Tsukasa and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this year. We got married in Canada, and our pastor shared a message at our wedding based on John 15:5, which says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Twenty years later, after moving around the world several times, we still have a magnet of this verse on our fridge!
We opened 2025 with a prophetic word that this is going to be a year of fruitfulness in Oita, particularly among the youth, and I’ve been thinking about what it means to bear fruit by remaining in Jesus as a community.
John 15 talks about remaining in Jesus’ words. It also talks about remaining in his love. These are key aspects to remaining in Jesus, but I get a sense that Jesus is inviting us into even greater revelation of what it means to remain in him.
Imagine talking to a baby in a mother’s womb and asking them if they are remaining in his mother’s words and love. If the baby could talk, I imagine him saying, of course I am—I’m literally inside my mom! In a similar way, Jesus is inviting us to move from a relationship with him as separate people to understanding that we are actually inside of him and that he is inside of us! (We had our church members try and draw this reality—us in Jesus and Jesus in us—and it was a fun exercise. 😊)
Jesus prayed that we, as believers, would be completely united, just like Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. (John 17:20-23) As believers, we literally live inside of him. It stretches my mind to think about this, but hidden in this mystery is the secret to being one with Jesus and bearing the kind of fruit that he longs for.
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