My Father is Glorified in this.

John 15:1-27 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

Jesus Is the Vine—Followers Are Branches

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. ⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. ⁹ Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Disciples’ Relation to Each Other

¹² “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. ¹⁷ This I command you, that you love one another.

Disciples’ Relation to the World

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. ²⁵ But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

²⁶ “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, ²⁷ and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

In today's text Jesus, knowing that He is now in His final hours with His disciples, continues to encourage and instruct them about their future. In today's text we see exhortation and instructions, we see Commandment, we see both warnings of difficulties and promises that though He will be physically gone Jesus will remain with them.

Jesus says:  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. There are several different aspects to our relationship with Jesus. We first come to know Him. We are drawn to Jesus by the Father and the Spirit. We come to a revelation of who Jesus is. He becomes our Lord and our Savior. This knowing Jesus and receiving a deeper revelation of who He is to us should never end. Jesus is infinite, we will never fully understand with our finite minds all that He is and wants to be for us. Our knowing Jesus, leads us to a point where we seek fellowship with Him. We worship, we have devotional time, we go for walks with Him. We set aside times with Jesus, times to be in His presence and fellowship and commune with Him. Yet we see in today's text, that if we are going to serve God and produce fruit for the kingdom, it is not enough that we know Jesus. It's not enough that we fellowship and commune with Him daily. If we are going to produce fruit for the kingdom of God, Jesus says we must abide in Him.

The word abide means:  to remain; continue; stay. Designated times set aside to be with Jesus are not enough. We need to never leave His presence, remaining, continuing staying with Him. We need to learn to walk in both of the worlds we live in simultaneously. Jesus said:     “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing..."     If we are to do the works that Jesus did and greater works, we need like Jesus to be able to see and hear what the Father is doing. We need to abide in Jesus. If we can only see and hear from God when we are in our secret place, in the stillness of our prayer closet, whether that's at home or on a mountain top, if that's the only time and place we can see and hear Him, we will miss many of the things He calls us to, many of the daily assignments He has for us.

We need to be able to hear the still small voice of God the Father even in the midst of the din of this world. We need to be able to clearly hear His whisper above all the loud voices in the world. That comes only as we abide in Him. In the midst of the battle it is one thing to know who Jesus is. It's another thing to have spent time with Him. It's a far greater thing to have His abiding presence in the battle. The psalmist says in Psalm 91:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
³ For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.