— To uplift, inform and challenge followers of Christ —

Dear Christian.

Many professing believers treat their soul’s true eternal destination (Jesus Himself) as a vacation location; a wonderful, good-feeling place  to visit, but only on occasion.  However, the Bible repeatedly exhorts us to be found “in Christ”.  Contrary to popular teaching, our goal in not so much heaven as it is the person Jesus  and the issue is not one of union, but of communion. — to live and move and have our being “in Him”.

The doctrine of abiding is as  foundational and important as it is far from evangelical Christianity’s present mindset.  This article, from Roadrunner NEWS (RN6-3) is here reprinted to emphasize its cruciality. We pray the Holy Spirit gives you a fresh revelation of this truth and that you’ll be found “in Him” — not only upon His imminent return, but each and every day.

Abiding in Christ

For fruitful prayers

“God will see us through.”, I shakily claimed in August of 1998, after being diagnosed with 7 tick-borne and life-threatening infections between us.  In the natural, it was a strange, if not bizarre statement, especially under the circumstances.

Diane had been painfully bed-ridden for 19 days; my heart rate was hovering in the mid-50s and our bodies showed many signs of debilitation.  We needed divine intervention and  pleaded with God for healing, before investigating medical help.  We soon learned that Lyme-literate doctors were scarce, expensive and busy; it might take 1-2 months just to get an appointment.  We also shockingly discovered that treatment could take years and cost many thousands; in acute cases, over $30,000 a month!

Well, there we were; camped on the  lawn of gracious New Jersey friends, with little money and no health insurance, that is — except for our HMO (Heavenly Medical Oversight, whose premium we’d been “paying” in the coin of prayer and trust for decades).  Things did not appear hopeful because we were devoid of natural resources.  (It’s called “life”!)  How would we even survive?!

Simple! We did the usual: prayed, believed God — then He, as usual, delivered us.  But that victory is not so much a testimony to our (sometimes shaky) faith as it is of God’s love-motivated grace upon those “abiding” in Him.  Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" — Jn 15:7.  Notice — of all the conditions for effectual prayer that Jesus might have invoked, He here cites abiding.

By definition “abide” means to dwell at, or remain where once placed.  In this passage Jesus is focusing on people already placed “in Him” so  He’s alluding to something beyond union; communion.  He’s telling us to hang out at our soul’s eternal address and not treat it as a divine mail-forwarding service.  We’re to stay in constant communion with Him, so the issue is not one of soul position, it’s condition.  THAT determines the degree of fellowship and intimacy we have with Him.  It either fosters or retards fruitfulness and receipt of positional blessings, such as prayers that bring results.  For sure, effectual prayers are fruit because they do bring glory to God.

When the Lord says, "Abide in me," He bids us to vault  higher than our legal position — into that realm of love-born co-operation.  He desires loving obeisance and whole-hearted surrender; a “Here I am Lord, mold me!” attitude.  Submission like that brings Him glory and He delights in one who so lovingly yields.  John 15 also tells us we must REMAIN with Christ to become fruitful — not just visit.  To illustrate: our vehicles bear South Dakota plates, but we’re not residents — we simply register our vehicles there.  Our names are in their land’s book of license and we derive only that one state benefit.  Similarly, many with names in the Lamb’s Book of Life use Jesus’ name and have eternal life, but miss out on other benefits.  They treat their union with Christ as we do our vehicle tags; something that needs attention only once a year, thus lack fruitfulness.  Self-sufficient believers aren’t very fruitful either.  They don’t feel the need to stay snuggled up to Christ.  Abiding is for born-again cowards; those of us convinced we would crash in a New York minute were it not for the Lord’s ever-present help.  Abiding is how we believer-branches draw fruit producing sap from Jesus, the Vine!

