surrendered at the foot of the Cross, remain humbled before Him, remain under the covering of the leadership He has placed over our lives, remain open to His voice, remain faithful to our call, remain steadfast to His promise for our lives…we must remain.
As we choose to remain in Him, He prunes us so that we can flourish. He removes things from our lives that are not of Him (His nature, His character, His likeness). He removes things like fear, anxiety, worry, pride, false humility, discord, lust and sin. The desire of God’s heart is that we flourish in all we do. Yet, He shows us here that flourishing comes by remaining in Him (connected to the Vine). We must remain connected to the Vine and remain connected to the giver of life. He is our source. He is our strength; He is all we need.
When we remain in Him, He remains in us. He will open our eyes, develop us as leaders, strengthen us in our call to embrace His vision, and He will transform our lives. To remain in Him is to surrender our plans and our ways to Him. In return, we will receive guidance, strength, wisdom, direction and purpose. Let’s choose to remain in Him and remain connected to the Source. Now is the time for us to flourish!
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
God does not just want us to flourish and grow but that through Him we would produce lasting fruit. Fruit that lasts; fruit that remains; fruit that multiplies. Psalm 1:3 (TPT) explains that in order to bear fruit we must remain: “He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God’s design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of his life. He is never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.”
Naturally, fruit does not last very long. Even when a fruit is refrigerated it doesn’t last very long. A fruit when it’s removed from the source has a limited time to live for its original purpose. Yet, John 15 shows us that the heart of God is for us to grow as His children, as disciples, to grow in our relationship with Him and bear much fruit. Not only fruit, but fruit that lasts.
We are only sustained to live out our calling, our purpose and to be who we need to be when we remain in Him. We must stay connected to the vine and allow Him to prune us. We must allow Him to get into all the details of our lives. We have to rid ourselves of ourselves so we can flourish. It’s a true surrender. It’s a daily choice to surrender, to remain connected to the Source, the vine, the One who flourishes a fresh outpouring of wisdom, love, strength, guidance, healing and direction.
I have understood this for myself. God opened my heart and eyes to the beauty of John 15. He showed me that as I choose to remain in Him, He will lead and guide me in the way I should go. Through the process of surrender, He had to prune things that distracted me, that distracted my time, that distracted my purpose, and my call. He wants us to flourish with lasting fruit, don’t wait another day. Choose today to go back to our Source and remain in HIM! NOW IS OUR TIME TO FLOURISH!! (Nicole Silva)
TODAY’S DECLARATION
“Lord, today I choose to stay connected to you as my Source. I choose to remain in you and as I do, You will remain in me. Lead me to flourish and grow in every area of my life. This is the time for me to produce lasting fruit, so have Your way in me. Amen!”
TODAY’S BIBLE READING
- Old Testament: Isaiah 29-30; Proverbs 23:19-35
- New Testament: Luke 22:47-53; Hebrews 7:1-10
