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Welcome!! This podcast is about "dividing the word one episode at a time" A real, relatable, and refreshing space for young and older adults seeking to grow in everyday life with Christ. Each episode dives into honest biblical teaching and conversations with life experiences that connect generations and deepen our walk with Christ. Whether you’re navigating adulthood or seasoned in your faith journey, there’s something here for you, thanks for being here!!
Christ & Me Podcast (00:12)
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Christ in Me podcast. Welcome back. This episode, we are going to be continuing from the previous episode that was speaking about nourishing your devotion. ⁓ We are going to be covering the point about remembering to abide and growth and intimacy in your prayer life.
But before I actually talk about that, it was kind of put on my heart after I had finished recording and putting it out that like I should have went a little bit more in depth and what it means to like really read your Bible and get into that. So I told y'all about Bible plans, right? So there was a Bible plan that I told y'all about where reading the Bible in a year plan, it is reading a chapter or a couple of chapters a day, sometimes reading it like it's just a regular book. That's one method.
where you're just reading through it from cover to cover. Some of you may choose to read it where there's a chronological order, where there are specific Bibles that are ⁓ written where it all is flowing in like correct and ordered timelines. Then there is a specific method I recently learned from this book that I'm reading, where an individual will read.
two chapters from the Old Testament, two chapters from the New Testament, I two chapters of the Psalms and then one.
proverb based on the day of the month. Since there are already 31 proverbs, they're based on the days of the month. So that's something to keep in mind. ⁓ Reading the Bible, something I would really say is reading the Bible really is about making sure Jesus is, you and Jesus are meeting each other. Remember, the Bible is God's word. It is His edifying, growing, constantly
teaching, or education filled word. ⁓ So it's important that you guys are like really diving in the scriptures, allowing the scriptures to alter and change your lives. The reality is you can approach the word of God in different ways, right? Not every time do you have to do the Bible in the year plan every single year it comes around. Now that's amazing that you do that, but it's also
wonderful to make sure that you are seeking Jesus to the best of your ability and his word because So something I want y'all to just keep in mind is something I'm dealing with right now. I don't want to become apathetic about the word of God. So I'm doing
the Bible in the year plan right now. And I'm, really running through scriptures. Like I'm doing four chapters a day and it's like, it's a lot. And then sometimes when I fall back, I'll just try to do all the chapters I missed, including the chapters for those days. So recently I had missed a couple of days and today I'm supposed to be completing Deuteronomy, which I will be doing.
⁓ I was supposed to be completing Deuteronomy and tomorrow starts my journey through Joshua, which is I'm excited about. But something I had to kind of be mindful of is my apatheticness towards other aspects of the Word of God. gosh, now it's a chore. I just got to do it to show consistency rather than meeting God. And when you change the way you go about viewing the Word of God, when you change the way you go about
like approaching scripture and this is from me in this moment really telling you the truth about like what the Lord has had to convict me about constantly as I've been reading is making sure to stop, take your time and read. It's good to rush through and it's good to think you're rushing through and reading or what. Take time to read what you're reading because there are things that will be exposed to you that you.
realize, wow, that really testifies of why Jesus said what he said in the New Testament. So here's a good example. I want to share this. this really has nothing to do. This has actually something to do. Just listen. So in Deuteronomy chapter, and we're just going to go there at this point. In Deuteronomy chapter, I think it's like 22.
I'm going to go to it before I start lying. It's in chapter 19. I knew I was right. Freaking. Okay. it's in Deuteronomy chapter 19, the verse 15 to 16, it says, to 17, it says, one witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. I want us to just remember that. Two or three witnesses.
If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priest and the judges who are in the office at the time. Now I want everyone to kind of remember the two to three witnesses. Jesus would later say in one of the gospels that were written, I think I remember it being John, where he says, when two or three are gathered in my name, I am with them.
Now, oftentimes we think when we fellowship, the Lord is with us, right? Jesus is here, which is often true. When we connect with each other the way we do, we have that beauty of having Jesus in our presence with us and that's a blessing. But what did Jesus really mean? Because a lot of stuff that Jesus says could have a double-sided coin. That doesn't mean that now that interpretation of Him being there with us
is obsolete now because it had a double meaning. The Bible says that all scripture is God-breathed, right? And the whole, he is the same yesterday, today and forever. So that means oftentimes there are things that may have not been exposed to us one day that could be exposed to us another day. So just follow me, right? If two or three are gathered in his name and he's with them, that means when two or three of his disciples, us, as followers of Jesus are there, we testify
of who He is, right? We testify of His nature, we testify of His character. That's why the Bible says, love one another as I have loved you. When you love one another...
you will prove to the people that you are my disciples by the way you love one another, right? So it was important that we loved one another because it would testify of who he is and his teachings and his word by the way we love one another. So when two or three are gathered in his name, he is with them because of the fact that we testify of who he is and what he was like when he was here on earth. That's why when he went into the garden of Gethsemane, he asked Peter,
and the sons of Zebedee, which are James and John, to join him into the garden because he needs two or three witnesses that would contend for him in prayer and that would testify of his character and who he is later down the line, which is why Peter, James, and John would be key figures. Who would be key figures, mind you, in the book of Acts in the church. So I just wanted to.
