Power from the Vine

“A branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me” (John 15: 4b, NLT).

What is power in my life? Power is simply God flowing through me. No matter how weak or how unaccomplished I might be, when I allow God to work through me, then what I do will be powerful. I need to remember this during days when I seem to slide back two steps after climbing one. No day is a failure when I have given it to God. His use of my surrendered day may not be apparent, but it is real. If I dwell in Him, and He dwells in me, then I will bear fruit. The fruit is not mine to bear. He is the vine. I am the branch which carries the life of the vine to the fruit. For the life of the vine to flow through me, I must surrender all that I am to Him. If I remain in Him, and desire only His will and His work, His Spirit will not fail to flow through my life into the lives of others.

Do I long for His power, or is it blocked? The only block that can hold His power from flowing through my life is “self”. If this is the case, then my longing for Him must not be enough. Do I hunger for His power enough to let go of all that I am, all that I want, all that I have decided?  Do I not realize that when I hold on to the least vestige of myself I have told the Lord that I am the vine? That is pride. Now think of Peter telling the Lord he was not worthy to have his feet washed. What appeared as humility in Peter was really pride. Peter was trying to hold onto the last vestige of himself by saying he was not worthy, and the Lord was asking for His surrender. Pride. Self. Unworthiness. All are excuses to my absolute surrender.

Do I yearn for others to be impacted by His love and power flowing through me? If I remain in Him and surrender all of myself to His calling, then the abundant life-power of the vine will flow through me—unleashed, unhindered, and free to change lives. I will be a channel of all that He is coursing through all that I am not. Others will receive that which I cannot impart and will experience His power which I cannot create. Holding on to the vine at all cost, I will know in my weakness what it means to be strong in His power. The vine will be my life.

   Lynn Hampton Lacher