In John 15:4-5 [MSG], Jesus says, “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.“

If you look at this picture I took of a grapevine in Napa Valley, you’ll see a thick, strong vine standing at ground level. The vine is always firmly rooted, remaining in a fixed state. Above the vine, tied onto the trellis, are many tender and flexible branches filled with large green leaves and clusters of  juicy grapes. They tend to be blown in the direction of any wind that comes along, thereby the need for the trellis so that the branches aren’t torn away from the vine by gusty winds. The branches get their nourishment through the vine, which transports energizing sap to each branch. The vine acts as the strong connector to the source of energy and nutrition—the root system in the soil.  Because the vine imparts sap, each of the branches has the ability to produce leaves and fruit.

Jesus said that He is the Vine. As the Vine, He imparts His nature (the sap) to us. With His strength and power to stand against the winds of life, He brings stability to our lives as we choose to make a pointed recognition of Him in our everyday lives. Because He is connected to the Father (the roots), He is always giving to us whatever the Father gives to Him. The Father is the source of everything good and EVERYTHING the Father gives to Jesus is good (James 1:17). The blessing in that fact is that Jesus has finished the necessary work on the cross in order for us to receive all that goodness and favor from the Father. His answer to every promise that He made is “YES” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

As the branches, we are in constant need of spiritual contact with Jesus in order to live the abundant life He died and rose to give us. Believers will always have Him living inside their spirit but, with no pointed commitment to fellowship with Him, we don’t bear much fruit–there’s not a lot of evidence of His favor working in our lives. Abiding in Him is the difference maker in our personal harvest.

Abide= to be established, to have continual fellowship with no separation

Abiding is an act of faith in His grace. It means we choose to depend on Jesus and rest in His finished work. It means receiving His “no matter what” kind of love over and over again everyday. A branch separated from the vine cannot produce leaves or grapes. By remaining connected with Him, we branches receive the Vine’s sap, the stream of supernatural Life flowing from the Father to Jesus to us. Abiding provides for greater production of fruitfulness/good things in our lives.

Without Him=making no use of, having no association with, lack of connection and fellowship

As a believer in Jesus, you are never out of His care because He said He would never forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). After salvation, it is our choice whether to make daily fellowship with Him a priority so that we take advantage of the Life flowing from Him to us. When we have the combination of Him in us and us abiding in Him, then we bear much fruit and enjoy the abundant life Jesus speaks of in John 10:10.

We have free will to choose whether to abide in Him today. We get to decide whether we will look to Jesus throughout the day and abide in Him or be distracted by the gusty winds of life and feel disconnected.

What will you choose?