Picture a vineyard.  A healthy vineyard has rows and rows of beautiful, brown grape vines with lush green branches and leaves. There are no weeds and the soil is rich with nutrients.  The vine is the part of the plant that gives life and nourishment to the branches.  It supplies the branches with all they need to grow and produce fruit.  A vinedresser, the one who takes care of the vineyard, consistently cares for the vine and the branches.  This work takes a lot of knowledge.  He makes sure that the soil, climate, and nutrients are all right.  If any branch is harming the growth of the plant, it is pruned or cut off.  When everything is right, a good crop of grapes will be produced.

We can compare our spiritual life to a vineyard. We are in God’s vineyard. God the Father is the Vinedresser. The Vine is the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are the branches. God the Father is looking over the vineyard, working with the Vine and the branches. In His omniscience and omnipotence He designed a spiritual growth plan for the Vine and the branches. It is called the pre-designed plan of God. God makes sure that we have the right “soil, climate, and nutrients” for our spiritual growth.

John 15:1 “I [Jesus Christ] am the true Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.”

Jesus tested the soil, climate, and nutrients, or the pre-designed plan of God, during His life on Earth. The pre-designed plan is: the filling of the Holy Spirit; learning, believing, and using Bible doctrine; and using the problem solving devices or living in the pre-designed plan. Jesus didn’t need to rebound or to be occupied with Christ, since He is sinless and He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He had more tests and problems than we will ever have! Jesus lived in the plan of God. The plan worked. Jesus made it through the difficult times and produced divine good or the fruit of the Holy Spirit to the max!

Hebrews 12:13 For consider Him Who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

What is the fruit of the Holy Spirit?       Well, it isn’t some exotic fruit like papaya, or some common fruit like apples. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control….” It is something that God the Holy Spirit produces or makes happen in the life of the believer who is following the pre-designed plan of God.*       *Pre-designed plan of God: the filling of the Holy Spirit; learning, believing, and using Bible doctrine; and using the problem solving devices.

For this to happen, we have to keep learning about God through the filling of the Holy Spirit and live in God’s plan for our lives. We have to abide (stay) in the Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the Holy Spirit can change us. He will be able to produce divine good or the fruit of the Spirit in us. We will grow spiritually from baby believers to adult believers. We will branch out! The Holy Spirit will make sure of that!

John 15:4 “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No Branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”

Through the Vine we get all our power. The life that is complete in the Vine is supplied to us, the growing branches. We get all that we need to grow in the spiritual life from using the same plan of God that Jesus, in his humanity, used: the filling of the Holy Spirit; learning, believing, and using Bible doctrine; and using the problem solving devices. What an awesome form of energy! The Vine gives life to the branches.

John 15:5 “I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me [fellowship with God], and I in him [through doctrine in the soul], he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

We are commanded by God to abide (stay) in the Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to stay in that place of being filled with the Holy Spirit, learning, believing, and applying God’s word. So, when we sin and lose the filling of the Holy Spirit, we need to rebound quickly to regain the filling of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ abides (stays) in us by our thinking of Bible doctrine.       Remember, Bible doctrine is the thinking of Jesus Christ. Great thoughts to guide us! So, we need the filling of the Holy Spirit to obey God’s command to abide in Christ and to have Christ abide in us. Wowa!! What a comfortable abode* we have !!! *Abode means a place to stay.

John 15: 3-4 “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”

It is our choice to stay in the Vine or not. If we choose not to stay in the Vine by sinning, we cut off our spiritual life line. We don’t lose our salvation but we do lose our spiritual health. We become sick and weak branches. If we don’t get healthy, rebounding and therefore being filled with the Holy Spirit, God will discipline us. He wants us to be strong and healthy!

John 15:2 “Every branch [believer] in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away [disciplines]….”

When we are filled with the Holy Spirit and producing fruit, God will prune us. This means that He will give us suffering for blessing so that we can grow spiritually. If everything always goes well, we won’t grow up! God loves us with an infinite love; that’s a lot of love. He wants us to be a branch full of life with lots of fruit. What a life!

John 15:2 …and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it [suffering for blessing], that it may bear more fruit.

No fruit (or production) can be any better than the vine that produces it. We have the best Vine! We can produce the best fruit. Because of positional sanctification (our union with Christ) and the grace provision of the filling of the Holy Spirit, it is possible for us believers to produce divine good. We can do what the Lord Jesus Christ did! We can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit! GOD GIVES us the POWER and then HE GIVES us the FRUIT! Now how awesome is that?

John 15:5 “I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Let’s enjoy God’s beautiful vineyard with God the Father as the Vinedresser, the Lord Jesus Christ as our Vine, we as His branches, and the Holy Spirit producing fruit in our lives. We have the BEST ABODE ever so let’s abide (stay) in it!

John 15:8 “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My indoctrinated ones [students].”

References used:           Robert R.McLaughlin Bible Ministries   www.gbible.org           Tree of Life 7-3-05, 7-17-05           Lessons: 6-29-05, 7-29-05

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