Several years ago, a missionary and his wife
went to Ecuador.
He was in the prime of his life,
and he had just finished schooling.
He was an aspiring young scholar.
Everyone said, you're going to be such a
great man of God on the mission field.
And they went to Ecuador.
They'd been there about two weeks, and after
about two weeks, V.R. Edmund was stricken
with a fatal disease.
No one had ever recovered from this, the
natives said, and as they watched him die,
his wife was coming upon a situation of
mourning, and she took her only dress, besides
her wedding dress, and dyed it black with
some berries.
And as V.R. Edmund lost pound after
pound after pound, the natives put him in
a hut.
In fact, they had dug his grave.
One night, just as the death rattle was
in his throat, suddenly he remembers he was
laying there, and it's like the Spirit of
God came upon him, and he was instantly
revived.
And he got up, and he took a
shower, and he put on his clothes, and
he went out and began to work.
The next morning, there was no small stir
in the community with a man whose grave
had been dug, and you can imagine.
And V.R. Edmund told of how God
had raised him from the point of death.
Several years later, he was back in the
States at a missionary convention, and he was
telling about this wonderful time that God had
come upon his life and raised him from
the point of certain death.
And after the meeting, as he had told
about this miracle, you know the type of
person I'm talking about, a little bent-over,
squatty, white-haired lady with a little tattered
notebook walked up to the front and kind
of tugged on his coat, and he turned
around.
Yes, ma'am.
She says, uh, Dr. Edmund, could you remember
what date that was that that happened to
you?
Could I remember what date that was?
Could you remember what date that was?
Of course I can remember what date that
was.
It was so-and-so, and he told
the date.
And she says, uh-huh.
And she was going through her little prayer
book like this, and she said, could you
tell me what time that would be there
when, uh, the middle of the night when
you were raised from this sick bed, about
what time it would be here?
Let's see.
There's about this many hours difference.
Let's see.
It would be about, and the little lady's
finger was going down the page, and he
says, about, I forget what time he said,
but she went, huh, and she looked at
it.
She says, yes, here it is.
Look.
And she said, I was laying in my
bed asleep, and the Lord woke me up
and said, get down to pray.
The devil is trying to kill V.R.
Edmund.
You see that check right there to the
side?
That means victory.
I'll tell you something.
That woman saved his life because she could
hear God, and she slipped out of her
bed, and she prayed until the answer came.
What kind of life does it take to
have a life like that?
Well, it's not a special life.
It's available to you.
It's available to me, and that little unnamed
saint has probably, I would say, half of
his reward.
V.R. Edmund went a thousand souls to
the Lord almost a year, for years and
years, and that little lady is up there
getting a share in every one because she
prayed for him.
She was faithful.
I want us to pray as we're returning
to John 15 in a moment to go
from there.
Let's pray together.
Father tonight, O tonight, speak to our hearts
and draw us to that well of living
waters, the well of the oath that springs
up from the smitten rock, our Lord Jesus.
That rock is He.
Lord, cause us to drink deep from that
smitten rock, and may we realize that whosoever
will may come and may pour out our
hearts before You.
May we realize that there are no such
things tonight as special people in Your sight.
We're all equal, and You're no respecter of
persons.
Draw us to a life of prayer.
We pray these things that Your name will
be exalted, and we just stand against the
devil in Jesus' name.
Against all who hear these words, we stand
against the devil, that the word of God
will come forth in convicting and constraining power,
and we pray for Your glory, Lord Jesus,
and in Your name.
Amen.
John chapter 15, verse 1.
I am the vine, I am the true
vine, and my father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit
he takes away, and every branch that beareth
fruit he purges it, that it may bring
forth more fruit.
Now you are clean through the word which
I've spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
except it abide in the vine, no more
can ye except you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same brings forth much fruit, for
without me you can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he's
cast forth as a branch, and is withered,
and men gather them and cast them into
the fire, and they're burned.
If you abide in me, and my rhemas,
my words abide in you, you shall ask
what you will, and it shall be done
unto you.
Let me ask you a few questions tonight
as we begin.
Do you believe that God answers prayer?
Do you?
Okay.
On a ten to one scale, with ten
being the highest, then where would you put
prayer as a priority in a Christian's life?
Somewhere between one and ten, where would you
put it?
Would it be two?
Would it be ten?
Would it be nine?
Just think in your own heart where you'd
put it.
If you believe God answers prayer, and on
a one to ten basis, what priority, with
ten being the highest, do you give it?
And then thirdly, are you willing then to
make the necessary changes to make prayer that
priority?
Question.
If you believe God answers prayer, and if
prayer has a priority in your estimation, why
aren't your prayers being powerfully answered?
Tonight we want to look at that.
We want to look at a life that
can pray.
Last question.
What is it, then, that hinders you from
praying?
What is it?
Answer that question.
What is it that hinders you from praying?
You see, that last answer is where you
need to begin tonight in this lesson.
Everything that stops your prayer life, or hinders
your prayer, is your enemy.
You need to change it.
You need to adjust it.
Now, I'm not talking about family members, and
I'm talking about a relationship you may have
is out of kilter.
You need to change it, because everything that
keeps you from praying is less than God's
perfect will.
The enemy is going to fight you every
step of the way.
He's going to put the press of duty
on you.
He's going to put the force of habit
on you.
He's going to dig in his heels and
resist you.
He's going to raise up a hundred objections
and distraction of business, because, you see, he
knows, like we said, that one hour of
close fellowship in prayer with him can undo
years of his work in your life.
