The main point of our life is to live continually in the Father’s circle (Father, Son, Spirit) as He escorts us on His journey to perform His exploits. The point is NOT the exploits themselves. If we remain in Him, God sets up our life appointments and encounters. But sometimes we like to tally up these life-changing events up as if they are some sort of Kingdom brownie points. As if somehow we, in our own magnificence, have orchestrated the events and the results. In reality, these success stories are simply a result of the collateral life that springs from living in connection with Him. Living in Him is the true success story!
In John 15:1-8, Jesus used the metaphor of a vine to describe what remaining in Him is like.
“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.
The vine is life. It’s where the life flows from the Father, Son and Spirit. Fruit is merely a natural result of receiving the life flow that comes through the vine. The branch has no life in itself. It has no power to produce fruit by itself. Remove it from the vine and it withers and dies.