Hello and welcome to the House of Faith Ministries. I'm Lisa Kane. I'm recording this teaching on January 12th, 20125. Welcome. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for bringing the knowledge of your salvation and what it has done to our hearts and to our minds that we may stand faithful, true, strong on your name, on the firm foundation that you have laid for us. Thank you, Father God. Thank you, Lord. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Welcome. I'm glad you can join us today. So, this is going to be a very interesting new teaching. very very basic, very simple, but at the same time very powerful. I love that. This is called, "Do you know you're cleansed in Christ?" Oh, let's bring some knowledge to our minds today, shall we? So, starting here in John 15:es 1-2. This is our opening scriptures. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman or that word husbandman means land worker, farmer. Verse two, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgth, or to cleanse, prune it that it may bring forth more fruit. So when we're talking about being cleansed in Christ, let's get some knowledge here. When you become saved, you change exponentially. sometimes slowly through time, sometimes instantaneously, but there's always a transformation that takes place at being a believer in Christ and abiding in him and you know getting to know him as much as he's getting to know you as you let him get to know you. So there's this abiding factor, dwelling factor between you and Christ and Christ in you and it cleanses you. It purges you. It it gets rid of things. And let me just simply make a statement here that I thought was very fascinating. I heard this from uh pastor at the Bendy Canyon Church. He said, "We tolerate the dislikes within us and we don't deal with them. So, we're not expuning them. We're not getting rid of them. We tolerate. We put up with. We don't want to make those efforts and changes in our lives that we need to make." But here's the interesting part is Christ is already doing that change in you every moment of every day. So here we can trust in Christ that who began a good work is going to finish a good work in us. Amen. So let's go to verse three. We're going to be here in John 15 for the most part. Um let let's break this down. So here verse three. Now you're clean or pure through the word something that said which I have spoken unto you. Let me explain how I do the scriptures in case you're new. I'm putting King James version scriptures up here. The word that's in bold is the King James version uh word that was translated from either Hebrew or Greek. In this case, Greek because this is the New Testament. And then the words in parentheses are other definitions or other words the translator could have used in lie of that first word. So, um it's kind of like an amplified Bible thing. I am adding these extra words in, but it's so I can give you the fullness of what that scripture means. And I am not using the Amplified version. I'm using the King James version because I want you to see the definition of what it was meant at the time of translation. I hope that makes sense. So, let's go here to verse three again. Now, you're clean or pure through the word something said which I have spoken unto you. If you follow any of my teachings, I have taught exponentially on speaking the word over your life. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. So, you're constantly saying Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord over cancer. Jesus is Lord over my mind. Well, here Jesus spoke a word unto us. He says you're clean because of that spoken word. He blessed us and he caused us to be clean. So he's saying, "I've already done that for you." I know that a lot of churches and a lot of preachers and a lot of pastors teach on we've got to get ourselves clean. Well, Jesus did that for us and we just need to let him do it. Let it transform us. If you're somebody who has a habit of using God's name in vain or speaking foul language or anything of that nature, what happens is the moment you become a believer, you're things start to change. You realize first I shouldn't be speaking in that. I shouldn't be saying those words. then um you you use it less and eventually you can go by and you'll look back and go, "Man, I haven't said any of those bad words in a long time." That is how transformation in Christ takes place. But it there's a there's a a start to it. Jesus spoke a word over you and he cleansed you. So when you become a believer and you think, man, I am so messed up still or the devil is doing this against me or making me do this or whatever, good news is Jesus cleansed you from the get-go. You are cleansed, pured, because he spoke a word over you. Now he does add on to that in verse four. He says, "Abide." That word abide by the way means to stay, continue, dwell, endure, be present, stand, tarry in me. Abide in me and I in you. How do you do something like this? You need to have a relationship with him. We do have and and remember how Ecclesiastes is spoken and written, there's a time for this, there's a time for that. Well, you need to set your time aside to abide in him, Jesus. And and there's multiple ways to do it. You can do it all at once or bit pieces, however, but praise and worship music, put some on and just give