Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound relationship believers can cultivate with Christ through the metaphor of the vine and branches in John 15. He explains that true fruitfulness comes from a mutual abiding relationship with Jesus, where believers actively engage in talking to Him, trusting His word, and obeying His leadership. Bickle highlights that this relationship is not just about outward ministry but about an inward transformation that impacts our character and actions, often unnoticed by the world but deeply valued by God. He encourages believers to embrace both their legal union with Christ and their living union, which involves a dynamic interaction with the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper, more intentional dialogue with Jesus that leads to lasting spiritual fruit.

Acts, I mean not acts John chapter 15 John chapter 15 Father we thank you for your word We thank you for this glorious truth That your son made known to the body of Christ in the word We ask you Holy Spirit To inspire our understanding we ask you for impartation. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen Amen Well, most of you know that John 15 is the high point in the scripture in terms of our personal relationship with Jesus So if we want to know what Jesus thinks about us relating to Jesus John chapter 15 is literally the high place in scripture You'll never get anything of more importance about how he wants us to relate to his heart Well, let's read the one of the key verses of John chapter 15 Jesus said I'm the vine and when he said that we're in verse 5. He said I'm the source of life. I'm the source You are the branches The expression of my life will be released through you. You're the expression I am the source and I will you are the vessels I express my life through But now he goes on and develops the critical point He says but know this That the person that abides in me and I abide in them That's the person that will bear fruit as a branch. In other words. He just said you're the branches You're the vessels that express my life But there's no way you will express my life without this mutual abiding this two-way abiding relationship Then he goes on in verse 16 and he says I Chose you that your fruit would remain in other words your fruit would last forever It's not just remained for a few years That you're you will do things on the earth that will impact the heart of God forever Now beloved, that's a that's a remarkable truth So Jesus lays it out here again. Let's look at it again. Here's the key verse I'm the vine. I'm the source You're the vessels that give expression to my life. You're the branches But it's all built or On the foundation of you abiding in me and me abiding in you. It's a two-fold abiding We'll break that down in a few moments. And if you'll do that Then you'll bear fruit that I recognize and I esteem and I remember it forever. It moves my heart Beloved that weak and broken people like us can do something that moves the heart of God and he values it forever That's a remarkable privilege Now you'll notice in the notes here. I have he who abides in me He who talks to me now abiding in Christ is more than talking to him But talking to him is the fundamental activity of abiding in Christ so I like to Simplify it although this is not comprehensive The person that will talk to me. I will actually Talk to them through various ways. I will impress their heart with what I want them to know and what I want them to feel Paragraph B. Now, this is a glorious reality. Is that which I already said that we can broken people like us Can do things that God remembers forever. I Mean we want a life of purpose. We often think of purpose as being something that men recognize But much of the fruit-bearing that God recognizes that moves God men don't esteem it or recognize it at all so fruit-bearing is not about getting the attention of men fruit-bearing is that which gets the attention of God and Much of it goes unnoticed by men So don't measure your life by how much men recognize what you're doing our life becomes epic As we diligently press into this reality. I Mean a lifelong journey imagined for decades 20 30 40 50 years of walking with the Lord knowing That he desires he longs to have deep interaction with you Beloved knowing that makes our life completely different But not only knowing that he longs for it Knowing that what we do in that overflow relationship moves him forever it gives Tremendous significance to the humdrum Routine more mundaneness of life because we're abiding we're talking to him from the heart. Nobody sees it He's talking back to us. He's inspiring and moving our hearts We're growing in love and humility then and not everybody sees it sometimes they'll see a little bits of it But much of it goes unrecognized by men and we impact people by lot we impact them bearing fruit meaning we Move them by the spirit to embrace love and humility now impacting people doesn't mean you get a large crowd of people in a room at a conference Sometimes people They measure impact by how many people come to hear somebody sing or preach or teach or or act or something? It's not the size But it's the ability to move those people to a spiritual response to love and humility That's what fruit is in terms of impacting people from God's point of view paragraph see bearing fruit there's two types in