Abiding is the antithesis of “works” and has everything to do with His love, His grace and our love-based obedience.  I caution, for with one’s zeal to habitually abide in Christ, comes the temptation to DO something “holy”.  Responsibilities can even come to be viewed as obstacles to this; the error of monasticism.  Even when preoccupied with life, the yielded heart is still in Him — HE keeps us.  Continual abiding does not require our undivided attention; that surely would be works.  Instead, God gave the Comforter to indwell and hold us.  Further, Jesus would not require something that conflicts with our stewardship of legitimate, earthly responsibilities.  Nor would our Lord command something without giving the grace to perform it.

How does one go about “abiding”?  Simple — just Co-operate!  We submit ourselves to Him so that He can change our lives to agree with His own:  "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" — Rom 12:2a.  We offer ourselves up as “living sacrifices” (Rom 12:1) so He can conform us to the image of Jesus.  It’s a life-long process called sanctification through which we grow by love-motivated and Spirit-enabled study, prayer, trust and obedience (Gal 2:20).  But God didn’t rebirth, then abandon us in a sin-ridden world to fend for ourselves.  He’s given us the church with pastors, teachers and a family of believers.  Our dear pastors pour out their lives to nurture, train and help us become fruitful (Eph 4:12).  Cooperating with God also means believing the Bible at face value; trusting that He MEANS and will do what He says.  Thus, the importance of consistently sitting under the teaching of God’s Word to learn His will and our responsibilities and benefits (Acts 2:42; Jn 14:21; 1Jn 3:22-24).  Abiding in, or walking close to Jesus is also a place of safety, but not a retreat from responsibility.  It’s a refuge from the enemy of our souls, from the world and flesh-motivated self effort.  King David was familiar with this divine fortress when exiled and cornered in a cave: "I cried unto thee, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need" — Ps 142:5.

In August of ‘98 when our bodies were being ravaged by infections, we were like King David trapped in that cave; there was no way out (the Lord’s speciality!).  We threw ourselves on His mercy and by His abiding grace were able to trust Him for deliverance.  While Diane was still agonizing with head pain, I distinctly remember one of my prayers.  I told God that if He didn’t deliver us, we’d die, and that frankly — I didn’t care one way or the other!  Paul’s words came to mind:  "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" — Php 1:21.  We chose to draw close to God and trust His faithfulness.  I then got excited about our win-win situation and was set for one of those biblical, “And suddenly ...” miracles; my hair bristled with anticipation.  But as it turned out, God chose to take us through that trial.  Even though our medicine cost alone climbed to the rate of $45,000/year — He made the way.  Arguably, He could’ve instantaneously healed us, but we believe he chose a healing path that brought Him far more glory.  In the process, He answered our prayers; they were effectual.  Read that as fruitful!

So — you want “fruitful” prayers?  OK, here’s the key: ABIDE in Christ. When we do, His thoughts become our thoughts; His mind, our mind. Our prayers become His prayers, and God always answers Jesus because He always glorifies Him — and that’s what our prayers need to do.  Let’s just fall goofy in love with Jesus and make a cordless bungie-jump into the bottomless pool of His grace; then really trust Him.  When we love Him, we want to spend time in prayer and study.  We want to confess our sins.  We want to get into a healthy, Bible-teaching church for instruction, worship and accountability.  In short, we want to obey the Lord and commune with Him; it’s a "good work" of faith (Col 1:10).

God wants us to bear "much fruit" for His glory and grows it in us as we commune with Him.  We’re first saved by grace through faith, then abide by love and obedience.  Obedience confirms that love and births fruitfulness in us (Jn 14:15).  Abiding is essential to answered prayer, allowing His words to live in us and  become manifest through our lives.  To wit: "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it "— Jn 14:14.

ABOUT US:  Founded in 1993, Hallelujah Living Ministries is a donation-based, non-denominational Christian outreach to uplift, inform and challenge followers of Jesus Christ.  For more information or a copy of our always-free print newsletter, please include a  postal mail address along with your comments and prayer requests. Thank you for visiting  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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