him the holy praise that he deserves. Amen. Um sometimes just opening up the word of God and just looking at it going, "Oh, let him talk to you." And sometimes we got so much on our chest that we just cry to get it out. And when you're crying, that is purging all of the hurt, the pain, the suffering, that's also abiding in God. Amen. Amen. So he says, "Abide in me and I in you." Because he's meeting you there. You're right there with him. Especially if you're reading the word because now it's coming inside of you. But that's a spoken word that is written down. He was the flesh of the word of God. He and it got written down by different authors and his words abiding in you. But it only abides in you if you open it and you read it. He spoke a cleansing word over you. You need to receive that cleansing word. You need to abide in that cleansing word. You need to hear it. You need to listen to it. You need to obey the Holy Spirit because in that is where you're going to see that transformation take place. So, if you've got one foot in the world, meaning nobody at your job or nobody outside of church knows you're a Christian, you have a problem. and you're wondering why things aren't happening the way you hoped there. God should be shaking your life right now and getting you awake and telling you, "I need you to abide in me." Let's have a relationship. Amen. So he says, "Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me." Very important here. What of fruit are we talking about? You have fruit of the goodness that can come out of you and then you have fruit of bringing someone to the Lord. So the the uh the fruit of the spirit is joy, love, peace, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and kind uh self-control. You have the fruit, and you can go look it up. It's in Galatians 5:22 and 23. I should have brought it here. I did not. But I'm going to allow you to do a little bit of homework here and I want you to go look them up. These fruits should be coming out of you because you're abiding in the word. And abiding is a continuous ongoing thing that needs repetition. Once a week is not repetition. If you're going to church once a week, it's not enough. Actually, one of the reasons that we do this ministry is to supplement what you're getting at your church because your pastor can only teach you what he's teaching the entire congregation and his congregation is moving in the direction that the Lord has given him and that's what he's going to teach. But you as an individual have more. You do more. You're part of this. You're a branch of Jesus. And as a branch of the vine, you need to be bearing more fruit. This is how you can bear more fruit of love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness. This is how you build your self-control. It is the abiding in him. And what's happening is as that is manifesting, it's changing you. You are becoming a different person. So he says and and otherwise if you're not doing that, you cannot bear that fruit. You can act like you're good. You know, things happen to people all the time. And one of the questions that is asked is why did this bad thing happen to this good person? That good person was so good that they fooled you. I'm not saying they weren't uh good. They probably were, but we don't know the heart of that person. Only God does. So whatever that circumstance is between that person and God, we shouldn't even be asking. should be asking, am I being filled with the fruit of the spirit? Am I bearing the right fruit? Am I being fruitful to bring people to the Lord? Draw them in, water them, nurture them. Remember, as he's describing himself as the vine and where the branches, take a look at how Adam was created. He's dirt. He was made from dirt. Eve was an extension of that being made from the rib. Well, then a seed is planted in us soil. And that seed needs to get water. We get water baptized. We come up to germinate and keep the seed growing. We need to be in the light of the word. That's where we get our sunlight, the Jesus light, s light if you will. We also get watered and nurtured through the living word of God, the spoken word of God. And this is how we begin to grow branches. And we begin to have fruit. And by the way, the fruit that comes off of the branch, the love, the joy, the peace, all of that fruit is to be partaken from or of from others. They come take the fruit off of our branches and they partake. They like your pen. It's so neat that you show love. It's so neat that you have joy considering what you're going through. is so neat. You're setting an example and you're simply telling him, I abide in the word of God. My foundation is the name of Jesus. He is whom I am dwelling in and this is the manifestation of him. Hallelujah. That is so neat. So he says, I am, this is going on to verse five, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth, here's that word abideth again, to stay, continue, dwell, endure, be present, stand here in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. You see, you cannot show love without having Christ in you. And I will show that in scripture here in just a moment. You cannot uh you think um by showing love let's say to uh someone who has uh done evil. You can love them through spirit. You can't love them physically. It it is a physically impossible thing for a non-believer