Abiding in the True Vine: A Fresh Alignment of the Heart | Lee Amena

What a beautiful welcome and sweet presence of God we experienced together. There's something powerful that happens when we gather with expectant hearts, all it takes is a mustard seed of faith, and God can move mountains. And especially the mountain of the heart today.

The heart sometimes can be a hard mountain to move. We want God to replace hearts of stone and place hearts of flesh, moldable in the hands of the Father. But here's the thing: we need fresh alignment, a realigning of the mind, a repositioning into what is really important, Him. That's our only agenda.

Made for His Presence

We are made for the presence of God. We are made to abide in His presence; we are made to dwell with Him. Today is just a realignment of the heart.

The Bible often speaks of God in metaphorical terms. The reason it does this is because God is so kind that He wants us to know Him. He uses language that we can understand, so that we can know Him. The whole point why God uses metaphors and language that may seem human even though He's God, it's so that we can understand Him. He wants us to know Him, He wants to be known by us, and He wants to know us.

We serve a God who desires to reveal Himself to His creation. God reveals Himself because God desires to be known.

The Heart's Tendency to Drift

The human heart is fascinating. Since the Fall, the human heart has the propensity, it tends to drift away from the main thing. If you're not intentional about your pursuit of the Lord, the human heart would drift.

This is what this morning is about. God wants that if any of us have drifted, and I'm sure we all have in one way or another at some point, God just wants to realign our hearts that we will fix our eyes on the ultimate prize, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the reward of worship. He's the reward as we seek Him.

The ultimate reward that the Father gives us is Himself. He is the reward of us seeking Him.

We can start off with the right intentions, and if we are not intentional, the things of this world, our own fleshly desires and the allure of other things can captivate our attention and distract us from the actual treasure, which is God.

The last place we want to be is the place where we thoroughly believe we are building for God, and doing this for God and chasing things and accolades, and yet like Saul, God has rejected our offering.

Kingdom Priorities

As we say yes to Jesus, ultimately we are saying yes to His lordship, and saying yes to His lordship is saying yes to His kingdom. And His kingdom has a modus operandi, and it has a way in which it functions.

The world will tell you to run after accolades, it will tell you to run after achievements and what the world deems a success, but ultimately the ultimate success is Him.

God wants to align us again with the ultimate. Am I saying that God doesn't want us to build grand things, or doesn't want us to dream big? No, that's not what I'm saying at all, but what I am saying is that God wants us to believe for greater in Him. The starting place of the greater should always be the Creator.

The True Vine - John 15

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 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." (John 15:1-5)

Simply today, God is calling us to a fresh alignment that we may abide in Him again.

God has revealed Himself to us so we would know how great He is, even though He's infinitely great. But Jesus came to earth as the express image of the invisible God to reveal that God is a good Father. And all He has done has ultimately been rooted in His passionate desire to love, know and walk with His creation.

The word abide means to dwell, to immerse, to remain. It implies being fully present.

I wonder what Swansea would look like if this week we chose to be fully present with God. I wonder what wonders could take place if we chose this week to immerse ourselves in His presence. I wonder what this week could look like if we chose to abide.

Three Places of Abiding

Abiding in Prayer

If we abide in the place of prayer, now more than ever as we look on the news, there's reasons to pray. Prayer is dependency on God. Prayer is calling the divine into natural circumstances.

When we pray, we shouldn't expect the ordinary, because what we're doing is inviting the heavenly realms to move on our behalf, we're inviting the King of Glory to move on our behalf.

When we pray, we're inviting peace that surpasses all understanding to begin to fill the hearts and the lives of people. When we pray, we're expecting the God of all power, the God of angel armies, the God who cannot fail, He can't fail, He can't lose a battle, He's never lost a battle. We're inviting Him into our situations and circumstances.

God wants us to abide in the place of prayer. There's things that God wants to reveal to you, so that you pray and see transformation. He's looking for partners on the earth. Could He do it Himself? Of course He could, but He's looking for partners on the earth. He wants you to partner with Him.

Abiding in His Word

He wants us to abide in His word. His word has the power to transform our very insights, His word has the power to heal the broken hearts, His word has the power to divide between soul and spirit. His word is powerful and He wants us to abide in His word. He wants us to be filled, immersed, baptized in His word, both the written word, but also the rhema, the words that He has for each season.

Abiding in Worship and Praise

He also wants us to abide in worship and in praise. Praise and worship is one of the most powerful weapons that we have. I remember one time I was feeling really low. I was in my bedroom and I felt like God said to me, "Just lift your hands and begin to worship." And as I began to lift my hands and I just began to look at the one who is worthy, look at the one who is mighty, look at the one that the angels forever gather around His throne and cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord."

As I began to look at Him and look away from my present circumstances, something happened within me. The heaviness that I was feeling left and a garment of praise instead was placed on me.

I'm telling you, family, praise and worship is a powerful weapon that the Lord has given you. I dare you to begin to abide in a place of praise. I dare you to begin to abide in a place of worship, and see how God shifts things in your life.

