June 16, 2023 • 42 mins
Dan Schilling & Michael Blue explore John 15 to uncover what "abiding" and "producing much fruit" look like in daily life. The first episode of a 3-part series. This may free you from the bondage of feeling like you are "not doing enough" for God. #ThriveinChrist
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Episode Transcript
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Dan Schilling (00:07):
Hey, welcome to the PG podcast where we help you
hear God's voice, follow hislead and thrive as a disciple.
I'm Dan Schilling. And I'll beone of your guides. Now let's
get into today's topic. Awelcome to the BG podcast.
Michael, good to be with youagain.
Michael Blue (00:22):
Dan, good to see you.
Dan Schilling (00:24):
But we're gonna jump right in again today. And
you know, what's beencontinually on my heart, Mike,
as we've been talking throughthe last couple of episodes
here, that about here followthrive. And that is not just a
tagline for us, it really is amantra. And really what's been
on my heart, as we've beentalking about thriving, the last
(00:45):
couple times that we've beentogether, one of the things
that's been stirring in me isthat I can't thrive without
following. And I can't followwithout hearing. And I kind of
work that backwards. And theseissues that we've talked about
here before that these thingsthat are inhibiting us these
(01:05):
obstacles, pride, money, andinfidelity, these things that
that are keeping me from hearingand falling, these aren't new,
right, these have been going onsince the beginning of time. And
so we have issues that are ofthat sin, nature, pride, that
desire to do what I want to do,and what that produces is bad
(01:27):
fruit. And so today, we're goingto talk a little bit about being
connected to the vine andbearing good fruit. So before we
get started, want you to prayfor us and get us started for
today.
Michael Blue (01:41):
Okay, loving Father, thank you for today and
just opportunity to cometogether again and explore what
it means to, to here follow andthrive. And so I pray that as we
consider our ways that you wouldjust lighten our steps that you
would lighten our loads andallow us to freely follow after
(02:01):
us so that we truly can thrive,no matter what's going on around
us and in our lives. So do thistoday about our conversation and
maybe draw it here to you inJesus name. Amen.
Dan Schilling (02:15):
Amen. So I've got two points that we're going to
really try to drive home today.
The first one, Michael, and Iknow you and I've talked about
this, you've done a lot ofteaching around this too. And I
think part of your book free tofollow a lot of this content and
around John, coming from thereas well. You also have a 923
program, which we'll talk aboutin more detail. Hopefully you're
(02:42):
coming up soon. As well, iffolks were interested in being a
part of something like that,that's a year long journey to
becoming closer to Christ as aas a fully devoted disciple. But
to for today, the two mainpoints I really want is what
we're going to try to get tothis is what does a biting look
like? Alright, so what does abiting look like? And the second
(03:06):
thing we're going to really hiton today is What does producing
fruit look like? So what doesfruit look like in our life? How
do we know? And how do we knowfor biting? Because we've talked
about it, we hear it, butsometimes like Okay, so what
does that look like? I mean, Idon't use the term abide? Much
(03:26):
in my vernacular today when I'mtalking to people have been
abiding here. You know, so,right. Give me a couple thoughts
before we jump into this.
Michael Blue (03:36):
Yeah, I mean, even the concept of it feels you
know, just just somewhatethereal or just out there of
okay, abide resting and God or,you know, being with and what is
it? What does it mean to, torest in something else I know
how to rest and how to sit onthe couch or take a nap or do
(03:57):
something like that. But how doI rest in something? So yeah, I
think these are importantquestions.
Dan Schilling (04:03):
Yeah, and so there's a term I'm going to
probably hit so many times theyfolks, you're gonna get tired of
hearing it. And I'm gonna keepdriving around this thought so
hopefully easy to remember. Butalignment for assignment,
alignment, before assignment.
And so as we talked about abiting my grandma, you know, us,
you know, farm boy growing up,and then we've had an orchard in
(04:27):
the back yard of our farm whenwe lived in Ohio for all those
years. And so a lot of theseconcepts make sense to me. But
for many of us today, we didn'tgrew up around agriculture. You
know, these things that Jesuswould have been talking about
that back then don't make a tonof sense to us because we didn't
grew up around it. But as Ithink about alignment, and
(04:47):
abiding an angular show me whatare the How can I help folks to
encourage them in this thoughtaround alignment, before
assignment, is that if thebranch is out of alignment,
meaning if it gets disjointed ordisconnected from the main
branch, then when it's likesometimes on a tree and get
broke off, I drive around with amower and snap it off, or what
(05:09):
seems that gets snapped off,it's no longer remaining or
biting or connected, then itdies. And it needs to be pruned.
So today, we're going to go intothis and so thinking about so
are you ready to jump in thisfrom Scripture?
Michael Blue (05:29):
Yeah, let's do it.
Alright,
Dan Schilling (05:31):
so today we're gonna, the text we're gonna be
looking at as John 15, we'regonna look at verses one through
14. And I want to just kind ofsummarize it with this, that
this kind of this text is goingto, essentially, it's gonna talk
about staying close to me. Soyou can bear much fruit, that
obedience to the Father bringsjoy, or you're going to thrive,
(05:54):
and that we should love eachother. And that when we're
staying close bearing fruit, andwe're walking in obedience, it
actually evolves or producesfruit of loving one another. And
one of the key verses we'regoing to try to touch on today,
multiple times is that John 15,eight, which you will read in
just a second, but when youproduce much fruit, you are my
(06:16):
true disciples. This bringsgreat glory to my father. And so
we talked a couple of episodesago, from Galatians, five about
fruit of the Spirit. And so Ibelieve that's part of it, but
we'll try to look at some otheraspects of what it looks like
today. All right, so All right,let me let me bring up John 15
(06:41):
here and get back to verse one,if you want to start reading
there sure,
Michael Blue (06:48):
says this I am the true grape vine. And my Father
is the gardener. He cuts offevery branch of mine that
doesn't produce fruit and heproves the branches that do bear
fruit, so they will produce evenmore, you have already been
pruned and purified by themessage I have given you remain
in me and I will remain in you.
For branch cannot produce fruitif it is severed from the vine,
(07:09):
and you cannot be fruitfulunless you remain in me. Yes, I
am the vine you are thebranches. Those who remain in me
and I in them will produce muchfruit. apart from me you can do
nothing. Anyone who does notremain in me is thrown away like
a useless branch and withers,such branches are gathered into
a pile to be burned. But if youremain in me and my words remain
(07:32):
in you, you might ask anythingyou want, and it will be
granted. When you produce muchfruit you are my true disciples
and this brings great glory tomy father.
Dan Schilling (07:46):
Great so let's just stop here for just a
second. And a couple againverses here that when we want to
highlight is this one here inverse eight, about producing
much fruit that your maturedisciples but I want to go back
to a verse that I know you andI've talked about about in our
discussions but really it'sverse five when he says you know
(08:09):
for apart from me, you can donothing. And I was thinking
about that this week and Ithought you know what, we're
gonna look at a another verse ofscripture believe we're probably
going to have a part two to thisepisode of Be then do is kind of
the title we're going to use forthis episode is be first right
(08:31):
we want to be with him bealigned with him before we get
our assignment. So what thatalignment before assignment. So
the Matthew seven is one of thescriptures we're gonna look at
probably in part two, and ittalks about these people coming
and saying all the things thatthey were doing. But the problem
(08:52):
was is they had missed the beingpart or the alignment before
they got the assignment. And sowhat I think Jesus saying is is
when you're not aligned with meyou're not going to do able to
do anything but these folks inMatthew seven could argue yes,
yes, we did. Look, we prophesiedwe cast out demons, we did
(09:15):
miracles of course we can dosomething. But I guess we have
to look at what I believe he'ssaying here to us is that we can
actually do nothing thatactually is good. Good fruit, we
can produce things, but is itreally good fruit? So give me
your thoughts on this
Michael Blue (09:34):
first portion?
Yeah, well even thinking back tolast episode where we talked
about formation and kind of howour minds are formed and how
that's a part of it, but it'syou know, it's kind of this idea
of our head, our hands and ourheart like all of these things
being formed but you know, myhead what I know my hands but I
do have a have an impact on onmy heart, but ultimately it is
(09:55):
it's all about transforming thatheart and that I think We use
the term, my visceralsubconscious orientation to the
world. Right? So this is what Ithink this is what fruit is it
is that visceral subconsciousorientation that's coming out in
me. And so I think what you seein what Jesus rebuked a lot, and
the New Testament, and what wesee a lot today is we have a lot
(10:19):
of really elite doers, peoplewho are really, really, really
good at doing as are thePharisees, they're also really
good at knowing they're theseelite Knowers, they have all
this knowledge. But it's so easyfor us to disconnect those
things from each other, both butthen also from ultimately, the
vinedresser, the gardener, theone who is actually the vine
(10:42):
that's producing the fruit. Sowe're like, no, no, I got this
fruit on my own. And I go, No,or I go do and I totally leave
out the actual thing that willbring fruit and growth.