to like or love that person because they don't have the spirit of God in them. So they're looking at that person and that person's evil. Oh, that person needs, you know, but when you have Christ in you and abiding you, you begin to love people like that because Jesus loves them just as much as he loves me. Jesus loves you just as much as he loves me. Is that awesome? That was just so neat. But you can't have that if you're not dwelling in the vine. You got to be hooked up to the vine. And and how does a branch get fed by the vine? It's a continuous feed of the nutrients and the liquid through the veining between the vine and the branch on the inside. So you need to get your veins connected to Jesus so you're fed continuously. Oh, what a powerful analogy there. Verse six, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. You ever look at a person and they look like the walking dead? They're a dead person walking. They just look so dried up. They're so miserable on the inside. And in fact, it shocks you every once in a while when you see them smile and you're just like, "Where did that come from?" Well, here is the the whole analogy of this. When you are not walking with Christ, you look dead, sad. You look like it's the end of the world. We just had we're having the those fires in Los Angeles right now and seeing the people who lost their homes and the pain and the suffering they're going through. They're grieving. They're in pain. They're they but they look like they're dead. In fact, withered, dried up branches burn easily than someone who is filled with the anointing, the veining of Christ Jesus. Big difference. So it says if a uh a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them to lead together collect convene and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. You see men are the ones who are going to throw you and cast you out. The way that men will know you is by your fruit. They will know you by your fruit. So, if you're in church playing church and there's a group and you're there part of that group and you're meeting and somebody says, "Well, maybe we should pray uh have a prayer meeting here and meet on Tuesday nights or whatever." You might be saying, "Well, uh, that sounds great, but shouldn't we do that on our own?" You see, you are the one interjecting the fruit of what's inside of you. Here a church trying to pray more as a gathering where two or three are gathered and here you're trying to isolate it by dividing and dividing comes from Satan. That is fruit and you can see it in people. It's very identifiable. You will know them by their fruit. So continuing on to verse 7, it says if you abide in me, here he is again talking about dwelling in him. You abide in me and my words abide in you. We know in Romans 10:9 that it says that if you confess Jesus is Lord. If you confess with your mouth, that's what happens. You're confessing the word of God. He's saying and my words abide in you. If they're in here, so if you see something happening, you need to pray for somebody or a situation, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. You start speaking the word of God because that word is abiding in you and it starts to manifest and bubble out. That's your fruit and people see it, recognize it, hear and know that you are truly a branch in the vine of Christ. You're veining in with Christ. Amen. So it says uh if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask. That word to ask means to beg, call for, crave, desire, require. Says, "Ye shall ask what ye will or what your determination is and it shall be done unto you." If you are determined about something that is of the will of God, it is of scripture. I guarantee and promise you that if you're asking him for it, he is going to give it to you. Now, that doesn't mean you're not going to ever have any sufferings in your life or you're never going to be sad or anything of that nature, but he will answer your prayers. And sometimes the answer isn't what we really were expecting because he's got something better planned for you. Amen. But this is part of abiding in him. And as you abide more and you're more pruned, because that's what's happening to fruit that is bearing or a branch that is bearing fruit, you are pruned. You have to be pruned. Meaning there are cuts. You're going to hurt it. It stings. But you learn from that. And that fruit begins to manifest. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Verse 8, herein is my father glorified or honored, magnified that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples or your learner, the learner pupil. So all of this is to glorify the father because we glorify Jesus who is of the father and when we know Jesus we know the father and John talks about that in depth. So this is all to the point of glorifying the father. You dwelling in him. You calling on his name. You speaking his word. He goes to his glory and people know it. Recognize it and see the fruit. They recognize the cleansing that's taking place in you because you're walking in that cleansing and it's manif manifesting. That's awesome. And this is you're learning. You're a pupil. This is how you become a disciple of Christ is your learning. That's what disciples mean. Verse nine, as a father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. I want you to see something