Episode Transcript
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In this episode, Lance reads from Genesis 49 and speaks about the importance that the Lord places on fruitfulness and his desire for his people to be fruitful. Let’s listen to a Fruitful Branch.
Now shall we just bow together in prayer? Just a word of prayer. I think it would be good if we were just quiet for one moment. It seems to me that with all our praise and worship this morning, the Lord has also said something about hardening not our hearts. And only the Lord knows where there's a danger of hearts being hardened on some issue or other. I think it's good for us to stop for a moment or two and just be quiet. And seek the Lord that He may not permit such a thing to happen in any one of our lives.
It's very, very easy for the Lord's Word to come and then it to be lost in many other things. Let's just bow before the Lord. Just quietness. Dear Lord, we do pray together that Thou not allow Thy Word just to go unheeded by any one of us. Lord, Thou knowest every life and Thou knowest where there's danger of treating lightly the things concerning Thyself. Or Thou knowest, Lord, where perhaps there's some issue in which, Lord, one or other of us is in danger of hardening his or her heart.
Now, Lord, we ask Thee in Thy manifold grace, Thine abundant grace, Lord, wilt Thou melt our hearts in a new way. Oh, Lord, may they be truly broken and contrite hearts that Thou art able to speak to and able to correct and able to lead. Oh, Father, hear us. We pray for those who are going to be baptised today, that Thou wilt be greatly with them, every one of them, Lord. We guard them and cover them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Father, we pray that Thou would make that time this evening a glorious time of testimony and witness. And there may be those who find Thee and others deeply challenged and those who've fallen away brought back to Thyself. And Lord, we pray for ourselves now as we turn to Thy word in the little time we have, wilt Thou bring Thy word to us in living power. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
If you will turn to Genesis, the book of Genesis, chapter 49. Genesis 49, from verse 22. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a fountain. His branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and persecuted him. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel.
And the sentence I want particularly to underline is this one. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a fountain. His branches run over the wall. What a wonderful picture this is of a servant of the Lord. What a wonderful picture of a child of God. Nor did he get to this place easily. What does it mean, his branches ran over the wall?
Surely it means just this. This child of God, this servant of the Lord, became a blessing to the people of God. And not only to the people of God, but to the unsaved as well. Not only within the garden of God did he become a great blessing, his branches went right over the wall into Egypt and blessed the whole land of Egypt as well. When a branch goes over the wall, you know, the fruit is still the owner, belongs to the owner of the garden in which the tree is planted.
But once the fruit falls from the bough, it becomes the possession of whoever owns beyond the wall, the ground beyond the wall. And here you have a marvellous picture of the whole life of Joseph. Joseph wasn't only a blessing to the covenant people of God. He became a blessing to the Egyptian nation. Not only was he the salvation in one way of the people of God, he was the salvation of the Egyptian people. And it might be a real help to every one of us this morning to understand the Lord's purpose for us. You know, the Lord's purpose for every single one of us is that we should be fruitful. There is absolutely no question about this.
Everywhere we look in the Bible, the Lord's desire for his own is to be fruitful. Do you know that the very first word recorded in Scripture, actual words of the Lord recorded in Scripture, Genesis 1 and I think it's 28, is be fruitful and multiply.
That's the very first word the Lord ever uttered to human beings. Be fruitful and multiply. And it doesn't matter where we turn. Yes, well, the Vintzes have certainly been very fruitful. But getting back to the subject, when we come to the destruction in the flood, at the end of that we find the very first word the Lord said to Noah when he came out of the ark with the other seven is be fruitful. And it doesn't matter where we turn in the whole word, we find this command of God. It is the concern of God that we should be fruitful.
And of course, you know exactly where I will turn now. It's John chapter 15. And here we have these wonderful words. John chapter 15 verse 16. Surely these are amongst the most profound words in the Bible. Ye did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that ye should go and abide, that ye should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. What a wonderful word.
Ye did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, not only chosen, but appointed. That means our circumstances. That means the time at which we live. That means the details of our lives. They're all by appointment in one sense. He didn't only choose us, he appointed us. He has given us a vocation. He chose us and he has given us an appointment that we should go, not just sit, but we should go and bear fruit and that our fruit should abide. Not transient fruit. Not something that's just for a moment of time, but eternal fruit.
That which is going to last through all eternity, that's going to be found at the end, material for the construction of the city of God. That which goes right into the very habitation of God, the eternal dwelling place of God, that's going to be found at the end of time and through all eternity. And then he says something else very wonderful. It seems to be connected with this matter, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. So evidently this matter of fruitfulness is not just haphazard.
