Abide by BF prayer team leader Matthew Guillot

Abiding In Jesus! By Matthew Guillot In the book of John is the recorded testimony of Jesus our Messiah saying: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” –John 15:5 (emphasis mine) Later in verse 7 Jesus proclaims: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” –John 15:7 (emphasis mine) The prerequisite Jesus sets for us to bear fruit, and for answered prayers is that we abide in Him.  If this is the prerequisite, then it is important for us to know what this means for us individually (to abide). There have been many times where I have been disappointed by an unfulfilled desire or expectation; even ones I thought were from God.   One of the most tempting things for us is to search inwardly to find a reason for unfulfilled desires, lack of breakthrough, lack of anointing, etc.  The enemy is more than happy to oblige, giving us plenty of reasons why we are at fault and why we should beat ourselves up for not being whom we want to be. I struggled with this for years and no matter how much breakthrough or encounters I had with Jesus, it never seemed to fix me. After years of going through this struggle I discovered something that would change my life.  Through an encounter I had at the Jesus Conference 2016 in Orlando Florida, Jesus showed up powerfully and I saw and felt more of Him than ever before. I quickly realized in this encounter, that I didn't even care if I ever got fixed, or my circumstances changed as long as I got to be with Him.  I came to a whole new understanding at a heart level of what was right in front of me in the scriptures; abiding in Jesus.  I wanted more than anything to just abide in Him.  It was simple. I just want to be with Him. I just want Jesus. Everything else seems to flow out of just being with Him. If  I want to bear more fruit, then I just need to be with Him.  If I want my desires fulfilled, I just need to be with Him.  If I really wanted to know His much higher thoughts (Isa 55:8-9) towards me to prosper me (Jer 29:11), which outnumber the grains of sand on the sea shore (Ps 139:17-18), I just need to be with Him. This has been the most freeing revelation I have ever received.  If I want to be the person God created me to be, I need to be with the One who truly knows who I am and allow Him to be the One to transform my heart.  It is ludicrous to think I could transform myself to the person I was created to be, when half the time I have conflicting, competing thoughts about who I should be.  I don’t have to, and shouldn’t try to fix myself. The whole point of the new covenant Jesus established is relationship with Him.  Without relationship, we are stuck in our independence to figure things out on our own, hoping God will bless how we are living.  This is how Israel lived under the Old Covenant, proving time and time again how impossible it is. Jesus came presenting a new way of living.  It is to simply abide in Him.  He sent us the Holy Spirit to connect us with Him (Jn 15:26).  This is GOOD NEWS!!!  All the pressure is off to figure things out on our own or to figure out a way to get breakthrough.  We can abide in the One Who is our breakthrough and watch as He eagerly moves on our behalf! Matthew Guillot To hear Matthew's sermon this past Saturday, "Give Me Jesus!" click here