The enemy doesn't want you to pray.
He doesn't mind you even going to Bible
studies if you're not praying.
He doesn't mind it at all, as a
matter of fact, because knowledge puffs up.
But when you pray and have knowledge, it'll
break you down, because God will give revelation,
and he'll take that information and turn it
into transformation.
That'll become revelation in your life.
You see, prayer is the acid test of
devotion to the Lord.
You know, there's no use telling anyone, and
really have it be so, that you're filled
with the Holy Spirit if you're not praying.
I don't care if you can lay your
hands on the stick and see things happen.
It doesn't matter what you can see externally.
If you claim to be filled with the
Holy Spirit, then that Spirit of God is
a praying spirit.
He is a holy praying spirit, and if
you are filled with him, you will have
a life of prayer.
He who does not pray is practically denying
the Lord who bought him in reality and
truth.
You see, he is a spirit of prayer.
The prayer life is like the pulse for
the body.
If you want to see my condition tonight,
you come up and you feel my pulse.
My pulse may be 110.
That means I'm in bad shape.
If it's down about 58 or 60, you
could tell I'm a runner.
But you see, your pulse reveals your heart
physically.
May I say that the prayer life is
the same thing about your spiritual heart?
When you have an ailment, or if I
came to feel your pulse and it was
low, I wouldn't try to correct your pulse.
I would prescribe things that would change your
heart.
Get some exercise.
Go out and do some things that will
build up your heart, and then your pulse
will take care of itself.
If your prayer life is weak, we make
the mistake of trying to correct the prayer
life so often with new resolutions and all
the rest.
But you see, your prayer life is an
indicator of your heart.
Give attention to your heart.
It's your heart that needs the therapy tonight.
You see, there are four facts that I
want to point out.
First, heaven is as full of blessings as
ever.
That's one point we're going to make tonight.
Heaven has never been depleted.
It is as full of blessings as ever.
Second point, God has not changed ever.
He's the same.
Thirdly, our lives are just as dependent and
require as much of the input of God
as any living person ever in the history
of the world.
There are no changes made there.
And then, fourthly, prayer is still God's appointed
way to receive that heavenly storehouse of his
blessings.
So if heaven is as full as ever
of God's blessings, and if God has not
changed, and if our lives are dependent upon
him as much as anyone's ever have been,
and prayer is his prescribed way of receiving
blessings, then we need to know about prayer.
In John chapter 15 that we just read,
our Lord is setting forth the conditions to
his disciples for fruitfulness.
And he talks about prayer and fruitfulness.
He's developing the subject.
And in chapter 15, verse 7, there is
a tremendous promise.
It says these words.
It's almost incredible, but if he hadn't have
said it, we wouldn't probably have believed it.
He said, if you remain or abide in
me and my words abide in you, you
shall ask whatever you will.
It literally says you shall demand as you're
due.
And it will be done unto you.
It's a promise based on a twofold condition.
Twofold condition.
You see, we learn from this that to
have an effective life of prayer, to be
able to come and ask whatever we wish,
there are two conditions that need to be
filled out before God by his power, not
apart from him, but by him.
There are two conditions that are necessary to
have a life that can pray.
You see, we learn that our lives as
Christians pray.
Your life is a prayer to God.
What you allow him to do with your
life.
You see, the stream of your prayer cannot
rise higher than the fountain of your life.
The stream of your prayer can't rise higher
than the fountain of your life.
It's your source.
You see, our lives pray.
And our lives are not what others think
we are.
That's reputation.
Our lives are not what we think we
are.
That may be delusion.
Our lives are what God knows we are.
Before him, when we get before him and
he begins to search us and know us,
and we begin to see ourselves as we
are.
May I ask you a question?
If God were to take a zipper that
you had in the invisible and just undo
you and turn you wrong side out, would
you be in rags tonight?
Would you?
Would you take out your heart and hold
it up for all in this room to
see?
Because you see, that is your life.
One cannot divorce our prayer life from our
personal life.
It is a foundation for prayer.
Many people think they can allow indulgences of
habitual things in their life or rebellion or
bad attitudes to remain or unbelief to remain
in your hearts and then come to God
in prayer when hard times come and expect
him to get you off the hook.
You know, he's a merciful God and he
answers desperate prayer.
But that kind of praying is not what
he's after.
That's just emergency bailout kind of prayer.
And then these people seem to wonder why
there appears to be no answer to their
prayers when they come to God in the
clutch, when they've neglected him all along.
There's no miracles happening.
There's none of the rest.
And he says, listen, there's a life that
can pray.
You see, a man can be very pious
without being right with God.
There's a lot of man to man activities
that we can carry on.
We can teach.
That's man to man activity.
We can testify.
We can come to Bible studies.
We can pray in public.
That's a man to man activity.
We can be a deacon.
We can go witnessing because it's just man
to man.
But may I say that prayer is man
to God.
And suddenly when we come into that eternal
light that no flesh can glory in, that
it is the revealer of all things as
they are, then suddenly we realize that the
prayer closet is different because it's a God
to man encounter.
And that place is an awesome place.
It's either the best place in the world
or the worst place in the world, your
prayer closet, one or the other.
When I was in Florida down there for
a summer, we had some teenagers and we'd
send them out to be alone with God.
Each week a new batch would come in.
They'd come in like a bunch of wild
Broncos.
And about the middle of the week, God
would get a hold of them.
We'd send them out alone.
One of them came back.
I'll never forget it.
One of the big laughing, happy go lucky
people that never, ever got serious about anything
publicly.
