ABIDING in the Trinity

A friend of mine recently asked me what my thoughts were on the Trinity.  That was a good question, and one that I had not thought about in awhile!  I told her I needed some time to think about it because I wanted to gather my thoughts before sharing them.  My understanding of the Trinity has changed and grown through the years but it is still not to the point where I have a clear grasp of it.  I realize I will never be able to get it completely, but I still wanted to spend some time praying about it and meditating on it before I randomly blurted something out. 

A day or two later I was reading the True Vine devotional by Andrew Murray (The True Vine) the scripture verse listed was John 15:4 “Abide in me and I will abide in you”. The first paragraph of the devotional gave a really great visual of the vine and branch grafting which I have copied below for you:

When a new graft is placed in a vine and it abides there, there is a twofold process that takes place. The first is in the wood. The graft shoots its little roots and fibers down into the stem, and the stem grows up into the graft, and what has been called the structural union is effected. The graft abides and becomes one with the vine… Then there is the second process, in which the sap of the vine enters the new structure, and uses it as a passage through which sap can flow up to show itself in young shoots and leaves and fruit. Here is the vital union. Into the graft which abides in the stock, the stock enters with sap to abide in it.  

Being a “visual” person, I absolutely LOVE imagery like this!  And then he goes on to say:

“When our Lord says: ‘Abide in me, and I in you,’ He points to something analogous to this. ‘Abide in me’: that refers more to that which we have to do. We have to trust and obey, to detach ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him, to sink ourselves into Him… Many believers pray and long very earnestly for the filling of the Spirit and the indwelling of Christ, and wonder that they do not make more progress. The reason is often this, the ‘I in you’ cannot come because the ‘abide in me’ is not maintained… The graft must have grown into the stem, and be abiding in it before the sap can flow through to bring forth fruit. It is as in lowly obedience we follow Christ, even in external things, denying ourselves, forsaking the world, and even in the body seeking to be conformable to Him, as we thus seek to abide in Him, that we shall be able to receive and enjoy the ‘I in you.’ The work enjoined on us: ‘Abide in me,’ will prepare us for the work undertaken by Him: ‘I in you.’ …”

On a side note, after reading this, it was like a light bulb went on in my head when I read the second paragraph!  We wonder why the “Power” of the Holy Spirit is not displayed in our lives today like it was in the Biblical days?  Well, I think THIS is the answer!  We are not sinking into Christ to the point where He is sinking into us so the “sap” is not able to flow through us to produce the desired fruit!  We are not: “trust[ing] and obey[ing], detach[ing] ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling[ing] to Him, ]or] sink[ing] ourselves into Him… denying ourselves,[and] forsaking the world…” which ultimately is the true sense and meaning of the word “ABIDE”.  Christ and the Holy Spirit can only work in and through us after we abide in HIM and then the power of the Holy Spirit will be able to flow through us!  As much as my heart LONGS to do this, I know I am still so far away from actually accomplishing it!  My flesh still rules my heart and life and I have not “detached” myself from all else…  Lord, help me get there!

Anyway, back at my original thought on the Trinity. I just happened to be walking with my friend that morning who had asked me about the Trinity and, as I was sharing this devotional with her, the Lord gave me another “visual” that helped me to see the Trinity in a new way. The "husbandman" is the Father; He works the vineyard and puts things into place. Christ is the True Vine that facilitates the bringing up of the branches and the bearing of the fruit and the Holy Spirit is the sap that flows through the Vine in order for the branches to produce the fruit!  When I got that visual, it reminded me of a trinity analogy I heard a couple of years ago; the Father is the designer and overseer of all things, Jesus is the facilitator who walks out the Father’s plans and the Holy Spirit is the Power that flows through Jesus to make it all happen.  They each have a part that they play and one can do nothing without the others.  They are dependent upon each other and they flow fluidly and effortlessly together in the work that they all 3 have determined to do.  Both of these ideas compliment each other and speak of basically the same thing and they help me understand the “Trinity” concept a little more.

After my walk with my friend, I came home and shared this thought and visual with Tom and he decided to look up on the computer the process of “grafting”.  Well, that took us even deeper and we walked away with three other aspects of “abiding” and “grafting” we had not thought about.  The first was that the Vine has to be "cut to the quick" or “wounded”, deep enough so that when the branch is grafted in, the “sap” can flow from the Vine into the new graft.  When we realized this, Isaiah 53:3 came to my mind, “But he was pierced for our transgressions…” Wow, that was an interesting thought and connection!  Second, it is necessary that WE, the “branch”, have to be cut and shaped as well in order to be able to be inserted and to abide in the Vine.  I am always hearing from the Lord that I need to be re-shaped and molded into the vessel that works best for HIS Kingdom and not mine… This is just another confirmation and a new way of seeing it. And third, in order for the new branch to stay, it has to be BOUND to the vine until the grafting is completed.  So, we need to allow God to "bind" us to Christ until we can get it on our own!!  That gives a whole new meaning to idea of becoming a “Bond-servant” of Christ! The visuals of “grafting” really helped to put this all together… and the Holy Spirit too, of course :)

So now how do I recap all of this?  I think the main point is our need to first abide and sink in to Christ so that Christ can then abide and sink into us. In order to do that, we need to focus on the key aspects of abiding which are to: “trust and obey, detach ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him, to sink ourselves into Him… denying ourselves, [and] forsaking the world…” Then, we need to allow Him to cut away the unnecessary parts of us so that we can sink in deep enough so that the SAP of the Holy Spirit can flow through us. And lastly, allow God to bind us to Him so that His Kingdom fruit is produced through us for His Glory!

As a closing thought, Tom brought up a really good scripture that also fits this analogy.  If you think about it, grafting is uniting two separate things and making them “one flesh”… “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32)  Again, this is yet another example of how God uses His creation to show us that what happens in the natural also happens in the spirit!  Christ wants to become “one flesh” with us, His church, as we abide in Him!

Oh Father, help me to grasp these truths to the point of allowing You to do Your will in me.  Help me Lord to SINK into You so that You can sink into me so that we become “one”.  Help me to just be the “branch” and allow YOU to be the Vine and to surrender my all, giving up my dreams and my ideals of what I think you want from me, and just ABIDE in you.   Holy Spirit I long to have you flow freely through me so that Your fruit is produced and not mine, for Your Kingdom. Help me to get there Lord! In Jesus’ precious and Holy name, amen!