In John 15 the Lord says that He is the true vine and that we believers are the branches. He goes on to say that we need to abide in Him that He may abide in us (vv. 1-5). As branches in the vine, we live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ. This is the Christian life. Therefore, we need to see the way to abide in the Lord. The word abide may seem to be an ordinary word, but it indicates something crucial for our Christian life. If a branch is separated from the vine, the branch is finished. A branch must never leave the vine. The crucial point of our Christian life is to abide in the vine. To abide in the vine means to be one with the vine. The vine and the branches are one, yet there is always the possibility, the danger, that a branch would be detached from the vine. For this reason the Lord stresses that we need to abide in Him.
Abiding in the vine is easy to understand logically, but learning how to practically experience this abiding has always been a problem to Christians. This is still a problem to us today. The picture of a vine and its branches is simple for us to comprehend, but we may not understand what it actually and practically means in our daily life for Christ to be the vine to us and for us to be His branches. We may know in doctrine that He is the vine and that we are the branches, but we may not be able to say that we have the real experience of being a branch in the vine in our daily life.
If I were to ask the saints whether they experience being a branch in the vine, I am concerned that many would answer, “No, I do not experience being a branch in the vine; I do not experience being one with the Lord. I know this doctrine, but in practice I rarely experience this.” Therefore, I am very burdened for all the saints. We have come into the Lord’s recovery, and we come together to meet as the church quite often. Besides this, we have other times in which we come together in small groups to fellowship, pray, or have morning watch. However, I have become concerned that many saints do not have a practical daily experience of Christ. In other words, many do not have enough personal contact with the Lord. What we experience on the corporate side is probably sufficient, but on the private side we are lacking. We do not have adequate personal, private contact with the Lord.
We each need to consider whether we spend even ten or fifteen minutes each day to be with the Lord privately. Many of us do not spend even a short time with the Lord. Recently, I have discovered that many saints only come to the meetings and have fellowship with other saints but do not have a personal, private, direct contact with the Lord. This is a great lack. If this is our case, it is truly difficult for us to practically abide in the Lord. Coming to the meetings surely helps us with some things, but according to my experience, coming to the meetings does not help us to contact the Lord directly that we may actually abide in the Lord. To abide in the Lord in a practical way requires a personal, private, direct contact with the Lord.
The Lord is mysterious and abstract. When I was a young boy, I was told that the Lord was the vine and that I was one of His branches. Since my home was near a vineyard, I knew what a vine was, but because I could not physically see or touch the Lord, I wondered how He could be a vine and I, His branch. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. However, because we cannot see Him or touch Him, this is an altogether mysterious spiritual fact.
Second Corinthians 3:17 says that the Lord is the Spirit, and 1 Corinthians 15:45b reveals that He is the life-giving Spirit. Moreover, we have a human spirit that has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and is indwelt by Christ, the life-giving Spirit (John 3:5-6; Rom. 8:9-11, 16; 2 Tim. 4:22). Therefore, our union with the Lord as branches in the vine is altogether a matter in our spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” The spirit mentioned in this verse is simply the vine with all the branches mentioned in John 15. The Lord, who is the vine, is the life-giving Spirit, and we, who are His branches, have a human spirit. Thus, we are joined to the Lord to be one spirit with Him. The union of the branches with the vine is in the mingled spirit. The vine is a composition of spirits—the divine Spirit and the human spirit composing one spirit. The spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:17 is not a small, private, individual spirit; it is a great spirit that is composed of the Lord Jesus and all His believers. Christ and the believers are therefore not a physical vine that can be seen and touched but a spiritual vine. The vine and the branches are one spirit.