There is probably no theme more important to the idea of intimacy than the theme of abiding in God. Jesus’ teaching on abiding is found in the Gospel of John. Perhaps the most famous passage is in John 15:4-6, where Jesus says,
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 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. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” (NASB)
The word the NASB translates “abide” is translated as “remain” in the NIV and the NLT. The Amplified Bible switches between “dwell”, “live”, and “abide”. The Message uses “live”, “make your home in”, and “join with”. It would not be wrong to translate verse 4 to say, “If you live your life in Me, I will live My life in you”. The reason I chose the NASB translation is because the word “abide” reflects this understanding.
We should so embrace Jesus that our lives flow out of that intimacy. It is like getting married: two people become one flesh, in some very real sense losing their previous identities to emerge with a new, united identity. This is how it is to be with believers and Jesus (Ephesians 5:31-33). We become attuned to the heart of Jesus, and live our lives out of this new sense of intimacy and mission.
As we learn to live our lives in Jesus, we will see more of a sense of Jesus living His life in us. This is not only implied by verse 4, but also by the verses immediately following, in which we see that fruit is produced in us as we learn to abide. This idea is confirmed in the Apostle Paul’s exhortation in his letter to the Colossians in which he tells believers to put on the new self; and in Romans 12, where he tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Jesus uses the analogy of a grapevine in this passage about abiding. If you happen to snip a branch while pruning, that branch will die. You don’t have to physically remove the branch — it doesn’t bear fruit just because it continues to hang with the other branches — that little snip is sufficient. It cannot bear fruit, because the nutrients that nourish it can no longer reach it, once the flow of life from the vine is cut off.
The implications are clear for us. We are dependent on the flow of nourishment from Jesus if we are not to die. The death I refer to is not a physical death, it is a spiritual death. I do not believe this means that we lose our salvation. I believe it refers to our human spirits shriveling and dying. It is a spiritual dryness that we can feel.
No good fruit can come from us while we are disconnected, because good fruit requires a constant flow of nourishment. Sure, if we already have fruit ripe for the picking, it might be edible still if it can be harvested soon after we stop abiding in the vine. That means we can fool ourselves and others for a little bit after we have become spiritually dried up. But the fruit will not remain good for long, because it will rot on the vine.
Jesus loves speaking in metaphors, and it is sometimes difficult to understand everything He means when He speaks that way. So let me be transparent in telling you what I believe He means: He is saying that you must have a vital, life-giving relationship with Him if you want to be a vibrant branch that bears fruit. To have a vital, life-giving relationship, we must spend time talking and listening to Jesus as we go through life. How frequently do we need to commune with Jesus? Ideally, it is meant to be a continuous relationship. Practically, it probably ought to be an ongoing exchange throughout each day. Even several real and vital exchanges through the week can sustain you.
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The problem many of us face is that if we are honest, we are not certain we have ever heard God speak to us, or that He speaks to us infrequently. Later in this book, I will give very practical guidance about how to learn to hear and discern God’s voice.
As a starting point for many believers, we can hear God’s voice as we read the Bible, particularly the New Testament. He helps us understand the meaning of what we read, and He helps us understand His heart. He continues to speak to us through reading and meditating upon the Bible, even after we have read the same passages dozens of time. But many people find that the life-giving nature of those exchanges sometimes seem to diminish as they re-read those passages decades after first coming to faith.
The Bible keeps us well grounded in the truth of the faith. But God has specific and special things for each one of us to hear. We cannot go deep in faith, because we cannot grow sufficiently in love of God, until we learn to let God speak to and minister to us Himself, through His Holy Spirit who lives inside each believer (more on that later when we take a close look at Ephesians 3:19). He has things for each one of us to do (Ephesians 2:10), and for each of us to become the person that God intended, listening and cooperating with God are essential.
There are people who are skeptical about this whole intimacy with God thing. They might think that the whole point of this passage in John 15 is bearing fruit and keeping the faith. Where is the theme of intimacy? For the moment, set aside the Ephesians 5:31-33 reference to marriage with Jesus (surely that’s intimate). Beginning with John 15:4, we see that Jesus doesn’t say, “Follow my teachings”, or “Be active in your faith with other believers”, or “Don’t fall away from faith”. He says, “Abide in Me”. That is personal and intimate: “in Jesus”. Jesus is not a concept, nor a religion: Jesus is a person (which is not to detract from the fact that He is God). Live your life in and with Jesus. That is what Jesus is calling us to. It’s personal. It’s intimate.
I have personally experienced verse 6, where it talks about a branch withering. More than a decade ago, while I was still trying different ways of living out the Christian faith, I had fallen into a method that relied on intellectual understanding of the Bible, and using my self-will to live it out. After trying this method for a year or two, I discovered that I had fallen into dryness and depression. I had nothing to give to others, and I was pulling out of many of my commitments to Christian service and activity. A couple of my friends invited me to try out a 48-hour silent retreat. I had never been on a silent retreat before, and 48 hours seemed like a very long time, but I went anyway.
The retreat started Friday evening, and on Saturday morning, I was staring out the window of the retreat house, looking at the 10 inches of snow that had fallen the preceding day and night. It was then I got this picture in my mind that I believe was from God. I saw a great tree that was withering, because its roots were shallow, and they could not draw on the water that was deep down. Then I saw the roots grow before my eyes, so that they reached the deep water. And the tree was revived. I felt like the Lord spoke to me and said, “You have been relying on your own strength, and now you are very dry. If you learn to draw on Me, you will always have life in you.” I cried, because I knew He was right, and also because hearing God speak to me and sketch out a plan gave me hope.
Later, it occurred to me that the picture I got is very much in line with what is written in Jeremiah 17:5-8: that if you trust in your own strength, you will wither and die, but if you trust vitally in God, even though there is drought all around, you will have plenty of water and never cease to bear fruit.
This happened to me in January 1996, and from that time forward I have been revived, and have been learning day by day to draw my life from God. The dryness I had left that weekend, and has not returned. I am so grateful to God for speaking to me, and for rescuing me, because I had become a dry branch that was in need of new life!