It's not just, well, if the Lord wants to make me fruitful, he can do so and I'm willing. It's evidently a yearning, a desire, a consuming passion that expresses itself in prayer again and again and again. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Isn't it an interesting thing that some of the greatest women in the Bible were kept barren? Until they were consumed with this one passion to bear a child. I think of Hannah and there are others too that you will find.
The very mother of Joseph, who was this fruitful bough, she only bore two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. But you've got these cases of people who did not bear children and who asked and asked and asked and asked. And one wonders why does the Lord keep them waiting? And the Lord did keep them waiting until in the end the fruit that came from them excelled the fruit of all the others put together. Fruitfulness. You know, we go back to Joseph. You know what the Lord wants you to be? He wants you to be a fruitful bough beside a fountain whose branches run over the wall.
He wants you to be a blessing to the people of God, to the household of faith. And then he wants you also to be a blessing to the unsaved. There are some people who are to a certain extent a blessing to the people of God, but beyond that they have absolutely no influence or effect at all. But the Lord wants us to be both a blessing to the people of God and he wants us to be a blessing to those who do not know the Lord. So that there is this wonderful fruitfulness in all spheres.
Now, how? Let's go back again to Genesis 49. A fruitful bough by a fountain. A fruitful bough by a fountain. It's interesting that in this prophecy from dear Jacob, he didn't say Joseph is a fruitful tree. He said Joseph is a fruitful bough. So evidently there's some feeling, some sense of Joseph being somehow related to the whole. Do you understand? It's rather unusual just to say that he's a fruitful bough by a fountain whose branches run over the wall. It's one bough of a tree and then all other branches that have gone off it and they've gone right over the wall to the other side.
One can't help but think of John 15 again. I am the vine, you are the branches. When the Lord Jesus said I am the vine, of course he meant everything. One of the interesting things about these vines, especially in the Middle East in the old way, in which they used to be kept, is that they're nearly all branches. I used to always think that it meant the Lord was saying I am the trunk, you are the branches. But the Lord didn't say that. He said I am the vine and the vine is everything, includes the branches. But it's every single thing from the roots to the tendrils to the blossom to the fruit, the whole. I am the whole. You are the branches, you are in me, you are part of me. He then goes on to say abide in me and I in you. So shall ye bear much fruit.
So here is the first lesson. We are in Christ. What a wonderful lesson that is. What a wonderful lesson that is. The first great lesson in fruitfulness. You'll never be fruitful apart from the Lord. Oh, you want scripture for that? It's awfully well known. John 15 again. John 15 and verse 5, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him the same beareth much fruit. For apart from me ye can do nothing. Ye can do nothing apart from me. So the first great lesson we want to learn in fruitfulness is this. If we would be a blessing to the people of God and a blessing to those who are not the Lord's, we must be found in Christ, abiding in him and he in us. That is the first great lesson.
But there is another lesson here we can only touch on them. And the next lesson, again in Genesis 49, is that this fruitful bough is by a fountain. By a fountain. And that immediately began to make me think of a number of scriptures. I thought again of the Gospel of John. I thought of chapter 4. Of course you know it, I'm sure, very well indeed. Verse 13 and 14, Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. A fountain, a fountain, something that is springing up unto eternal life. Here's the secret of fruitfulness. The Lord Jesus didn't just say, I am come that ye might have life. He said, I am come that ye might have life and that ye might have life more abundant. Or again, you take John 7, verse 37, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me from within him shall flow out rivers of living water. There's something more. One thing is getting your thirst quenched. The other thing is getting everybody else's thirst quenched.
There are many, many Christians, the only thing they're bothered about is getting their own thirst quenched. Oh, I'm so thirsty. I need to be helped. I need to be helped. I didn't think much of that. I didn't get any help from that. I didn't think much of that speaker. I didn't get any help from him. That book didn't help me. I didn't get anything. Well, there's a place where, of course, we have to be honest and say, well, I got nothing out of that. But if our whole life is governed by what we are getting, just by the one question of our own thirst being quenched, where are we going to end? Doesn't there come a point where the Lord says, I will not quench this thirst anymore. This person is becoming as self-centered as they were when they were unsaved.
