Jesus Is the Vine. We Are His Empowered Branches.

Our faith affects the way we live, and the way we live reflects and affects the way we practice our faith, our Christian walk.

As basic as this reality is, we go about our life without giving it a second thought. We forget that when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we are empowered to take control of our life in a new way.

     Empowered living means we have adopted a Holy Spirit Lifestyle that connects our faith to the divine vine that gives us access to the fruits and spiritual gifts of the Spirit that God has allowed to flow in and through us.

     As a branch is attached to a vine, when we are attached to Jesus Christ in such an intimate way, we are nourished by him and empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit to bear fruit in our life. “I am the vine; 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.” (John 15:5).

An Unworldly Sense of Freedom

     We have at our disposal an unworldly sense of freedom, one grounded in turning over our life to an all-powerful and just God, a loving King and Savior, and a living and active helper, the Holy Spirit, who supports us in ways unique to each of us. This is how we experience empowered living.

     When we accept Christ as our personal Savior, we immediately have at our disposal what the prophet Isaiah claims Jesus had, that he would have as the Branch from Jesse, a Spirit of wisdom, of counsel, of might, and of the knowledge and fear of the Lord. (Isa. 11:1-22)

     While the Holy Spirit’s support gives us the knowledge, confidence, means, and abilities to make decisions for ourselves, as we do what God wants to do in and through us, seeking to manifest our Divine Why by fulfilling our God-given life purpose, it requires us to give our heart, mind, body, and soul in service, connecting our faith to our daily life.

     When we are attached to Jesus Christ as a branch is attached to a vine, the Holy Spirit allows his divine presence to flow through us, helping us know, love, and serve the Father and the Son, regardless of our race, gender, nationality, position, and profession in life.

     Committing to live a Holy Spirit Lifestyle that includes a form of service unique to us, we become the Trinity’s outreach doing “even greater things” in a fallen world full of hurting people.

 

Listen to God’s Words

     “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (John 14:12)

 

       “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:17-18)