I Am the Vine, You Are the Branches!

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (1)

It is through the branches that the vine bears fruit.

God and Christ Jesus do their works through willing human instruments who allow the Holy Spirit to do its work through them.

Jesus frequently referred to the Father and spoke of His relationship and connection with the Father. "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. (2)

"As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." (3) "The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me." (4) "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." (5)

Jesus desires and offers to us the same type of relationship and connection that He has with His Father. In Christ's prayer to His Father after His last dinner with His disciples, He prayed, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word (that includes you and me); that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me." (6)

We have total freedom to either accept or reject that relationship with Jesus and with the Father of all creation. There is a commitment on our part if we choose to accept that relationship with Jesus and the Father. Here is what Jesus said, "If you love me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you… He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him… If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." (7)

What a promise! Do we choose to be connected with the Vine or remain separate from it? The life of the fruit and the branch comes from the vine. "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (8)

1. John 15:5.
2. John 5:19-21.
3. John 6:57.
4. John 10:25.
5. John 10:37, 38.
6. John 17; 20-23.
7. John 14:15-18, 21, 23.
8. John 15:7, 8.