the Bible a fruit bearing and Jesus is referring to both there's the inward bearing of fruit in our godly character love humility purity servanthood and There's the outward Ministry and service but ministry that moves people by the spirit to embrace humility again It's not getting them excited about your ministry. It's getting them to be moved to love and humility that is what true impact and fruit is from God's point of view and I could talk to a thousand people in a room like tonight But I don't know how many people are being moved to love and humility in the secret place of their life That's the only fruit that comes out of tonight we can have two thousand next week and ten thousand the next week and Somebody without biblical discernment might saying you got an amazing impact and my question would be how do you know? Not how many people cram in a room that's how many people embrace humility outside the room later That's the measure of my impact and your impact in terms of ministry and I'm only saying that so you're not locked in to size I appreciate The size of impact I appreciate large numbers being touched, but I tell you you can really get thrown off if that's your grit Because that's not what Jesus is defining impact by paragraph D well, John 15 is about the Transforming union of our heart with God's heart If you had to title the chapter there you could think of I could think of several titles for John 15 But one of them would be the chapter on transforming union Weak and broken people like us We talked to him. He's he moves on our heart There's a union that is progressive and it's transforming in the way we think in the way we feel the way we act Now this transforming union has two elements Sometimes the second element is overlooked He said abide in me and I'll abide in you the him abiding in us is a Critical dimension of the transforming union. It's not enough for us to abide in him But he wants to release his activity to renew our mind and our emotions to Change the way we think and feel in the private place of our life When he does that that means he's abiding in us and we'll look at that later Well, let's look at the first Element of this transforming union paragraph II we abide in him. This is the foundational activity of a believer This is our part of the relationship We abide in him. His part is he releases his activity in us. That's him abiding in us We'll look at that in a moment for us to abide in him Involves three main activities though. It's not limited to these three Because it's a profoundly deep relationship but I'm trying to demystify this and make it practical so something you can think about and Specifically act on So the three activities that I highlight When I think of me doing my part abiding in him because he's charging me to abide in him He's exhorting me to do that and exhorting you the three activities talking with Jesus number two trusting his word, which is not the same thing as talking to him and Number three obeying his leadership, which is not the same as trusting his word Now these three activities overlap, but they do have some distinctions though. They are connected to one another Talking with Jesus is the core activity of abiding in Christ That's where abiding starts It includes more than talking to him, but it starts there So I'm going to spend a portion of of this session tonight talking about Believers talking to Jesus and the importance of it now we all know it But it's easy to know it and not actually do it You could sit in the prayer room for hours and not actually talk to Jesus you can Move your body with the music whether you're tapping your foot or jumping you can be screaming You can be high-fiving. You can be journaling you can be Doing email playing a video game Daydreaming taking a nap having a discussion with somebody that you're mad at in your own head and Never actually ever talk to Jesus in the prayer room You could jump and scream in a worship service and actually never talk to him and my point isn't to point out how Bad all that is we all do though lots of those things. My point is there is something more. That's my point My points positive there's something more than what many are walking in many who even love the Lord Number one talking with Jesus the Christian life is an ongoing dialogue with a person Christian life is far more than ministry to people Far more than Oh having Christian ethics that those aren't that is important to have Christian ethics and administer to people But the core reality of Christianity is an ongoing dialogue with a real person That's the core reality of Christianity now. He has much to say to you But here's important. He allows you to set the pace of the conversation Meaning if you start the conversation He will continue it as long as you want to continue When you stop the conversation he draws back and in terms of he waits patiently till you start it again He will allow you To talk to him to the measure you desire and when you don't want to talk to him He won't talk to you as a rule He allows us to set the pace of the conversation number two It's more than talking to him, but it's actually applying His promises to our heart Now when we apply the promises of God to our heart that empowers us to bear fruit for instance shame or rejection condemnation very common emotions that everybody knows about Condemnation shame feeling alone feeling