Their whole life is revolving around themselves, around their own satisfaction, around their own fulfilment, around their own provision. No, the Lord says, you may have life, but you must understand that life more abundant is to give to others. That life that springs up within you all the time unto eternal life is that others may be blessed. You come to the Lord and you get your thirst quenched by the Spirit of God. But then there's got to be a river of water that streams out to others. How many lives are met by you? I wonder. Think. Ask yourself that question.
Is there anyone who can come to me and touches the Lord? Someone who receives something from the Lord when they come to me, to my life? A fountain. Of course, we know that this speaks of the Spirit of God. There can be no real experience of that water springing up unto life eternal apart from the Spirit. He that believeth on me from within him shall flow out rivers of living water. When those rivers flow out, they're by the Spirit. This spake he of the Spirit, it says in verse 39. Joseph then, here is the next lesson we learn from Joseph's life.
It's not enough just to abide in Christ. The Lord speaks of even branches that are dead in the vine being cut out altogether. We must not only be in Christ, we must be experiencing all the fullness which is ours in Christ by the Spirit of God. That is why there wasn't a single task that the early church gave to any man or woman, as far as I can make out, that hadn't got this simple qualification they were filled with the Spirit. Sometimes it says they were filled with faith. Sometimes they were filled with wisdom. Sometimes they were filled, well, with power. But always it is filled with the Spirit, even when it came to counting the money. They chose people who were not just good mathematicians.
They chose people who were filled with the Spirit that they might administer that side of the church's life. Why this insistence on those being filled with the Spirit? Why does the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5, 18 say, be being filled with the Spirit? Because there can be no fruitfulness without being filled with the Spirit. If you and I want to know all that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we've got to experience daily what it is to be filled with the Spirit. Otherwise, the enemy will know very well that a vacuum is being created in us, and he will pressurise us till he flattens us.
No one can just rest upon their laurels in this matter and say, well, at such and such a time I had such and such an experience, or at such and such a time I had such and such a revelation, and it was absolutely glory. You can't rest on things that happened years ago. Thank God for every experience any one of us has had of the Lord. If we were to all really speak about experiences, I am quite sure we would be here the whole day and all tomorrow as we listen to the wonderful things that God has done in different lives. But unless that that God has done at certain points in our lives is translated into a daily experience of the fullness of the Spirit, the greatest experience must die on us, and the greatest apostle can fall, and fall very, very greatly.
No single child of God is immune from this thing. So here we have a fountain. How did Joseph overcome all these problems? Because he was a fruitful bough by a fountain. That's why when you're in the Middle East or in Israel or any of these countries where there's very little water, why you suddenly see just what water does. You can see miles and miles of just arid, dried up wilderness, and then suddenly you will see a tree, alive, green, fruitful in a sense. It has a fountain. It has its own private supply.
There are areas where I've been where almost, you know, from a bird's eye view, you would hardly believe that there was anything there. And then you go down into some crack in the wilderness, into some deep, deep ravine and gorge, and then you find the most luscious vegetation and fruit trees bearing fruit. What is the answer? Water. A little fountain of water which is producing all that fruitfulness. Now you see our idea is this, that unless God takes us and plants us in an area which is fertile for a thousand miles in all directions, very rich soil, well fertilised, well kept, we shall never bear fruit. But God's way is often to take a child of his and put them into the most difficult circumstances, put them in arid conditions, put them in conditions that seem to be hostile and antagonistic in which there can be no fruitfulness at all.
And there he supplies them with a fountain. Not always visible to the naked eye. Sometimes it's hidden, but it's there, and that tree can become a tree that bears fruit whose branches run over the wall. A blessing to everybody. Such was Joseph. Now we come to the next lesson, if I may go on, because we haven't much time this morning. I'd like to dwell very much more upon the fountain because there's so much in it. You see, the Lord has given us everything in himself. It's all there for us through his finished work. It's all there for us.
And the Holy Spirit has come to take those very things and make them real to us, bring them into the experience of them. Do you need power for witnessing? It's there. Do you need wisdom in a very difficult situation? The Lord gives it. It's there. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. Do you need grace? It's there in our Lord. Grace added upon grace. What else do you need? It's all there in him. Only the Holy Spirit can translate all that into reality and into experience. But he can do it.
Now the next lesson I just want to point out is this. This fruitful bough that is by a fountain whose branches run over the wall knew very much about two things. First of all, it seems to me that he, the branch, had to know, the tree, had to know something about the seasons. You turn to Song of Solomon, chapter 4, verse 16, Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Now it's very interesting, this north and south wind, because most people naturally here in Britain will take the north wind to be the rather hard wind and the south wind to be the gentle, balmy, sweet wind. And that's how most people do. They say, here we've got the seasons. We've got first of all, all the frosts of winter. We've got all the hardness of winter. And then we've got all the sweet, gentle rains and showers that come with the south or west winds. But in Israel, it's the other way around.