I just wanted to expose that little thing to you guys. was to me that had really like when I was reading yesterday, that it really just blessed me. And I was just like, I got to share this with you guys. ⁓
So I want to get us into remember to abide and bear fruit. John 15 verse one to five. Oftentimes a lot of us remember what John 15 or we know John 15 for those who are followers of Jesus ⁓ who have probably read the gospel, we've heard abide in me and I in you. We've heard that before. But it's important that we now approach that when it comes to our devotional time, when it comes to us,
being hungry and desperate for the presence of God, how we approach that, right? John 15, chapter one, verse five says, am the true vine and my father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me as I also 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 you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing." Now, of course, we learn that and we are somewhat, how would I say? We are somewhat like, yes, I abide in him. I'm a branch for the Lord. That's so amazing. But it's like,
I need y'all to get the severity. And I want y'all to hear me reread this part for you again. It says, 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. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Again, apart from me, you can do nothing.
My family, hear what I'm saying to you. My friends, hear what I'm saying to you. People I don't know, that I care about in heart, please hear what I'm saying to you. Apart from Christ.
whether in spiritual actions and even in the day-to-day, you can do nothing apart from Christ.
Jesus is clarifying here that in order to stay spiritually alive and have a spiritual life in Christ or a spiritual life connected to God, you must be in Him. Notice how the Father is the gardener, but He is the vine
He tends to the vine. takes care of the vine. That's what the Father does. But the vine takes care of us. He gives us life. He is our nectar. He is our feeder. He feeds us. He gives us the things that we need and grows us in the things that we need to be grown in. That's why it says, those who bear much fruit, they will be pruned because of the fact that we are called to bear even more fruit. But if you're a person who lacks bearing fruit, you will be cut off.
Who will be doing the cut off the father?
Because if you don't bear fruit, the Lord will easily cut you off.
So it's important for us to come across how do we go about understanding, how does this connect back to our devotional life? We are blessed to be alive in who Christ is. We are branches attached to the vine. The Bible says, I am the way, the truth and the life. Nothing comes, no one comes to the Father except through me. So if I'm the, hear what he said.
I am the way, the truth, and what the life of Vine gives life to its branches.
You can be nothing apart from who Christ has called you to be.
You must remain in the love that He has. Jesus is love.
Jesus is that love, which means you must remain in who He is. You must be so hungry for who He is. You must desire Him in such a way. You must seek Him in such a regard that when you seek Him, that when you pursue Him, it is Him that you are in, that you are remaining in Him. That's why I need everybody to understand something. Abide in me and my word will abide in you.
When you abide, you must understand that you are abiding in a couple of things. Firstly, His love.
You are abiding in the love. You are abiding in the word. You are abiding in joy and you are abiding in the blood.
Now, when you abide in the love of Jesus, you are understanding that love flows into you. And as it flows into you, the fruit that you bear would be the reflection of the love that He flowed into you. That's why I want to remind you that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. So mind you, it's not fruits. It is fruit of the Spirit. So that means
you will be reflecting numerous attributes of the Spirit through abiding in Christ. The Spirit of God is the flow of what goes into the branches, which helps it bear fruit. The fruit that is on the branches are the fruit of the Spirit.
So, when you abide, you are not just abiding like a random branch, but you are
being renewed in the life of Christ. You're becoming a new creation where you are depending, living, leaning.
Just relying on who God is.
The next you're abiding in the word.
Abiding in the Word. John 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And later, verse 14 says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt what among us? He became flesh and dwelt among us. So if Jesus is the Word,
That means there are some things that we're supposed to be abiding in.
is love, who he is, what he's about. We're supposed to be abiding in those truths.
We are also supposed to be abiding in His Word. That's why the Bible says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light into my path. The Word of God is our guidance.
His word edifies us. is our bread. It is the water that that quenches our thirst. His word should be our everything. His love should be our everything. Who he is in character should be our everything.
You experience the experience of his love and life is found in his word. No life, no love because of no word. There is no life. There is no love because there is no word that is in your heart. That's why David said, I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you. It is that, it is that desire to make sure that God is in the heart.
