john 15 2

[W_McCarthy]

Every branch in Me that does not
bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2

How would you ever know if you have been cut off? The reason I ask this is this has been bugging me because for quite sometime now i have been experiencing intensely lonely, like he is not with me, I become extremely frustrated and even begin to think that this Christian life is not for me, i thought
I had problems with depression before I.believed but recently its like I've gone off the deep end, and I've become conscious of the fact that I'm sometimes bitter towards God or that ive been treated unfairly, even though logically I know that there is none more fair than the lord.

 

[AGTG]

We cannot go by feelings, that's not what Jesus taught. We walk by faith in His finished work. Our flesh may deceive us, our souls may be cast down, despite all that we can still trust in the finished work of the cross. The only proper response to such an understanding is to simply walk out our faith no matter what.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

If you have feelings of bitterness towards God, confess it and recognize His blood has cleansed you. Then cast down those ideas and imaginations if they try to return and walk out your faith.

 

[W_McCarthy]

We cannot go by feelings, that's not what Jesus taught. We walk by faith in His finished work. Our flesh may deceive us, our souls may be cast down, despite all that we can still trust in the finished work of the cross. The only proper response to such an understanding is to simply walk out our faith no matter what.

Thank you! To be honest I have heard this many times, it just keeps getting harder and harder. It's crazy, everything about my life that is external is going just fine and has been going great for a while, I have an awesome job, a dog that I love, and a roof over my head. But I have major problems trusting God and also I get scared of what his will might be in certain situations. It's just an internal struggle that beats me down to the point where I feel like I'm going to break. This helps a lot to hear this from someone though.

 

[ldonjohn]

Every branch in Me that does not
bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2

How would you ever know if you have been cut off? The reason I ask this is this has been bugging me because for quite sometime now i have been experiencing intensely lonely, like he is not with me, I become extremely frustrated and even begin to think that this Christian life is not for me, i thought
I had problems with depression before I.believed but recently its like I've gone off the deep end, and I've become conscious of the fact that I'm sometimes bitter towards God or that ive been treated unfairly, even though logically I know that there is none more fair than the lord.

W_McCArthy,

If you are a born-again believer then you can never be "cut off" from God.

John 6:47, “Verily verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath eternal life.”

John 10:28, “I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.

John10:29, “And my father, who have them to me, is greater than them all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.”

Notice Jesus says that anyone who believes on Him has eternal life And that no one can pluck them out of His father's hand.

That means that a true born-again Christian is a child of God, and a child cannot be un-born (un-born-again). Think of it this way. You are the child of your parents, and you will always be their child even if you disobey them or turn from them. True Christians will never become non-Christian because they are a child of God.

And, if you have eternal life like Jesus says, well, you have eternal life. What is eternal life - it's eternal life, and if it is yours then it is yours for all of eternity.

May I suggest that you make your salvation sure and then read your bible. Read the Gospel of John and ask God to show you whatever it is you need to have peace. Read it over and over. Read all of the New Testament, but read the Book of John first. God has your answer is His Word. Read it, & study it, & search for your answer there until you find it; do not give up on God!

If you are interested in reading my testimony of how God brought me out of a miserable time of worry & doubt about my salvation I will post a link to my testimony here at Christian Forums below.

http://www.christianforums.com/threads/my-testimony.7775300/

John

 

[W_McCarthy]

Thank you John, such a great testimony. Do you believe that time His spirit came and talked to you to be when you were truly baptized into His death? The reason I ask is I do have a lot of doubts about my salvation to be honest, and even though I know theologically what Jesus did for us, my comprehension of His work seems dry at times to say the least. It's like I read the bible and pray everyday, but don't even really know If I'm a Christian or not. Sometimes I feel condemned because It took me a long time after I first started getting drawn by God to actually begin seeking Him,
that I feel like I've fallen away, and it is impossible to renew me to repentence. I definitely haven't given up on God, it's almost like I can't, even though there has been times I have felt like giving up, I just can't. Where else would I go?, Knowing that He holds the words of eternal life.

 

[ldonjohn]

W_McCarthy,

You are welcome! I want to answer your question and then offer some suggestions that I hope might help you.