The north wind brings the rain and the gentleness, and the south wind brings the scorching, searing winds of the desert. And so, whatever it is, it's the same lesson, isn't it? If we forget north or south. The fact is, you've got to have two winds for the spices of the garden to flow out. If this garden is to be really fruitful and to fulfil the objective in its being planted, two winds have got to come. One a hard wind and one a soft wind. Joseph knew all about those two winds. All through his life. When he was a young man, he was greatly spoilt by his father. His father had a tremendous love for Joseph. He did every single thing that could be done for Joseph. He loved him. He loved him above all his brothers. And he was a favourite.
Well, that's rather sad in a way, because it produced an awful lot of bitterness and trouble that Joseph was to go through his life over. But I have no doubt that Joseph's closeness to his father brought him into very much blessing. It was the south wind, or the north wind, but it was the wind that was the soft wind. Don't you think Jacob told him about some of his experiences? What he learnt when he laboured for so long for his mother? To win his mother's hand? The sorrow that was in him when he buried his mother near Bethlehem? Don't you think he told him about the experience when he saw the face of God and the angel of the Lord wrestled with him? And God said, thou shalt no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, a prince with God? Oh, I'm sure that Joseph had many, many experiences.
Do you remember he had a dream one night? I'm quite sure it was this soft, gentle wind that was blowing, and he saw everything bowing down to him. All the stars, the sun and the moon, they all bowed down. And I believe he had another dream, you remember? And all the corns, all the sheaves bowed down before him. Of course, he did the wrong thing. He went and talked about it to everybody, and of course that caused an awful lot of trouble with his brothers. But you see, that was the soft wind. Now don't we all know, thank God for the times when there's a soft wind that blows in our lives. I sometimes think we have to be more careful of these soft winds because when they blow, that's the great danger. But thank God for the soft winds.
We couldn't do it if we had only a hard, harsh wind all the way through our lives. But thank God for those soft winds that come and are gentle and in which we somehow can relax. But it wasn't long before the other wind blew. And he was sold into slavery. Don't you think it was a traumatic experience for Joseph when he suddenly found that his own kith and kin could deal with him like an animal? Put him in a pit? They even talked in his hearing of murdering him. And it was only his brother Reuben that saved him from that. And he was sold as a common slave to Midianites and taken into it. It was the other wind that blew.
I am quite sure that at that time it must have seemed to Joseph as if everything in his life had come to an end, as if all those dreams had vanished forever, and as if the word of the Lord that had come to him as a young man and through his fellowship with his father died a thousand times. God knew exactly what he was doing. Then God has his own way. The soft wind blew again. He got into an awfully good household in Egypt. Oh, it was a splendid household. The master of the household was a really kind, gentle man and did very much for Joseph. But then came the other wind again with Potiphar's wife and he ended up in prison. And so all the way through you find it again and again. There's one wind, then the other wind.
Do you know anything about this? Let me tell you this. That to grow in the Lord is a series of cycles, to really grow in the Lord. You must first know winter to know summer, then surely you shall come back into winter, that you may know another summer. And in that winter all kinds of things are broken up in our lives. It's the cross at work in us, exposing our self-life, breaking up the fallow ground, the frost getting right in, killing everything, killing the things that shouldn't be there, breaking up hard clods and all the rest of it. It's all happening inside. It's not easy, but it's vital. When the Lord has done his work there, you'll find the soft wind will blow with all its gentle rains. You'll know that gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit. You would have thought the Holy Spirit wasn't in the other. He was a thousand miles away. He wasn't. The Holy Spirit was as near to you in that other wind as he is in the gentle one. Both winds of the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. Sometimes the breath of God kills us and destroys us almost. Other times the breath of God makes us. But you must have both. Joseph knew all about that all the way through his experience. I wonder if you've ever read in Psalm 105, these words, verse 17, He sent a man before them, Psalm 105 verse 17, He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a servant. His feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in chains of iron. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tried him. Now that brings me to one other point here. You see what it says, verse 18, some of you will have in the margin, the Hebrew, which is literally, His soul entered into the iron. His soul entered into the iron. I suppose that means in one sense that somehow or other, he and his fetters became one. What an experience for a man of God to go into. What an experience for the servant of the Lord to go into. I'm going to say this, that anyone who would know anything about fruitfulness must go this way. When the Lord gives us a word, so often that word is tried. You see what it says. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tried him. Oh, what does that mean? I think that there in his dungeon, back came the word of the Lord through those dreams. Back came the word of the Lord in other ways that he would be a blessing and other things that had been uttered. They came back again and again and again and again.
