Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
As leaders, we lead others in hearing God. We hear God and we live to serve others in being empowered to hear God and respond to Him in their lives. Hearing God is not about God loving us, it is about knowing God’s love and knowing a loving God. Hearing God is not about being clean, it is about being fruitful. We are already clean by the word that Jesus was and is. God our Father loved us, so He sent His word as His Son to reveal to us His will and way for us in life. Jesus was the word made flesh to make each of us clean. He is and was the expression of our Father’s love that washed us clean through the gift of His righteousness. He became a man to make us clean and we are joined to Him as men and women that we might now be fruitful in this world.
John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
In these verses, Jesus was speaking to His disciples. He had not yet died for them, but He had come as the word of the Father’s love to their lives. This is God’s way and will for us all. He wants us to know the free gift of righteousness that comes by the empowerment of our Father’s love. In this story told by Jesus, the purpose of pruning the vine was not to make the vine clean. It was to empower the vine to be more fruitful.
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Like the branches in the vine, our Father desires for us to abide in the vine. Jesus is the vine. Being a part of the body of Christ is being a part of the vine. Being joined to God in Christ is being part of the vine. Being part of the vine is a matter of relationship and relationship with God who is life will bear the fruit of life to others in our world. The fruit of the vine is not for the vine. It is to bring the life of the vine to the world of the vine. We hear God to bring the fruit of God’s life to our world.
We don’t hear God so that God will love us. We are already loved. Jesus demonstrated this in real life with His disciples before He died for them. He was the word sent to them to reveal to them the Father’s love.
John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
We don’t hear God so that we can abide in God. God is our Father and He already loves us. When we abide in His love the fruit of His love will empower us to manifest the fruit of His love to our world. Hearing God is so we will become life for our world.
Hearing God is about relationship, faith, testimony, authority, purpose, community, and destiny. All of these things are elements of relationship. Relationship is all about love. As leaders we lead others to hear God that they might be fruitful – that they might bring the fruit of God’s loving life to their world.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
