Jesus clearly tells us what we must do in order to be made righteous before God. His words are just as alive and relevant today as the day he first spoke them. We need ears to hear and eyes to see the spiritual realities they contain... and only the Holy Spirit can give us spiritual hearing and vision.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" John 15:4-6.

All of Jesus' words are present tense. Each and every truth he set forth is a 'NOW' truth, just as applicable to our lives here at the culmination of all the ages, as it was applicable to the Jews when he first uttered them. In the above passage, we are clearly told that we can do absolutely nothing for the Kingdom of God apart from a vital union with Christ himself. Either we are abiding in Him, and He in us, or we are nothing more than withered branches fit only to be cast into the fire and burned. That alone should catch our full attention, should it not?

"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples" John 15:7. How readily we latch onto "ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you," especially if we have spent much time being indoctrinated in the 'name it and claim it' camps, without ever paying equal attention to the stipulations that go before and after this often quoted promise. That being: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you"...referencing back to what he said in the previous verses. Outside of this abiding relationship we have nothing. All of our strenuous efforts and good works are futile and empty... period. Everything that we build will be brought down, everything that we accomplish will be utterly destroyed, at HIS appearing. Why, because we did what 'seemed good in our own eyes,' and not what the Father commanded us to do. One doesn't have to look very hard today in order to see men lifting up other men, paying them homage and respect, lauding praises upon them for their achievements, without ever considering that in doing so they are dishonoring GOD. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." We fail to recognize that when we are praising one another, we are not glorifying the Father. When we accumulate our statistics to validate our works, we are bearing fruit to ourselves, not GOD. We are the disciples of men, not the disciples of Christ. The Church today is rampant with leaders and laymen alike, who are flagrantly misappropriating the things of God, all the while claiming that they are 'doing God great service.'

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" John 15:12-15.

There is very little evidence of any other than the most superficial kind of love visible to the world today by the "Church" (organized religion in all its many forms). Infighting and finger-pointing are the norm. 'Our four and no more' is the mindset. Agree with me and my point of view or be rejected is the modus-operandi. There is a mad rush today to 'figure out' what is going to happen. False prophets can be found on nearly every street corner, hawking their wares. Dabbling in witchcraft, the occult and all forms of sorcery are accepted practice around the world. We have to look long and hard to see any evidence of keeping Jesus' commandment... "That ye love one another, as I have loved you" ... "that a man lay down his life for his friends." We see gross misappropriation of all of God's promises being perpetrated on a massive scale... from leadership on down. So what is the believer to do?

"These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" John 15:17.

We have to love God... more than we love the world. We have to believe what the Spirit bears witness to above what our reasoning mind and the teachings of men would have us to believe. We have to know that we are no longer in the world to please ourselves or others, we are here to do the will of God. We have to know that if we do these things, the world will hate us, just as it hated Jesus.

"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also" John 15:20-23.

The 'church' today has become an imitator of the world rather than an imitator of Christ. The 'church' today has an aversion to all suffering, telling their followers that 'Jesus suffered so we don't have to.' The 'church' today is a reflection of who they are following after.

"If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning" John 15:24-27. Jesus' words throughout this entire chapter are all NOW words. They apply to every genuine believer in every age, just as surely as they applied to the first disciples in the first century. We have the same access to the Father through the Son, we have the same Comforter to lead us into all truth. There is nothing that the early church had access to that is not just as readily accessible to us as well. If we are keeping the commandments of Christ, if we are walking in the spirit and not the flesh, we too will be hated for His name's sake. "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him" John 4:23.

We are not commanded to run after 'signs and wonders.' We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourself. There are many false spirits actively at work in the world today, bringing forth all manner of 'signs and wonders.' We have the responsibility to "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" 2 Timothy 2:15. How do we do this? By receiving the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth. And by taking to heart every word that Jesus spoke, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" John 6:63.

Any doctrine or teaching that presents 'another gospel,' 'another way,' 'another interpretation' contrary to the 'Gospel of Christ'... is a misappropriation of same. And there are literally thousands of them flourishing today. We are all in need of having our "senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14).

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" John 14:17.

"We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error" 1 John 4:6.

"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" 1 John 2:4.

We need to grow up in Christ people. These are the 'last days,' and the 'great escape' is found only in our relationship with the LORD, not in being caught away. We should be more concerned with 'enduring to the end,' and 'being found pleasing in HIS sight,' than with how others perceive us.

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" Romans 8:32-37. May we all strive to enter in while it is yet day, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" Revelation 3:20.