Murray Andrew Collection: Murray, Andrew - True Vine Meditations for a Month on John 15 1-16: 31 Prevailing Prayer - Joh_15:16

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Murray Andrew Collection: Murray, Andrew - True Vine Meditations for a Month on John 15 1-16: 31 Prevailing Prayer - Joh_15:16




TOPIC: Murray, Andrew - True Vine Meditations for a Month on John 15 1-16 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 31 Prevailing Prayer - Joh_15:16

Other Subjects in this Topic:

<http://www.theoldtimegospel.org/home/grow_vine31.html>

The True Vine

Andrew Murray 1828-1917

PREVAILING PRAYER

"I Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide: That Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask of the Father in My Name, He May Give It You" Joh_15:16

In the first verse of our parable, Christ revealed Himself as the true Vine, and the Father as the Husbandman, and asked for Himself and the Father a place in the heart. Here, in the closing verse, He sums up all His teaching concerning Himself and the Father in the twofold purpose for which He had chosen them.

With reference to Himself, the Vine, the purpose was, that they should bear fruit. With reference to the Father, it was, that whatsoever they should ask in His name, should be done of the Father in Heaven. As fruit is the great proof of the true relation to Christ, so prayer is of our relation to the Father. A fruitful abiding in the Son, and prevailing prayer to the Father, are the two great factors in the true Christian life.

That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.--These are the closing words of the parable of the Vine. The whole mystery of the Vine and its branches leads up to the other mystery--that whatsoever we ask in His name the Father gives! See here the reason of the lack of prayer, and of the lack of power in prayer.

It is because we so little live the true branch life, because we so little lose ourselves in the Vine, abiding in Him entirely, that we feel so little constrained to much prayer, so little confident that we shall be heard, and so do not know how to use His name as the key to God's storehouse.

The Vine planted on earth has reached up into Heaven; it is only the soul wholly and intensely abiding in it, can reach into Heaven with power to prevail much. Our faith in the teaching and the truth of the parable, in the truth and the life of the Vine, must prove itself by power in prayer. The life of abiding and obedience, of love and joy, of cleansing and fruit-bearing, will surely lead to the power of prevailing prayer.

Whatsoever ye shall ask--The promise was given to disciples who were ready to give themselves, in the likeness of the true Vine, for their fellow men. This promise was all their provision for their work; they took it literally, they believed it, they used it, and they found it true. Let us give ourselves, as branches of the true Vine, and in His likeness, to the work of saving men, of bringing forth fruit to the glory of God, and we shall find a new urgency and power to pray and to claim the "whatsoever ye ask."

We shall waken to our wonderful responsibility of having in such a promise the keys to the King's storehouses given us, and we shall not rest till we have received bread and blessing for the perishing. "I chose you, that ye may bring forth fruit, and that your fruit may abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you." Beloved disciple, seek above everything to be a man of prayer.

Here is the highest exercise of your privilege as a branch of the Vine; here is the full proof of your being renewed in the image of God and His Son; here is your power to show how you, like Christ, live not for yourself, but for others; here you enter Heaven to receive gifts for men; here your abiding in Christ has led to His abiding in you, to use you as the channel and instrument of His grace. The power to bear fruit for men has been crowned by power to prevail with God.

"I am the vine, my Father is the Husbandman." Christ's work in you is to bring you so to the Father that His Word may be fulfilled in you: "At that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you." The power of direct access to the Father for men, the liberty of intercession claiming and receiving blessing for them in faith, is the highest exercise of our union with Christ.

Let all who would truly and fully be branches give themselves to the work of intercession. It is the one great work of Christ the Vine in Heaven, the source of power for all His work. Make it your one great work as branch: it will be the power of all your work. In My name. Yes, Lord, in Thy name, the new name Thou hast given Thyself here, the true Vine.

As a branch, abiding in Thee in entire devotion, in full dependence, in perfect conformity, in abiding fruitfulness, I come to the Father, in Thee, and He will give what I ask. Oh, let my life be one of unceasing and prevailing intercession! Amen!

ONLY A BRANCH

"I am the vine, ye are the branches." Joh_15:5

"Tis only a little Branch,

A thing so fragile and weak,

But that little Branch hath a message true

To give, could it only speak.

"I'm only a little Branch,

I live by a life not mine,

For the sap that flows through my tendrils small

Is the life-blood of the Vine.

"No power indeed have I

The fruit of myself to bear,

But since I'm part of the living Vine,

Its fruitfulness I share.

"Dost thou ask how I abide?

How this life I can maintain?--

I am bound to the Vine by life's strong band,

And I only need remain.

"Where first my life was given,

In the spot where I am set,

Upborne and upheld as the days go by,

By the stem which bears me yet.

"I fear not the days to come,

I dwell not upon the past,

As moment by moment I draw a life,

Which for evermore shall last.

"I bask in the sun's bright beams,

Which with sweetness fills my fruit,

Yet I own not the clusters hanging there,

For they all come from the root."

A life which is not my own,

But another's life in me:

This, this is the message the Branch would speak,

A message to thee and me.

Oh, struggle not to "abide,"

Nor labor to "bring forth fruit,"

But let Jesus unite thee to Himself,

As the Vine Branch to the root.

So simple, so deep, so strong

That union with Him shall be:

His life shall forever replace thine own,

And His love shall flow through thee.

For His Spirit's fruit is love,

And love shall thy life become,

And for evermore on His heart of love

Thy spirit shall have her home.

- Freda Hanbury