Dan Schilling (10:58):
So good. I was thinking about this a while back
to is, you know, Jesus sayingthat he's the vine, and that My
Father is the gardener. And justthis thought hit me, you know,
again, I'm a farmer, we had agarden for years to my boys
could tell you how they hatedthe garden, you know, because
they had to pull weeds and, andI felt what the Lord was showing
(11:21):
me one time is, you know, whosejob is it to pull the weeds? Is
it the plant? Or the gardener?
Like, well, obviously, it's thegardener. But sometimes we get
in the doing business, right? Wethink it's our job as the vine
to pull the weeds. It's like,no, that's, that's my father's
job. My job is just to remain tobe connected and allow him to
(11:46):
complete the good work that hebegan in need. Let him be the
one who's deciding what's aweed? And what's not. Because
sometimes when we had a gardenall those years, it's hard to
tell sometimes. What What wasthe weed and what was good.
Eventually, sometimes prettyeasy, because the weeds outpace
everything quickly, right? Butthis concept and thinking about
(12:08):
our Father, he is the gardener,he knows what's best. He knows
what needs to be pulled out. Andthere's, you know, the Scripture
talks about when it says, Leavethe weeds go, you know, we'll
get it at harvest time. Right?
Because you pull up the good andthe and the bad. So, and it's
(12:30):
his job. He's the one who doesthe pruning. He's the one who is
really trying to see me Befruitful and effective.
Michael Blue (12:39):
Yeah, and I think even as I think about our, our
here, follow Thrive model thatwhat we oftentimes substitute
for following is striving. And Ithink, you know, you're kind of
describing this idea of, we'restriving. And I don't want to
mislead and say, well, we don't,we don't work, we don't work
hard, or we don't even pursuewith all that we have. But
(13:00):
there's a subtle difference. Ithink between that I'm trying to
pull up all the fruit, I'mtrying to do everything I'm
striving I'm, I'm beatingagainst the wind, if you will,
I'm just I'm working so hard.
And it's it's exhausting, it'stiring, and all of these things
versus the following should leadus into thriving. Yes. And so
that's really, I think, thetension we're trying to describe
(13:22):
here, what does it mean to abideand what does actually mean to
produce fruit? Because I can, Ican, I can give you some great
fake apples and great fake pearsthat we can put on the table.
And you may not be able to tellthe difference until you try to
take a bite out of them. Butthey're not the same. I promise
you that I've tried them bothreal apple is better than a
plastic
Dan Schilling (13:42):
one. Little taste the wax sometime or something?
Yeah. Yeah,
Michael Blue (13:46):
hurts the teeth.
You know, you just bite inthere.
Dan Schilling (13:49):
Yeah. Well, and Mike why he's thinking about
this over the years that we hadour orchard do. I said, you
know, if a tree could talk, youknow, any tree could say to me,
Hey, I'm an apple tree. Buteventually, if I spend enough
time around that tree, I'm gonnawant to see something I'm gonna
want to see some apples right?
And you know you could go havetie on some apples like that
(14:10):
you're saying like a tie him onhere make it look like I'm a
real tree. And I think likeyou're saying many times we're
we're, we're tying fruit ontrying to make it look like
we're a fruit producing tree.
But it's really out of I lovewhat you just said about the
striving for and we want theappearance of something which is
(14:32):
really what we're gonna hit nexttime. He I'm saying so many
times may won't be next time butthat Matthew says all the things
that we're doing right and sothe essence again is be in him
remain in that alignment. If forI try to start going out and
doing these other things andmaking myself look fruitful,
(14:53):
which is again, I think whathappens to a lot of us in
Christendom, you know I you knowit's so much more than just like
this Morning exercise calleddevotions, right? It's so much
more than just this. Hey, I readmy Bible. I prayed. I did. I
did. I did. I did. I did. I did.
But the question is, what again,does this abiding look like?
Yeah. Am I really?
Michael Blue (15:18):
Yeah. And I think about an orchard. I mean, if you
if you picture an orchard, whenyou picture walking through, you
know, peach trees, or appletrees, or whatever, does that
feel stressful? Like you feellike that's gonna be a stressful
place for me to be. I tend tothink of orchards and places
like that. It's pretty quiet,pretty peaceful, like men take a
walk and an orchard, sit down,have a picnic, like it feels
(15:41):
good. And I don't think thatwhen I walk into an orchard, I
get stressed out because I havethese trees around me, that are
like, all stressed out, they'relike pushing, they're working.
And they're like yelling, andthey're not producing enough
fruit. You know, that's notthis. They're just, they're,
they're, they're, they're, youknow, taking nourishment from
the soil. And fruit is aproduct. But it's, you know,
(16:04):
it's that difference, I thinkbetween the natural product I
don't I don't see these treeslike striving to push out fruit
that they produce fruit becauseof where they are. And what they
Yes.
Dan Schilling (16:16):
Yes. Yeah, they're not stressing if it's if
it's going to rain or not. Imean, they can be stressed if it
doesn't rain, but they're notworried. If it doesn't, Sun
doesn't come out. They're justbeing right, like they're
connected. And when they'reconnected to the roots, and
connected to the branches of thevine, they produce fruit. And
(16:39):
that's really what Jesus again,reiterating here is, you know,
that our father is the one who'sin charge of what's good and
what's bad. He'll prune thingsand or sometimes, I might have
said this one other time. pastorfriend years ago, he said, you
know, they said, Hey, Lord, turnoff the pruning shears, I'm
almost a stump, you know, like,you're taking me down, you know,
(17:00):
but sometimes he has to take usdown. And we would do that
sometimes in some of thesetrees, because they weren't
producing good fruit. Right,improved significantly. So
alright, well, let's, let's keepgoing on here. Let's get back
into our Scripture starting inverse nine. I've started reading
(17:21):
in there.
Michael Blue (17:22):
Yeah, alright, the first nine, I have loved you,
even as the Father has loved meremain in my love. When you obey
my commandments, you remain inmy love, just as I obey my
father's commandments, andremain in his love. I have told
you these things, so that youwill be filled with my joy. Yes,
your joy will overflow. This ismy commandment Love each other
(17:45):
in the same way I have lovedyou. There is no greater love,
than to lay down one's life forone's friends, you are my
friends, if you do what I canmake.
Dan Schilling (17:56):
So what I see here, Michael, as you start to
look at what what's part of thefruit that's produced, is one of
the main ones which we see inthe Galatians. The first one is
love. And our love for Him, isproducing something, it produces
(18:18):
obedience, just like Jesus'slove for his father, because he
was remaining are connected tohim, that he obeyed His Father
even unto death. And that he'scalling us to that same love.
Not only is it to love ourFather, and show love toward him
(18:40):
with obedience, but to show lovetowards one another in that same
way is laying down our life. Andone of the things we've talked
about here, again, that Ibelieve is keeping us from
hearing God's voice is pride,which, in its essence, Andrew
Murray's quote, that we'llprobably say many, many, many
times here is that, you know,the pride isn't thinking less of
(19:01):
yourself, it's thinking ofyourself less. And I think
that's what Jesus modeled to us.
He was thinking of himself lessHe laid down His life for us.
And that same calling now forus, doesn't mean that I'm going
to necessarily physically goget, you know, nailed to a
cross, but I am going to give upmy desires as the primary
(19:26):
function of life in existence,right? Like I get to do what I
want to do, my money, my time,my life, and that this calling
as a disciple is calling me to agreater life which is going to
produce much fruit.
Michael Blue (19:51):
Yeah, and I think of laying down our lives and the
end even following the idea Todisplay love or to thrive
requires me to do somethingthat's very countercultural to
think of how I achieve thosethings, usually if I am I our
culture tells us if I want tothrive, or if I want to show
(20:15):
love, the primary way I do thatis really to pursue myself or my
passions or to find, findmyself, you know, those types of
things where I'm after me,ultimately. And that's how I can
thrive or that's how I actuallylove is this total throwing off
of any sort of submission orlaying down anything at all but
(20:37):
but Jesus tells us here in theBible tells us that in order to
thrive, I must submit andfollowing in order to love, I
must give up things that Irightfully, can take. And that's
all throughout Scripture. Andit's such a different
perspective. It's kind of likethis, this upside down kingdom
that we see all over scripture,right? To gain to die is gain,
(21:02):
to lose, to live as Christ anddie as game these ideas of
opposites that we would expect.