You are supposed to abide so deeply in the Lord that that's how life also flows. If you don't know Him, if you don't know His word. You don't got to know every single book in the Bible written down heart to heart, but guess what? You should be reading it enough that when someone says something, you know it does not come from your God. In this time recently, let me, you know, go into something else.
And this time recently, I've been coming into a lot of videos where it's like, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, which is true. I'm not bashing it, but something that it's making sure that we are mindful of as followers of Jesus is be mindful of where you get your information from too.
Don't believe people when they say Jesus is in Chicago, because the Bible says when He comes, He'll be coming when He breaks open that sky and we'll be able to see Him when He returns. He is our soon coming King.
we lean on the word of God. I should not be anxious in these times that we're in because Jesus said that these are the times that are to come. I know that because I read his word.
What about you? Are you allowing yourself to be edified by the truth of God's word? Are you allowing yourself to become knowledgeable in love and in depth of who God's word is? There is no love of Him if there's no word in you.
John said.
If you hate your brother and sister, there's no love of the father in you.
But guess what? I wouldn't have known that if I didn't read his word. So how can I say I love God if I hated someone so much in my heart that I didn't want to be around them?
And then on top of that, I didn't even read his word to understand that oh snap, my behavior towards this person or this idea or this perspective. This goes against that because the word of God says so.
Our hearts must be changed by the way we come across the word of God. It is our sword. It is our food. It is the water that we drink and we thirst off of. We must be edified by that. Let's go a little faster.
You must believe Christ's. Thirsting, consuming, and his coming all point back to the center of believing his return. Let me say that again. Thirsting, consuming, and his coming all point back to the center of believing his return. So we understand the importance of being alive in him. We understand the importance of remaining in his love.
We understand the importance of abiding in the word of God because if there is no life, there is no love if there is no word. So John chapter six, verse 35 tells us, what does it tell us? Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you,
You have seen me and still you do not believe.
So it's important that we understand who Jesus is. When he says, am the bread of life, he's not lying. That's who he is. This is not something he's saying for the sake of his own breath. He's saying that to remind us of the truth of who he is. John chapter three verse 16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This is something that he told us to believe in.
The Lady on the Well, John chapter 4.
He said to her, he says, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. but whoever drinks of the water I give them will never thirst.
basically calling himself the living water. That's who he is to us. That's who he is. But the reality is, are we hungry and thirsty enough that we're not allowing ourselves to be quenched by the things that are of our flesh?
Are we being so, so driven by our flesh that we do not even allow ourselves to get a drop of Jesus on our lips? A breadcrumb of Him on our mouths? We must be mindful of the things that we are consuming because it is very easy to become filled up with everything else that when it's time to consume Christ,
Our stomachs are filled. And guess what? Our appetite won't hunger for him, it'll hunger for the things we ate before that. Our phones, those books that don't really edify us, the shows that don't really edify us, those so many things that don't edify us, that will leave us hungry and thirsty again.
The posting on social media. All these things will leave us hungry and thirsty again and we'll continue doing it until we realize, wait, this doesn't feed me the way I want it.
Abide in the blood. Sorry, I skipped on. Abide in the joy. Joy from the vine flows to me becoming my joy. When you read Psalm 34, it's a great Psalm because it speaks about the importance of seeking the Lord, that he restores us.
We must find joy in Christ.
We want everything, but we want to leave Jesus behind.
in Philippians chapter 4.
Paul speaks about how.
He knows what it's like to have much. He knows what it's like to have little. Yet he's content. And even verses before that, he says, rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. Whatever is lovely, whatever is praiseworthy, whatever is good report, think about such things.
Think about the things we've taught and done before you, and the God of peace will be with you. Think about the things Jesus has taught in his word. Think about the way Jesus is exalted in his word. Think about the healings that God has done. Think about the fact that he brought you out of hell. Think about the fact that he renewed your soul. Think about the fact that he cleansed you of your sin.
Think about the fact that He gave you a peace that no other can give you. These are the things to think about when we are trying to seek everything else but Christ.
Joy from the vine flows into me becoming my joy.
Joy that comes from Christ, the joy that comes from being renewed back to Him, the joy that comes from Him being in the presence of His Father, and the Father finding joy and being connected back to us can then be the joy that is drawing us to have joy in Him.
A joy to want to be in his presence, a joy and a hunger to want to be more like him.
Last part of abiding is abide in the blood. Jesus beaten.
body and shed blood is root of all the other things mentioned we don't have connection in any way without the way Jesus has bridged us back to eternity.
There is no other way that we have been brought back through eternity besides the beaten, bloody body of Jesus Christ.
