HOW TO BECOME A FRUIT BEARING BRANCH

The way to become a powerful and effective fruit-bearing branch is through fervent prayer. The Father is glorified in our fruit-bearing. On the night when Jesus was wrestling in prayer with his mission to die on the cross, his disciples couldn’t keep their eyes open, much less support him in prayer. So Jesus said to them, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

Prayer is a fundamental, indispensable weapon in our struggle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12-13). In the book of James, we read that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16-17). A fervent prayer can rally Yehovah our God and Father to intervene on our behalf and give us what we need. Through prayer, we gain the strength and knowledge we need to overcome temptation, discern God’s will, and walk as He would have us do. Yehovah Elohim - God gives supernatural wisdom and power to those who are totally committed to loving, obeying, and trusting Him in all we say and do. Fervent prayer will help us to move forward with dynamic power enabled to do so by Yehovah's indwelling presence!

It is really sad when believers use prayer as nothing more than a recitation of a wish list, or a last-ditch call for help. Many people spend their prayer time begging God for things they want to fulfill their selfish desires. God doesn’t answer that kind of prayer coming from people who haven't died to themselves. However, when we pray according to His will, and for what we truly need in advancing the kingdom, He answers.

When we walk in accord with God’s will, we can depend on Him to open doors for us; to make a path, and guide us as we go along that way. We can feel His constant presence as we go about our daily tasks. He is there to help us through personal crises: financial attacks, sickness, and so much more. We can always be assured that our God and Father will never leave us alone or forsake us.

Fervent prayer is life-changing when we go to Yehovah Elohim - God with every need, concern, and question, and then learning to obey when we sense Him answering. It is petitioning God for direction before we move, and then going in the direction that His Spirit leads us. I know that if we submit to the leading of His Spirit, and live our lives in the wisdom He gives us, and try to move in the direction He leads, all will be well. If we do go the wrong way from time to time, our God and Father will correct us and turn us around to walk on the path that leads to entering His soon-coming Kingdom. What an amazing Father He is towards all those who are His sons and daughters!

WHAT IS FIRST AND FOREMOST YOUR MAIN DESIRE?

In Psalm 27, David beseeches God in intense urgent prayer. He pleads in verse 7, “Hear, O Yehovah, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me and answer me.” His prayer is focused on one desire, one ambition, something that has become all-consuming for him: “One thing have I desired of Yehovah, that will I seek after” (Psalm 27:4).

David is testifying, “I have one prayer, Yehovah, one request. It is my single most important goal in life, my constant prayer, the one thing I desire. And I will seek after it with all that’s within me. This one thing consumes me as my goal.”

What was this one thing that David desired above all else, the object he’d set his heart on obtaining? He tells us: “That I may dwell in the house of Yehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Yehovah, and to inquire in His temple” (27:4).

Make no mistake: David was no ascetic, shunning the outside world. He wasn’t a hermit, seeking to hide away in a lonely desert place. No, David was a passionate man of action. He was a great warrior, with huge throngs singing of his victories in battle. He was also passionate about his prayer and devotion, with a heart that yearned after God. And Yehovah had blessed David with so many of the desires of his heart.

Indeed, David tasted everything a man could want in life. He had known riches and wealth, power, and authority. He had received the respect, praises, and adulation of men. Yehovah had given him Jerusalem as the capital for the kingdom and he was surrounded by devoted men who were willing to die for him.

Most of all, David was a worshiper. He was a praising man who gave thanks to God for all His blessings. He testified, “Yehovah laid blessings on me daily.”

David was saying, in effect, “There is a way of living I seek now; a settled place in Yehovah that my soul longs for. I want uninterrupted spiritual intimacy with my God.” This was what David meant when he prayed, “That  I may dwell in the house of Yehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Yehovah, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4).

JESUS OUR SHEPHERD

 

John’s record stresses that the key to following Jesus to the cross is to hear

his word, which beckons us onwards (John 10:4, 27). All our Bible study

must lead us onwards in a life of self-sacrifice. The lord Jesus “puts forth

his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they

know his voice. (John 10:4); the same word is used by him in Luke 10:2,

concerning how he sends forth workers to reap converts in preaching.

Each of those he calls has a unique opportunity to gather others to him.

The idea of ‘following’ Jesus is invariably associated with the carrying of the

cross. Why do this? Because of the voice/word of Jesus, of who he is, of

his Spirit. This must be the ultimate end of our Bible study; a picking up of

the cross. For there we see God’s words made flesh.

On one level, we are the sheep, and He is the shepherd. On another, He is

the gatekeeper and we are the shepherds. This is because we are called to

do his work, to be him to this world; for we are "in the Messiah" and all true

of him becomes true of us. The spirit - disposition of the lord as our shepherd has an inevitable,

transforming influence upon those of us who believe in him; the super -

abounding grace and generosity of spirit that was in him on the stake, which

was epitomized in the hours of public, naked exhibition... can’t fail to move

our spirits to be likewise. Paul speaks of this when He says that God does

for us exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think, by the spirit - power -

disposition that works in is (Ephesians 3:20) The love of the Messiah for us on the cross, the intensity and passion of it,

is quite outside any human experience. Hence the command to copy His

love is a new commandment. There is and will be something dynamic in our relationship with the Father

and Son. The lord Jesus spoke of how He ‘knows’ the Father and ‘knows’

us His sheep in the continuous tense (John:14,15); He was ‘getting to know’

the Father, and He ‘gets to know’ us. And this is life eternal, that we might

get to know the one true God and His Son (John 17:3). The knowing of God

and His Son is not merely academic, consisting only of facts. It is above all

an experience, a thrilling and dynamic experience. I am the good shepherd,

and know (Gk. 'am getting to know', continuous tense) my sheep, and am

known (being known) of mine. As the Father knows (is knowing) me, even

so know I (I am getting to know) the Father". The relationship between us

and our lord will therefore be one of progressive upward knowledge, as he

has with God.

