How do we glorify God? Bill Johnson teaches from John 15, on the importance of abiding in Christ so that God is glorified. God’s desire is to co-labor with us to see His will established on the earth, that He would be glorified.

verse one we’re gonna excuse me we’re

gonna read eight verses verse one

i am the true vine my father is the vine

dresser jesus is giving

a lesson a metaphor an illustration

of an extremely profound reality let me

tell you where we’re headed before we

get there so that you’ll be able to

picture it as we read it

if you take a a vine a grape vine a vine

that grows grapes

the branch connects to the vine

but the fibers of the

branch and the fibers

of the vine

are so intertwined that you can’t

separate them you can cut the branch off

but that’s there is actually a growth

into itself

and that is the actual picture in

scripture of abiding in christ

is that you can’t tell where he ends and

where you start

there’s this intertwining of hearts of

minds of will there’s this yieldedness

to the heart and purposes of god so

deeply that that i i can’t tell where he

starts and where i am that that sort of

thing that’s the work that god is doing

in us and that’s the purpose of this

illustration

verse two every branch in me that does

not bear fruit he takes away every

branch that bears fruit he prunes

then it may bear more fruit

god rewards all growth with pruning

how many of you want to grow

yeah

he rewards all growth with pruning verse

three you are already clean because of

the word which i have spoken to you the

word clean there is the same word as the

word prune

you’re pruned

i pruned you and then he says but you

guys are already pruned

because of the word i spoke to you what

does it tell us

the discipline of god comes from his

voice

the circumstances are just to get our

attention

oh the whale swallowed jonah and that

was the discipline of the lord no i just

got his attention

and just got his attention so the next

time god spoke he was actually listening

he actually prunes us with his word it’s

called a sword for a reason

it was that was better than your

response but it’s all right

verse 4 abide in me i in you as the

branch cannot bear fruit of itself

unless it abides in the vine neither can

you unless you abide in me

boy isn’t that the truth

there’s nothing

of the eternal i can produce through my

own efforts

but everything

is available

if i yield to him

i am the vine you are the branches he

abides in me

i in him bears much fruit without me you

can do nothing if anyone does not abide

in me he is cast out as a branch and is

withered

they gather them throw them into the

fire they are burned verse 7

if you abide in me and my words abide in

you you will ask whatever you desire and

it will be done for you

please listen carefully this is a verse

i like to bring up our team brings up

fairly often these verses out of john 14

15 and 16. in three chapters jesus

repeats one thought four times four

times in three chapters and the thought

is this whatever you ask for will be

done

four times he does it whatever you ask

for will be done

in this particular verse he creates the

context for the absolute the um he

creates he creates the definition or the

uh he

illustrates

how is it i can live in such a way that

i live with the overflowing fullness of

god’s joy through answers to prayer it’s

according to verse 7.

