#6 Purpose of Abiding
John 15:8

“By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8).

God’s purpose of bearing fruit goes beyond our own lives. In this sense He is jealous of His Spirit that He pours into our lives. In the end, what we do reflects Him. You know what I mean, do you not? Have you not seen a Christian with a poor spiritual life. It is an insult for that person to say He is a learner of Christ.

How will God be glorified on earth? The answer is simple. We are to be so successful in carrying out God’s purpose for our lives that others see Christ in our lives. In other words, we use what God gives us to bring glory to His Name. We need to understand the process to see how it brings glory to the Father. Note the chart below.

When we focus on fulfilling our desires and using our abilities to gain success, we can easily fall into the trap of bringing glory to ourselves. God doesn’t get the glory. This is strictly man-done. Not too impressive.

When we focus on God’s will, however, it always requires more than what we can do on our own. Do you remember any God-sized projects in the scriptures? (A phrase Henry Blackaby regularly uses). Let me refresh your mind a bit. A large group of slaves brings the greatest world empire at that time to its knees. Or a boy named David defeats a giant named Goliath. Peter and the apostles were imprisoned but escaped from jail. An angel of the Lord freed them. These are just a few of the more well-known works of the Lord.

Man can build large churches and with its large resources accomplish many projects. Only God, however, can raise a godly congregation that in prayer depends upon God to accomplish what otherwise would be impossible.

Let me give you a recent example. At the national mission conference, some people heard about our church’s work in England in assisting the weak Mandarin speaking church there. People thought it came about by our good strategy. No. Our elder openly shared that he went on a business trip in the beginning. But we were praying. We were asking God to help us be of great help to other churches. When we look back, we are amazed at how God can use our tiny church with its little resources.

We are not decrying strategy but instead insisting that the only strategy that we should attempt to use is the one which seeks God’s will, power and glory. We are servants to do what our Master says. We get to watch God do the miracles. You might ask, well how do you strategize that?

This is where we compel ourselves to attend prayer meetings because this is where God does His great work. We are so excited about being part of Christ that we don’t want to miss any prayer meeting. There are two other points we must mention.

=> Continue reading Step #7 for intimacy with the Lord: The need of obedience

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Biblical Foundations for Freedom ( BFF )

Rev. Paul J. Bucknell