Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. {John 15:4}
The only way to live for Jesus is to always spend time with Him. We cannot live for Him if we do not know Him. Unless we spend time daily abiding in Him, being in His presence and talking to Him, we cannot know what He would want for us to do. Sure, we have the word of God written in the Bible, and it will instruct us and show us how to serve and please the Lord. But reading the Bible and memorizing the verses can only go so far. Unless the word of God is in our hearts talking to us everyday, guiding and leading us every step of the way, we can miss the point of God’s word entirely. This process of living out the scriptures can only be done through the work of the Holy Spirit if we let Him. The Bible itself tells us that we need to live in the Spirit not in the flesh. It tells us:
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. {Galatians 5:16}
Unless we spend time talking to the Lord and seeking after Him with all of our hearts in prayer, we will not know what to do. You cannot memorize every rule and law in the scriptures and carry them out. No one can. Besides that, that would be living in the flesh. If the word of God is not in your heart and soul, speaking to you daily, it will all just be following the do’s and don’ts of the scriptures. It will soon become a burden and drudgery to walk with God. Jesus Christ told us Himself that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. {Matthew 11:30} Walking with Him is meant to be a joy, not a task.
Imagine falling in a love with a person and they give you a set of rules for you to follow. They hand you a list of what they expect from you to do for them that will make them happy. Imagine wanting so much to please this person and getting caught up trying to memorize all the rules and desires they have for you to do. Afterwards you’re just caught up trying to do every thing that’s in that list and forgetting to just enjoy the person you’re in love with. That’s not going to last long is it? Imagine a wife whose desire is to please her husband but every time her husband is home and wants to spend time with her, she’s caught up doing house chores. She’s in there scrubbing the floors, washing the dishes, and doing laundry. She has set up a schedule for her chores and how to please her husband. She has it down pat and she will not allow anyone to interrupt her routine, not even her husband who is waiting for her to spend time with him. Is that how we picture a loving relationship with God? Doing His rules of do’s and don’ts, having our schedule so down pat that even when the Holy Spirit is nudging for us to pray and spend time with Him we say no? Is that how He wants us to live for Him? I don’t think so.
Here’s a look at the church at Ephesus that Jesus sent a rebuke through John the Beloved in the Book of Revelation. The Lord told the church at Ephesus:
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. {Revelation 2:2-5}
This is what happened to the relationship between the saints at Ephesus and the Lord. They got caught up doing His work and trying to please Him so much, that they stopped spending time with Him. There they are patiently laboring for the Lord, following all the rules that they thought would please Him, even hating people that are evil and are pretending to be apostles. They got everything covered. The Lord Himself points out all these good things they were doing for Him. He told them that He knows what they were doing for Him and yet He rebuked them. He tells them, “You’ve left your first love.” Say what? Surely, He can’t be serious. But that’s exactly what happened. The Lord didn’t care anymore what they were doing for Him when they were too busy to spend time to talk to Him and be in His presence. He wants a relationship with His people, with His saints, not servitude. He doesn’t want employees working for Him. He wants an intimate relationship with you and me, where we come to know who He is and are in love Him. The church at Ephesus had forgotten to love Him. They have left Him according to the Lord. So then He tells them, “You have fallen, repent and do the first works.”
We need to do the same thing. We need to repent and do the first works. Doing the “first works” is spending time with Jesus, falling in love with Him. This is what He is looking for from us. He could care less about how busy we are doing His work if we’re not spending time with Him. They only matter if we know Him and are hearing His voice. What good is a busy and goodly wife, scrubbing the bathroom floors and doing the cooking and cleaning if she stops spending time with her husband, talking to him and knowing who he is? That marriage is not going to go too far. It’s going to be an empty marriage with all works and not enough time knowing and loving each other.
Living for God is not supposed to be one burden after another of trying to do His will. Our focus should be on Jesus Christ, not on what we can do for Him. If our focus is on spending time with Him and loving Him and His presence, then all other things He wants us to do will just come naturally. We won’t even have to wonder what they are because we will know exactly what He wants us to do, since we’re always in His presence. He doesn’t want us caught up doing His work and trying to be good and righteous before Him if we don’t know who He is. Sooner or later we won’t have a relationship with the Lord. We will just have a master and servant relationship with Him instead of the Bridegroom and His Bride. This living for God is a daily walk with Jesus Christ, looking forward to being married to the Son of God – the Bridegroom. Every day and every moment we find ourselves able, we are in His presence. We look forward to His return and to being with Him forever and ever. It’s a side-by-side walk with Him, talking with Him, and learning who He is. This is the first work He wants from us. This is what being in love with your spouse is supposed to be like. You’re supposed to drop everything you’re doing as soon as he comes home, run to his arms and say, “I’m so glad to see you! I love you. I’m so glad we can be together again.”
This is what living for Jesus is about. Listening to His voice, talking to Him, and walking with Him. We seek after Him through the Spirit of God that He has given to us. We spend time with Him, seeking for Him with all of our hearts and soul until we come to know His voice, who He is and what He is telling us to do. We don’t jump the gun with His words and what the writers of the Bible tell us about Him. We read about Him and then we do our own seeking ourselves, as the writers themselves came to know Him. We don’t settle and know Him only through what the writers tell us about Him. We ourselves do our own seeking for Him with all of our hearts and souls through the Holy Spirit. This way we will come to know for ourselves what He wants for us to do and how He wants for us to live.
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. {Luke 9:23}
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. {John 15:5}
Prayer
Heavenly Father, You are our God who is so loving and merciful. Our hopes and desires are toward You. We need You in this hour Jesus. We are lost without You. I thank You for never ever changing and being faithful in Your love for us. I thank You for being so good and so gracious to Your people today.
Lord, I ask for Your grace and compassion upon my soul today. I ask for Your mercy and forgiveness upon me and for the many days I have forgotten to spend time with You. I am sorry Lord that my heart wanders away from You and I desire the things of this world more than You. There are so many distractions these days, more than I’ve ever known before. Only You can help me return back to You and love You again. Please Jesus, help me Father to love You again. I pray, in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
