“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

In Christ we are fruitful.  Such a simple statement, but the truth of it resounds throughout all of time.  You are a branch in Christ and outside of Him, you can bear no fruit.

I remember the days of fruitlessness that I lived many years ago.  I remember the absence of God’s presence and the dryness of walking without Him.  I would not go back to that for anything in this world.  To have the love of Jesus in my heart is the greatest thing I have ever had.

When you are deep in Christ, you don’t want to leave His presence.  It doesn’t matter what comes at you, because you know that God is still in charge of your life.  You don’t’ walk away from Him because you have suffered.  You simply begin to understand suffering differently.  You begin to sense God’s presence in the midst of it.

When trials and tribulations come, I sense His presence in a most special way.  In those moments His presence becomes like a fire all around me.  I feel lost inside of Him.

The truth is you can be fruitful even in the face of the worst circumstances that come your way.  Even when it looks like death and suffering are upon you.  Even in death we are fruitful in Christ because our testimony continues on.

There is nothing I have to do to remain except listen to the voice of my God.  This is what it means to walk in the spirit.  When I listen to God’s voice and do as He says, I am walking in the Spirit and I cannot satisfy the flesh.

Sometimes His voice speaks and we are asked to do things that will test our flesh.  He will ask us to do things that the old nature might not want to do, but when we do it, we learn that the old nature is indeed dead inside of us.

God is pulling us deeper into His grace.  Each time that He speaks to us and we listen, we encounter a new level of glory. And we are going from glory to glory and will appear before God in Mount Zion.

I am not sure what it is we will be rewarded in heaven.  Recently a friend commented on one of my paintings–a small cottage in the woods.  She said “I hope you are not prophesying the size of your mansion in glory.”  I thought to myself “as long as I am there, I don’t care what size of mansion I will have.”

A cottage in the woods for all of eternity would be very nice as long as I have no more sufferings or trials.  As long as my God is with me, I would be content with whatever He has in store for me, because He is a good God who gives good gifts to His children.

Dear DWOD friend, just focus on abiding in Christ. And you too will experience how fruitfulness follows as a natural consequence.