Nothing is more frustrating than living an unfulfilled and unfruitful life. Many are on that daily quest of living a fruitful life and yearning to live a life of purpose every day. There is a secret to that life. ABIDE.
John 15:4
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
Abiding creates that bridge that connects you from being a hearer of the word to being a doer of the word of God. God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and His commandment is to be fruitful and multiply. The Scriptures have been given to us as a manual, so we have everything we need to be fruitful and multiply. So why are many believers still living a life with no purpose or meaning and are therefore not fruitful? There could only be one answer: we are not abiding. You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in God. Abiding signifies a deep, continuous, and active connection with God, which becomes a source of strength, guidance, and wisdom, enabling us to transform our lives and move from merely hearing or acknowledging the word of God received through Rhema or Logos to integrating them into our daily lives, thus becoming a ‘doer.’ This alignment is quite important. It becomes the bridge that leads us from merely hearing the word to actively doing it, embodying the principles and teachings of Christ in our everyday lives.
Abiding, whether through prayer, meditation, or study of the word, allows the word to take root in us. Until the word takes root, we cannot take action. We cannot bear fruits.
Matthew 13:5-6 and 20-21 shows the hearer of the word who was so excited about the word, but because there were no roots, he could not produce fruits. Many times, we want to see fruits and be a person of purpose, but we have no roots, and that’s why we get easily discouraged and continue to work hard without seeing results. Pay attention to the roots! Are you taking roots? You cannot grow higher or stronger than your roots. It’s just not possible!
That’s why Jesus in John 15:4 said Abide in Me and I in you, just like a branch cannot bear fruits unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me! Take time to ABIDE. Take roots in God. Go deeper. The bridge to being a doer of the word is abiding in God.
The ideas God is giving you, those thoughts and strategies you have, those insights you have from reading scriptures, those are seeds from God. Don’t just hear them and let it stay on the superficial level, water it. Let it sink in. Revisit it again and again. Meditate on it. Chew it. Regurgitate it. Let it marinade. Allow it to take root.
If you get excited when God drops an idea in your heart or you hear the word of God, then realize that after a week, you don’t have the same excitement or worse, you’ve forgotten and are not doing anything about it, that means we are like the Matthew 15 verse 21 person, the person with a stony heart and not much depth.
We must let the word of God dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16). However, the path to abiding requires time, discipline, perseverance, and continually assess whether our actions align with our spiritual goals and every other area of life. God’s utmost desire for us is to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:8) and produce 30 folds, 60 folds, and 100fold fruits. To do that, we must abide in Him. No shortcut.
Cindy Trimm said something powerful, “maybe things are the way they are because you are the way you are.” Let’s think about that. Since God has already blessed us as His image carriers, we could be doing something wrong if we are not experiencing these blessings and growth in any area. ABIDE.