How We Abide in Christ (and He in us)

"This is my command:  Love each other."  ~The Lord Jesus

I used to wonder how to practically and permanently stay connected to Jesus--how to "abide in him."  I used to also wonder how to allow him to permanently stay connected to me--how he "abides in me."
I wondered this because of his command to the 11, "Abide in me, and I in you."  I understood the vine and branch analogy, but I didn't know how to do it practically.  The Spirit showed me.

First, to "abide in" or stay connected to Jesus, we "keep his command."  That's how we abide in him, or stay connected to him.  That's what he said.  (I'm not claiming new revelation, but insight into an old one, at least for me.  I hope the same for you.)  In other words, I'm learning that when I think something in scripture seems "impractical," it's because I'm not just trusting the simple instruction given in the very scripture I'm reading.  Jesus said it.  "If you keep my commands, you abide in my love."  So, that's how we abide; that's how we're like branches staying connected to the vine.  And the command is really simple and straight forward:  Love each other.  That's it.  Love each other like Jesus loved us.  So the Christian life has two simple commands:

1. Believe in Jesus.
2. Love each other.
(1 John 3:23)

This is how we stay connected to Jesus: believe in him, and love each other.

And this is how he abides in us:  We keep these very words in the forefront of our minds:
Believe in Jesus, and love each other.

By meditating on these words for the purpose of obeying them, we allow Jesus to abide in us.
And by actually obeying them, we abide in Jesus.

This is how we abide in him, and how he abides in us.

The Works of Jesus

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to my Father.  John 14:12

What are the works of Jesus, the works he spoke of to the 11 before Judas came to betray him?  Jesus himself answers my question in what he said to the 11 in John 14:11:

"Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves."

Jesus was responding to Phillip's request for Jesus to "show them the Father."  He told Phillip that there was no need for him to show them the Father because if they had seen Jesus, they had seen the Father.  Jesus wanted Phillip to take Jesus at His word, that he and the father are one.  But if Phillip couldn't take him at his bare word, he could at least believe based on the works of Jesus:

Signs and wonders, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.

Now we get to it.

Not only are these the works Jesus spoke of, but these are works that we who believe will continue to do by the Spirit until Jesus returns--and even greater works than these, according to Jesus himself.

Now the purpose of these works are the same as Jesus' purpose:  conviction leading to salvation.  Any miraculous work that doesn't prove people have rejected God and lead them to accept Him as God is a false work.  But if people are to be brought to God, it must be by the power of God.

We have the power of God.  We have the Spirit of Christ in us.  By the power of God and the Spirit of Christ, we will do the works of Jesus until he comes.

Your calling

"Follow me."  The Lord Jesus to His disciples

Following the Spirit is every believers calling, no matter what.  No matter where you are in life, you have one thing to do:  follow the Spirit. 

This is our very salvation, which is our calling, the essential meaning of being called. 
This is our full time ministry.  To be saved, to be a believer, is to be called by God.
Jesus' simple command to follow Him was the call and salvation of his first followers, and of His followers even today.

This means a lot to me because I always wanted to be called to do "full time ministry," meaning to get paid to follow the Spirit.  But I didn't realize that  by simply working as a believer I am getting paid to follow the Spirit, though I'm not part of an institutionalized ministry.  Whatever I do, I am to work with all of my heart as towards God and not man, as Paul said.  It's God whom I serve.  I've always been a full time minister, and if you believe in Christ, so have you, no matter where you are in your life.

Say you're feeling like your life is a mistake because you took a job you shouldn't have taken.  Or you moved to a location that you regret.  Maybe you're in a relationship that is no where near what you hoped it would be.  Now, living in regret, you're retracing your steps and wondering how you can start over, how you can fulfill your calling.  I have good news for you.

Wherever you are, stay there. 

God will lead you while you are in your situation,

or He will lead you out of your situation. 

It is written, 

"Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them."

1 Corinthians 7:20.

Say you were an unbeliever, married to an unbeliever, when you first believed in the Lord.  Like Paul says, you should remain married, which is the situation you were in when God called you, even though your spouse is an unbeliever.  This is a hard situation to be in.  But God will lead you in that situation, or out of that situation.  Until He leads, stay where you are.

Or say you were working a particular job before you believed in Jesus.  Now that you believe, you're wondering if you should change jobs.  Again, stay in that situation, and God will lead you while you're in it, or He will lead you out of it.

Of course, the exception to all of this is if you were doing something illegal as a job, or if you were committing adultery against someone else's marriage.  In those situations, your salvation means that you leave your sinful life. You never stay in a sinful situation.  God never calls you to sin, or to stay in sin.

But if you simply regret where you are, stay there, and follow the Spirit.  Pray for God to set you free, and even look for His liberation.  Don't try to liberate yourself, unless you are resisting or leaving a situation of sin.  Stay where you were when you were saved, when God called you.

This is your calling:  follow the Spirit wherever He leads.  This is all the apostles had to do when Jesus said, "Follow me."  Wherever He went, they went.  Whatever He commanded, they obeyed.

It's the same for you and me.
This is my calling.
This is your calling.
Follow the Spirit.