Powerless.

In order for us to get to a place where we can genuinely love people, there is something we need to do first. That is to accept God’s love for us. We learnt last week just how deep and genuine and heartfelt God’s love is for us.

1 John 4:16 says, “We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.”

Ok, that sounds amazing. But, umm… how do we live in God’s love and in God? How do we practically do this? This is where one of my favourite passages of scripture comes in. I love John 15. I feel like the basics for our Christian walk are summarised in that chapter. My pastors Glenn and Esther Nurse taught on John 15 last year in our “Abide” series. That means, some of the things I will be sharing with you in the next few weeks are from that series. It is so good but I can’t share it all. It will end up being a year-long blog series because I am way too wordy to summarise haha! So, what I do suggest is that when you have time, go have a listen on the Maximize Church website or podcast, it will be worth it!

So, let’s get into it. John 15:5 says, “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches. As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless.” Another translation says, “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.”

What is abiding? In the Greek language it is the word, “meno”. It means to remain, abide, to continue to be present, to be held, to be kept continually, to remain as one, not to become another or different. Wow! Talk about a word that is loaded with meaning. See abiding is not something you can do with someone you do not love. It is not something you can do with someone you do not care for. Abiding is intentional much like loving someone is intentional.

The only way to live in God and in His love is to abide in Him, to remain in Him and to continue to be present with Him. Do you know you can be in a room with someone who is not in the room with you? They are physically there but mentally or emotionally they have checked out. As born-again Christians, we are spiritually joined to God. However, abiding is not co-existence, it is being fully present with God and fully open and receptive to God.

The imagery that Jesus gives us in John 15 is of two things that cannot or should not be separated; a vine and its branches. You separate the branches from the vine, the branches die. The vine will still survive but it will be fruitless without its branches. How amazing is that? That God has chosen that the only way He produces fruit is through us. He can do it without us but instead He chooses to partner with us. We too can make a choice to partner with God. To abide in Jesus and determine in our hearts that we don’t want to do anything outside of the vine. Because here’s a spiritual fact; we need the vine.

Jesus tells us in John 15:5, when we are separated from Him, we are powerless. Have you ever seen a branch that has been cut off from a tree and its laying on the ground? It is powerless. Although it may not immediately die the moment it is cut off, it is but a facet of time for it will surely die.

Does that sound familiar? Reminds me of Genesis 2:17 when God commanded man to not eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would surely die. Sin separated us from God in the garden. When we are separated from God, the result is always death. It does not mean you die immediately. Adam and Eve did not drop dead in the garden, but their spirit man died. They became powerless against the devil. It took Jesus dying on the cross for our sins for us to be restored to a place where we can choose to have a relationship with God and it took His resurrection for us to be empowered to put the enemy under our feet.  

There are a lot of Christians who are powerless against the enemy. Could it be because they are not abiding in Jesus? Perhaps they are not connected to the Vine? I have been there, where I was saved but my life looked nothing like it. I believed in Jesus but was powerless against the devil and I was oppressed and was being tormented in every way. That is not how God intends for His children to live. But we get to choose the level of relationship we want with God. Being saved is a very important and necessary first step. Abiding in Jesus is the goal.

God wants us to abide in Him, to have a relationship of dependency on Him as our source for everything we need in life. When we put God on the throne of our hearts and we put our need to do things on our own and control everything on the alter, we can truly begin to abide and walk in close relationship in Jesus. In that place where we know just how deeply we are loved and cared for.

All we have to do is to abide in Jesus. Remain in Jesus. In every season and in every circumstance, remain connected to Jesus.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.