Tuesday

Related Verses
John 15:9-17 (9-12, 14, 16)
9 As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full.
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all the things which I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.
17 These things I command you that you may love one another.

Related Reading
Being Pruned
“Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2).

If we want to preach the gospel and bear much fruit, we must be pruned. This does not refer merely to being pruned of things related to filthiness and sin; it refers even more to being pruned of everything that is not proper before God. God prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it can bear more fruit. Pruning is not merely a washing but also a cutting. Everything that is not proper, everything that hinders the branch from bearing more fruit, must be cut away. Although we need to thoroughly deal with sin in order to eliminate all filthiness, we must also receive God’s dealing in order to eliminate everything that hinders us from bearing fruit or from bearing much fruit.

Often we cannot bring people to salvation or bring more people to salvation because we have not received enough dealing from the Lord. The Lord desires to deal not only with our errors but also with our being. A person who tends trees must prune the tree’s branches so that the tree can bear fruit or bear more fruit. Once the branches are pruned, the tree can bear fruit or bear more fruit. The fact that we have not brought anyone to salvation for a long time or that we have not brought many to salvation proves that we have not allowed the Lord to do a pruning work upon us. We should beseech the Lord to enlighten us and show us the areas that we need to allow Him to prune. The Lord wants to inwardly enlighten us through the Holy Spirit on the one hand and to outwardly deal with us through our circumstances on the other hand. If we receive the Lord’s enlightenment inwardly and receive His dealing through our circumstances outwardly, we will be able to bring people to salvation or bring more people to salvation. A brother who comes to every meeting, reads the Bible, prays, and is irreproachable in his conduct may still not be able to bring anyone to the Lord. This does not mean that he has committed some sin; it may mean that he has not allowed the Lord to deal with him. Since the Lord wants him to bear fruit or more fruit, He may change the brother’s circumstances. Perhaps He will cause him to lose his job, become sick, or have difficulties at work or at home. The Lord will deal with the brother through his circumstances in order to break him so that he can receive the Lord’s pruning and cutting. After a new beginning he will be able to bring people to salvation. The number of people that we can bring to salvation depends on how much dealing we have received from the Lord. We have fresh power when we receive the Lord’s fresh dealing. If we had power last year but not this year, we must receive fresh dealings in order to have fresh power to bear fresh fruit. We need to let the Lord prune what needs to be pruned and to break what needs to be broken in order to bear fresh fruit. We must receive the Lord’s constant dealing in order to constantly bring people to salvation (Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, vol. 3, ch. 28, pp. 509-510).