The Daily Challenge

Because of our propensity to drift, we can't leave that gap too big between our abiding. My challenge to you, if you don't do already, is can you daily set aside time to look away from the affairs of this world and look to your heavenly father?

The Secret of Kingdom Fruit-Bearing

What I love about John 15 is God reveals something quite beautiful. He reveals that the fruit that we see comes as a result of abiding.

The world will make us think that we have to strive in our own strength, put in all the effort, put in all the work, and that's how we get the reward, but here we learn how God operates, here we learn how the kingdom operates.

Yes, we have a part to play, please don't neglect your part to play, but ultimately we learn the right mode of operating, we learn the Kingdom way, we learn the heavenly way, which is first we must abide, and then we hear the instructions from the Lord, and we move.

The fruit is dependent on the abiding.

A God Who Moves the Universe

We serve a God who will move mountains for us. I love that He is a God that doesn't see you the way you see you. I love that He's a God that places value on His creation. I love that He's a God that has placed treasure on the inside of earthen vessels.

When Joshua was in battle with the children of Israel, and he was winning the battle, but realized that the sun was about to go down, he prayed that the sun would stand still. But here's what's profound: we know that it's not the sun that moves, the sun always stands still, and it's everything else that revolves around the sun.

Everything revolves around the sun, and everything finds its source and its life in the sun. So when Joshua told the sun to stand still, what God did is He made the earth stand still, made Mars stand still, made Jupiter stand still. He made all the planets stand still. He made the universe stand still.

He's that kind of God, He's that kind of God who's willing to make the universe stand still on behalf of His children.

Some of you may be thinking, "Yes, He did that for Joshua, but..." No, Jesus entered the earth to redeem humanity onto Himself, and then He invested Himself in us via the Holy Spirit. He's willing to move mountains on our behalf.

We have to believe what He did before He can do again. We have to believe that He's the God of the Old Testament. We have to believe that He's still the God that shuts the mouth of the lions. We have to believe that He's still the God that brings down Goliath even with a stone.

Breaking Free from People-Pleasing

I was reading the book of Galatians this week, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was Galatians 1:10: "For am I seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I was still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

I read that, and I said, "Ouch," because I know I can be a little bit of a people pleaser. And that meant that even though God had invested some things in me, the way in which I looked at those things were beneath how He looked at those things.

I believe that God wants to destroy that fear of man today.

The Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25

"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away." (Matthew 25:14-15)

The servant with five talents traded and made five more. The servant with two talents made two more. But the one with one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

When the master returned, he praised the faithful servants: "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master." (Matthew 25:21)

But to the fearful servant who hid his talent, the master said: "You wicked and slothful servant... you ought to have put my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest." (Matthew 25:26-27)

You may be wondering why this is one of my favorite scriptures, even though it ends on quite an intense note. The reason is because I believe that God is stirring us up to fulfill the gifts that He's placed on the inside of you, to maximize those gifts and to bring a return.

Because one day we will face our incredible master, and He will ask us, "What did you do with what I gave you?"

Treasure Within You

I need you to understand that what God has placed on the inside of you is not ordinary. It's an investment from your Father. He has invested great things into every single one of you in this room, and we have a responsibility to multiply what He has given us.

There's treasure on the inside of you. How do I know that? Because God's intentional, you are His handiwork.

There's a calling and there's a gifting that's on the inside of every single one of us, and an assignment that God has for every single one of us. Now that assignment won't look the same for each person, but how do we fulfill this assignment? It all comes back to what we read previously, the way to bearing fruit in our assignment is abiding.

God wants you to bear fruit in every area of your life. He wants you to bear fruit as a son, as a daughter to your parents. He wants you to bear fruit in your friendships. He wants you to be a good friend. If you're married, He wants you to be a great partner. God wants you to bear fruit in every single area of your life.

The Main Point

The main point I'm trying to make here today is that the fruit that God has called us to bear is dependent on whether we abide or not. I'm sure every single one of us wants to bear good fruit, but that's dependent on whether we abide or not.

In the analogy that Jesus uses of being the true vine, the branches can only bear fruit because it takes nutrients and source from the vine. Where are you getting your nutrients from at the moment? What has been your source this season?

God wants to recalibrate us today that our eyes and our affection and our gaze will be set on Him again, that we will abide. That's it. That's what God wants to do today, and I'm sure He's going to exceed our expectations.

A Heart Check

What has your heart been longing for other than Him in this season? What have you been distracted by? What has stolen your attention?

God wants to do surgery across this room. He wants to operate in our hearts right now. Where we have affections for things that are distracting, where we have gained affections for things that are damaging and harmful, He wants to operate on our hearts.

This is a divine appointment with your maker. He wants to transform your heart. Without Him, we can't bear the fruit we desire to bear. Without Him, the transformation we desire cannot take place. It's Him, He is the difference maker, and He's here to make a difference in your heart today.

It starts with you, and then it's going to have that ripple effect in the lives of your family, in the lives of your friends, in your community. But first He wants to start with you today.