Yehovah Elohim - God is dynamic. For us to grow in His knowledge

will be a continuously dynamic process.

It is pointed out in John's Gospel that those who will truly know God will not

fully know Him now, in this life, but will come to know Him fully after they are

resurrected..

The way in which we are seen by God is as if we are already saved -

delivered on account of our being in the Messiah is understood by

appreciating His timelessness and foreknowledge. Romans 8:29 says

that the whole process of our calling, justification and glorification all

occurred at the foundation of the world.

In God's eyes, those of us in the Messiah are already saved and glorified.

Notice that in God's eyes there was only one resurrection, that of the lord

Jesus. The resurrected Lord is compared to the sheaf of first fruits

(1 Corinthians 15:20), as if those in him rose with him and were glorified

together, in God's eyes. Perhaps the Lord Jesus had this in mind when he

said: "I am the resurrection" To close: My sheep hear - obey my voice, and I know them and they follow

me. The lord took the initiative in speaking his word to men, but they must

respond and obey his testimony; and this is how he 'knows' them, in the

Hebraic sense of having a relationship. The "voice" they hear is his words,

the essence of him; as he says, "My words". The lord's references to "My

words" in John must be understood as a reference to him, the news about

him, his Spirit, the essence of him as a person, who acts as an agent of

Yehovah as His son.

Note: The Jewish Law of Agency deals with the status of a person (known

as the agent) acting by direction of another (the principal), and thereby

legally binding the principal in his connection with anyone to whom he has

sent. The person who is sent by a principal in this manner is his agent,

known in Jewish law as sheluaḥ or sheliaḥ (one that is sent): the relation of

the former to the latter is known as agency (sheliḥut).

The general principle is enunciated thus: A man's agent is like himself!

Jesus was the sheluah or sheliah (one that was sent) by Yehovah. The

words he spoke and the actions his did were all done as if they were done by

Yehovah God.

IS JESUS THE SON OF GOD?

Luke 3:38; says the genealogy of Jesus starts with Adam, who is referred to as the son of God. Think about that; a man specially created from the dust of the earth, into whom is breathed the breath of life and becomes a living soul/being and is called the son of God.

Now how does this apply to Jesus being called the son of God. The reason is that he was specially created in the womb of Mary by the power of God's Holy Spirit, by a special biological miracle, Jesus was uniquely begotten; and at his birth is proclaimed to the son of God. Paul refers to him as the second man "1Corinthians15:47: The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the lord from heaven." in other words specially created by God's Holy Spirit.

Jesus is also called the "last Adam" The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life giving spirit - at his resurrection. Why is he referred to as the last Adam? Because there would be no need for another special created man to reconcile humanity to God. Jesus accomplished this completely at his crucifixion, and at his resurrection is recognized as the "last Adam". He accomplished what the first Adam did not.

Perhaps if we believed in the creed of Jesus we would not have a difficulty in believing that YHVH - Yehovah is one. The Hebrew word for one is echad and has the same meaning as the English word for one.

The creed of Jesus is:

Mark 12: 28-32: And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is:

Hear, O Israel; Yahovah our God is one Yahovah: and you shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul - being, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment.

And the second is like, namely this: You shall love thy neighbor as yourself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, you hast said the truth: for THERE IS ONE GOD, AND THERE IS NONE OTHER BUT HE: And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul - being, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

Neither are any one of us far from the Kingdom of God, who believe as the scribe did in his answer to Jesus.

Jesus was a Jew who probably repeated the Shema 3 times a day as all righteous Jews did in his day and the Shema is:

Hear, O Israel, Yahovah our God is one Yahovah, this should be our creed as well if we follow what Jesus believed and lived by.

THE LIFE OF A TOTALLY COMMITTED BELIEVER

Caleb, whose name means “forcible, fortitude,” is a type of believer who goes all the way! He was inseparable from Joshua, a type of the Messiah, and represented one who continually with total commitment, walked with Yehovah Elohim.

Caleb had been over Jordan with the spies. While there, he was drawn by Yehovah's Spirit to Hebron - “the place of death.” With awe he climbed that hallowed mountain and faith flooded his soul. Abraham and Sarah were buried here, as were Isaac and Jacob. Years later, David’s kingdom would begin there. Caleb prized that hallowed place! From that time on he wanted Hebron for his possession.

It was said of Caleb that he “followed me [Yehovah] wholly - totally committed” (Numbers 14:24). He never wavered to the very end of his life. Solomon wavered in his later years and “he went not fully after Yehovah.” But at 85 years of age, Caleb could testify: “As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me; as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in” (Joshua 14:11).

At 85 Caleb waged his greatest battle! He asked of Joshua: “Now then, give me this hill country about which Yehovah spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim [giants]  were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps Yehovah will be with me, and I will drive them out just as Yehovah has spoken.” So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he followed the Lord God of Israel fully - totally committed. (Joshua 14:12-14)

The message is glorious! It is this: It is not enough to have died to sin; to have entered the fullness of Yehovah and His son Jesus sometime in the past. The need is to grow in Yehovah Elohim - God and the Messiah Jesus to the end! To move forward with God's indwelling spiritual power and strength; and not waver, to “wholly follow Yehovah” and walk in covenant faith; even in old age! It should be an ever-increasing covenant faith.

Written by David Wilkerson and edited by Bruce Lyon