I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15:5
Life flows through connection.
As an aside, death – at its core – is simply a form of disconnection: a flower plucked the ground, a spirit disconnected from the body. The thing itself continues to exist somewhere, but the expression of its essence has been disconnected from this realm called earth, and continued elsewhere. Selah.
And a connection is defined as: a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else.
In other words, your fruitfulness/success/expression of your full potential is completely dependent and reliant upon your relationship with the Word.
Why?
Because the Word is the vine, and you are the branch. Branches don’t produce fruit…they simply bear it.
The interests, passions, gifts/talents/abilities and desires that you have are simply indicators of the type of fruit you were designed to bear.
And so you show up to the canvas, take your stance at the ledge of the swimming pool, douse your hands with flour at your station in the bakery, and engage in all the activities that you are drawn to not so that you can make those things happen.
You take those actions so that you can receive those things through your connection to the Word.
In other words, the work we do is to receive…not to achieve.
This is backwards to the way things are done in the world’s operating system of strife and self-effort. And this is powered by the lie sown from the beginning that if you stick with the Word, you will miss out on who you were created to be: that the Maker is holding something back from you.
The goal of this lie is to deceive you into “withering on the vine”; to corrupt your mind from the simplicity which is found in simply remaining connected to your source and receiving all the fruit that He has produced for you to bear:
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10
God created you to be fruitful. He is passionately committed to you succeeding and expressing your potential even more than you are…because He made you. Once you tap into the understanding of how much He loves you and how much He is for you, the daily discipline of staying connected shifts from being a duty to a delight.
Life flows through connection…so stay connected.