On the Statistics and the Score

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

John 15:5–8 

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you [abide] in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not [abide] in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you [abide] in me and my words [abide] in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

As we bring this series to a close let’s remember where we began—with me and my sisters and my farmer father in the drought-stricken fields praying for rain—singing no less:

“We need a rain (about an inch and a half)! We need a rain (about an inch and a half)! We need a rain. Have faith it will.” 

The New Testament prophet of an apostle, James, reminded us of our great uncle, the prophet Elijah as he said,

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16b) 

This gave rise to our working definition of prayer, which we should also remember as we close the series:

“Prayer and fasting is the lifelong process of becoming a peculiar kind of person (i.e., righteous) who learns to exercise a particular kind of power (i.e., divine love) for the good of the world and the glory of God.” 

I know of nowhere in the Bible where all of this comes together more potently than in today’s text: John 15. If you are still searching for a verse from the Bible to raise as a banner over 2024, look no further than verse 5. 

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you [abide] in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

You will remember yesterday I lifted up the notion of “the game.” 

“Fasting and prayer are not the game. God’s in-breaking kingdom is the game! This is fasting and prayer—not as the motions of religious practices but as the movement of the authorized, empowered, agents of Jesus Messiah. This is fasting and prayer as the seamless movement from sanctuary to streets which becomes the transformation of the streets into sanctuaries. Remember the game!”

I love the little word we see over and over in John 15. It is the quintessential watchword, and this word tells us how the game is played: abide. Notice how Jesus speaks of prayer.

If you [abide] in me and my words [abide] in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Abide—I think it just may be my favorite word of all time; if it weren’t for the other word in the chapter. Did you catch it? It appears nine times over the seventeen verses. It is fruit.

So if “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” is the game, and abiding is how the game is played, how does fruit figure into this analogy? Fruit, my friends, is the score. Do you know what winners focus on? The score. Do you know what losers focus on? Statistics. 

Israel, in the time of Isaiah, was losing. They had lost sight of the score. They had drifted back into collecting their statistics. 

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’ (Isa. 58:3)

It’s like a losing football team that wants to point out how they led the league in yards gained. It’s the team that scores the most touchdowns that wins the game. 

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you [abide] in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Notice how Jesus didn’t say you will “produce” but you will “bear” much fruit. See the difference. As we abide, Jesus bears fruit in and through us. In other words, we do it “according to his power that is at work within us.”  I love the way Eugene Peterson translates Galatians 5:22–23 on the fruit of the Spirit.

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. (Gal. 5:22–23 The Message)

How’s that for a scoreboard for God’s kingdom and his righteousness? And Jesus doesn’t want us to bear a little fruit. Twice in the span of four verses, we see the term “much fruit.” 

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Let’s give Jesus the last words on this matter of prayer and fasting:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:16–17)

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, teach us to abide in you, the True Vine. Show us your way of powerful prayer and effective fasting and lead us into all righteousness—into a life of bearing much fruit, bringing great glory to the Father and showing ourselves to be your disciples. We ask in your name, Jesus, amen. 

THE QUESTION

What has Jesus revealed to you through this brief series on prayer and fasting? How are you putting this revealed learning into practice? What questions still linger? Are you seeing any first fruits from this journey? 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing the hymn, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” It is hymn 1 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

P. S.  The Way Ahead on the Wake-Up Call

As I shared on the podcast yesterday, we have an amazing feast set before us on the Wake-Up Call ahead. Anna Grace Legband will lead us through Isaiah 55 over the next two weeks. As a member of the Farm team she helps plan our New Room Conference and other events. The Reverend Susan Kent will lead us through the forty days of Lent with a series called Altar’d: The Transforming Power of Surrender. Following this, our own (and Wake-Up Call favorite) Dan Wilt will walk us through the fifty days of Easter with a series entitled, “To Know This Love.” I’ll be back on the day of Pentecost to finish the race with Acts of the Apostles season 2 (chapters 15–28). I’m going to miss you. We will work on a fellowship gathering (Zoom-based) or two along the way. For you who listen, I’ll also try to jump on the podcast here and there to lead a hymn. And if you’d like to stay in touch with me in Gillett, you can do that here. The prayer room is open. 

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