They may privately, but they never did let
anyone see their serious side.
They went out to be alone with God.
And they came back about 10 minutes later
and they went, Ooh, that's scary.
I don't like to be alone like that
with God.
Let me tell you something.
That's the truth about human nature.
Because you see, as you're alone with God,
you begin to realize who you are.
Robert Murray McShane said, what a man is
on his knees before God.
That is what he is.
Not a thing more.
What you are in your closet, alone with
God, when just you and he are there
together, that is what you are.
That's what's building in your life.
You see, man sees things differently than God.
He looks on the outer.
God looks on the heart and we don't
even know our own heart.
When God opens up his, whose, who, and
his book of remembrance, they're going to be
a lot of surprises in that day.
And many that appear to be first are
going to be last.
And many of those unnamed, unnoticed David Brainards
and others are going to be on a
big throne along with him that are so
great that they'll have to have strengthened necks
to hold their crowns.
We can't pray or write unless our life
is right in harmony with God.
We've got to have harmony with our lives.
Now I want to just give you some
proof of this before we get into our
text.
We're going to look at a few things,
very briefly.
I want to give you first the scripture
of Matthew chapter five, verse 23, Matthew chapter
five, verse 23.
You see, it says there's got to be
a life that can pray.
Matthew five, 23 puts it like this.
It's talking about your heart.
When you bring, therefore, if you bring your
gift to the altar and there you remember
that your brother has something against you, leave
there your gift before the altar, go your
way and get your priorities in order.
First be reconciled to your brother and then
come and offer your gift.
You see, he's saying there that the giver
must first be accepted.
The giver must be first accepted before God,
before the gift can be accepted.
I'll never forget the time that this man
who I was going out to share the
gospel with, he had been resisting the Lord.
The conviction was quite hot.
He slipped a $20 bill in my hand
and says, Al, put this in the offering
for me would you?
He turned the Lord away but wanted to
give his token a little $20, you know,
token $20?
And the Lord just seemed to whisper to
my heart and I said, you put it
in yourself.
And I left.
Now, that may be hard to you, but
see, the Lord wanted the giver before he
would take the gift.
And that's a principle in the kingdom of
God.
If you know that there's wrong relationships, don't
come and try to offer your gift to
the Lord.
Now, in James chapter 5 verse 16, I'll
just quote it to you, the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Of a righteous man availeth much.
It's not an unrighteous man that can pray,
it's a righteous man that can pray.
Another scripture, Psalm 66 verse 18, says this,
if I regard iniquity in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me.
If I look on with toleration, is what
it means, to look on with favor, to
allow it to stay.
If I see iniquity, that means crookedness.
If I see iniquity in my heart and
don't turn away and don't allow God to
change it and I try to pray, then
God will not hear me.
You know, all the world is praying, all
the world, but God only hears one kind
of prayer.
It's the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man.
There's only one kind of righteousness and there's
only one that doesn't have iniquity.
Proverbs chapter 28 verse 9 says, he that
turneth his ear away from the hearing of
the law, he that turns his ear away
from the hearing of God's law, even his
prayer will be an abomination to God.
That means if you think you can sidestep
God on an issue when he's told you
clearly and then come back and try to
pray that you are just deceiving yourself, that
you are mocking God.
He's saying that he that turns his ear
away from what God says and then tries
to pray, that's what makes God sick.
That's what he's saying.
You see, we can try to use prayer
for our own means and it's a deception
to our own heart.
We're just being used by the enemy.
You can't use God.
Now, back then in John chapter 15, we're
coming and we're going to see very simply
that there's a life that can pray.
A life that can ask anything of God
and God will do it.
And the two conditions are these.
Number one, abide in me.
That's the first condition.
Secondly, and my words, my words abide in
you.
Two conditions, but I want to take those
two conditions and look at them rather carefully
and discussing each one with sub points under
each.
First of all, what does it mean to
abide in the Lord?
If you abide in me, he says, well,
our Lord has been talking about the true
vine.
He's been using a figure, our vine and
the branches.
He's been talking about a grape arbor and
he's been saying, I am the true vine
and you are the branches.
And he uses a parallel like those branches
abiding within that vine and actually being a
part of that vine.
You see first, there are three then aspects
of abiding using the figure of the branch
in the vine as a means of teaching
us.
He's trying to get us an idea.
He's saying, I'm a true vine.
My father is the husbandman.
And he's saying, look, it's the same relationship
that a vine has to branches.
That's what you have to have towards me.
Well, what has it got to teach us?
Well, there's three things that we need to
see characteristically about the branches in relationship to
the vine.
First of all, we see that the branch
is totally abandoned to the vine.
So the first condition of abiding in me
is abandonment, abandonment to the purpose
of God.
That's what the branch is.
You see, what is the purpose of a
vine?
To bring forth grapes.
Isn't that right?
To bring forth grapes, you see, and it
brings forth those grapes and those branches exist
for one reason on that vine, that's to
bear the fruit that the vine produces.
You see, we don't produce our fruit, we
bear it.
We bear fruit, the vine produces it.
And that's the same exact relationship.
First is abandonment to the purpose of God.
What is his purpose?
The Lord Jesus.
He came to seek and to save.
He came to bear fruit to the Father.
He says that I have this desire that
you should bring forth fruit and that your
fruit should remain.
You see, it's clear from the context of
this passage that Jesus means this, that we
must be abandoned to the purpose of God.
The vine is of no use at all.
The branches are of no use at all
except for the purpose of fruit.
You can't use them, the Bible says, to
burn under the altar because the fire would
distort everything.
