“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (John 15:5-8, 16 NIV)

Shortly before the Lord went to the Cross, He gathered His disciples and taught them on a variety of great truths that we can find from John 13-17. If the Lord permits, we will sometime look at some of these truths. But for now, let us examine what He said in our text. Here, Jesus revealed the union between Him and the believer, that the apostles would later explain in detail in their epistles. The believer and Jesus are in a vital union. “I am the vine; you are the branches”. The branches of a tree are not separate from the tree. You don’t see a branch growing apart from the tree. It is rather on the tree. It draws its nourishment from the tree. While the tree gives the branch life, it gives the tree beauty in return. What beauty has a branchless tree got? Fruits grow on the branches, leaves grow on the branches too. Jesus tells us here that we are united with Him. We are in Him and He is in us. We are not separate from each other. The Father has accepted us in the beloved (Eph. 1:6). While we have eternal life by Christ Jesus, God is glorified by the fruit we produced. The Body of Christ is the fruit-bearing part of the entire Vine. It is when we remain in Christ, remain attached to Him that we can produce fruit to the praise and glory of the Father. To remain or abide in Christ begins by being born again; accepting Jesus as your savior and confessing Him as your Lord, receiving eternal life from Him and becoming a new creation. Thus, when we abide in Him, and He in us, Jesus said we will bear much fruit.

What are the type of fruit that Jesus said the believer will bear? Today and in subsequent posts, we will look at one of the fruits Jesus said the believer will bear – Prayer Fruit. In verse 7, Jesus said, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”. When you abide in Christ and His Words abide in you, you will be fruitful in the place of prayer. Note that there are two conditions here to producing prayer fruit. One, you must abide in Christ. You must be a child of the living God. You must be born again. The second is that the Word of God must be living in us. Paul tells us that the Word of Christ should dwell in us richly in all wisdom (Col 3:16). This is where we are missing it and failing to produce prayer fruits, fruits in the place of prayer. Prayer becomes a struggle, a duty, and a period of frustration. Many have gotten frustrated because their prayers are not availing much, not producing results. This shouldn’t be.”If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”.
How do we get the Word of God to remain is us?

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; (John 8:31 KJV)

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 1:13 KJV)

Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. (Titus 1:9 KJV)

But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. (1 John 2:5 KJV)

We let His Words abide in us by being doers and not hearers only. It’s by practicing the word of God that we let the word abide in us, and the more we do His word, the more rooted we become and the more fruitful we become in the place of prayer.

The Prayer fruit is a very important fruit we should bear as Christians. If you have ever been desperate before for answers, deliverance from a challenge or whatever, you will come to appreciate the need to be fruitful in prayer. Whether we like to hear it or not, we need to ask ourselves, “How is my prayer life? Am I bearing Prayer fruit? Do I get results when I pray? What is the ratio of successful prayers answered to unsuccessful attempts in prayer?”. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples”. Isn’t it disheartening that we aren’t turning situations around every time we pray? God is glorified when we bear fruits in the place of prayer, and we also show ourselves forth as His disciples. Imagine the impression the whole land of Israel had, when God in response to the prayer of Elijah, sent down fire from heaven? Imagine what impression unbelievers will have when they know there is a Christian brother or sister who is effective in the place of prayer. We are not talking of prayer for praying sake, making noise and shouting; we are talking of producing prayer fruit, results when we pray. God will be glorified and sinners will tremble. The decay in our society today is the result of prayerlessness.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24 KJV)

Answered Prayer produces joy. God wants His children joyful, which in turn strengthens them because the joy of the Lord is their strength.

Let us go back to the Word and learn again the art of prayer, and let us learn to stay in the courts of the Lord till we bring forth prayer fruits. We will deal more on this in future posts.