Increase Your Bloom Ability: Day 4

Rarely does the Lord criticize us for being too aggressive in matters of faith. When do we find Him suggesting that our dreams, our requests, our deepest needs, our greatest desires, are out of His league? When does Scripture find God telling His people to stop trusting Him for so much? Where does He declare Himself Unable?

How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the LORD, the God of our fathers, has given you? (Joshua 18:3)

Instead, we find God asking His people how long they are going to keep meandering in the desert and put off taking possession of what He has already given them. No. It’s usually us. We put on the breaks. We stop short. For a hundred different reasons.

Don’t let it happen today. Today Jesus offers something critical to the life of every believer.

Increase your Bloom Ability – Step 4

Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. (John 15:4, AMP)

In teaching us how to take possession of what we have been given to become abundantly fruitful, He calls us to live in Him. What exactly does this look like? Picture two chairs pulled closely together so that two people could sit on the porch regularly and have good conversation and coffee together. It’s your go-to spot with your go-to person. He sits in one chair and you sit in the other.

Before He moves any further –Jesus makes clear in the relationship, just Who is driving the relationship, giving the sustenance, and is responsible for the fruit-bearing. And it’s not you. Nor is it me. Jesus succinctly declares, He is The Vine. You and I are simply the branches.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Why is this important? Because the only thing standing between yourself and a life of abundant fruitfulness is, well…you. Independence is your greatest foe, period. Learning to live in Him is absolutely key for increasing your bloom ability.

Almost as if He knows our tendency toward waywardness and taking our coffee on the run, He makes an almost-too-good-to-be-true offer (John 15:7).

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

Once we rented a duplex where there was the promise of a $500 deposit return if you completed everything on the cleaning list before you moved out. I wanted my promised $500. I was doing fine until the tasks became ridiculous. It wasn’t long before I realized the expectations were preposterous. The list was so difficult there was no way anyone could complete it and get the deposit back. It was rigged.

When Jesus proposes that we can “ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Is He serious, or is this rigged? Does He simply know we can’t keep our end of abiding, so He doesn’t have to worry about the providing?

No. Jesus is not like my landlord.