here is very very important. As the father hath loved, that word love is a different love than what we've seen in the past. It's a dative love, accusative kind of love because the father sees us. He knows what he what we're doing. But it's also a social moral obligation kind of love that Jesus always asks us to do. But when you see what Jesus did and what the word love there means says uh so I so have I loved you which is the same loved as the first one and then this third love continue ye in my love that love means affection benevolence difference. You see, when you have a baby and you bring home your baby, you are obligated to take care of that baby. And you may not have the affection and the benevolence of that for that baby yet. And you may have it right away, but sometimes it takes a little bit more for some people. But as you go throughout the years and then that baby grows up and they give you attitude or they tell you, "I hate you or anything of that nature," you're still obligated. That that's your child. You're still obligated or have that love. You still need to take care of them. You still have to take the upper road, the higher road, the moral, the sense, the obligation. You have that Jesus has done that, but he also did it out of affection and benevolence. The teaching of love through the scriptures is so powerful. It's amazing. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, but I want you to see the difference here of what he's talking about. And then he continues on in verse 10. If you keep my commandments, that word commandment means authoritative prescription.

You know, when Jesus says this, do in remembrance of me, when he's talking about holy communion, every time you take holy communion and brings you back to the cross, you repent, you you come back to Christ, you remember what he did on the cross, you take the broken bread, you drink the wine. As soon as you do that, it places you back in a right standing of good health. Because who is our healer? Jehovah uh Jehovah Rafa Jehovah Gyrus uh Jesus is our provider God our provider Jehovah Rafa God our healer he is our healer so he's saying if you keep my commandments which is authoritative prescription you are under his prescription he's written you a doctor's note and you're healed I hope you're getting that it's a fascinating little little point to make here says says, "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love." Now, see how it says here in his love, which is affection and benevolence. Now, you have the affection and the benevolent kind of love that he has for us. It had to be developed. It had to be pruned. It had to be cut. You had to go through these things in order to get to that love. Because there's more than just having a social moral obligation. There is the affection and the benevolence. And the powerful thing is I cannot see Jesus but I know he's there. That is the affection and the benevolence I have now. I can love him because I know he's there. Amen. And even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. So he's saying you keep my commandments, you're going to abide in this kind of love just like I did my father's commandments and I have his affection and benevolence. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you. And that is a cheerful cheerfulness, calm delight is what he's talking about with that joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full or leveled up. You see, when we face all of these situations, oh man, we can forget the love that he has and it hurts. It's painful. But he's saying, I'm here for you. I'm never going to leave you. I'm never going to forsake you. And because I'm in spirit, because now that he has died and risen from the grave, he's so much more. And he could be with us at all times. This is why he sent the comforter. Now coming to verse 12, this is my commandment. Again, authoritative prescription that you love one another as I have loved you. So now he's telling you as you grow in this, as you abide in me, I need you to love one another because this is your fruit. They're going to see and they're going to know. And when they know this, there it's going to draw them in. He says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends." Look at what that greater love is. It's the affection and benevolence. And look at what friends are. We're dear, actively fond. He is actively fond of us. So he not only calls us a social moral obligation with love, but he calls us with benevolence and uh affection. And then he says, "I'm actively fond of you." In fact, he goes on to say, "You're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you." He says, "If you I'm charging you to love one another. You keep this up. You are my dear friend." That is so neat. That is just how he's So there's this relationship from abiding in him, which he cleansed you of the old. He's purging you of the old, of the bad habits, the things that we tend to tolerate, we put up with because we don't want to change, but yet Christ is changing us anyways little by little. We may fight it tooth and nail, kicking and screaming, but the spirit is changing us. And the more we allow him to change it versus tolerating what we want to keep the sin in our lives, we want to sin, we want this, we want that. Eventually, the spirit helps us release that and let it go. And