VineLife Part One

I want to be always living the VineLife. This is the life that is continually connected to the vine. Stop for a moment and consider this, What is fruit? When the Holy Spirit spoke of holiness it was through the imagery of fruit. This gives us incredible insight into the anatomy of holiness. Holiness in our lives is the outcome of the hidden life of the tree. It is not the life of the branch that causes fruit to produce; it is the life of the sap. The deposit of the sap into the branch, through the vine produces fruit-holiness. This is the VineLife:

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:4-5

Who do you think you are?

What comes natural to you? Just study children and you will be surprised at who we are by nature. Two babies are playing together. One of them sees the toy in the others hand and snatches it away. This makes him angry so he snatches it back. Not willing to give up so easily, the baby wrestles is away again causing loud crying and tears to ensue. The mother comes rushing in and asks, “Did you take that toy away from him?” The mischievous child puts his sweetest face on and shakes his head, no. So before a child can walk and talk he can already ENVY, LUST, STEAL and LIE. Why? It’s the same reason that a chicken is not a chicken because it lays an egg; it lays an egg because it’s a chicken. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.

This is why God commands that we put the natural man in its proper place. What is the proper place for the natural man? .It is the cross. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:24

God does not leave this work entirely up to us. He will initiate this work inside of us and all we have to do is surrender to it. The Christian life is not as forced life of willpower and self-effort. It is a yielded life of grace and peace. "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Galatians 5:16-18