Covenant Relationships

4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in
the vine, neither can you, unless you abide
in Me.
5 "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.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast
out as a branch and is withered; and they
gather them and throw them into the fire,
and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in
you, you will ask what you desire, and it
shall be done for you.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you
bear much fruit; so you will be My
disciples.”
A common mistake is to believe that we are filled with
His Spirit automatically upon becoming saved. That is
not true. We need to pray for His Spirit, and once it
comes we need to be careful not to quench it. I talk
about this in the study “Don’t Quench the Spirit.”
The problem is that after we receive His Spirit, very few
of us let it lead us. His Spirit will focus on doing His will
all of the time, but most of us let some other spirit (i.e.,
some other priority) creep in and take up residence.
This is attested every time we do things that are not
glorifying to YHWH. YHWH’s Spirit will never do these
kinds of things (and hence they can only be the fruit of
some other spirit).
What we need, then, is to be delivered of every spirit
that is not His. We need to ask YHWH to take those
other spirits away from us, so that YHWH’s Spirit alone
dwells in us. This is where fasting and prayer come in.
35
36
Marqaus (Mark) 9:28-29
28 And when He had come into the house,
His disciples asked Him privately, "Why
could we not cast it out?"
29 So He said to them, "This kind can come
out by nothing but prayer and fasting."
The reason fasting is so important is that our hearts are
deceitful and rebellious, and like to exalt themselves.
Just like our Pharisee/Orthodox brothers like to pretend
that their own commandments are of Elohim, so too the
people in this movement like to do their own will, and
pretend that it comes from YHWH. They open the door
to all sorts of other spirits, but they pretend that they
only have YHWH’s Spirit because they perform some
of the outward commandments. This is exactly what
Yeshua decried when He criticized the Pharisees
(Orthodox Jews) for keeping YHWH’s commands as a
checklist of steps to spiritual purification.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 23:23-28
23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cummin, and have neglected the
weightier matters of the law: justice and
mercy and faith. These you ought to have
done, without leaving the others undone.
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and
swallow a camel!
25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of
the cup and dish, but inside they are full of
extortion and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of
the cup and dish, that the outside of them
may be clean also.