“Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.” Isaiah 41:9
Dear Ones:
There is only one way not to fulfill God’s purpose and calling in the life of a believer. It is simply not believing Him for the knowledge of it, and the grace to fulfill it. The failure to accomplish the will of God in the life is never the fault of God. Did He not say to Joshua, “…I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee?” (1:5) On the contrary, God has declared in His word that His gifts and calling are without repentance, and thus, will never be revoked. He adds, through the writing of the Apostle Paul, “…faithful is HE who calls you, who also will do it.” (1 Thess. 5:24) God has put the believer into a living, and permanent, union with Christ by the Spirit. (1 Cor. 1:30) He has in doing so, put the believer into a relationship with Christ where he has access to all that is IN Christ. All the fullness of God is in Christ. That fullness has made the believer to be complete in Christ, nothing lacking. God the Father has provided all that pertains to life and godliness in His Son. It is as the believer abides, not only in the truth of this relationship, but in the very LIFE of Christ by the Spirit, that this fullness, and fruitfulness, can be known, and lived. It is then that there can be the fulfillment of the will and purpose of God in the life.
In one of the great chapters in Scripture, the Lord Jesus uses the illustration of a vine and branches to reveal to us a work of God that is perpetual, a union that is indissoluble, and a possibility of communion that is unimaginable. The Lord begins by revealing the truth of Himself. He declares: “I AM the true vine.” (Jn.15:1) Just in this short phrase He reveals His eternal nature, by declaring, “I am.” In the description that God gave of Himself to Moses, to be shared with the people of Israel in Egypt, He told him, “I AM THAT I AM.” All through the Scriptures, we are brought face to face with the truth of Christ’s unchanging, eternal existence, and His relationship with the believer. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending,” and all else in between, for He is “All in all.” In His illustration, He goes on to say that he is the TRUE vine. Not only is He the living, eternal Vine, but He is the only One who can declare Who He Is, the absolute truth, in all that he would reveal of Himself as this Vine. He uses the illustration of the Vine because of its relationship with its branches, those who truly believe in Him. He speaks of the Vinedresser, or Husbandman, the One who cares for the vine and its branches. This is the Father. The Father is ever watching over this vine, and every branch, so that there will be good fruit, much fruit, born out of this relationship. The great purpose of the Vine’s relationship with the branches, is that through them, the very life in the Vine, that life-giving sap, should pass from the Vine into and through the branches, producing fruit. That fruit is the expression of the Life of the Vine. What is the great objective of God in this relationship, and the care given to it by the Father? It is to reveal the glory of God, the Life of God in Christ by the Spirit…that the world may KNOW that He is the only true God. It will be as this Life is revealed by the fruit that is born, that many will “see” with their hearts, and come to a saving knowledge of Christ.
If the issue of the calling of God is settled in heaven, what about the matter of “much” or “little” fruit? The great principle of fruitfulness is that of abiding in Christ, deriving all from Him by an inward attitude of faith. Fruit is proportional to abiding in Christ.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to consistently abide in Thy Son, our Life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad