How Do You Know You’re Abiding? by Bryan Craig

The other day, I was talking to some leaders who have been involved in Influencers for quite a while about our favorite topic… Abiding.  The question came up.  How do you know if you are abiding in Christ?  Now, I know most of your reading this will think this to be an elementary question or one which can be answered with Journey 101 concepts.  

• In John 15:5, Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

• We draw our key definition of “fruit” from Galatians 5:22-23: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control: against such things there is no law.”

• Furthermore, the Fruit of the Spirit enables the Spiritual Gifts.  In 1 Corinthians 12, as Paul is teaching about the spiritual gifts, he talks in verse 31 about “earnestly desire the higher gifts.  And I will show you a still more excellent way.”  Then, he goes into his Love chapter, talking about how none of the spiritual gifts matter without love. Yes, the Fruit of The Spirit enables our Spiritual Gifts.

• So, the thesis is that if we Abide in Christ, we will bear the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, which will empower our Spiritual Gifts, which will allow us to impact our world for Him and become a Harvester of souls and a Disciple-maker.  

• So, working backwards… a logical assessment would be IF we are making an impact on our world and being a Disciple-maker, and it seems that our Spiritual Gifts are being used, then we must have the Fruit of the Spirit, and therefore, we must be Abiding.

While I believe this scriptural progression, and I’ve seen it in my own life in different ways and in the lives of others, the Holy Spirit poured in a new thought for me to consider, as I was having this conversation with two men, whom I believe to be Abiders, no doubt.

The Fruit of The Spirit is experienced by us first as we Abide.  So, before I measure my disciple-making efforts and my contribution to the Harvest or the use of my spiritual gifts as a measure of my abiding, the best measure is whether I am experiencing His fruit.

Do I feel His love for me?

Am I participating in His joy in me?

Is His peace permeating my soul?

Do I see how patient He is with me?

Do I understand how kind He is to me?

Am I in awe of His faithfulness to me despite my sinfulness and shortcomings?

Do I sense how He is not harsh or judgmental, but gentle?

Do I appreciate how He relents from anger as He maintains perfect control of Himself all the time?

If we are abiding in Christ, we will sense His presence in us through these attributes, regardless of our circumstances.  Before we can “bear fruit”, I think we have to taste it. It always begins and ends with Him.  This is why we often say, like they do on airplanes, “If the plane loses cabin pressure, please place the oxygen mask on yourself before attempting to assist others around you.”  

John 15:8, says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”  So, it brings God glory when we bear fruit and it shows we are His disciples.  But,then, Jesus says how to do this:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.  John 15:9-11 ESV

We Abide in His Love and His Joy and the other fruits of The Spirit, and when we do, it multiplies into others.  Jesus ties it all together when he explains that “keeping His commandments” means loving others. John 15:12: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  So, starts with His Love, the evidence of His Spirit within us, and then, it works through us to love others.  Then, we feel His love more fully.  

It comes back to the first description of the Vine and Branches, when Jesus said:  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.   When we gave our lives to Christ, surrendering to Him, believing in Him, repenting from our sins, were baptized into Him, He gave us the Holy Spirit, with all of His Fruit and all ofHis gifts.  He started “abiding in us.”  The next growth stage comes when we start to “abide in Him.”  

That’s when we start to enjoy our relationship with Him, when we realize we are part of His family, when we start to understand the power of the Holy Spirit, and when we taste the Fruits of the Spirit.  That must happen before we can share that fruit with others.  And that’s when we know we are Abiding.

King David must have understood this dynamic, as he exclaimed, “Delight yourself in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  Psalm 37:4 ESV