But if I want to love if I wantto abide if I want to thrive,
one of the first things I thinkI do is I have to give off of
self lay things down and comeand then trust that actually the
one who's leading me the onewho's pruning, the one who's
(21:22):
doing these things, will producein me something that's way
better than what I could pursueand gain on my own. Yes.
Dan Schilling (21:33):
Well, as you and I have talked, again, many
times, you know, what, what'sGod really after? Right, he
wants us to hear his voice. Hewants us to follow him, which we
see this obedience, he wants forus to thrive, which I look at
(21:55):
this, you know, I've told youthese things. So you'll be
filled with joy that your joywill overflow to me. That's what
thriving is a part of right thatthis love and joy and peace and
patience and these fruits thathe wants for us to experience,
not apart from him, right?
They're the byproduct of theSpirit of God in us, that's what
(22:18):
Galatians is showing us, right?
This is what happens when theHoly Spirit's in you, when
you're abiding in him, you'regoing to have an outflow of him
in you, which is going toproduce these things called the
fruits of the Spirit.
Michael Blue (22:38):
Right. And your you know, the word and this
translation is remain, we usethe word ABIDE and a lot of
other translations is sowhenever we have said, remain,
that's also translated, abide.
But as I think of even thispicture of an orchard again, or
whatever the grapevine theremaining is a rootedness
there's a depth of connectednessinto the source of nourishment.
(23:00):
Right and so remaining is notlike grabbing myself my roots up
and you know, taking my rootsand and why waddling off to a
different pasture or a differentorchard or whatever it is. It's,
it's a rootedness in that inthat place. Yes.
Dan Schilling (23:19):
Yeah. Well, and it's, you know, years ago,
Michael, I may have told youthis enough, we've talked about
yet here on the podcast, but I'mnotoriously cheap. I don't like
to spend money. And I'm alwayslooking for a deal. You know,
like, Galatea is like trying todo all these things that are now
(23:40):
looking back like man that wasso foolish, but years ago, after
I felt prompted by the Lord toplant an orchard, and I found a
deal online and it was like 12trees for like $100 Now normally
trees are a lot more expensivethan that. But it was a great
(24:01):
deal. You know, these littletrees came they are about the
size of my pinky finger aroundwhen they came I'm like, you
know, it's okay. Because youknow, will might be longer till
we get fruit but you know, itwill train these trees up and,
and so, well what happened wasafter about four or five years,
I found out that the trees wereactually bad stock or that they
(24:25):
were poor quality. And so ourapple trees, most of them never
produced an apple larger than awalnut. And our air trees never
produced a like a pear biggerthan our fingernail and the
cherry trees but but bearsbigger or fingernail. And so I
pruned and cared and pruned andcared for these trees for years.
And I finally one year, I prunethem back really hard. And I
(24:49):
said, Boys, we're gonna givethese trees one more year and
see if they can produce fruitand you know what? That bad tree
could never produce good. Fruiteven when it was pruned. And so
we had a little spiritual lessonthat that next year with the
chainsaw, this is what we did,right? We cut down the tree, and
(25:10):
we put it in the bonfire. And wewere just talking about that
with the boys recently. And theysaid, Yeah, but we had a nice
bonfire. One time, experience,right. But the point of all that
here, again, is, as we've beenlooking at these passages the
last couple of weeks aboutproducing and so how do we help
(25:34):
folks today if they're listeningto Okay, so how do I apply? What
does that biting look like?
Because you said we're going totry to look at that. So what
would you say to someone says,What does that biting look like?
And what does then producingfruit? look like? Give me your
thoughts on on that.
Michael Blue (25:54):
Yeah, so you know, we've talked a little around I
think abiding and this restingin this remaining in this
rootedness. And so when I thinkabout abiding, I think about
being in the presence of, so ifI'm abiding and God he says, if
if, if, if you abide Me, and Mywords abide in you ask whatever
(26:18):
you wish, so there's a there's acombination, I think of that of
my abiding in Him and His wordsabiding in me. So I have
scripture, that's a part of howI abide and remain and rest in
Him. You know, prayer I wasreading this morning about in
testimony and how to praycontinually, right, this is,
this is an attitude not of like,I'm literally on my knees in
(26:39):
prayer. But this is an attitude,this is with God, I recognize
that God is here and with me andeverything that I do and say,
and so he's a part of it. And sothat's kind of my, my
understanding as I go into. Somy awareness of an
acknowledgement of a realitythat is, isn't that this
presence is me, abiding in Him.
And so it's effectively, youknow, recognizing the soil that
(27:02):
I am planted in, and being awareof it on a regular basis, as I
do. So a lot of abiding for mecomes into in the practical ways
of, of how I am communing withGod personally, and how I'm
communing with God in communitywith other believers in Him, and
so it's a presence, I think alot of it is remaining in his
presence in those ways. And sothere's, there's a lot of ways I
(27:27):
abide, certainly, but but thesingle most important thing is
that it's, it's him that I'mfocused on and remaining, and I
don't know, what other thoughtswould you have on that? Well,
Dan Schilling (27:40):
I, I, I appreciate what you said.
Because it's true. I have beensaying the same thing, you know,
that prayer continually. It'snot just a it's not a morning
exercise, right? It's a, it's aposturing of the heart that I'm
available for dialogue with theHoly Spirit 24/7 365 You know, I
(28:04):
don't have this relationshipwhere it's like, only when it's
good for me, you know, like Igot, I'll give you an hour in
the morning, honey, you know, tomy wife, if that was the case,
like, Honey, you got an hour inthe morning, but after that, my
life is my life, and you go offto the corner, and I get to do
whatever I want, with whoever Iwant. Think whatever I want. And
then I'll come back and see youtomorrow morning. You know, it's
(28:25):
like, Wait a minute. We weretogether. You know, we we were
committed to one another we'renot married for an hour a day.
We're married. 24/7 365 so thatremaining to me is I'm available
if my wife even if she prayedcalled right now I'd have to
pause the podcast and just tomake sure she's okay. All right.
So I'm available to her and ifshe needs me I want to be
(28:50):
available and so I want to beavailable to the Holy Spirit. I
want to be remaining in him Iwant to have a an ear attuned to
His voice and if he calls meright now, they say okay, yeah,
what what is what's on what's onthe agenda, what's on your
heart. And that's not just amorning thing or an evening
(29:11):
thing or a Sunday morning orexercise it's a all day every
day. And then when I amavailable to him one of the
thoughts that I have about whatproducing fruit looks like is
years ago again a farm boythinking here is I felt God
showing me my relationship withSherry is that he said like you
(29:32):
you have seeds in each of yourpockets so to say in your pants
and in one side you have cornseed and the others other
buckets, you got fissile seed,and you're you're gonna get to
choose what kind of seed you'regoing to sow sow into the soil
of her heart. And if you choosethe things of the flesh, which
is what those thistle seeds are,you know if you don't know what
(29:54):
thistles are, you know if you'repart of the country, but they're
like prickly things. Nobodylikes to be around them right?
And if you scatter them, youhave a choice, you can leave
them there, but these littletiny seeds, they're hard to go
pick out. And it's gonna go upand going to produce thistles.
But you'd be a fool than tothink that you can throw thistle
(30:16):
seeds into her heart and notexpect to reap something. And so
to me what producing fruit thenhas to be is there's times when
the Holy Spirit speaking to meeven still today, when I'm angry
or frustrated or somethinghappens, and I literally have to
say, okay, which, which pocketam I going to reach in right
now? The one of the flash cangrab some physical seeds,
(30:38):
because she's upsetting me orshe said something like, or did
somebody didn't like, you know,I'm gonna throw these seeds, or
am I gonna reach into this otherpocket and the things of the
Spirit? It's kind and gracious,and gentle, and loving, and,
and, and long suffering, youknow, all these different
attributes of Gad? I have tochoose which, which, which hand
(31:00):
is going to be used today, theone of the spirit, or the one of
them?
Michael Blue (31:04):
Right. Yeah, I mean, ultimately, it matters
what we sow. And it matters, Ithink, also where we so so if we
think about sowing seeds of thespirit, and in the fields of the
world, right, and I think that'sa lot of what we see of these,
what I talked about earlier ofelite doers, or elite knowers is
(31:27):
somewhat of sowing a spiritualseed and in the world, because
the fruit that I want from thatis the accolades if the world
the fruit I'm desiring is forman to tell me that I'm smarter,
good or something, I'm wantingthat fruit. And so in order to
get it, I have to say that fruitin that field will produce it.