It can't be used for sacrifice.
You can't use it to make furniture.
It's too crooked to make a steak out
of.
The only thing that the wood of the
vine is used for is to produce fruit,
and that is the purpose that we are
to be here on this earth.
This is the only justification for existence for
these vines, to bring forth fruit.
And so outside of bearing fruit for Christ,
you have no reason to stay on the
earth, not one.
He might as well have drowned you when
he baptized you, if he had any other
reason.
You have a reason to bring forth fruit
into him.
That's why he left you here.
He could have fellowship with you in heaven.
But he left you here that you might
be a branch out of the vine and
bring forth Jesus' fruit.
You see, fruitfulness is a proof of union.
Fruitfulness is a proof of union.
In fact, in verse 2, it says, every
branch in me that does not bear fruit,
he takes away.
Every branch that bears fruit, he purges it,
that it may bring forth more fruit.
And then it says, in verse 6, it
says, if a man does not abide in
me, he's cast forth as a branch.
He's withered, and men gather them and cast
them into the fire, and they're burned.
No fruit proves this.
You're not abiding in the vine.
You see, normally on a vine, all the
branches look alike.
But in some cases, there's a big difference,
and I want to just describe two kinds
of branches to you on a vine.
There's two kinds of branches.
You have a vine here.
You have a branch coming off with a
lot of leaves, so much foliage, lots and
lots of little green leaves, and you can
just look at it, and it's so beautiful
to look at.
But you know something?
Heavily leafy branches often don't produce much fruit.
You look at all the leaves.
You know, Adam and Eve wore leaves too.
They had no fruit.
But these leaves were devoid.
These leaves are devoid of fruit.
And you know something about these branches?
They're only connected.
If you were to go up to this
branch and to try to take this branch
off, you see, you'd find that the difference
between this vine branch and then another branch
that's kind of thin but has great big
old fruits on it, big old fruit, however,
whatever you want to say, singular, it's embedded
deeply into the vine.
It's linked right at the source, whereas the
leafy branch is only skin deep.
It's connected, that's true, but the union that
is there is only skin deep.
There's no vital flow of the inner issues
of the life of the vine into that
branch, and you can just jerk it off
the vine very, very easily.
Whereas the other that's fruitful, that branch, it's
tough, it's resilient, and it has a deep
implantation into the very heart of the vine,
and there's a deep heavy flow of the
life source of both.
One is attached by skin only, just superficial,
easy to separate, and a small flow of
sap.
You see, our Lord cursed a fig tree
that had only leaves, didn't he?
Remember?
It's the only thing he cursed on the
earth, a fig tree with leaves without fruit.
That's how a lot of people are.
They're superficially attached to the true vine, who
is Jesus, and they bring forth a lot
of leaves, but there's no fruit.
And the other, maybe not so pretty to
look at, but it's deeply embedded in his
life and brings forth his kind of fruit
in his season.
Well, what is fruit?
I mean, if fruit is a proof of
union, then what is fruit?
Well, fruit is very logical.
Fruit is the outward expression, it's the outward
expression of an inward nature.
That's what it is.
That's why Jesus said, by their fruit you'll
know them.
You can tell.
You can tell what kind of tree you're
looking at.
You see, the outward expression of an inward
nature.
When I was in Florida, we would drive
across the pike areas down there, and you'd
look out to left and right, and you'd
see these big fields, or big tree clumps,
or whatever they were, lots of rolling hills
of orchards.
And you can't, I couldn't tell what they
were by looking at them, because I'm just
not a good botanist.
I couldn't look and see, like that's an
orange tree, or that's a grapefruit tree.
You can't just tell by looking.
But I tell you what I can tell.
If I were to go in the time
that fruit was coming forth, I can tell
the difference between an orange and a grapefruit.
Can you?
You see, by their fruits, I can know
them.
I can look and I can see what
season it is, and in season I can
tell what kind of tree I'm looking at.
May I say this?
If you are vitally connected to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and not just skin-deep attached,
then you will have His life flowing through
you.
And His life flowing through you is going
to produce fruit, an expression of the vine,
an expression of the nature.
An orange tree produces oranges.
A lemon tree produces lemons.
You see, like the trunk of a tree,
so is produced out on the branches.
And if you are vitally connected, totally abandoned
to the purpose of God, then His life
will be coming up through you in such
a fashion that Jesus' fruit will be coming
out of your life.
Now, it may not be big fruit, maybe
little tiny hard grapes, but they'll be recognizable.
They'll be there, they'll be Him, and you
can tell who they are.
May I ask you this tonight?
Are the fruit of the Spirit in your
life?
Are they?
Are you totally abandoned to the purpose of
God?
Is that your reason for being on earth?
Or is God a stepping stone to your
own happiness?
You see, I just today thought of this.
I think it's such an adequate description.
He says, apart from me, you can do
nothing.
And we describe life on your own, trying
to run your own life is like trying
to go in there to supper tonight and
grab a big handful of wet spaghetti and
hold it in your hand.
And the tighter you hold on to it,
the more loose ends squeeze out.
That's how it is, try to run your
own life.
The tighter you grab, the more loose ends
you get.
Try to hold a wet handful of spaghetti
sometime and squeeze it.
That's what it's like when you try to
run your own life.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
You must be abandoned to the purpose of
God.
That's what it means to abide in Him.
That's part of it.
To be abandoned to the purpose of God.
But the second aspect of abiding that I
want to talk about tonight is not a
total abandonment to the purpose of God, but
now total attachment.