First, the fact that you are concerned about you salvation is proof that God hasn't given up on you. The fact that you are seeking God shows that God is drawing you to Himself. You have the attitude that God wants you to have which is that you “want to” know Him. I suggest that you ask God to show you whatever it is that you need to have assurance & peace, then open your bible to the Gospel of John and read it out of a sense of desperation. God looks at your attitude. This scripture, Jeremiah 29:13, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” says that if you earnestly search after God you will find Him. Read His word expecting God to give you His answer, and don't give up until you have it. You might have to read it over and over until you find God's answer He has for you. You might need to read the entire New Testament; if so, do it. Your eternity is at stake and God wants you to know Him more than you want to know Him. The answer to your question, “Do you believe that time His spirit came and talked to you to be when you were truly baptized into His death?” is “yes.” I became a real believer, saved/born-again, the moment the Holy Spirit convinced me that when Jesus was nailed to the cross my sins were nailed to the cross with him. IOW, the penalty for my sins was “paid in full” at the moment Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood there. There is no salvation without the work of the Holy Spirit, and He uses God's Word, the message of the cross/the Gospel message to bring us to repentance and faith in that message. The word “repentance” actually means “a change of mind.” And that is exactly what the Holy Spirit did for me. He changed my doubting mind by convincing me that my sin was already dealt with at the cross and that Jesus just wanted me to leave it up to Him to forgive me and change me. The Holy Spirit showed me that the only sin that will send me to hell is the sin of unbelief. Jesus said that anyone who “believes in Him” has eternal life. So, the question is what does “believe in Jesus” mean? Well, for me, it was to just completely give up on myself and totally depend on what Jesus had already done for me on the cross. The Holy Spirit convinced me that Jesus will do exactly what He said He will do in John 6:37; He said “All the Father give to me will come to me; and anyone who come to me I will not turn away.” IOW, I was convinced that Jesus was just waiting for me to come to Him & that He would do what He said He would do which is forgive my sin of unbelief and give me eternal life. I found myself talking to Jesus as though He was right there in the room with me. It was like when someone does something for you and immediately you say “thank you” to that person. The moment of actually “believing” was the moment the Holy Spirit convinced me and made it real for me. It's really difficult to explain, and I believe that the only way to understand what really happens when a person becomes a born-again believer is to have that experience for himself. If we try to create within ourselves some level of “faith” and then say a prayer because we think that our faith and our prayer save us then we deceive ourselves. That was one of my problems before I became a true believer. I probably said the sinners' prayer over a hundred times thinking that saying that prayer would save me, and each time I would have peace for awhile but soon the doubts & fear returned, and I would start begging God to save me and praying again. Believing or “faith” is really not up to us, except that we must allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in us through the message of God's Word, and then He can convict & convince us of our need to be forgiven and of God's Way to do that for us. The amount of faith is not important, but if the object of ones faith is Jesus finished work on the cross then that is saving faith. I will close by giving you a reference to 2 articles written by a great evangelist, the late Dr. John R Rice. They might help you in your search for answers. I don't know if I can post links to an outside source here so I give you the title and you can do a search; they should be easy to find. 1. “How to Come to Jesus?” by Dr. John R Rice 2. “What Must I do to Be Saved?” by Dr. John R. Rice.

Hope this helps. I can suggest several other great reading materials if you need them, but God's Word is the best place to find your answer.

John

 

[Locum7]

Get positive scriptures that remind you of who you are in him. Put them on your walls, onyour phobe, memorise them and meditate on them everyday. You are not cut off otherwise you would not be posting questions like that. But you need to strengthen your faith. Get into the word more and start believing the promises. Learn who you are in him and give doubts a swift kick in the rear.

 

[hedrick]

If you read on in the section, this looks like a reference to judgement, not to some weird state in which followers of Jesus are somehow cut off from him.

As to judgement, there's no reason to think you have to meet some quota of fruit. After all, Jesus said anyone who gave a cup of water would be rewarded. It's hard to believe that anyone can follow Jesus and not have something in his life reflect it. Even if you don't see it yourself. After all, in the most explicit teaching about judgement (the sheep and goats), the sheep are surprised to find that they had been doing good things. I think it's best to trust in Jesus' many assurances that anyone who trusts in him will not be turned away.

 

[Geralt]

the cutting refers to those non-abiding.

the non-abiding refers to the negative of Jn 15:7. 'If you abide in me, and my words abide in you' , and (v9) 'abiding in Christ's LOVE'. The non-abiding does not abide in christ's word or His love.

'love' is not be looked at as simply 'feelings' of love like the secular man sees it . 'loving Christ' is tangibly proven by 'keeping Christ's commandment' (v10).

so to make a conclusion, really abiding in Christ (or to be certain that one is not cut-off) can be proven by testimony itself, by a person's act of keeping Christ's commandment (which in this context has highlighted one particular commandment):

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (v12)

to love one another is 'christ-like' therefore you are certain that you are abiding in the vine and not cut-off.

Every branch in Me that does not
bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2

How would you ever know if you have been cut off? The reason I ask this is this has been bugging me because for quite sometime now i have been experiencing intensely lonely, like he is not with me, I become extremely frustrated and even begin to think that this Christian life is not for me, i thought
I had problems with depression before I.believed but recently its like I've gone off the deep end, and I've become conscious of the fact that I'm sometimes bitter towards God or that ive been treated unfairly, even though logically I know that there is none more fair than the lord.