Now, if I want the spiritualfruit. And I saw the spiritual
(31:49):
seeds in that field, which maylook, they're the same seeds.
But I saw it in the right place.
That's when I began to reap whatGalatians talks about, of Zoho,
a life eternal life, a lifeconnected to God and the Spirit.
And that's the fruit that reallyis that we're trying to produce.
And so So yeah, this one that'sthat's looking for the world is
(32:12):
looking for the satisfaction orthe others looking for the
father's looking for eternalbenefit and reward. And so the
way I look at it is totallydifferent of what I look at in
the other space.
Dan Schilling (32:26):
Yes. Well, it's so good I, I continue to look at
examining my own wife, you know,how do I know if I'm producing
fruit or not? And how do I knowif I'm sowing corn seeds? Or if
(32:47):
I'm sowing thistle seeds, and itdoesn't take long, in my
opinion, to look at my beer, andthen look at life around me and
see, is there fruit? Is thereevidence of sowing the things of
the Spirit in my life in mychildren in the relationships of
(33:10):
the people around me? Or isthere a lot of junk? And then
wondering, why is there a lot ofjunk and and a half to examine,
you know, what, what's creatingthis junk? And all of us have it
right. I mean, it's not like,oh, gosh, I can't believe it.
You know, like, I got weeds.
Like, our father is thatgardener, right? He wants to
(33:33):
come and help us. He wants topull those weeds. He's the one
who knows what's weed and not,but are it really to me? How do
I know if I'm producing fruit?
Is? It is there is are thethings of his spirit going on
around me? Is there wisdom,knowledge, understanding is
there love and joy and peace andpatience is their, you know,
(33:57):
words of knowledge, you know,whatever the things that I need
in the midst of my day, becauseI'm walking in His presence,
that when something tough comeswhen there's something coming at
me, I'm not overwhelmed by it.
But I'm actually I can stillfind a piece that can still find
joy in the midst of a trial.
Michael Blue (34:18):
Yeah, I mean, fruit ultimately, if we think
about it, it's it's the overflowof my heart, as opposed to the
product of what I take. So Ithink too often we we look at,
you know, fruit as you know,other salvations or something,
you know, some other tangiblething that I can grab onto and
point to and say, Look at myfruit, because you know, it's
(34:41):
it's using this agriculturalexample. And so we think of
apples or we think of grapes.
But when we see in Galatians,talking about the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness,
gentleness, right. These arethings that are the overflow of
my heart. And so when I when Ithink about producing fruit and
identity Finding my life. It'smuch more my reaction to things
(35:02):
than it is the things that I'mproducing. So if I, you know,
preach a sermon and nobody saysanything about it, or someone
does say something about andsay, Man that was really good,
is my heart is my Am I tugged inthe direction of pride? Or am I
tugged in the direction ofpraise? And am I thank God,
thank you right for allowing meto be a part of that, or am I
(35:27):
like, Yeah, I'm getting prettygood. Like that was a pretty
good sermon. And so mycontentment of resting in the
father versus resting in theaccolades of other people
totally are the fruit to me thatI recognize and see, okay, the
fruit of the Spirit is workingin me, because I have this place
in this piece. And thiscontentment, it's not always
(35:49):
there. But it certainly comesout in times like that, that I
say, that's the fruit of theSpirit. And that's what I want,
because of the just the abilityto approach life and whatever it
throws at you, and a verydifferent way. And to me, that's
thriving.
Dan Schilling (36:08):
When just, you know, we you and I've talked a
little bit about, you know, wewent through probably the most
significant parenting challengeof our life a couple of months
ago, right, as we were trying toget the ministry launched and
all these things. And what God'sshowing me is like, then I'm not
interested in you feeding sheepoutside of the pen or finishing,
you take care of the ones insideof the pen and your own boys.
(36:30):
But in the midst of this, youknow, what some you could look
at as a tragedy. What Irecognized in the midst of it
was how the Holy Spirit wasimparting to me day by day, step
by step. Even though it wastough, even though it was hard,
there was a piece of Yeah, hewould give insight into things.
(36:53):
You know, like, I don't thinkthey're telling the truth here
about this, I need that continueto ask some questions. And then
we get uncover some more stuff.
And it was like this wholejourney. And I've just watched
what the Spirit of God's doneand in all honesty, what the
majority the work was, he wascontinuing to work out the stuff
in me because I'm the leader,right? I've been called to be
the head, the Father and toreflect Him. And there were many
(37:17):
ways I wasn't, and that's, Hey,welcome to The Club, right?
We're all trying to grow in thisand become more like Christ. But
it's a it's a journey. Of, ofexperiencing that presence, like
you talked about, I could Icould sense His presence in
(37:37):
different times, I sense thatwisdom and how to handle it.
What things to say, and thereare times in the midst of it. I
could say over the years with mywife, sometimes probably one of
the best things he'd say to meis just keep your mouth shut.
Don't say anything. Because Iwould probably say something
(37:58):
that would be hurtful to them.
And so that, to me, is what youknow, part of the thriving is is
how I can continue to show themwhat it looks like. As well as
seeing the presence of God inneeds. Yeah. Well, next time,
we're going to probably have apart two, maybe a part three,
(38:21):
who knows of this one, but we'rereally I'm gonna drive this
point home, because I think it'sso key for us in our journey, as
followers of Jesus, that asdisciples that are going to bear
much fruit is that we have to bewe have to remain in Him. Before
we can do and sometimes we getso caught up in the do because
that's again, this is humannature. Right. This is what the
(38:42):
Pharisees did. This is what theOld Testament all these things,
but what obey the walls and therules and tell me what to do.
And I believe God's always beenabout him desiring to have a
relationship where we betogether, that what we can do
for him. So any final thoughts,Michael, before we wrap up for
(39:04):
today?
Michael Blue (39:05):
Yeah, no, I think that's the, that's a really good
good wrap up is the abiding isis the resting, it's the it's
the becoming. It's the thrivingand it's, it's yes, we follow
Yes, we obey, because we'rehearing his voice, but the we're
effectively just becoming who weare, who he already says that we
(39:27):
are. And that's, that's really,really a beautiful thing if we
can grasp that identity that wehave in Him and that he's he's
drawing us into to produce thefruit himself in our lives of
who he already says that we are.
Dan Schilling (39:46):
Well, next time what I'm going to do is share
with you all that just lastweek, I was telling Michael
before we got on today, that Iwoke up at four o'clock in the
morning having an anxietyattack. And so I want to share
with you Is the scripture out ofMatthew 11, that God spoke to my
(40:06):
heart, and then a story, andsome research that I did around
oxen, and a yoke, and it'sfascinating stuff. So we're
gonna talk about that next time.
But again, to wrap up for today,I want to go back to our points
is that the goal for today isWhat does abiding look like and
we want to continue to drivethat abiding, is what happens
when we are in alignment withthe Spirit, we get a line with
(40:27):
him. That's what that desire,that abiding that staying
connected to him. And that whenwe are staying connected to him,
that's when fruit comes. Sothat's what we want to focus on,
even in our time, next episode,as well. So couple action steps
for you. Again, I just want toencourage you, as we talk about
(40:51):
each one these times and startto ask the Holy Spirit M M, I,
am I abiding in you? Am I inalignment with you? So even now,
maybe you just take some time aswe wrap up and just start asking
that question. Holy Spirit, isthat what's Is there something
keeping me from it? Is thereanything that's keeping me from
that? And then we I mentionedthis one lay other times, but if
(41:15):
you'd be so bold and courageousto do this as maybe ask somebody
else in your circle of friends,family, accountability partner,
somebody, you know, to ask them,Do you see anything in me?
That's keeping me from biting orresting or remaining in him.
That's keeping me really fromthriving, because when we're not
abiding, we're not gonna thrive.
(41:38):
So Michael, I know you opened aprayer bomb and actually even
close the prayer today. It's agreat job.
Michael Blue (41:46):
Great, God, you're good and we do long for a desire
to abide. And to bear fruit bearmuch fruit as this scripture
says. So just I pray that wewouldn't focus on the the
bearing of much fruit firstwould focus on the abiding and
aligning with you as we do learnto follow and as we do trust you
(42:07):
to produce fruit to just producein us people who can rest in you
and can trust you and truly dolong for the eternal fruit that
you promise instead of thetemporal stuff. We love you and
thank you for this time, Jesusname. Amen.