we can walk in this simply by abiding in him. If you're sinning and you think that's going to keep you from God, you know what? Just ask him to forgive you and and come back into his word. It's a battle and you just keep coming back to that word. You keep coming back and abiding in that word. You keep reading that word even though you may have tripped, you've fallen, you messed up, you sinned again, spoke foul language, whatever it is, but you came back. That's overcoming the devil because the devil keeps telling me, "Ah, you're worthless. You can't do it. You can't do it on That's right. We couldn't do it on our own. But guess what? Jesus did it for us. And I'm going to keep calling on the name of Jesus. keep abiding in him and let him fill me up because he is greater than in me than he in the world. Oh, hallelujah. I hope you guys are getting this. Verse 15, henceforth I call you not servants. You're not a slave anymore. For the servant knoweth or is where not what his lord doeth. See, we don't as a servant, you can't know what your master's doing. But because we're friends, we are says, "But I've called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known to you." You see, you now know what's going on from the father direct through the son because he redeemed you, he purged you, he cleansed you. Because he has spoken his word over you. You're now his friends. Which means you have the knowledge to be healed, to walk in the healing, to be overcomers. You messed up. Yeah, but you can come back. And you always come back. You always open up the word. You always pray. You're always giving him the glory. And before you know it, that's your new routine. That's what you're keeping is his commandments, his prescription, his authoritative prescription in your life. And then you wonder why everything's going so good. That's why. Hallelujah. And yes, even if bad things are happening, you're still sitting there and standing there with a a joy in your heart. That's man, Jesus is on my side because I've done this. Wow. I'm so glad, Jesus, that you've done this in my life. Oh, I hope you guys grab on to this. I hope you do. Says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you." which all it means is have you now bowed down and kneel ordained you that ye should go forth and bring that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. So now that fruit in you should be drawing in people who want to partake of that fruit. Oh, and they're going to take it off of your branch that whatsoever ye shall ask, cuz he's saying now, your fruit will remain and then whatever you ask, you're begging, you're calling, you're craving, desiring, requiring of the father in my name, he may give it to you simply because you have chose you're he's chosen you and you're abiding him. He's changed you. He's cleansed you. He's worked something new in you. He's purging you and you're in the process. You're like a work in progress change. Hallelujah. And verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. So he's re-emphasizing. It is your love toward one another. The fruit that you are growing. How they're going to recognize you one, but they're also going to want to partake and they're going to ask you and you're going to have the opportunity to say, "Hey, it's because Jesus, he's my redeemer." And you know what? Even though I keep messing up, he keeps forgiving me because he loves me that much. They want to hear that. This is you bearing fruit now, bringing in the fruit and drawing in the fruit. This is the cleansing and the purging that's taking place in 1 John 1 7-9 says, "But if we walk, that's the cleansing part. That's the purging part, the abiding." This is exactly what I just read through John 15. That is walking in the Lord. Oh, hallelujah. But if we walk be occupied with in the light because that word walk means be occupied with in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship or partnership one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth or pur purifies us from all sin. All because you keep coming back. Keep coming back. You are more than a conqueror. Keep coming back. Verse eight. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We go astray. Uh but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness because he spoke his word over you. So he cleansed you, purified you. You just got to keep coming back and you just got to keep reading his word, keep dwelling. If you couldn't get to it today, make it a priority for tomorrow. But come back. Keep coming back. You have already been cleansed. So now when you are asked the question, do you know if you've been cleansed? You can say, I have been because the name of Jesus is over me because he spoke his word over me. Hallelujah. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word and we bless your word that it does not return void. Let your word be planted in our hearts and minds so that we live it and abide in your word. we make your word a priority in our lives that we're reading it. We're dwelling with you. We're abiding you and you are abiding in us. Thank you for letting us have that beautiful relationship with you to continue to hear your voice in our hearts and minds and to know and to follow your commandments. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you. I will see you in the next message. Bye-bye.