ABIDING IN THE LORD AND WALKING ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT TO FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER (1)
In John 15 the Lord Jesus unveiled God’s economy in the universe in a very simple way, in the way of a parable concerning the vine tree, the true vine. Yet the revelation here is not that simple. In this chapter my burden is to show us that in this parable the Lord pointed out what our status is. To be a Christian, a believer in Christ, and to be a follower of Christ, what kind of persons should we be? The Lord said that our status in Him is to be a branch of Him, a part of Him to branch Him out (v. 5).
We were created by God in Adam, and eventually we were born in Adam. That was our status. But God transferred us out of Adam and put us into Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). Our being in Christ is a union in life, making us one with Christ in life and in nature. He is the tree, and we are the branches. There is no difference in anything between the tree and the branches, because they are one entity. The only distinction between Him and us is this: He needs us to branch Him out, and we need Him to be our supply and to be our everything.
Here we can see our function and our commission on this earth. A branch of a vine tree is there for nothing else except to bear fruit. Bearing fruit is an issue of the flow of life. In order to bear fruit we must abide in Christ. In John 15:5 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” In order to bear fruit we must abide in Him, remain in the union of life in Him, keep ourselves always one with Him, and never be separated from Him. If we are apart from Him, we have lost our status, we have annulled our function, and we can do nothing.
We love Christ, we seek after Him, and we pursue Him. But we have to admit and confess that we do not live a life as a branch of the vine tree—abiding in Him all the time so that we may flow Him out, branch Him out, to have an issue in bearing fruit. I want to make one thing clear: the vital groups are just normal believers living a life as the real branches of the great vine tree in this universe. We are not just preaching the gospel to win souls for an increase in our number.
What we expect to see is that in the Lord’s recovery all the dear saints who love the Lord, who are pursuing after Him, would see their status as members of the living Christ. These members of the living Christ are branches of the vine tree. We are branches of the vine tree to bear fruit, to flow Him out, to branch Him out. This is our function. This is our commission. This can take place only by our constant abiding in the vine. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and Practice of the Vital Groups”, ch. 11, pp. 346-350)
The church in Zamboanga 