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. (John 15:4 NKJV)

In John 15:1-11, we find the famous ‘abide’ chapter where in 11 verses we find the command to ‘abide’ about nine times.

I think God may be trying to tell us something! This passage clearly makes the point that if you want to bear fruit in the Kingdom of God, then you need to abide in Christ.

In order to understand this passage even better in our day, I like to use the analogy of a garden hose.

You may be the most expensive, 50′ hose with stainless steel ends and fresh from the store, or you may be an old and worn-out 15′ hose from a garage sale, but we are both equally useless until we are plugged in the faucet.

Hoses are made for one reason to abide in the tap.

I may be an old-worn hose, with rusted ends, but when the water flows through me to refresh others, I’ll get cleaned up too.

The purpose of the garden hose is to abide and when it does, it brings life to those who need it within its sphere of influence, whether it is 15′ or 50′.

When instructing people to grow in their prophetic gifting, a question sometimes comes up, ‘What if I ask God for a word and I get something strange or worse demonic?’

I tell people that Jesus said that Our Heavenly Father gives good gifts. When we ask for bread, He gives us bread.

As we abide in Christ, He desires to speak to us and through us.

Now a practical example of what happened to me a few days ago. (Sometimes I get it right.)

My 15′ garden hose doesn’t reach my neighbors too well.

We have neighbors who are a challenge and clearly made the point that they like to be left alone.

They have three large watchdogs, that seem to feel the same way. And getting my 15′ garden hose to reach the unreachable is a challenge.

But that is why we are told to abide

One of our neighbors is somewhat of a gear-head. She loves her cars and has a Volkswagen bug with a peace, love, and flower decal on it. It is her baby.

I was in a thrift store recently, and I saw a 5″ long detailed die-cast metal Volkswagen bug with a flower power and peace decal on it.

I knew at that moment I was supposed to get it for my neighbor and purchased it for one dollar.

Over the next few days, I spent time praying before taking it to her and her dogs who like to have their noses six inches from your crotch as they growl at you.

What if she thinks it is stupid?

After my abiding prayer time, I heard the Holy Spirit say, ‘Tell her it’s for her birthday.’

With that final bit of instruction, I thought, ‘Ok, I can do this’, and I decided to take it to her house.

I got by her K-9s ok, and as she walked towards me to see what I wanted, I held up the ‘bug’ in my hand for her to see.

She lit up like it was Christmas.

I told her where I got it from and because of her real one, I knew she should have it.

She was thrilled.

And then as the Holy Spirit had prompted me, I added that it was for her birthday and she looked at me in shock and said that her birthday was only 10 days away.

She was blessed.

For one dollar, my old 15′ hose did ok. The bridge is being built.

Till the next time keep abiding.