Total attachment to the person of God.
And that's Jesus Christ in this illustration, this
particular truth.
And let's just say that is a adoration
relationship.
This means a total exchange, a total exchange,
not just Him patching up my life.
Jesus Christ does not want to change your
old life.
He wants to get rid of it.
If any man is in Christ, old things
are passed away.
All things become new.
It makes you totally new.
And He wants to totally exchange your life
for His.
You see, the branch must be open to
the inflowing Spirit and the Spirit coming into
our life.
There's no restriction.
There's no knot in the branch.
It's an openness that's there to His life
coming in.
And this means, if this is true, total
adoration, total attachment to the person of Jesus,
that means that there'll be effortless fruit.
The fruit we were talking about in abandon
to the purpose of God will come forth.
You won't have to try.
Have you ever seen an apple tree out
in the field?
And they're just grunting and groaning.
And, oh, one more.
There it is.
And, oh, that's a nice one.
Come on, Joe.
And apples out the arm.
You've never seen that.
And you never, ever will, because you see,
it's effortless fruit.
Appetite.
When you're totally appropriating His life and looking
to Him, may I say this, that the
branch's concentration is not upon the fruit.
It's upon the vine.
That's when fruitfulness comes.
If the branch concentrates upon the fruit, it'll
become withering and die.
But if it's totally attached to the person
of the vine, then that life comes forth.
You need to be occupied with Christ, not
how much fruit is coming out of your
life.
Just adore Him.
Just love Him.
Get before Him and give yourself to Him.
What is your appetite for today?
Is it for Him?
There is none upon earth I desire but
Thee.
You see, it shouldn't be just results that
you're after, but that Jesus Christ Himself be
your goal, that you might know Him, to
be plugged into Him so vitally, to love
Him in such a way.
You see, love that's pure is passionate.
There'll be a zeal in your life.
Love that's pure will be deep, and it'll
be clean, and it'll be enduring.
That's how love is described.
You see, and service, which is fruit in
one sense, is just a by-product.
It's not the goal.
It's just the overflow of a relationship to
the vine and the branches.
Remember when Simon Peter was standing before the
Lord in the last chapter of John, and
they were talking about service in the future.
Jesus was reconciling Peter with Himself.
Peter had denied Him three times, and the
Lord says, Simon, do you love Me?
Three times.
And Simon says, yes, he kind of stammers,
and he kind of backs up, and the
Lord says, shepherd My sheep.
Feed My lambs, shepherd the lambs.
He says those three things to Simon Peter.
And you know, it's the funniest thing about
it all, talking about fruit bearing, talking about
service, people say, I just don't love My
neighbor like I should.
I just don't love that person like I
should.
That may be a factor to you, but
may I say that Simon Peter, the Lord
never said, Peter, do you love sheep?
He said, Peter, do you love Me?
Do you love Me?
Are you totally attached to the person of
God?
Because if you're totally attached to the person
of God, that will cause you to bring
forth the fruit that that relationship will normally
result in.
We always think we have to work up
things in ourselves, but you know, it says
that we work out what God works in.
It is God who worketh in you to
will and do His own good pleasure.
But then it says, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling.
You see, God works it into us.
We work it out as we trust His
life that He's put inside.
Isaiah 40, 31 says, they that wait upon
the Lord shall renew their strength.
And the word renew means exchange.
What a great deal.
We don't have any strength.
He has it all.
And they that wait upon Him shall exchange
their strength and they shall mount up with
wings as eagle.
An old eagle just sits there on the
crag of a pinnacle and just waits until
the wind blows.
And then it just goes and it just
rises up like this because effortless, just on
the breath of the Lord.
And they that wait upon the Lord, He'll
be putting into you all that He requires
out of you.
So first of all, going back, are you
totally abandoned to the purpose of God?
Is that your purpose for being here?
Secondly, are you totally attached to the person
of God?
And then a third aspect of abiding, the
first part of our message, a third aspect
is our total availability, total availability to the
plan of God.
That means that for your life today, that
you're saying, Lord, I am yours wherever, whenever,
however, and with whoever.
And you know something?
When you finally get to that point, you
have to have a funeral to get to
that point.
You have to have a funeral.
But when you do, there is such rest
that comes.
Oh, it's such peace and such joy.
You see, many people, though, cannot sleep even
at night because they're trying subconsciously to work
their way to heaven or try to make
up for some guilt that's coming on their
heart, you see.
But that's not necessary because the blood of
Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin.
May I say this just on the side?
Jesus Christ is more concerned with winning all
there is of you than you winning all
there is of the world.
Because otherwise, you'll just spread disease.
He wants to get that place back there.
A lot of people who let Christian service
be that conscious salve that covers over guilt
because they've never really surrendered.
I need to do more for God.
But they've never given that last room, that
last place to him.
And they can't be used of him.
God won't use them because they're unclean in
his sight.
Total availability to the plan of God.
No man can conquer until he's been totally
conquered.
You know, we should pray, God, make me
usable instead of God use me.
Because may I say, when he finds someone
usable, he will wear you out.
You will pray, oh Lord, may I have
a rest.
You will have to pray, Lord, would you
please use me?
But see, we sit back and feel guilty
because we're hoarding our own life and say,
Lord, would you use me?
I'd love to, my child, give me that.
No, Lord, please just use me.
That's the way we do.
And we can't pray because we're not totally
available to the plan of God.
Life is not my responsibility.
Life is rather my response to his ability.
That's what it means.
Responding to the ability and the plan of
God.