hopeless feeling despairing they rise up in us and These negative emotions that we all understand we all they're common to everybody they are Challenging what the Word of God says about him loving you him caring about you him directing you providing for you, etc So the way we apply the word when we feel shame and guilt and overwhelmed with a sense of failure But we've repented of our failures we say stop Lies in the name of Jesus. I am the righteousness of Christ. I Am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That's how he sees me He loves me like the father loves him. I'm not alone. I'm not forgotten He will provide and meet my needs. He will direct me. I am rejecting the lies that say the opposite Now here's the point Some people talk to Jesus they actually get that point But they don't go to the next level and apply the promises and refuse the lies They don't speak the word over their heart when contradictory emotions rise up in them So they talk to Jesus, but they don't apply his promises many believers do that Many believers don't talk to Jesus or apply the promises, but some now they go Hey, I'm into the talking But I need to lay hold of what he says is true and I need to act on it by Confessing it and speaking it in my heart before him paragraph 3 There's more than talking and applying There's obey Some talk to him and they even apply his promises, but they don't embrace his leadership in their everyday life They're believing God for promises of great blessing they confess the word But they don't actually embrace his leadership in their in their speech in their money in their time they are negligent in the realm of obedience and Again, all three of these flow together John chapter 14 the chapter before John 15, which is the foundational truth of John 15 are found in John 14 That's why we're spending a number of sessions on chapter 14 We're laying the foundation first and 15 then we're going back to see the foundational truths to John 15 back in John 14 but what he says here in chapter 14 verse 21 and 23 he ties The heart that obeys Jesus to the manifest presence of God touching our heart He says if you'll keep my commandments you will experience my manifest presence more Now Jesus loves us Whether we experience his manifest presence or not but he says if you obey me you come into agreement with who I am or what I'm like and your Capacity to experience me will increase Beloved when we obey We don't earn his presence, but our capacity to experience and feel it increases Can you imagine what it's like? to be in unity not just a unity with him, but to have the actual likeness of of Jesus he's the most beautiful man the most fascinating man the most interesting man the most Satisfied man having our heart not just agree with his but be like his which is the same thing Beloved that beauty that fascination that satisfaction of him touches us Obedience is not like the bad side of our relationship with Jesus like he loves us He will bless us But we have this one little downside we have to obey him Obedience is what brings us into unity With the most beautiful fascinating most satisfied man that's ever walked the earth beloved obedience is our freedom Obedience is our glory It's not the drudgery of God loving us and giving us promises But the one catches we have to obey him we come into unity with his beauty and who he is and what he's like It's only in context to obedient love That he will reveal the deep things of his heart. He will manifest himself to us He said in John and Matthew 5 verse 8 the pure in heart will see God He didn't say the pure in heart will earn more but the pure in heart will have an increased capacity to experience God We have to love God on God's terms It's a lot of teaching out in the body of Christ about love and and teaching outside the body of Christ But there is no love that is not on God's terms because Jesus is the authority on what love is and When we love him, I mean when we obey him, it's an expression of loving him He takes it very personal when we love him When we resist lust and choose him He takes that very personally and it enlarges our capacity to feel and see and experience more Let's look at top of page two Let's go to the second dimension of the above of the transforming Union The first one we abide in him. We just looked at we talked to him We apply his word or trust his word and we embrace his leadership three distinct yet overlapping Activities of the believer Now here paragraph F. It's his activity in us. It's a very different subject Now there are two aspects of Jesus abiding in us in the Bible First he abides in our spirit Instantly the moment we're born again add the verse 1st Corinthians 617 Says the the person that is joined together with the Lord at the new birth their one spirit with God He dwells in your spirit the moment you're born again instantly. He abides in you in your spirit But there's a second sense of which he abides in us it's a very important biblical reality It's his manifest presence in our heart. This is not instant. This is progressive This is this increases and decrease and it can decrease over the course of years and decades This is talking about this references Jesus's activity Renewing our mind and our desires our emotions now paragraph G Paul spoke of Christ abiding in us in terms of in our heart not in our spirit We did that too, but it Christ biting in our heart. He addressed this principle Matter of fact here in Ephesians 3 16 and 17 both of these realities are present That God was strengthened us through his spirit see a spirit dwells in our spirit But when he strengthens us What happens is he dwells in our heart that's talking about the renewed mind and the renewed desire Now we talk about it's it's not exactly accurate, but it's okay to say it We talked to a new believer invite Jesus into your heart and that's good to say that you don't have to get theological with him but in reality they're inviting them into their life and he actually dwells in their spirit and Over time he renews their heart and their emotions and their thinking in that sense He dwells in their heart. That's about Christian growth Now don't say all that to a new believer give him a break paragraph H Now we're going to look at this Jesus abiding in our heart not in our spirit, but in our heart Those are two distinct realities And he bides in our spirit instantly at the new birth He abides or dwells in our heart. That's how that's what happens when the spirit Changes our thinking in our feelings our emotions Jesus Is talking about both of these abidings in John 15? But it's the second abiding the abiding in the heart that he's emphasizing here He's going he says you talk to me and I'll move on your heart I will move on your heart if you'll talk to me and the and the result will be you'll bear fruit Men might not may not esteem it but God will be moved by it and will remember it forever And that's a powerful way to live paragraph H Jesus is activity by the spirit in our heart. I have three activities It's more than this, but I'm just giving you a snapshot The indwelling spirit who lives in our human spirit. He teaches our mind and emotions About God's heart God's Word God's will but he does more than teach us. He inspires us to respond He gives Supernatural wooings to our heart to motivate us to respond. He won't make us respond Respond, but he will woo us time and time again and he will give us those moments of inspiration We respond to them. We'll walk out the obedience We can reject and neglect those moments of inspiration. They will come again It's better to take them on the front end instead of on the back end because in the back end There might be a little divine discipline going with those wooings Because he loves us Well, it's more than he inspires us to obey. He actually changes the Constitution of our thinking and our emotions you cannot change your emotional makeup You can grit your teeth all day long and try to feel different you can change your mind, but only the Spirit can change your emotions and Jesus is saying here. I will abide you I will move on your mind and emotions if you'll talk to me and the result will be you'll bear good fruit paragraph I Now some Believers ministries, they only emphasize our legal union with Christ our Justification Others they go to the other Extreme they only emphasize our living union with Christ and that's what we're talking about tonight our Participation in his indwelling light Some people that's all they talk about we participate with the life of God in us. That's a most glorious subject That's what John 15 is about But we also need to emphasize our legal union our justification, but we do them both not pick one over the other Paragraph J. I talked a little bit more about that. You can read that on your own Just say it a little bit differently Our legal position is based on receiving the gift of righteousness Our living condition is based on responding to the Spirit's activity in his leadership in our life One of them we receive the gift of righteousness the other we respond to the Spirit's leadership Two different dimensions to our union with Christ Paragraph K. I say the same thing again in a different way We embrace the work Jesus did for us on the cross We embrace the work of the Holy Spirit does in us as he draws us into intimate relationship. It's both and it's not either or But I find that There are a number of the body of Christ don't want to pick one verse the other and pit them against each other beloved We need both of these truths growing in our understanding Paragraph Roman numeral two now, I'm gonna be brief on this point But I want to I want you to know it's here although I'm not going to go through much of it Roman numeral two the core Activity of abiding in Christ remember is talking to him We have to do more than talk and apply his promises and we have to embrace his leadership. We have to all three But the core reality is the talking to him Paragraph a we open our Bibles our Bible study is meant to lead us into conversation with a person Meaning when we study our Bible we open it It's okay to study to find biblical facts and to find some doctrines that that's good, but that's not enough It's good, but it's not all that he has when we open our Bible. It's meant to be the conversational material with a person And when I began to discover the Bible as the conversational material prayer became easy and enjoyable Well, I'll say prayer became easier And it became really enjoyable I Call this to pray read the Bible pray read the word Meaning you're reading it, but in it with a with a prayerful Attitude you're talking to Jesus while you're reading it Now here in the paragraph a I have here free teaching notes how to pray read the word Go