abide in me

let my words abide in you

and you will ask whatever you desire and

it will be done for you

i i don’t like i don’t like the

i don’t like the teaching that

that’s basically says

if you pray for what god tells you to

pray he’ll answer your prayer

i know there’s truth there

but god makes himself vulnerable to the

desires of his people this isn’t

licensed to control or manipulate god

but it is an invitation for a

relationship where you actually have

input in interaction into the outcome of

things

the the the effort in consistent prayer

is not to persuade god

it’s to deal with the powers that are

entrenched in the area that we are

pushing into

and the process transforms us

so that we become responsible stewards

of what we’ve just prayed into

see israel if they would have walked

into the promised land in a 11 day

journey it was supposed to take they

would have wandered right out

they didn’t didn’t have the parameters

for the

how to do life

they were careless in their worship of

golden calf and all these other stupid

things they wouldn’t have had the

maturity to maintain the inheritance

and so the lord puts us in situations

where we push to build a strength so

that once the answer is released we have

the maturity to use it for his glory

there’s this overriding theme that if i

if i can maybe if i could communicate

one

one thing today it would be this

when it becomes my passion

for his will to be done on earth

and for him to be glorified as a result

that’s two sides of the same coin

when it becomes my passion

to see the will of god done on earth i

don’t mean the parts that benefit me

i’m talking about the absolute

demonstration of the lordship of jesus

when that becomes demonstrated and god

is glorified in all the earth in first

service today i read this first of the

passion translation now one of the

psalms and it said there’s a day coming

when all the kings of the earth are

going to give him thanks because they’ve

heard his voice

all the kings of the earth will give him

thanks because they heard his voice so

god has these lofty plans these lofty

dreams

and i i’m i’m not angry about this but i

i do get frustrated

to hear so many believers say well

that’s that can’t happen until jesus

returns

that’s only because we have greater

faith in the return of christ than we do

the power of the gospel

confidence in the power of the gospel

how does it end i don’t know how it ends

i have ideas so do you

neither of our opinions are worth much

unless we got them from him you know

but the point is is the power of the

gospel can change anything he gave me an

assignment not with the intention of

ignoring me

he didn’t say seek for me to be

glorified in the earth it’s not going to

happen

i’ll come back someday and then it will

seek for my will to be done on earth as

it is in heaven

it’ll just keep you positive in your

thinking and it’ll keep you active

until you die

he gave us an assignment why because of

his personal dream

to see something happen

on a planet

that has been marked by sin

he paid a price for the healing of the

land and the healing of the people that

live there

and he wants to see that world mirror

the reality of the one he’s in complete

charge

so here he says if you abide in me my

words abide in you i’ve had

quite a few times in the last couple

months especially where i’ve been

awakened in the night you know

i don’t know if this happens to you

where you’re just perfectly sound asleep

and then all of a sudden your brain is

working 100 miles an hour

how did that happen out of nowhere it

was a dead start how did it suddenly

wake up

and i’ve got a

million things going on through my mind

and i’m just wide awake

and physically tired but wide awake

mentally

and what i’ve been doing of late in the

past what i’ve always done is just

anchor my affection in him but in recent

days i’ve had to bring another tool into

this toolkit of mine

and i i will lay there and i won’t do

this out loud because i don’t want to

wait benny

but i’ll lay there and i’ll just begin

quoting scripture

psalms 34

i will bless the lord at all times

his praise will continually be in my

mouth

my soul shall make its boast in the lord

the humble will hear it and be glad

magnify the lord with me let us exalt

his name together

i sought the lord and he heard me he

delivered me from all my fears

taste and see that the lord is good and

just lay there and just begin to quote

scripture what’s happening the verses

may have nothing to do with what’s in my

mind it doesn’t have to it’s the living

voice of god

it’s the living voice of god that brings

all the random stuff it just starts

pruning this thought isn’t necessary

this one won’t help you this one’s

illegal this one starts pruning all

these illegitimate thoughts that are

competing for my affection and it

restores me to this railroad track that

already has a predetermined destination

and it puts me on this thing

i rejoice in the lord always again i say

rejoice

i had somebody asked me just uh oh just

a few weeks ago if you had to live the

rest of your life i’ve never been asked

this one before i’ve had a lot of good

questions in the years but this is the

first

if you had to live the rest of your life

off of one verse what would it be that’s

that’s easy

john 3 16.

it’s hard to get any higher than that

one

that’s the grand finale of all scripture

for god

so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son that

whoever believes in him will not perish

they’ll have everlasting life

that’s not just an evangelism verse

that’s a here bill stay alive verse

get centered into what i’m saying and

doing become anchored in my presence

once again

here this will help you fight off every

distraction that is simply there to

dilute your affections for christ

for god so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son

that whoever believes in him

would not perish

he will have everlasting life

something happens in that midnight hour

3 a.m hour

where i was so awake suddenly i’m i’m

anchored into the person of peace

verse 8 says by this

my father is glorified

that you bear much fruit

and so you will be my disciple by this

my father is glorified that you bear

much fruit

what is this in that verse

by this

if god’s going to be glorified by it we

probably ought to figure out what it is

by this

my father’s glorified

at minimum

in his answers to prayer

a fuller definition would be me abiding

in christ until there’s answers to

prayer

but that’s the

this

i want you to picture this

you have a concern for a relative

and it just wakes you up at night and

you walk and you pray

the next day you do the same and you

pray for several days

and then all of a sudden you get this

phone call and

that relative was spared in an accident

or

or they they turn their heart to the

gospel and receive christ whatever it

might be you got an answer to prayer

what you don’t see

is the angelic realm that witnessed the

interaction

between a born-again person

created in the image of god who yielded

themselves to be a worshiper by choice

interacting with the great i am and

having an audience with the king of all

kings

and making a request that actually

shaped the course of history

the angelic realm

celebrates

your plan worked

your plan worked

you created them in your image and even

when they fell you restored them

and you brought them into a place of

co-laboring

you brought them into a place of

partnership with the almighty god fallen

redeemed man partners with the almighty

god they pray you act things change

your plan worked

by this my father is glorified that you

bear much fruit by this

this abiding in this

felt reality of the spirit of god the

greatest reality in my life is the

presence of god to live unaware of it is

a waste of time

to live unaware of this most precious

gift of all that the holy spirit himself

would dwell in me and rest upon me to

live unconscious of that one thing is to

sell myself short of every divine

purpose that he has created for me

i owe him

answers to prayer

i owe him answers

he decided a long time ago to answer

that’s why he gave me promises he gave

me promises to pull me into a place of

relationship with him where together we

would affect the course of history it

was already written my name was already

written in the document

this is what my son is created to do

i can stand away from the river and say

well there’s no current where i’m at

or i can move to that which has been

flowing since the beginning of time god

created us to co-labor with him to see

his purposes in the earth be fruitful

multiply subdue the earth he engages

humanity engages people with divine

purpose