I want you to imagine a conversation with
my guitar as I'm walking into my study
and I'm going into my books and I'm
sitting down and I hear this over in
my closet and I walk over and I
open it up and it's lo and behold,
it's coming from inside of my guitar case.
It sounds like crying.
Oh no.
And I open up my guitar case and
I say, guitar, what are you doing in
there?
And it's going, oh, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I haven't played any tunes for you today.
Well, guitar, I mean, that's okay.
I didn't really expect you to play any
tunes apart from me.
You can do nothing.
No, but you don't understand.
I wanted to play some songs for you
because, oh, I just love it when you
put your hands on my neck and all
these things.
And it goes on and on and on.
And finally I say, gee, guitar, you are
pretty dumb.
Because you see, all that's required of you
as a guitar, you don't have to work
up music by yourself.
All you have to do is yield to
me.
You aren't expected to make music or bring
forth those fruitful notes apart from me.
Only when I come and put my hands
on you and say, now's the time, is
it your responsibility to bring forth music.
Before then, just be still and know that
you're my guitar.
I mean, that may be absolutely crazy.
It may be crazy.
But may I say tonight that you're only
responsible for what God initiates in your life.
You can rest.
Listen, he's not wanting you to go out
and jump through celestial Frisbee hoops or whatever
to prove your love for him.
He wants you to be still and know
that I'm God.
Most of us are like a little puppy
dog running down the street with a tin
can tied to his tail, yipping, and he's
running from the noise he's making.
If you just stop, be still and know
that I'm God.
Get along with him and you will discover
that the noise will cease and the strife
and the turmoil will disappear and you can
just be available to what God initiates.
And so that's what it means to abide
in him, at least part of it.
It means abandonment to the purpose of God,
fruit bearing.
It means attachment to the person of Christ
or God, which is adoration and availability to
the plan of God.
And that's just surrender.
Those three things are to abide in him.
But he goes on.
If you abide in me and my words
abide in you, there's at least two aspects
I want to talk about for this.
My words abide in you.
We're talking about a life that is able
to claim the promise of whatever you ask
I will do.
My words abide in you.
That doesn't mean in your notebook.
It means in you, in you.
So abide in this case means to tarry
or to remain or more accurately even to
feel at home.
Did his words feel at home in you?
That's what it means.
It's very, very simply then, first of all,
the first aspect of his words abiding in
us means his words must control us.
His words must control us.
May I say that if you would have
God in your closet, he must have you
in public.
If you would have God in your closet,
then he must have you in public as
friends.
He calls you into a heart agreement where
his words abide in you.
You see, this means very simply his words
controlling us that that I live my life
by his word and he can speak to
me.
He gives me his word and I run
my life by his word, not by common
sense.
Listen, people say what we need is a
little common sense around here.
Listen, we have enough of that, but we
need a little uncommon sense from the word
of God, something that's higher than man, that's
higher than his ways.
I'm tired of common sense.
I think the Lord would look at and
say, it's stinking.
It's like flesh to me.
All the world is seeking to walk in
common sense.
And God says, is there anyone that's willing
to walk in uncommon sense that's higher than
man?
You see, entrust your life to his word
to build upon it.
Embrace the word totally.
Billy Graham says that there was a slight
question in his mind about this book for
several years, not really in his heart, but
in his mind, because of all the questions
that have been raised about J, E, P,
D and N and Q and all these
other jokers that supposedly initiated writing in this
book.
And he questioned it.
And one day he went out in the
woods and says, Lord, I totally throw all
that question away.
And I accept this book as it is.
This is the word of God.
His ministry totally changed from that day.
From that day on, his ministry, his life
was totally, totally enhanced by the presence of
God.
And God just blessed his ministry to begin
to take off.
May I say, if you're questioning this book,
you show me a man that is questioning
this book.
And he's saying, all those things.
This shouldn't be in here.
This should be in here and all the
rest.
I know there's some real men of God
that say things like that.
But I think across the board, you can
say this, that if you don't trust this
book, I'll show you someone who will not
base his life upon it.
You will not give your life to rest
on something you don't trust.
His words to abide in you simply mean
that you've got to search this book.
You've got to eat this book.
You've got to give yourself to that book.
And then let this book judge you.
I heard about a woman that went to
the Louvre one time, the French Museum, and
she saw the Mona Lisa.
And she saw all these other paintings.
And she came out and she said, well,
I don't see what's so great about all
those pictures.
And this guard, this very stately guard was
standing there.
He never said a thing, but he kind
of looked over and says, madam, these pictures
aren't judged by people.
These pictures judge people.
And that's how it is with the word
of God.
You see, you don't pass a judgment on
this book.
This book passes a judgment on you.
I've heard people say, I have a problem
with this verse.
Oh no, this verse has a problem with
you.
That's it.
No kidding.
This is a rock.
It's immovable.
It's the rock of the ages.
This book, this word of God, you see,
and if you can think, oh, here it
is.
If you can think of anything in this
book tonight that God has showed you and
he's brought to your mind, and he's, if
there's a command in this book that you
are not obeying, you're not on praying ground.
You're not.
But if you're just trying to sidestep God,
that's what I'm getting at tonight.
If we would just be honest with him
and let his words abide in us and
we abide in him, then we would soon
find that, that even the desires of our
heart, while we, before we yet speak, he'd
be answering because he delights to give us
all those things.
You see, either prayer will consume sin in
your life or sin will consume your prayer
life.
One or the other.
Either prayer as you pray in faith to
him will consume sin in your life or
sin in your life will wean you away
from prayer.
