JESUS, PROMISE MANIFESTATION, AND THE CLAIMS COURT
A single key unlocks every door to restored youth, and His name is Jesus! Every revelation in this study has Him as its foundation because He is the only true source of vibrant and unceasing life. Here’s what the Lord Himself has said about this:
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. . . . I am the bread of life. John 6:33, 48, ESV
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. John 6:63, ESV
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12, ESV
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10, ESV
I am the resurrection and the life. John 11:25, ESV
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. John 14:6, ESV
The Bible is replete with statements that prove Jesus is the only true source of life. One is from John’s Gospel and says, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:3–4, NIV).
Acts 3:15 says that Jesus is “the Author of life” (ESV). This means that He not only crafted the direction your earthly path would take but also wrote into your DNA (and every part of your physical being) the very essence of His life. This enables you to remain strong and healthy and is one reason Jesus is called “the last Adam . . . a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45, NKJV). His Spirit, who lives in you, can quicken your mortal body with life-giving power wherever you need it (Rom. 8:11).
Jesus is the source of life for your body, bones, muscles, and every organ. However, there is a condition to receiving an unceasing supply of His regenerating power. Not only must you be saved, but you must continue to cleave to Him forever, as Jesus said:
He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water. John 7:38 AMPC
Notice that Jesus promised rivers of living water would continuously flow from your spirit into the rest of your being. However, your life experience probably does not match the truth of this verse. If it did, the ravages of aging or disease would never deplete your body. Instead you would experience His constant youth-renewing power repairing and restoring it. So what’s the catch? Why doesn’t your experience match the promise? Jesus said it right here: those who continue to believe in, cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him will experience a nonstop flow of His life-giving power! Conversely, those who do not remain in the Lord will not produce such fruit. In fact they will wither and die!
I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned. John 15:5–6 AMPC
You will only produce abundant fruit for life and health if you live and abide in vital union with Jesus. Here’s an example that’s a no-brainer: if you cut away a branch from a vine’s life-giving power, the branch dies—period. Jesus said unequivocally in the previous passage that such branches wither. The Greek word for wither is xērainō, which means to “dry up…waste away, pine away.”1 This doesn’t refer to spiritual decline only but also to physical deterioration and death. The same word is used of the man with the withered hand, which proves that unless you stay in vital union with Jesus, the health of your body can dry up, dangerously decline, and waste away.
CONTINUING WITH HIM FOREVER
I have found that after their initial salvation experience, many believers put their need for Christ on the back burner. That’s because they desire to move into the “deeper” things of God. However, Jesus is as deep as it gets! The mysteries contained in Him are unsearchable and indescribable in this lifetime and even into eternity.
Sadly, I fell into this very trap. Even though my mind was built by God to dig out the mysteries hidden in His Word, my search became unbalanced. I forgot that Jesus said I could do nothing without Him. Thus any revelation I received, no matter how astounding, would not produce fruit, because I wasn’t remaining in Him first.
Jesus confronted the Pharisees with this sobering truth. Look at it!
You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me! And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life. John 5:39–40 AMPC Emphasis added
The Pharisees probed the Scriptures deeply in an attempt to find the source of life, when all they needed to do was come to Jesus. Be assured, there is nothing wrong with searching the Word for the complex, “many-sided wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10). Just make sure you are receiving downloads through an intimate relationship with Jesus and not sidestepping Him to get to the “good stuff.” He is as good as it gets! When you make your pursuit of the Lord your number-one priority (looking for, longing for, and loving Him above all), you will find life and produce abundant fruit. And your branches (your body) will never dry up or wither.
When I returned to making Christ the center of my life, every single revelation in this book kicked in, and my health sprung up like a thirsty plant that had not been watered and fertilized enough. Of course, this growth happened because I was finally reconnected to the life-giving power of the vine.
So what does it look like to abide (or live) in Christ as John 15:5 describes? The Greek word for abide is ménō, which means “to stay . . . continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain . . . [and] tarry.”2 Those are perfect words to describe the heart position you need as you chase after Jesus. You must make His presence the place in which you dwell. You must choose to endure dry moments while you wait for Him to come. It’s also vital that you remain in Him each and every day, long after your salvation, until you go on to glory.
If your passion for the Lord has waned since your salvation, entreat the Father right now for the grace to reignite your soul. Then you can chase after the Son like your life depends on it, because it does.
