The ’Abiding’ Principle
‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned’ John 15:5,6
Probably the single most important principle for continuing in our Christian life is the principle of ‘abiding.’ As I abide in Christ I continue to draw on the life of Christ. This principle is often called the ‘secret’ of a successful Christian life. What makes it a ‘secret’ is not that it’s hidden, but because too few Christians seem to follow it.
There are biblical activities we can do that allow Christ’s life to flow in our lives. These activities are sometimes called ‘means of grace.’ They are spiritual disciplines. They are taps through which the life giving water of life, Christ’s life, can come to us.
In this and the next two devotionals we will look at three ways we can confuse the tap with what comes out of it.
Don’t elevate anything God uses to bless your life with the rich, refreshing life of Christ that comes through that instrument.
As an example, water baptism is the outward biblical act that a person has become a Christian. Millions of Christians can attest to the release of the life of Christ into their lives as they were baptised in water.
But what happens if we elevate the instrument of blessing (water baptism) over the life it brings (the life of Christ)?
· There are Christians that believe you can only be baptised in running water (citing Acts 22:16).
Others believe that true water baptism means going under the water three times – for the three Persons of the Trinity (citing Matthew 28:19).
Still others teach that the formula used in baptism determines whether the baptism is “correct” (citing Acts 2:38; 10:48). They have re-baptised thousands of believers, telling them the churches that had been in were not telling them the truth.
Water baptism pictures our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. Countless Christians who were sprinkled as infants have been baptised by immersion as believing adults and they still don’t understand that identification. The ultimate issue is the life of Christ. Getting the formula right but missing the life is missing the whole point.
God can bring blessing through a myriad of instruments but it’s a tragedy when Christians follow the instrument more than the life that flows from it.
Another kind of example … In the 1960’s God moved on a coffee shop ministry in New Zealand led by a young man called Winkey Pratney. In time people were coming from far and wide to experience what God was doing. But when they went back to their own churches, they copied his coffee shop. They had the same colours, the same posters, the same format – and expected the same blessing!
A final example. In the 1950’s in America, (before microphones were common in church services), a greatly anointed preacher would cup his left ear as he preached. Sure enough, a whole generation of preachers followed suit, always cupping their left ear as they “felt the anointing” come on them. If you wanted the anointing you cupped your left ear. It came out many years after the original preacher’s passing, that as he grew older, he had increasing hearing problems, especially in his left ear. As he raised his voice while preaching, the sound echoed in his left ear. To alleviate the discomfort to his hearing, he would cup his left ear.
When God moves, we try to work out the pattern of what happened. We copy the man or woman, the outline of the service, or the building. We think the pattern will produce the life. But it was the life that produced the pattern.
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