Because sin and prayer cannot live together in
power in the human heart.
God designed it that way.
And if you are looking at this word
and there's something there you're not doing that
he said for you to do clearly, then
you're just playing.
You're not praying.
And you're straying, too.
I thought that added that.
You must live to God if you're going
to pray to God, you've got to look
at first John chapter three, first John chapter
three, and you'll see this coming out so
clearly.
Maybe this is not so much about prayer
as we thought it would be tonight, but
I'll tell you, this is the foundation of
prayer.
First John chapter three, verse 19, hereby we
know that we are of the truth and
we can assure our hearts before him.
If our heart condemns us, God is greater
than our heart.
He knows all things.
Look, if your heart condemns you, if there's
a nagging thing in your heart where you
sidestepped him, God's greater than your heart.
He knows this, but look at the next
verse.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then
we have confidence towards God and whatever we
ask, we receive of him for this reason,
because we keep his commandments and we are
doing those things that are pleasing in his
sight.
That's faith, that's the life of faith.
You see, the positive aspect is doing those
things that are pleasing in his sight.
That's his word abiding in us.
You see, scripture memory in your life increases
the vocabulary of the Holy Spirit in your
heart.
Put the word in there, thy word have
I hid in my heart, and if you
put his word in there, God's vocabulary is
increased in you.
He'll bring up a little arrow of the
word out of the quiver of your heart
and launch it from the bowstring of your
lip, right on to the mark that he
wishes for it to go, and you'll be
walking and his word will talk with you.
You see, faith is love in action, that's
what it is, and without faith you can't
please him and you can't pray if you
aren't doing those things that are pleasing.
So first of all, my words must abide
in you.
Is there an area of your life that
you know is away from this book and
you're not seeking to repent in?
If it's so, then you are not on
the kind of praying ground that you can
be.
What are you sacrificing by keeping that in
your life?
Think of that tonight.
You ask God to save your husband, you
ask God to save your daughter or your
son or your business associate, but you're playing
games, you're trifling with him in other areas,
and what you're doing is you're forfeiting their
prayer answer because of your own sin.
His words must abide in you.
But the second aspect of his words abiding
in you, first is his words must control
us.
Secondly, his word must cleanse us.
In fact, he says this in John 15,
verse 2, the word for cleanse is the
word for purge.
It's like to cleanse by water, but there's
also a figure there, the figure of pruning.
You see, he's talking about pruning on the
vine, and let me describe this to you.
Every branch, verse 2 in John 15, every
branch in me that does not bear fruit,
he takes away.
So there's one kind of branch, a branch
that bears no fruit.
He takes it away.
How does he take it away?
Well, he purges it.
He takes it away, and every branch that
bears fruit, he purges it that it may
bring forth more fruit.
Now, there's two kinds of branches, then, that
are taken away.
The first type is that have no fruit,
and he takes them away completely.
The second type is the kind that brings
forth some fruit, and he prunes it that
it may bring forth more fruit.
You see, first there's fruit, and then there's
more fruit, and then there's much fruit.
You see, this first type that brings forth
no fruit, there are several types of branches
like that, too.
There's dead wood.
A vine.
And that dead wood in that vine's existence
can create parasites.
They have to take it off.
They come along and cut it off.
It takes a lot of weight away from
the potential of the vine.
Let me ask you this.
What kind of things in your life are
they that are dead?
There's no life at all in them, and
they don't produce any fruit.
They're just hanging there.
They're things that may look like they're just
attached to you, but there's absolutely nothing to
do with the purpose of God, the person
of God, or the plan of God.
They are just non-fruit-bearing things in
your life that are encumbrances that God says
to cast aside.
He wants to remove that.
He wants to take it away out of
your life and existence.
Dead wood.
What is it in your life?
Is it a relationship?
Dead wood?
Is it a habit that you have?
Is it a place that you go or
something that you love?
You see, also, there's in this same kind
of no-fruit-producing branch, there's just foliage.
Not only dead wood, but there are other
non-fruit-producing branches that just produce the
foliage.
They're the skin-deep ones I was telling
you about.
And do you know that it takes a
lot of sap to produce leaves?
And it's like in our life, you see.
There's a lot of energy that's required to
produce all the outward form and all the
beauty that we think is so beautiful so
much of the time.
You see, the husband will come along and
clip off that big leafy, leafy branch so
that all that juice, all that life that's
been going out into that will be sidetracked
and cut off and sent off into a
branch that'll do the will of a vine.
You see what I'm talking about?
That he looks at our life and he
sees all these things like idols in our
life.
He sees hobbies in our life that aren't
necessarily producing any fruit.
And he sees activities in our life that
keep my vital energies away from the Master's
hand.
Things that may be very lovely to look
at and seem very good, but they hinder
that perfect will of God, and that's fruit.
And God says He wants to take it
away out of your life.
Tonight, He does.
And obviously, when you put a knife to
something that's living, living tissue, it hurts to
cut it away.
But oh, we go even further than that,
because you see, it's not just the non
-fruit bearing parts that are pruned and taken
away, but then there are those who bear
fruit and He purges it for a reason.
Why does He do it?
What does it say?
More.
He wants more.
He wants more fruit in my life and
in your life.
Now, if you've ever been to an orchard
and seen a tree being pruned, if you
are inexperienced, you will think it's the cruelest
thing you've ever seen.
I asked a man once, how far do
you prune a big tree, a big mushy
tree?
He says, we usually prune it until a
bird can fly through it without hitting anything.
That's a lot.
That is an awful lot.
