Lesson 8: A life of close communion

John 17:21-23 – [I ask] that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that you have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.

What must the branch do? You know that precious word that Christ used: Abide. Your life is to be an abiding life. How is the abiding to be? It is to be just like the branch in the vine, abiding every minute of the day. There are the branches, in close communion with the vine, from January to December. And can I not live every day in abiding communion with the heavenly Vine?

 You say, “But I am busy with other things."

 You may have ten hours' hard work daily, during which your brain has to be occupied with temporal things; God orders it so. But the abiding work is the work of the heart, not of the brain; the work of the heart clinging to and resting in Jesus; a work in which the Holy Spirit links us to Christ Jesus. Oh, believe that deeper down than the brain, deep down in the inner life; you can abide in Christ, so that every moment you are free, the consciousness will come: “Blessed Jesus, I am still in You."

 If you will learn for a time to put aside other work and to get into this abiding contact with the heavenly Vine, you will find that fruit will come.

 What is the application to our life of this abiding communion? What does it mean?


It means close fellowship with Christ in secret prayer. I am sure there are Christians who long for the higher life, and who sometimes receive a great blessing, and have at times found a great inflow of heavenly joy and a great outflow of heavenly gladness; and yet after a time it has passed away. They have not understood that close personal actual communion with Christ is an absolute necessity for daily life. Take time to be alone with Christ. Nothing in heaven or earth can free you from the necessity for that, if you are to be happy and holy Christians.

How many Christians look upon it as a burden and a difficulty to get alone with God often! That is the great hindrance to our Christian life. We want more quiet fellowship with God, and I tell you in the name of the heavenly Vine, that you cannot be healthy branches, branches into which the heavenly sap can flow, unless you spend plenty of time with God. If you are not willing to sacrifice time to get alone with Him, and to give Him time every day to work in you, and to keep up the link of connection between you and Himself, He cannot give you that blessing of His unbroken fellowship. Jesus Christ asks you to live in close communion with Him. Let every heart say: “Oh Christ, it is this I long for, it is this I choose." And He will gladly give it to you.

Prayer: Oh Christ, it is this unbroken fellowship with You that I long for, it is this I choose!