So I say this to you.
You've been washed by the blood, cleansed by his holy name.
Grace wraps around you, holiness you wear it, because his blood is also the cloth.
that has cleansed you that you could be white as snow.
Abide in Him.
remain in his love.
Bide in His Word. Believe Christ in the Scriptures that He has said for us. Run after Him.
in prayer.
call on Him to abide. Find joy in the fact that you abide. Cry out to Him. Matter of fact, we're mixing both of these together. I'm just, because honestly, I've already spoken about an episode of prayer, and hopefully God will allow me to speak about it again, because I feel like I've grown a lot since that episode. But this is what I would tell you. These are John Piper's prayer points on abiding. ⁓
So this is what I'm going to share with you. He said, cry out to abide.
Cry out to abide. Tell Him you do not want to be apart from Him. Tell Him you never want to be apart from Him. Tell Him that you want to be connected. If you are a person who is lost right now and you need Jesus, tell Him you need to be connected to the vine. Tell Him I ain't finding peace nowhere else. Tell Him I am not finding patience or love for my enemies. Tell Him I'm not finding anything else outside of Him. I need you, Lord.
Tell him I need to abide in his love. Tell him I need to abide in his word. Tell him the things that need to happen in your life, that your life may be altered and changed for his glory and for your transformation. Because the Holy Spirit, he can transform all of that. He can change all of that. But can he only do what you open your arms for him to do?
Next thing is to vocalize the current reality of abiding in Christ. Tell him how grateful you are for those who follow Jesus to abide. Tell him the joy, the love, the adoration you get from being able to say you are part of the vine of Christ, for saying that you bear fruit for his name.
for saying that you love the fact that you get to have joy and peace and self-control and be kept and be faithful because of what He has done in and for you.
O, in Him. ⁓
So after you get done crying out to abide.
and vocalizing how appreciative you are that you get to be in the Vine. Constantly verbalizing gratitude of being in the Vine. Thirdly.
pray that vocalizes your desire and necessity to bear fruit.
to constantly bear fruit, to constantly want to bear fruit, to go through whatever you need to go through that makes you bear fruit.
It's important that you understand that in prayer, you are being as honest as possible that you want to bear fruit, that you don't want to be cut off, that you don't want to only bear fruit for a season of your life and then be cut off from the vine because you're not bearing fruit. You need to bear fruit.
tell him the importance of what it means for y'all to grow in intimacy with one another so y'all can bear fruit.
To be honest.
in five minutes.
Silence. Listening out for the Lord. Spend at least five minutes just listening out for Him.
Here are my closing remarks. Jesus has died so that you can live. He calls us to be intimate with him. And I can't wait to talk about hungering for the presence of God more if the Lord allows. Like, we're gonna really try to pick up this Roman series because I really wanna be consistent with this, but it's important that everyone understands.
the necessity of why we need Jesus.
and that our fruit and our oil is kept and trimming our lamps through being intimate with Him in the private, crying out to Him in the private, interceding for others in the private, forgiving in the private, loving in the private.
seeking and crawling for him in the private.
Your devotional time was amazing, but it needs to be shifted and changed. It needs to stop being as routine as you make it. Change things around every once in a while. Not every day has to start off with prayer. Maybe start off with worship. Okay, if you start off with worship, everybody start off with stillness and quiet. Do something to make sure your time with Jesus is not just something you do as routine.
This is a prayer to abide. To close, this is the prayer to abide that I've been praying recently and that I pray for you guys as well.
So before we close, this is our prayer. God, make my life fruitful. Let me not wither in the hot blast of worldliness that blow all around me. Do whatever painful pruning.
to make me fruitful.
Grant me so to drink that I become a spring river, a fruitful branch.
⁓ let me never be content until my joy in you bears fruit in others joy in you by this you will be glorified. God, I just pray that men and women who are hearing under my voice, whether they are lost and never, never really see to before or there are men and women who have been constantly seeking you and feeling like they're so detached from you, Jesus. I just pray right now in the mighty name.
Jesus that you would alter their perspective and call them to your kingdom. Change their hearts and their minds. Let you do whatever painful pruning, they're me, if they're up to it, to whatever painful pruning that needs to be done so that they may walk with you and that they may bear fruit into their very last breath. Let us find joy in binding in you in Jesus name. Amen. Everyone, thank you for coming.
to this episode of Nourishing Your Devotion, part two. May God really, really alter and bless your life. Through these words, I pray through the mighty name of Jesus that he will continue to edify you with all truth and love. Until next time, when we readily divide the word, one episode at a time, I'm your host, Jamir Bye-bye.