Bill Johnson - The Purpose of Increase
Every branch that doesn’t bear fruit, He removes; every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John chapter 15 is where we’re going to start, verse one: I am the True Vine; my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Say this with me: God rewards all growth with pruning. How many of you are being richly rewarded in this particular season? That’s what I thought. Yeah, every branch that doesn’t bear fruit, He removes; every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
The very next verse, verse three: You are clean already because of the word I’ve spoken to you. I know I’ve taught on this probably a dozen times in 20 years, but I bring it up again because we sometimes have a misunderstanding of what pruning, what the discipline of the Lord looks like. Jesus is talking to His disciples, and He says, «I’m the vine; the Father is the vine dresser; you’re the branches that bear fruit.» He says if you don’t bear fruit or when you bear fruit, you get pruned. He said, «Now you guys are already clean. The word 'clean' is the same word for 'pruned, '» so He’s telling them they have to be pruned if they’re growing, but He’s already pruned them by the word He spoke to them. This tells us then that circumstances don’t prune us; His word does. The circumstances help us to pay attention to what He’s saying.
Some of you wouldn’t be interested in what God has to say at all if it were not for the pain of your circumstance. Wow! Not you, but it’s that other church down the road. He gets our attention through a situation only so that He can speak that which will bring transformation. He prunes through His word. It can be said we live because He speaks; «man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.» We live from the word that proceeds from the mouth of God; we live because He talks. Why does the enemy work so hard to cause us to lose faith in our ability to hear from God? Because we live because He speaks. He wants to separate us, if possible, from the very thing that keeps that flow of life stirring in our own souls. All right, go to chapter 14, and we’re going to race through three portions of Scripture here—four, actually.
In chapter 14, I’m going to start with verse 11—not because I need to, but just because I like to—because it would be considered heresy if it were not in the Bible. It’d take me too long to explain what I just said, so forget it. You got me, Ben? You got me? All right, Ben and I are flowing together here. Verse 11: «Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.» That’s amazing! Here’s Jesus: «Just believe Me; I’m in the Father; the Father’s in Me.» You can’t handle that? Well then, just believe for the miracles! Why would He do that? Because that’s a sign that will bring you back to the love of the Father.
If you can’t handle the giant step of believing, «I’m in the Father; the Father is in Me,» then just believe for what’s right within reach now, and that’s the miracle. Once you embrace that, you’ll catch another glimpse from another angle: the goodness of the Father. We owe the world the miraculous because, in many ways, it is the clearest illustration of God’s love for humanity. His love for us is not just a philosophical love; it is demonstrated, it is measurable in the miraculous. Verse 12: «Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will also do, and greater works than these will he do because I go to the Father.» Yes, I hear people say that doesn’t mean greater as in «greater»; it just means «greater in number» because we’re so many.
That’s not what it says, though, and the desire is good; it wants to protect the beauty, the wonder, the incredible nature of Jesus’s ministry on planet Earth. But you don’t protect His image by denying what He says. He said «greater.» They touched Jesus’s clothing; they were healed. For Paul, they took his clothing, sent it to another location, and they were healed. For Peter, they just got in his shadow and they were healed. It’s called «greater.» It doesn’t dishonor Jesus because it couldn’t have happened without Jesus making the decree. Jesus declared it; it is what made it possible. Verse 13: «And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.»
What’s the point here? The asking for anything is in the context of greater works—the greatest, that the Father may be glorified. See, Jesus has just announced to these guys, «I’m going,» and they’re going, «What?» Sorry, got back to the page there. «Wait, what?» I’m going. And then He says, «It’s better for you that I go,» and I know they’re thinking, «Yeah, right! How could it be better?» And so now He’s setting them up. He says, «Listen, you guys are going to do greater things; I’ve created a momentum for you to step into that makes it possible for you to do greater things.» And you will ask anything, and it will be done. And here’s the driving force, my driving desire behind everything I’m telling you: it’s that the Father would be glorified. This whole plan of Me coming, dying, returning to the Father, and releasing the Spirit is the Father’s design. He will be glorified by all of creation because His plan worked.
Yes, when you pray and a miracle takes place, His plan worked. All of creation stands in awe that what the Father orchestrated is actually happening; that fallen man can be restored and actually demonstrate the life, the love, the purity, the power of God in the broken situations of humanity. No part of creation thought that was possible, and they stand in absolute astonishment because it works, and they glorify the Father. Jesus set the stage for that to happen. We look at Solomon in the Old Testament, where God appears to him in the night and basically gives him a blank check: «Here, you can ask for whatever you want.» It’s the high watermark of prayer in the Old Testament. And then in the New Testament, the blank check is given to every believer every day. Thankfully, God reserves the right to say no to anything that will undermine My purpose. All right, thank You, Lord.
Chapter 15, verse 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. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so you will be My disciples.» I personally am strongly convinced that the bearing much fruit of verse 8 are the answers to prayer in verse 7. I want you to see all of creation paying attention to a covenant with God in heaven and humanity on planet Earth; His delegated authority, and they pray, and things happen because of it. See, it started that way: Genesis chapter 1—Father, Son, Holy Spirit have a conversation, and they say, «Let us make man in our image,» the only part of creation created in His likeness. Why? For the purpose of relationship. He then commissions them; He says, «Be fruitful, multiply, fill the Earth and subdue it. Be fruitful; be productive in your work.»
They were never assigned to sit on a cloud and play a harp and do nothing. Our identity, honestly, is reinforced through work—not working to obtain favor but working because we have favor. It’s healthy for us to work. The guy with five talents, who was rewarded by God, was rewarded with more responsibility. Be fruitful, multiply. Fruitful is to be productive in your work. Multiply, have children, who have children, who have children. Fill the Earth. Don’t all live in one house; don’t build a skyscraper and all live there. Come on, spread yourself out! Why? Land ownership is part of authority and implementing the purposes of God on the Earth. It is what you occupy; you have authority over. Fill the Earth and subdue it—subdue it! A military term, the implication is you are created into a war through relationship with Me.
Learn to implement My purposes as delegated authority onto this Earth until it’s transformed. Sin messed it up; Jesus came and fixed the mess, and we’re back to the same assignment. Now Jesus says, «Whatever you ask for.» I don’t think He’s saying, «Let the Father program you to pray the right things.» Obviously, we want to pray the will of God, and I’m thankful that He holds the right to veto my stupid prayers. But I’m also thankful that sometimes I pray not out of a command but out of a relationship, and there is a difference. There are times when you do something not because He told you to do it, but because you sense this overflow of His life into yours. How could I not? Paul says, «I cannot stop but speaking of the things that God has said and done, the things that I’ve seen.»
I can’t stop; it’s not a choice; it’s volcanic in me what I have seen. It’s impossible to stop. And there are certain things that we do because of a relationship, not necessarily in response to a command. Obviously, the base for this relationship is we respond to all of His commands, but He invites us into a relational role where there are times we find ourselves dreaming and praying for things He didn’t direct us to pray for, and it’s in those moments we start finding out the far reaches of His will, His capacity, and desire and passion to answer prayer. It’s outside of just the simple commands we’ve been given. We find out how far-reaching the command «on Earth as it is in heaven» really looks.