You see, you'll go to an apple orchard
and you'll see branches all over the ground
and fruit on those branches all over the
ground, and all the leaves and all the
beauty will seem to be cut away.
And you'll see that knobby old tree, stripped,
just standing there with a hundred bleeding wounds.
And it'll be just oozing, and you'll say,
oh, how ghastly, how horrible.
It looks like a coat hanger, that old
tree.
And you see, you may not think it's
too pretty to look at, but I want
to say this.
The Father is the husbandman, and He knows
what He's doing.
He knows how much to cut.
He knows when to stop.
He's an expert, and He is not motivated
by beauty.
He is not motivated by sentiment.
He is not motivated by, oh, it hurts.
He is motivated.
That is His motive, and He wants one
thing, and that is that that tree will
become a fruitful tree, and not even size,
but the sort of activity that the branch
is involved in.
You see, branches that escape the knife will
get very big, and they'll be so pretty
to look at.
And you'll look at them, you'll admire them,
and you'll say, isn't it wonderful?
But there won't be any fruit.
But a fruitful branch, you can look at
it, and you see, oh, look at that
wonderful, wonderful fruit.
Isn't it lush?
Isn't it beautiful?
And as you get a little closer, and
you pull back those branches, and you look
inside, you see hundreds of scars, back in
the vital parts that nobody else can see,
until you bother to look on the inside.
Listen to this.
Wherever you ripe fields behold, waving to God
their sheaves of gold, it's a grain field,
be sure some corn of wheat has died,
some soul has there been crucified, someone has
wrestled, wept, and prayed, and fought hell's legions
undismayed.
There is no gain without a loss.
You cannot save but by a cross.
You've got to face the knife tonight.
You know what the knife is?
The knife is the Word of God.
The Word of God is living and active.
It's a sword.
It cuts down between the thoughts and the
intents of the heart, down between the soul
and the spirit.
You see, a fruitful branch is to be
examined and you will see scars.
I bear in my body the marks of
Christ Jesus, Paul could say, and he was
a fruitful branch.
Joseph is a fruitful bow.
He bore scars from pruning.
He went down, down.
He went down into the pit.
He went down into Egypt.
He went down into the dungeon.
He went down into the lowest part of
the dungeon.
How far down?
How much pruning?
Until you quit resisting the knife.
Up, up, and one day he came, a
fruitful bow.
God blessed him.
The Word of God, the pruning and purging
of persons.
You see, often these are good things that
God takes from your life.
Maybe it's golf.
Maybe it's fishing.
Listen, don't bother to say to me you
don't have time for prayer if you have
time for leisure, because God says that you
should put first things first.
Our leisure reveals our priorities.
You see, these things like golf and all
the rest, they're not bad.
Of course they're not.
I mean, it's perfectly fine.
But I'll tell you this, that if you
aren't praying, you don't have time for them.
Give all and take all.
Such a one will ask, what'll happen to
me if I do that?
Doesn't matter, because the husbandman knows.
You can demand as you do, whatever you
say, if you allow him to let his
words abide in you and you abide in
him.
You can come to the throne room.
You can run right into the throne room.
You can put your, with perfect reverence, your
head in his arms and say, Father, this
is what I want.
May I ask you one question?
What is there that is now in your
life that is worth forfeiting that promise of
prayer?
Think of it in eternal terms.
What is it in your life that is
worth forfeiting whatsoever you ask?
I will do.
Think of what that would mean to you
tonight.
Whatsoever you ask, I will do.
I mean, I can ask some biggies.
You can too.
And whatever you ask, only in the path
of abiding will we find the joyful place
of God's constantly answering prayer.
Joy will come.
It'll be the result.
Prayer is a result of your life with
God.
You can never rise higher than your life
from the place of prayer.
You can't.
You've got to let your life abide in
him and his words must abide in you.
There's a life that can ask whatever it
wishes, whatsoever things you desire when you pray,
believe you have them and you shall receive
them that's available to you tonight.
It really is.
But God wants us to get serious about
those little things he put his finger on
as we were going through our time together.
What does it mean to you?
If you abide in me and my words
abide in you, you can ask whatever you
will.
Oh, think what it means.
What what's keeping you from that tonight?
Do you really believe in prayer?
I'm making an appeal tonight to come to
the master's feet and let him prune you,
let him purge you, let him strip off
all the old dead bark and get honest
with him.
What things are keeping you from prayer?
They're your enemy.
You've got to deal with them tonight.
And I want us to pray about it
together.
I want us to be dead honest.
Let's do prayer.
Father, we ask your blessing on this time
we're going to have.
We ask your blessing that as we look
at the promises of God on one hand
and in our life on the other, that
the two will come into agreement.
There are many, Lord, who seek to pray
and not being on praying ground.
Father, by the spirit of God tonight, would
you convict us of sin?
We don't want emotions necessarily.
We want a resignation in every heart to
get before you in the power of God,
in the plan of God, for the purpose
of God, just that we might know you
and be able to pray in power.
We just thank you now for what you're
going to do.
And we don't dismiss ourselves out of your
presence, but we dismiss ourselves from this room.
For those that wish to leave, we do.
And we thank you that you're going to
do mighty things as we get on it.
And as we say, Lord, I'm ready for
the night, cut away that relationship.
Cut away that activity.
Cut away that ambition.
Cut away that opinion.
Cut away that habit.
Cut away that reading material.
Cut away that indulgence.
I want to bear fruit.
Lord, in Jesus' name, glorify yourself now.
Do it for Jesus' sake, we pray.