Branch Life ~ devotion written by Andrew Murray

(Colour and Parenthesis added by Rev. Deb)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.           -John 14:12-14

We all know what a branch is. Its essential characteristic is that it is simply a growth of the vine, produced by it and appointed to bear its fruit. It has only one reason for existence: it is there at the bidding of the vine, that through it the vine may bear and ripen its precious fruit. Just as the vine lives solely and wholly to produce the sap that makes the grape, so the branch has the singular object of receiving that sap and bearing the grape. Its only work is to serve the vine, in order that through it the vine may do its work.

Is the believer—the branch of Christ, the Heavenly Vine—as literally, as exclusively, to live only that Christ may bear fruit through him? Is a true Christian, as a branch, to be just as absorbed in and devoted to the work of bearing fruit to the glory of God as Christ the Vine was on earth and is now in heaven? This, and nothing less, is indeed what is meant. It is to this branch life that the unlimited prayer promises of the parable are given. It is this branch life—existing solely for the Vine—that will have the power to pray properly. When we abide in Him and His words abide—kept and obeyed—in our hearts and lives and are absorbed into our very beings, then we will have the grace to pray correctly and the faith to receive the answer.

God’s covenant is always: give all and take all. Whoever is willing to be wholly branch, and nothing but branch, must be ready to place himself absolutely at the disposal of Jesus, the Vine of God, to bear His fruit, and to live every moment only for Him. This person will receive a divine liberty to claim Christ’s “whatsoever” in all its fullness, and a divine wisdom and humility to use it right. He will live and pray, claiming the Father’s promises as Christ did, only for God’s glory in the salvation of men. He will use his boldness in prayer only for intercession and getting men blessed. The unlimited devotion of the branch life to fruit—bearing and the unlimited access to the treasures of the Vine life are inseparable. It is only the life abiding wholly in Christ that can pray the effective prayer in the name of Christ.