As We Abide in Christ, His Life Will Flow Through Us by K.P. Yohannan

sermonindex Nov 12, 2018

I am so amazed to read what Jesus actually shared with His disciples just hours before He went to the cross to die. He discussed no master plan, tricks, fund-raising methods, building projects, spiritual laws or even Bible verses to memorize.

The entire chapter of John 15 is all about relationship””man’s greatest problem since the garden of Eden. It was there that our relationship with God was broken; and ever since, all our human relationships have been in total confusion as well. These were the two things Jesus talked about with His followers.

He told them,
"He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit …” (John 15:5).

What Jesus is actually referring to in this chapter are their lives. He is showing them how they will be able to produce the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23:

"…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

What Jesus is concentrating on here is not at all the kingdom work that you and I do, nor the work the disciples were going to do later on in the Book of Acts. The fruit we will bear if we abide in Him is the fruit of a transformed life. All we do is simply the result of what we have become.

A transformed life will impact everything around it and produce eternal results, without a single struggle to make it happen.

Henry Stanley, a worldly reporter, was sent to the jungles of Africa in search of David Livingstone. The last time the old missionary had been seen was seven years before when he returned to Africa in 1865. Finally, when Stanley found him in the middle of nowhere, the encounter changed him completely.

Stanley lived with Livingstone for four months, sharing the same hut and every part of his life as well. He watched him closely and listened to his words. To his amazement he could find no fault in the old man.

Up to that point, Stanley had been very critical of religion, and even described himself as the worst infidel in London. But there in the jungle he encountered a man who simply lived out the words of Jesus: "Leave all and follow me.” Seeing Livingstone’s love, his zeal and his commitment, Stanley’s heart toward Christ completely changed.

With all the frantic activities of modern-day Christianity, it is time for us to learn that it is not the plans we make or the programs that matter most, but the simple truth of letting His life flow through us.

Excerpted from: https://kpyohannan.org/2018/11/08/jesus-master-plan-transformed-life/

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Sems Nov 13, 2018

...What Jesus is concentrating on here is not at all the kingdom work that you and I do, nor the work the disciples were going to do later on in the Book of Acts. The fruit we will bear if we abide in Him is the fruit of a transformed life. All we do is simply the result of what we have become.

A transformed life will impact everything around it and produce eternal results, without a single struggle to make it happen.....

WOW WOW WOW !!

Thank you so much for posting this. Timeless truth.

T

twayneb Nov 14, 2018

I have to echo Samuel's words. It is not about doing, but about becoming. Not about conversion, but about transformation. And these things come as we abide in Him in intimate relationship. I have been there and done that where trying to do the works without the deep intimacy is concerned. It is bondage and death. But when make walking in intimacy one and only goal, the fruit of that intimacy is born in our lives in abundance. Thanks for the post Greg. Very encouraging.

O

Oracio Nov 17, 2018

Amen, very edifying devotional. May we continually abide in Christ so that we may "effortlessly" bear the fruit of the Spirit, that others may be touched and impacted by our transformed lives.

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cup Nov 18, 2018

The blissful effect of the realization by the believer of the indwelling Christ as the inward law and power of righteousness, is thus stated by St. Paul, "If Christ is in you, the body is dead, because of sin; but the spirit is life, because of righteousness." (Rom. 8: 10.) That is, if the body, because of sin that dwelleth in it, has in it the seed of death, the spirit because of Christ who dwelleth in it, as the principle of holiness, has in it the germ of an endless life. Not only does the spirit live, it "is life." It has Christ's own life in it, and forms a new life- center from which sanctifying influences begin to work. It is at once the part of man that connects with Christ, the part at which Christ's life enters, and also the part from which Christ's life radiates. From the spirit the body is reached. Christ quickens the spirit, the spirit quickens the body. Christ masters the spirit, the spirit masters the body; Christ governs the spirit, the spirit governs the body. When Christ rules within, the body i~ "kept sunder," the spirit is on the top. From the throne of the spirit He holds sway over the whole man.

The life of righteousness which Christ creates within is eternal. The sanctification of which He is the author He is also the perfecter. His presence in the heart is the pledge of greater things yet to be done, the prophecy of of sublimer heights of holiness yet to be attained.

Justification is an act, sanctification a process. We are justified completely at first when we came into Christ, we are sanctified progressively by having Christ abiding in us. Of His presence as of His righteousness there shall be no end. The righteousness which He has brought in for us, and which He is working out in us, is an "everlasting righteousness."

from THE INDWELLING CHRIST BY JAMES M. CAMPBELL