Dan Schilling (42:22):
Michael, thank you again, always a pleasure to
be with you. Thank you all forjoining us. I look forward to
having you with us next time.
God bless you.
Hey, welcome to the PG podcast where we help you
hear God's voice, follow hislead and thrive as a disciple.
I'm Dan Schilling. And I'll beone of your guides. Now let's
get into today's topic. Awelcome to the BG podcast.
Michael, good to be with youagain.
Michael Blue (00:22):
Dan, good to see you.
Dan Schilling (00:24):
But we're gonna jump right in again today. And
you know, what's beencontinually on my heart, Mike,
as we've been talking throughthe last couple of episodes
here, that about here followthrive. And that is not just a
tagline for us, it really is amantra. And really what's been
on my heart, as we've beentalking about thriving, the last
(00:45):
couple times that we've beentogether, one of the things
that's been stirring in me isthat I can't thrive without
following. And I can't followwithout hearing. And I kind of
work that backwards. And theseissues that we've talked about
here before that these thingsthat are inhibiting us these
(01:05):
obstacles, pride, money, andinfidelity, these things that
that are keeping me from hearingand falling, these aren't new,
right, these have been going onsince the beginning of time. And
so we have issues that are ofthat sin, nature, pride, that
desire to do what I want to do,and what that produces is bad
(01:27):
fruit. And so today, we're goingto talk a little bit about being
connected to the vine andbearing good fruit. So before we
get started, want you to prayfor us and get us started for
today.
Michael Blue (01:41):
Okay, loving Father, thank you for today and
just opportunity to cometogether again and explore what
it means to, to here follow andthrive. And so I pray that as we
consider our ways that you wouldjust lighten our steps that you
would lighten our loads andallow us to freely follow after
(02:01):
us so that we truly can thrive,no matter what's going on around
us and in our lives. So do thistoday about our conversation and
maybe draw it here to you inJesus name. Amen.
Dan Schilling (02:15):
Amen. So I've got two points that we're going to
really try to drive home today.
The first one, Michael, and Iknow you and I've talked about
this, you've done a lot ofteaching around this too. And I
think part of your book free tofollow a lot of this content and
around John, coming from thereas well. You also have a 923
program, which we'll talk aboutin more detail. Hopefully you're
(02:42):
coming up soon. As well, iffolks were interested in being a
part of something like that,that's a year long journey to
becoming closer to Christ as aas a fully devoted disciple. But
to for today, the two mainpoints I really want is what
we're going to try to get tothis is what does a biting look
like? Alright, so what does abiting look like? And the second
(03:06):
thing we're going to really hiton today is What does producing
fruit look like? So what doesfruit look like in our life? How
do we know? And how do we knowfor biting? Because we've talked
about it, we hear it, butsometimes like Okay, so what
does that look like? I mean, Idon't use the term abide? Much
(03:26):
in my vernacular today when I'mtalking to people have been
abiding here. You know, so,right. Give me a couple thoughts
before we jump into this.
Michael Blue (03:36):
Yeah, I mean, even the concept of it feels you
know, just just somewhatethereal or just out there of
okay, abide resting and God or,you know, being with and what is
it? What does it mean to, torest in something else I know
how to rest and how to sit onthe couch or take a nap or do
(03:57):
something like that. But how doI rest in something? So yeah, I
think these are importantquestions.
Dan Schilling (04:03):
Yeah, and so there's a term I'm going to
probably hit so many times theyfolks, you're gonna get tired of
hearing it. And I'm gonna keepdriving around this thought so
hopefully easy to remember. Butalignment for assignment,
alignment, before assignment.
And so as we talked about abiting my grandma, you know, us,
you know, farm boy growing up,and then we've had an orchard in
(04:27):
the back yard of our farm whenwe lived in Ohio for all those
years. And so a lot of theseconcepts make sense to me. But
for many of us today, we didn'tgrew up around agriculture. You
know, these things that Jesuswould have been talking about
that back then don't make a tonof sense to us because we didn't
grew up around it. But as Ithink about alignment, and
(04:47):
abiding an angular show me whatare the How can I help folks to
encourage them in this thoughtaround alignment, before
assignment, is that if thebranch is out of alignment,
meaning if it gets disjointed ordisconnected from the main
branch, then when it's likesometimes on a tree and get
broke off, I drive around with amower and snap it off, or what
(05:09):
seems that gets snapped off,it's no longer remaining or
biting or connected, then itdies. And it needs to be pruned.
So today, we're going to go intothis and so thinking about so
are you ready to jump in thisfrom Scripture?
Michael Blue (05:29):
Yeah, let's do it.
Alright,
Dan Schilling (05:31):
so today we're gonna, the text we're gonna be
looking at as John 15, we'regonna look at verses one through
14. And I want to just kind ofsummarize it with this, that
this kind of this text is goingto, essentially, it's gonna talk
about staying close to me. Soyou can bear much fruit, that
obedience to the Father bringsjoy, or you're going to thrive,
(05:54):
and that we should love eachother. And that when we're
staying close bearing fruit, andwe're walking in obedience, it
actually evolves or producesfruit of loving one another. And
one of the key verses we'regoing to try to touch on today,
multiple times is that John 15,eight, which you will read in
just a second, but when youproduce much fruit, you are my
(06:16):
true disciples. This bringsgreat glory to my father. And so
we talked a couple of episodesago, from Galatians, five about
fruit of the Spirit. And so Ibelieve that's part of it, but
we'll try to look at some otheraspects of what it looks like
today. All right, so All right,let me let me bring up John 15
(06:41):
here and get back to verse one,if you want to start reading
there sure,
Michael Blue (06:48):
says this I am the true grape vine. And my Father
is the gardener. He cuts offevery branch of mine that
doesn't produce fruit and heproves the branches that do bear
fruit, so they will produce evenmore, you have already been
pruned and purified by themessage I have given you remain
in me and I will remain in you.
For branch cannot produce fruitif it is severed from the vine,
(07:09):
and you cannot be fruitfulunless you remain in me. Yes, I
am the vine you are thebranches. Those who remain in me
and I in them will produce muchfruit. apart from me you can do
nothing. Anyone who does notremain in me is thrown away like
a useless branch and withers,such branches are gathered into
a pile to be burned. But if youremain in me and my words remain
(07:32):
in you, you might ask anythingyou want, and it will be
granted. When you produce muchfruit you are my true disciples
and this brings great glory tomy father.
Dan Schilling (07:46):
Great so let's just stop here for just a
second. And a couple againverses here that when we want to
highlight is this one here inverse eight, about producing
much fruit that your maturedisciples but I want to go back
to a verse that I know you andI've talked about about in our
discussions but really it'sverse five when he says you know
(08:09):
for apart from me, you can donothing. And I was thinking
about that this week and Ithought you know what, we're
gonna look at a another verse ofscripture believe we're probably
going to have a part two to thisepisode of Be then do is kind of
the title we're going to use forthis episode is be first right
(08:31):
we want to be with him bealigned with him before we get
our assignment. So what thatalignment before assignment. So
the Matthew seven is one of thescriptures we're gonna look at
probably in part two, and ittalks about these people coming
and saying all the things thatthey were doing. But the problem
(08:52):
was is they had missed the beingpart or the alignment before
they got the assignment. And sowhat I think Jesus saying is is
when you're not aligned with meyou're not going to do able to
do anything but these folks inMatthew seven could argue yes,
yes, we did. Look, we prophesiedwe cast out demons, we did
(09:15):
miracles of course we can dosomething. But I guess we have
to look at what I believe he'ssaying here to us is that we can
actually do nothing thatactually is good. Good fruit, we
can produce things, but is itreally good fruit? So give me
your thoughts on this
Michael Blue (09:34):
first portion?
Yeah, well even thinking back tolast episode where we talked
about formation and kind of howour minds are formed and how
that's a part of it, but it'syou know, it's kind of this idea
of our head, our hands and ourheart like all of these things
being formed but you know, myhead what I know my hands but I
do have a have an impact on onmy heart, but ultimately it is
(09:55):
it's all about transforming thatheart and that I think We use
the term, my visceralsubconscious orientation to the
world. Right? So this is what Ithink this is what fruit is it
is that visceral subconsciousorientation that's coming out in
me. And so I think what you seein what Jesus rebuked a lot, and
the New Testament, and what wesee a lot today is we have a lot
(10:19):
of really elite doers, peoplewho are really, really, really
good at doing as are thePharisees, they're also really
good at knowing they're theseelite Knowers, they have all
this knowledge. But it's so easyfor us to disconnect those
things from each other, both butthen also from ultimately, the
vinedresser, the gardener, theone who is actually the vine
(10:42):
that's producing the fruit. Sowe're like, no, no, I got this
fruit on my own. And I go, No,or I go do and I totally leave
out the actual thing that willbring fruit and growth.
