There are many other examples throughout the Word of God that apart from the Lord personally being in the midst of one’s life, one’s work is done in vain. Simply put, if one does not have the Lord involved in the building of one’s life, or the protection of one’s being, we labor for, and guard it in vain. Jesus continues this theme from the Old Testament in John 15: 1 – 2 + 4: saying, “I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless (except under the circumstances that, or apart from) it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Jesus says in John 12: 24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Here we see that dying to self is as natural to a fruit-bearing life, as a seed falling into the ground to do produce fruit, which is what it was created to do; and so were we. John the Baptist tells us in John 3: 27: “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from above.” And Jesus further tells us in John 6:…
