The last message is: “I am the vine.” Jesus sets up a metaphor that compares God’s family to a vineyard, specifically a grape vine.
Jesus himself is the vine. And all God’s children are branches off the vine. And the purpose of God’s children — or the purpose of the branches — is to produce fruit.
The fruit is connected to the branches. The branches are connected to the vine. And all are connected to the root. It is this connection that provides everything a branch needs to thrive, to grow, and to produce fruit.
So, what is fruit? One way to define fruit is: Effects of the Holy Spirit, and God’s love, flowing through people. Another way is: Anything you can think of that you can say “this is what God wants.”
Does God want a bigger family? Does God want children who are whole? Physically? Emotionally? Psychologically? Spiritually? Does God want love, and peace, between people? Locally? Globally? Did God create a perfect environment, so people would have something to mess up?
If you are a child of God, you are a branch on the vine. If you are a branch, you are supposed to bear fruit. And according to this passage, the key to having the Spirit, and love, of the Father flow through you to produce what God wants, is connection.
Part of connection is the Spirit of God making his home in a person’s inner core. But, lifetime patterns of sin blocks, distorts, or filters out God’s Spirit. God’s love is polluted by our sin. God makes his home, by his spirit, in our lives, as his guarantee that we are members of his family. One goal of God’s children is to allow the Spirit to flow from our lives freely, and purely.
So, God made the initial connection, when we gave him our allegiance. How do we maintain that connection? Sometimes, we need to renew, or refresh, that connection. How do we do that?
Restoring, refreshing, or enhancing our connection with Father should be continual, and on-going. Followers of Jesus have traditionally prescribed a daily reset. Prayer, reading, and meditating on, Scripture are the center of this reset. Some people practice personal worship. Each step of these spiritual disciplines should be one more pin hole in a person’s sin life, allowing Father’s Spirit, love, and grace, to flow into the world.
Scripture encourages continual prayer. Which highlights the importance of maintaining connection, and regular resets during the day. And something God will use different experiences to also poke holes in the sin life.
It seems a little counter-intuitive. The effect of God’s family in the world is not related to how much time, money, work and energy are expended. (Though the reality of the connection will be demonstrated through those areas.) It is related to our connection to God, and how freely we let him flow through us.