Dan Schilling (10:58):
So good. I was thinking about this a while back
to is, you know, Jesus sayingthat he's the vine, and that My
Father is the gardener. And justthis thought hit me, you know,
again, I'm a farmer, we had agarden for years to my boys
could tell you how they hatedthe garden, you know, because
they had to pull weeds and, andI felt what the Lord was showing
(11:21):
me one time is, you know, whosejob is it to pull the weeds? Is
it the plant? Or the gardener?
Like, well, obviously, it's thegardener. But sometimes we get
in the doing business, right? Wethink it's our job as the vine
to pull the weeds. It's like,no, that's, that's my father's
job. My job is just to remain tobe connected and allow him to
(11:46):
complete the good work that hebegan in need. Let him be the
one who's deciding what's aweed? And what's not. Because
sometimes when we had a gardenall those years, it's hard to
tell sometimes. What What wasthe weed and what was good.
Eventually, sometimes prettyeasy, because the weeds outpace
everything quickly, right? Butthis concept and thinking about
(12:08):
our Father, he is the gardener,he knows what's best. He knows
what needs to be pulled out. Andthere's, you know, the Scripture
talks about when it says, Leavethe weeds go, you know, we'll
get it at harvest time. Right?
Because you pull up the good andthe and the bad. So, and it's
(12:30):
his job. He's the one who doesthe pruning. He's the one who is
really trying to see me Befruitful and effective.
Michael Blue (12:39):
Yeah, and I think even as I think about our, our
here, follow Thrive model thatwhat we oftentimes substitute
for following is striving. And Ithink, you know, you're kind of
describing this idea of, we'restriving. And I don't want to
mislead and say, well, we don't,we don't work, we don't work
hard, or we don't even pursuewith all that we have. But
(13:00):
there's a subtle difference. Ithink between that I'm trying to
pull up all the fruit, I'mtrying to do everything I'm
striving I'm, I'm beatingagainst the wind, if you will,
I'm just I'm working so hard.
And it's it's exhausting, it'stiring, and all of these things
versus the following should leadus into thriving. Yes. And so
that's really, I think, thetension we're trying to describe
(13:22):
here, what does it mean to abideand what does actually mean to
produce fruit? Because I can, Ican, I can give you some great
fake apples and great fake pearsthat we can put on the table.
And you may not be able to tellthe difference until you try to
take a bite out of them. Butthey're not the same. I promise
you that I've tried them bothreal apple is better than a
plastic
Dan Schilling (13:42):
one. Little taste the wax sometime or something?
Yeah. Yeah,
Michael Blue (13:46):
hurts the teeth.
You know, you just bite inthere.
Dan Schilling (13:49):
Yeah. Well, and Mike why he's thinking about
this over the years that we hadour orchard do. I said, you
know, if a tree could talk, youknow, any tree could say to me,
Hey, I'm an apple tree. Buteventually, if I spend enough
time around that tree, I'm gonnawant to see something I'm gonna
want to see some apples right?
And you know you could go havetie on some apples like that
(14:10):
you're saying like a tie him onhere make it look like I'm a
real tree. And I think likeyou're saying many times we're
we're, we're tying fruit ontrying to make it look like
we're a fruit producing tree.
But it's really out of I lovewhat you just said about the
striving for and we want theappearance of something which is
(14:32):
really what we're gonna hit nexttime. He I'm saying so many
times may won't be next time butthat Matthew says all the things
that we're doing right and sothe essence again is be in him
remain in that alignment. If forI try to start going out and
doing these other things andmaking myself look fruitful,
(14:53):
which is again, I think whathappens to a lot of us in
Christendom, you know I you knowit's so much more than just like
this Morning exercise calleddevotions, right? It's so much
more than just this. Hey, I readmy Bible. I prayed. I did. I
did. I did. I did. I did. I did.
But the question is, what again,does this abiding look like?
Yeah. Am I really?
Michael Blue (15:18):
Yeah. And I think about an orchard. I mean, if you
if you picture an orchard, whenyou picture walking through, you
know, peach trees, or appletrees, or whatever, does that
feel stressful? Like you feellike that's gonna be a stressful
place for me to be. I tend tothink of orchards and places
like that. It's pretty quiet,pretty peaceful, like men take a
walk and an orchard, sit down,have a picnic, like it feels
(15:41):
good. And I don't think thatwhen I walk into an orchard, I
get stressed out because I havethese trees around me, that are
like, all stressed out, they'relike pushing, they're working.
And they're like yelling, andthey're not producing enough
fruit. You know, that's notthis. They're just, they're,
they're, they're, they're, youknow, taking nourishment from
the soil. And fruit is aproduct. But it's, you know,
(16:04):
it's that difference, I thinkbetween the natural product I
don't I don't see these treeslike striving to push out fruit
that they produce fruit becauseof where they are. And what they
Yes.
Dan Schilling (16:16):
Yes. Yeah, they're not stressing if it's if
it's going to rain or not. Imean, they can be stressed if it
doesn't rain, but they're notworried. If it doesn't, Sun
doesn't come out. They're justbeing right, like they're
connected. And when they'reconnected to the roots, and
connected to the branches of thevine, they produce fruit. And
(16:39):
that's really what Jesus again,reiterating here is, you know,
that our father is the one who'sin charge of what's good and
what's bad. He'll prune thingsand or sometimes, I might have
said this one other time. pastorfriend years ago, he said, you
know, they said, Hey, Lord, turnoff the pruning shears, I'm
almost a stump, you know, like,you're taking me down, you know,
(17:00):
but sometimes he has to take usdown. And we would do that
sometimes in some of thesetrees, because they weren't
producing good fruit. Right,improved significantly. So
alright, well, let's, let's keepgoing on here. Let's get back
into our Scripture starting inverse nine. I've started reading
(17:21):
in there.
Michael Blue (17:22):
Yeah, alright, the first nine, I have loved you,
even as the Father has loved meremain in my love. When you obey
my commandments, you remain inmy love, just as I obey my
father's commandments, andremain in his love. I have told
you these things, so that youwill be filled with my joy. Yes,
your joy will overflow. This ismy commandment Love each other
(17:45):
in the same way I have lovedyou. There is no greater love,
than to lay down one's life forone's friends, you are my
friends, if you do what I canmake.
Dan Schilling (17:56):
So what I see here, Michael, as you start to
look at what what's part of thefruit that's produced, is one of
the main ones which we see inthe Galatians. The first one is
love. And our love for Him, isproducing something, it produces
(18:18):
obedience, just like Jesus'slove for his father, because he
was remaining are connected tohim, that he obeyed His Father
even unto death. And that he'scalling us to that same love.
Not only is it to love ourFather, and show love toward him
(18:40):
with obedience, but to show lovetowards one another in that same
way is laying down our life. Andone of the things we've talked
about here, again, that Ibelieve is keeping us from
hearing God's voice is pride,which, in its essence, Andrew
Murray's quote, that we'llprobably say many, many, many
times here is that, you know,the pride isn't thinking less of
(19:01):
yourself, it's thinking ofyourself less. And I think
that's what Jesus modeled to us.
He was thinking of himself lessHe laid down His life for us.
And that same calling now forus, doesn't mean that I'm going
to necessarily physically goget, you know, nailed to a
cross, but I am going to give upmy desires as the primary
(19:26):
function of life in existence,right? Like I get to do what I
want to do, my money, my time,my life, and that this calling
as a disciple is calling me to agreater life which is going to
produce much fruit.
Michael Blue (19:51):
Yeah, and I think of laying down our lives and the
end even following the idea Todisplay love or to thrive
requires me to do somethingthat's very countercultural to
think of how I achieve thosethings, usually if I am I our
culture tells us if I want tothrive, or if I want to show
(20:15):
love, the primary way I do thatis really to pursue myself or my
passions or to find, findmyself, you know, those types of
things where I'm after me,ultimately. And that's how I can
thrive or that's how I actuallylove is this total throwing off
of any sort of submission orlaying down anything at all but
(20:37):
but Jesus tells us here in theBible tells us that in order to
thrive, I must submit andfollowing in order to love, I
must give up things that Irightfully, can take. And that's
all throughout Scripture. Andit's such a different
perspective. It's kind of likethis, this upside down kingdom
that we see all over scripture,right? To gain to die is gain,
(21:02):
to lose, to live as Christ anddie as game these ideas of
opposites that we would expect.