to the website and the reason I'm saying that I spent an hour on this subject some time ago And if you're saying I don't really get what this means Instead of us taking the time tonight. I want you to go to the website if this grabs your attention And it's new to you. It's a very simple principle, but it might be new to you and you want more on it You can we have the video and we have the teaching notes now paragraph B The second sentence we'll talk to him Far more through the day if we'll take time to pray read the word and what I mean by that I talk to people and they say Well, I just want out I just talk to Jesus as I go and I go that that's right those 10 and 20 second soundbite conversations all day long and That's that's actually really good in order to do that But I want to give you a principle you will do that much more Consistently if you'll take times deliberately to open the Bible and talk to him from the Bible Now when we talk to him the end of paragraph B We direct our attention in two different ways We had direct our attention to the father on the throne our father who art in heaven Revelation 4 I have the passage there the emerald rainbows around the throne and the 24 elders and the living creatures and the sea of glass like crystal I Encourage people to meditate on Revelation 4. That's the scene of which we enter into when we talk to our father Who art in heaven? But that's not the fullness of our conversation with God We talk to God the Holy Spirit who dwells in our spirit and that's where abiding in Christ really begins to take a whole new level of of meaning Paul used the phrase To fellowship with the Holy Spirit to use that phrase phrase twice We fellowship with the Spirit We don't fellowship with the Spirit the the the Holy Spirit in the atmosphere of a meeting We talked to the Holy Spirit who's dwelling actually in our human spirit. We turn our attention inward and The Holy of Holies is actually dwelling in your spirit That's your kind of glory Moses saw that burning bush on the mountain beloved that very God the glory of God dwells in your spirit He's a real person. He is as much God as the Father in the Son one God in three persons Paragraph C now when I think of Prayer to pray read the word in other words read the Bible while having a conversation with Jesus paragraph C I think of two broad categories of Bible passages number one There are passages That are promises that we are supposed to believe Promises God loves you God forgives you God promises to lead you provide for you. Those are promises to believe paragraph two There's another category of Scripture. They are exhortations to obey In other words walk in purity Bring your speech under the control of the Holy Spirit use your time and your money in the right way Those are exhortations to obey so in the broad sense, there's passages that promise you things you must believe and there are exhortations that you must obey top of page three Again you can read the notes more in detail and even go to that longer teaching that's on the website Now when we talk to Jesus related to promises we are to believe we do two things Paragraph D. Number one. We thank him for that promise and number two. We ask him to reveal it more to us Very simple, but beloved these two things will change your life if you actually do it Like the passage right here in John 15 the very passage Jesus said one of the most astounding things imaginable He said in essence. He goes. I love you the way the Father loves me What I love you in the intensity the Father loves me. So what you do with that truth Number one stop and actually talk to him. Thank him for it How many of you have actually paused? Breathing 10 seconds. It said thank you that you love me the way the Father loves you If you do that if you get in that dialogue the Holy Spirit will start moving on your heart I don't mean every time but as a rule Don't just underline the good verse and tell your friend actually thank him for it Then go to the next level paragraph to ask him to reveal more of it Say thank you that you love me this way Show me more and the Holy Spirit could be saying something like I was just waiting for you to ask Because the Holy Spirit will say more if you'll start the conversation. He'll say more to you Paragraph II Now, how do we do this with exhortations to obey? It's quite simple number one We pause when we read an exhortation of something. We're supposed to obey we commit ourself to do it We actually stop and say Lord I commit myself to do this we actually say those kind of words to him Then number two We ask him to help us empower us For instance, we'll use the same passage John 15 9. He says as the Father loved me. I love you now Here's the exhortation. He now he tells us to do something abide in that love abide in it Focus on it dwell on it cultivate this reality in your life so number one paragraph II we stop and we say I Commit myself to take time to abide in your love whatever the exhortation is take a moment and actually commit yourself to do it that Dialogue will change the whole approach of your inner life Not the approach I mean the your approach to the word is what I was going to say and the way your inner life is Formed will radically change when you start talking to the Holy Spirit in simple ways like this Then you say something like paragraph 2 Holy Spirit help me to abide in him. Show me how