What Being Connected to Jesus Can Do

I have been meditating on a couple verses for quite awhile, and this morning in my devotional reading one of them came up. If you are a Christ follower you really need to pay close attention.

In John 15:2 Jesus says that "God the gardener cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes it so that it will be even more fruitful."

Do you see this? Cut off or pruned, it all comes down to continually making eternal differences in the lives of others. But where does this come from since we are not saved by our works? It is stated in verses 4 and 5. Read below.

"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine and you are the branches, if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Being in an intimate relationship with Jesus will cause us to want to bear fruit, and then actually bear fruit. I think too many try to bear fruit but not put the time in when it comes to connectedness to the vine. Many people do good works in Jesus name but because they are not in intimate relationship with Him, their works will not last or make eternal difference.

Lastly, turn to Ephesians 2:9-10 "we are not saved by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do." The pressure is off, we just need to ask "what do you want me to do today Lord." He has already prepared it!

Let's review -
1. You and I must be connected to God in every way in order to remain spiritually alive.
2. If we are not, we are cut off.
3. We will be pruned in order to bear more fruit. (that may seem painful but it's all about more of Christ in us, and less of us).
4. We cannot do anything of true spiritual significance unless we are connected to God.
5. Belief in God plus the power of the Holy Spirit working through us will produce great things.
6. He has already prepared works for us to do, we just need to be obedient and sensitive in the Spirit to do them.

A Simple Discipleship Formula

Sometimes we complicate simple things. Think of jobs or projects from your past where rules and procedures so slowed outcomes down to the point it either robbed joy out of it or caused resentment and caused you to quit altogether. We make up rules and procedures that may look like safeguards but in the end they can easily take us down a path so far away from the original idea that we forget why we are doing what we are doing. Take discipleship, Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 that we should go into the entire world to make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey EVERYTHING He taught and as a promise, He'd be with us always. Looking at His ministry life we know that He spent a full night in prayer just to determine who the faithful followers would be who would become His disciples, God's agents of change. Next, He spent 3 years training, teaching, being with and praying for these guys. If it were an equation it might look something like this; Relationship + Spiritual Truth + Teachable Heart + Time = Transformation In our highly connected, socially savy, information revolution we must remember that there are no short-cuts to building/multiplying Jesus followers. Books, blogs, tweets and podcasts can help as long as they are pointing back to the Bible and not just about it. Authenticity and transparency are critical so that disciplers do not set up disciples with the idea that they personally get something out of the Bible every time they read it, or that great faith prayers are prayed that reap huge results morning, noon and night, and that new converts are won every week. I have had the honor of being poured into and been able to pour into others. Success rates climb really, really high when we take the time to dispense practical Biblical truth, over time to people who are teachable and real. Biblical truth can seem pretty overwhelming but an easy place to start are the Red Letters of the Gospels. What did Jesus say? Most people can quote only a fraction of it. And remember in the Great Commission quoted above in Matthew 28, that Jesus commanded us to teach them everything He commanded. We also have the Epistles of Paul where there is plenty to study and apply. We have the entire Old Testament which is full of great treasures of Truth/Gold. This can easily take you all of 3 years. As I have quoted many times from David Watson's classic book - "Called and Committed" "If a gifted evangelist could win 1,000 converts a night, it would take them about 10,000 years to win the world to Christ, not including any population spikes, but if a true disciple of Christ were to win one person to Christ per year and spend that year training and teaching that disciple to do the same it would take aprox. 32 years to win the entire world to Christ." Amazing! Let's make this simple, if you need to be poured into, ask someone around you whose walk with Christ inspires you and you wished to be like to help you become like them. If you are pretty mature and obviously walking with Christ, than you should be looking for someone to approach and pour into. It's simple!

It's Still All About Relationship

We are all wired differently and of course that's a great thing. Some people are thinkers, others are inventors, engineers, artists, athletes, writers and relational. I was certified years ago as a DISC Personality Profile Facilitator and loved helping people and teams identify strengths, here is a simple view! D for Doer/dominant; I for Influence/people person; S for Steady/loyal and C for Compliance/correctness. There are also many ways to learn, reading, watching, listening, doing and mentoring. When it comes to discipling others in the ways of living the life of a Jesus follower all of these are needed but the one item that is MOST NEEDED is the Mentoring/Relational method. Jesus spent 3 years with 12 men who were willing and teachable and the world has never been the same. Who are we to think that reading the latest greatest book, blog or magazine is better than a real person? Doing is great but if you don't know what you are doing then failure is an option, and no one likes to fail. Listening is a great way to learn as well and there are so many great podcasts we can access at anytime from the very best teachers in the world, but unfortunately you can't take that teacher with you during your day. The best method of discipleship is still the tried and true method of on-going relationship. Even if you've never had this experience for yourself, you can still be that person for someone else. If you have been a follower for a long time, it's never too late to have someone do some nuturing/iron sharpening so that you can still become all that God desires for you as you follow, obey and reproduce. I encourage you to take some steps that are quite do-able. 1. Identify some people of the same gender whose faith you look up to. 2. Pray and ask God to lead you to the person you'd most love to be mentored by. 3. Go ask the person and be specific about what you are asking. 4. If they say yes, set up a time to begin meeting and decide a time frame, a curriculum/study to go through and discuss what it is that you need or they think you need to become a strong, God confident and producing re-producer for the rest of your life. It doesn't matters if you are relational or not, the reality is you have something to offer to others and you have needs certain others can provide. It's still all about relationship!