But if I want to love if I wantto abide if I want to thrive,
one of the first things I thinkI do is I have to give off of
self lay things down and comeand then trust that actually the
one who's leading me the onewho's pruning, the one who's
(21:22):
doing these things, will producein me something that's way
better than what I could pursueand gain on my own. Yes.
Dan Schilling (21:33):
Well, as you and I have talked, again, many
times, you know, what, what'sGod really after? Right, he
wants us to hear his voice. Hewants us to follow him, which we
see this obedience, he wants forus to thrive, which I look at
(21:55):
this, you know, I've told youthese things. So you'll be
filled with joy that your joywill overflow to me. That's what
thriving is a part of right thatthis love and joy and peace and
patience and these fruits thathe wants for us to experience,
not apart from him, right?
They're the byproduct of theSpirit of God in us, that's what
(22:18):
Galatians is showing us, right?
This is what happens when theHoly Spirit's in you, when
you're abiding in him, you'regoing to have an outflow of him
in you, which is going toproduce these things called the
fruits of the Spirit.
Michael Blue (22:38):
Right. And your you know, the word and this
translation is remain, we usethe word ABIDE and a lot of
other translations is sowhenever we have said, remain,
that's also translated, abide.
But as I think of even thispicture of an orchard again, or
whatever the grapevine theremaining is a rootedness
there's a depth of connectednessinto the source of nourishment.
(23:00):
Right and so remaining is notlike grabbing myself my roots up
and you know, taking my rootsand and why waddling off to a
different pasture or a differentorchard or whatever it is. It's,
it's a rootedness in that inthat place. Yes.
Dan Schilling (23:19):
Yeah. Well, and it's, you know, years ago,
Michael, I may have told youthis enough, we've talked about
yet here on the podcast, but I'mnotoriously cheap. I don't like
to spend money. And I'm alwayslooking for a deal. You know,
like, Galatea is like trying todo all these things that are now
(23:40):
looking back like man that wasso foolish, but years ago, after
I felt prompted by the Lord toplant an orchard, and I found a
deal online and it was like 12trees for like $100 Now normally
trees are a lot more expensivethan that. But it was a great
(24:01):
deal. You know, these littletrees came they are about the
size of my pinky finger aroundwhen they came I'm like, you
know, it's okay. Because youknow, will might be longer till
we get fruit but you know, itwill train these trees up and,
and so, well what happened wasafter about four or five years,
I found out that the trees wereactually bad stock or that they
(24:25):
were poor quality. And so ourapple trees, most of them never
produced an apple larger than awalnut. And our air trees never
produced a like a pear biggerthan our fingernail and the
cherry trees but but bearsbigger or fingernail. And so I
pruned and cared and pruned andcared for these trees for years.
And I finally one year, I prunethem back really hard. And I
(24:49):
said, Boys, we're gonna givethese trees one more year and
see if they can produce fruitand you know what? That bad tree
could never produce good. Fruiteven when it was pruned. And so
we had a little spiritual lessonthat that next year with the
chainsaw, this is what we did,right? We cut down the tree, and
(25:10):
we put it in the bonfire. And wewere just talking about that
with the boys recently. And theysaid, Yeah, but we had a nice
bonfire. One time, experience,right. But the point of all that
here, again, is, as we've beenlooking at these passages the
last couple of weeks aboutproducing and so how do we help
(25:34):
folks today if they're listeningto Okay, so how do I apply? What
does that biting look like?
Because you said we're going totry to look at that. So what
would you say to someone says,What does that biting look like?
And what does then producingfruit? look like? Give me your
thoughts on on that.
Michael Blue (25:54):
Yeah, so you know, we've talked a little around I
think abiding and this restingin this remaining in this
rootedness. And so when I thinkabout abiding, I think about
being in the presence of, so ifI'm abiding and God he says, if
if, if, if you abide Me, and Mywords abide in you ask whatever
(26:18):
you wish, so there's a there's acombination, I think of that of
my abiding in Him and His wordsabiding in me. So I have
scripture, that's a part of howI abide and remain and rest in
Him. You know, prayer I wasreading this morning about in
testimony and how to praycontinually, right, this is,
this is an attitude not of like,I'm literally on my knees in
(26:39):
prayer. But this is an attitude,this is with God, I recognize
that God is here and with me andeverything that I do and say,
and so he's a part of it. And sothat's kind of my, my
understanding as I go into. Somy awareness of an
acknowledgement of a realitythat is, isn't that this
presence is me, abiding in Him.
And so it's effectively, youknow, recognizing the soil that
(27:02):
I am planted in, and being awareof it on a regular basis, as I
do. So a lot of abiding for mecomes into in the practical ways
of, of how I am communing withGod personally, and how I'm
communing with God in communitywith other believers in Him, and
so it's a presence, I think alot of it is remaining in his
presence in those ways. And sothere's, there's a lot of ways I
(27:27):
abide, certainly, but but thesingle most important thing is
that it's, it's him that I'mfocused on and remaining, and I
don't know, what other thoughtswould you have on that? Well,
Dan Schilling (27:40):
I, I, I appreciate what you said.
Because it's true. I have beensaying the same thing, you know,
that prayer continually. It'snot just a it's not a morning
exercise, right? It's a, it's aposturing of the heart that I'm
available for dialogue with theHoly Spirit 24/7 365 You know, I
(28:04):
don't have this relationshipwhere it's like, only when it's
good for me, you know, like Igot, I'll give you an hour in
the morning, honey, you know, tomy wife, if that was the case,
like, Honey, you got an hour inthe morning, but after that, my
life is my life, and you go offto the corner, and I get to do
whatever I want, with whoever Iwant. Think whatever I want. And
then I'll come back and see youtomorrow morning. You know, it's
(28:25):
like, Wait a minute. We weretogether. You know, we we were
committed to one another we'renot married for an hour a day.
We're married. 24/7 365 so thatremaining to me is I'm available
if my wife even if she prayedcalled right now I'd have to
pause the podcast and just tomake sure she's okay. All right.
So I'm available to her and ifshe needs me I want to be
(28:50):
available and so I want to beavailable to the Holy Spirit. I
want to be remaining in him Iwant to have a an ear attuned to
His voice and if he calls meright now, they say okay, yeah,
what what is what's on what's onthe agenda, what's on your
heart. And that's not just amorning thing or an evening
(29:11):
thing or a Sunday morning orexercise it's a all day every
day. And then when I amavailable to him one of the
thoughts that I have about whatproducing fruit looks like is
years ago again a farm boythinking here is I felt God
showing me my relationship withSherry is that he said like you
(29:32):
you have seeds in each of yourpockets so to say in your pants
and in one side you have cornseed and the others other
buckets, you got fissile seed,and you're you're gonna get to
choose what kind of seed you'regoing to sow sow into the soil
of her heart. And if you choosethe things of the flesh, which
is what those thistle seeds are,you know if you don't know what
(29:54):
thistles are, you know if you'repart of the country, but they're
like prickly things. Nobodylikes to be around them right?
And if you scatter them, youhave a choice, you can leave
them there, but these littletiny seeds, they're hard to go
pick out. And it's gonna go upand going to produce thistles.
But you'd be a fool than tothink that you can throw thistle
(30:16):
seeds into her heart and notexpect to reap something. And so
to me what producing fruit thenhas to be is there's times when
the Holy Spirit speaking to meeven still today, when I'm angry
or frustrated or somethinghappens, and I literally have to
say, okay, which, which pocketam I going to reach in right
now? The one of the flash cangrab some physical seeds,
(30:38):
because she's upsetting me orshe said something like, or did
somebody didn't like, you know,I'm gonna throw these seeds, or
am I gonna reach into this otherpocket and the things of the
Spirit? It's kind and gracious,and gentle, and loving, and,
and, and long suffering, youknow, all these different
attributes of Gad? I have tochoose which, which, which hand
(31:00):
is going to be used today, theone of the spirit, or the one of
them?
Michael Blue (31:04):
Right. Yeah, I mean, ultimately, it matters
what we sow. And it matters, Ithink, also where we so so if we
think about sowing seeds of thespirit, and in the fields of the
world, right, and I think that'sa lot of what we see of these,
what I talked about earlier ofelite doers, or elite knowers is
(31:27):
somewhat of sowing a spiritualseed and in the world, because
the fruit that I want from thatis the accolades if the world
the fruit I'm desiring is forman to tell me that I'm smarter,
good or something, I'm wantingthat fruit. And so in order to
get it, I have to say that fruitin that field will produce it.
