Covenant exposed

John 15:7-8(NLT)But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

Not until the Holy Spirit revealed the covenant language in the words of Jesus, did I begin to understand His message to us in John 13-17. He was defining the New Covenant in His blood that was to be offered in only a few short hours. The verses you just read go back to the Abrahamic covenant when the blessings (the inheritance of the Israelites) were defined. All the "promises" of God are covenant blessings defined in the covenant.

God's covenants with man, being open ended, are given and expanded over time and generations of men. The Law and the Prophets were all part of the Abrahamic covenant that Jesus walked out in our behalf. The words of the Prophets must all be fulfilled in Jesus. Some of those words are fulfilled in His body, the Church. But their fulfillment is absolutely necessary before Jesus can return to bring the covenant we are now under into the third great covenant that will rule our eternity. Acts 3:21(NLT) For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost is a defining of the expansion of the New Covenant out of the Old.

During these hours of the "Last Supper", Jesus brings the blessings and expectation of the covenant with which these disciples were familiar, into the greater blessings and expectation of the covenant He was about to cut in their place. One of these was the division of the inheritance of tribes of Israel when they arrived in Canaan.
All of the tribes were to receive land except the tribe of Levi. This tribe was to receive God as their inheritance and they were to have the privilege of serving God from generation to generation. Where they were to live was designated by God. Their abiding place was to be in cities designated as offerings to God. Many of the prophets were priests from these cities. Samuel from Ramah and Jeremiah from Anathoth, Micah from Moresheth Gath and Amos from Tekoa were some who were born to the priesthood. This is important to us who are born into the priesthood of God by our second birth. We receive the blessing of the priesthood by the privilege of abiding in Jesus Christ. Acts 17:28(ESV)for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said,"'For we are indeed his offspring.'"

The priests who served were also to be partakers of the sacrifice. The bread that was laid out on the table in the Holy Place was to be eaten daily. The Word of God is to abide in us....eaten daily. The covenant of bread is a mighty covenant and is with us today as we take communion. But to live in The Word of Life and to eat daily of His Word until it abides in us, lives in us, and we move and have our life in Him, is a privilege beyond description. It is so much more than the priests of the Old Testament knew. As marvelous and productive as this is for us, it is still only a promise of what is to come.

What fruit are we to produce? I believe it is a twofold harvest. The first, and most important, is the Life of God shining through us. It is what God looks for in His vineyard. His Life is the "seed" sown in us and is to produce His likeness. The second, and vitally important to us as His ministry on earth, is to bear witness of His Life to the world and to be light in a dark realm. We are witnesses of His resurrection. We can only be that if the Spirit that raised Him from the dead also abides in us. That was what made the witness of the apostles so effective. Many have tried to carry out the commission as a religious duty and it has not been fruitful. But when His Presence is abiding in you richly, you cannot help but bear witness of Him. Then you are bearing much fruit and God is glorified in you.