Now, if I want the spiritualfruit. And I saw the spiritual
(31:49):
seeds in that field, which maylook, they're the same seeds.
But I saw it in the right place.
That's when I began to reap whatGalatians talks about, of Zoho,
a life eternal life, a lifeconnected to God and the Spirit.
And that's the fruit that reallyis that we're trying to produce.
And so So yeah, this one that'sthat's looking for the world is
(32:12):
looking for the satisfaction orthe others looking for the
father's looking for eternalbenefit and reward. And so the
way I look at it is totallydifferent of what I look at in
the other space.
Dan Schilling (32:26):
Yes. Well, it's so good I, I continue to look at
examining my own wife, you know,how do I know if I'm producing
fruit or not? And how do I knowif I'm sowing corn seeds? Or if
(32:47):
I'm sowing thistle seeds, and itdoesn't take long, in my
opinion, to look at my beer, andthen look at life around me and
see, is there fruit? Is thereevidence of sowing the things of
the Spirit in my life in mychildren in the relationships of
(33:10):
the people around me? Or isthere a lot of junk? And then
wondering, why is there a lot ofjunk and and a half to examine,
you know, what, what's creatingthis junk? And all of us have it
right. I mean, it's not like,oh, gosh, I can't believe it.
You know, like, I got weeds.
Like, our father is thatgardener, right? He wants to
(33:33):
come and help us. He wants topull those weeds. He's the one
who knows what's weed and not,but are it really to me? How do
I know if I'm producing fruit?
Is? It is there is are thethings of his spirit going on
around me? Is there wisdom,knowledge, understanding is
there love and joy and peace andpatience is their, you know,
(33:57):
words of knowledge, you know,whatever the things that I need
in the midst of my day, becauseI'm walking in His presence,
that when something tough comeswhen there's something coming at
me, I'm not overwhelmed by it.
But I'm actually I can stillfind a piece that can still find
joy in the midst of a trial.
Michael Blue (34:18):
Yeah, I mean, fruit ultimately, if we think
about it, it's it's the overflowof my heart, as opposed to the
product of what I take. So Ithink too often we we look at,
you know, fruit as you know,other salvations or something,
you know, some other tangiblething that I can grab onto and
point to and say, Look at myfruit, because you know, it's
(34:41):
it's using this agriculturalexample. And so we think of
apples or we think of grapes.
But when we see in Galatians,talking about the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness,
gentleness, right. These arethings that are the overflow of
my heart. And so when I when Ithink about producing fruit and
identity Finding my life. It'smuch more my reaction to things
(35:02):
than it is the things that I'mproducing. So if I, you know,
preach a sermon and nobody saysanything about it, or someone
does say something about andsay, Man that was really good,
is my heart is my Am I tugged inthe direction of pride? Or am I
tugged in the direction ofpraise? And am I thank God,
thank you right for allowing meto be a part of that, or am I
(35:27):
like, Yeah, I'm getting prettygood. Like that was a pretty
good sermon. And so mycontentment of resting in the
father versus resting in theaccolades of other people
totally are the fruit to me thatI recognize and see, okay, the
fruit of the Spirit is workingin me, because I have this place
in this piece. And thiscontentment, it's not always
(35:49):
there. But it certainly comesout in times like that, that I
say, that's the fruit of theSpirit. And that's what I want,
because of the just the abilityto approach life and whatever it
throws at you, and a verydifferent way. And to me, that's
thriving.
Dan Schilling (36:08):
When just, you know, we you and I've talked a
little bit about, you know, wewent through probably the most
significant parenting challengeof our life a couple of months
ago, right, as we were trying toget the ministry launched and
all these things. And what God'sshowing me is like, then I'm not
interested in you feeding sheepoutside of the pen or finishing,
you take care of the ones insideof the pen and your own boys.
(36:30):
But in the midst of this, youknow, what some you could look
at as a tragedy. What Irecognized in the midst of it
was how the Holy Spirit wasimparting to me day by day, step
by step. Even though it wastough, even though it was hard,
there was a piece of Yeah, hewould give insight into things.
(36:53):
You know, like, I don't thinkthey're telling the truth here
about this, I need that continueto ask some questions. And then
we get uncover some more stuff.
And it was like this wholejourney. And I've just watched
what the Spirit of God's doneand in all honesty, what the
majority the work was, he wascontinuing to work out the stuff
in me because I'm the leader,right? I've been called to be
the head, the Father and toreflect Him. And there were many
(37:17):
ways I wasn't, and that's, Hey,welcome to The Club, right?
We're all trying to grow in thisand become more like Christ. But
it's a it's a journey. Of, ofexperiencing that presence, like
you talked about, I could Icould sense His presence in
(37:37):
different times, I sense thatwisdom and how to handle it.
What things to say, and thereare times in the midst of it. I
could say over the years with mywife, sometimes probably one of
the best things he'd say to meis just keep your mouth shut.
Don't say anything. Because Iwould probably say something
(37:58):
that would be hurtful to them.
And so that, to me, is what youknow, part of the thriving is is
how I can continue to show themwhat it looks like. As well as
seeing the presence of God inneeds. Yeah. Well, next time,
we're going to probably have apart two, maybe a part three,
(38:21):
who knows of this one, but we'rereally I'm gonna drive this
point home, because I think it'sso key for us in our journey, as
followers of Jesus, that asdisciples that are going to bear
much fruit is that we have to bewe have to remain in Him. Before
we can do and sometimes we getso caught up in the do because
that's again, this is humannature. Right. This is what the
(38:42):
Pharisees did. This is what theOld Testament all these things,
but what obey the walls and therules and tell me what to do.
And I believe God's always beenabout him desiring to have a
relationship where we betogether, that what we can do
for him. So any final thoughts,Michael, before we wrap up for
(39:04):
today?
Michael Blue (39:05):
Yeah, no, I think that's the, that's a really good
good wrap up is the abiding isis the resting, it's the it's
the becoming. It's the thrivingand it's, it's yes, we follow
Yes, we obey, because we'rehearing his voice, but the we're
effectively just becoming who weare, who he already says that we
(39:27):
are. And that's, that's really,really a beautiful thing if we
can grasp that identity that wehave in Him and that he's he's
drawing us into to produce thefruit himself in our lives of
who he already says that we are.
Dan Schilling (39:46):
Well, next time what I'm going to do is share
with you all that just lastweek, I was telling Michael
before we got on today, that Iwoke up at four o'clock in the
morning having an anxietyattack. And so I want to share
with you Is the scripture out ofMatthew 11, that God spoke to my
(40:06):
heart, and then a story, andsome research that I did around
oxen, and a yoke, and it'sfascinating stuff. So we're
gonna talk about that next time.
But again, to wrap up for today,I want to go back to our points
is that the goal for today isWhat does abiding look like and
we want to continue to drivethat abiding, is what happens
when we are in alignment withthe Spirit, we get a line with
(40:27):
him. That's what that desire,that abiding that staying
connected to him. And that whenwe are staying connected to him,
that's when fruit comes. Sothat's what we want to focus on,
even in our time, next episode,as well. So couple action steps
for you. Again, I just want toencourage you, as we talk about
(40:51):
each one these times and startto ask the Holy Spirit M M, I,
am I abiding in you? Am I inalignment with you? So even now,
maybe you just take some time aswe wrap up and just start asking
that question. Holy Spirit, isthat what's Is there something
keeping me from it? Is thereanything that's keeping me from
that? And then we I mentionedthis one lay other times, but if
(41:15):
you'd be so bold and courageousto do this as maybe ask somebody
else in your circle of friends,family, accountability partner,
somebody, you know, to ask them,Do you see anything in me?
That's keeping me from biting orresting or remaining in him.
That's keeping me really fromthriving, because when we're not
abiding, we're not gonna thrive.
(41:38):
So Michael, I know you opened aprayer bomb and actually even
close the prayer today. It's agreat job.
Michael Blue (41:46):
Great, God, you're good and we do long for a desire
to abide. And to bear fruit bearmuch fruit as this scripture
says. So just I pray that wewouldn't focus on the the
bearing of much fruit firstwould focus on the abiding and
aligning with you as we do learnto follow and as we do trust you
(42:07):
to produce fruit to just producein us people who can rest in you
and can trust you and truly dolong for the eternal fruit that
you promise instead of thetemporal stuff. We love you and
thank you for this time, Jesusname. Amen.
Dan Schilling (42:22):
Michael, thank you again, always a pleasure to
be with you. Thank you all forjoining us. I look forward to
having you with us next time.
God bless you.
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