If you and I would be fruitful, we must know pruning. Now what is pruning? What is it? It's not only that we must know the seasons in our experience. It doesn't matter who we are, if we're prepared to go the whole way with God, we must know a winter if we would know a summer. And we shall know winter and summer and winter and summer and winter and summer all through our experience. But there is also this pruning. Now what is pruning? It's very simple. Pruning means that you want to go one way and the pruner sees that you don't. Isn't that what it is? As simple as that. You've got a little branch that's coming out here and that's very happy and says, I'm going to go in this way. I like this way. Flowers beautifully. Going on and on. But the pruner's knife says, no, that's not the right direction. That's not the best thing for fruitfulness. Out.
Don't you see this in the whole of Joseph's life? Do you think Joseph would have gone into Egypt? Certainly not. It was the pruner's knife. He would have liked to have stayed in Israel. He would have liked to have stayed with his family, with his dear old aged father. No, the Lord said, certainly not. Somewhere or other, Joseph must have given himself to the Lord wholeheartedly. God never takes this liberty with his children unless somewhere or another that one has said, Lord, I'm thine. Do with me what you will. Perhaps when those dreams came to him and the Lord spoke to him of one day that great fruitfulness that would be his. Maybe it was at that point he said to the Lord, Lord, here I am. Take me. Perhaps then he thought, it's going to be marvellous. I'm going to go like a comet. Straight up. I shall just, it'll just be up and up and up and up and up until I'm on the top and they're all bowing down.
He didn't realise that it was down and down and down and down and down and down. But the Lord was faithful. He understood what he was doing. And the pruners knife worked again and again. I have no doubt that dear Joseph would like to have stayed there. No, said the Lord, you don't stay there. And he cut the whole thing out. And then he said, well, I'd like to go. No, you don't cut the whole thing out. Maybe there were times when he thought I'd like to die and the Lord said, oh, no, you don't. You stay alive. And you think there must have been deep experiences in Joseph's life. If his soul entered into the iron, there must have been times when he felt, oh, Lord, let me die. This is a living death. But the Lord said no.
I have no doubt that faith triumphed in Joseph, even in his worst experiences. There must have been times when he was down, but I have no doubt at all that there were times when he trusted the Lord and said, I believe that somehow this thing is going to come to pass. It was the pruners knife. I don't know if anyone could say we love the pruners knife. I think only people who are looking upon this as a kind of theoretical, theological exercise could say, oh, how I love the pruners knife. No one can say that.
Not anyone who's experienced something of this way of the Lord. But do you see what it results in? Normally, a gardener wouldn't allow a branch to go over the wall. You don't plant a fruit tree to allow the neighbours to have the fruit. Normally, you would see that that branch was trained right back and kept well within one's own property. But how wonderful the Lord is. He not only had his own people's welfare at heart, he wanted to do something for Egypt. And I think of those wonderful words in the scriptures, prophetic words, when it says that one day the Lord will say of Egypt, Egypt, my son.
What wonderful words. God has something for a people who are not even his person. And you know, he wants to use you and me to do that. He wants us to be a blessing to one another. And he wants us to be a blessing to the unsaid that are beyond the wall, a fruitful bough by a fountain whose branches run over the wall. Are you that? Then we must know what it is to be in Christ. We must know what it is to have that fountain, that spring of water springing up, that well of water springing up unto life eternal by the Spirit of God within us.
We must know what it is to have those different winds that blow the seasons, spiritual seasons in our experience all through our life. And we must know the pruner's knife working at the right time. Thank God a good gardener doesn't have to use the pruner's knife all year round. He only has to use it at one season. Then how good the Lord is to us. He knows just how much we can bear and he knows just when the time has come to do the work. Then let us trust the Lord. Let us remember those wonderful scriptures, ones like Isaiah 54. I close with these, which I think have got so much bearing upon Joseph's life.
As if foremost they could have been written to him, although they were of course given many hundreds of years after his life. Isaiah 54:11, Oh thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold I will set thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with sapphires, and I will make thy pinnacles of rubies and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy border of precious stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. What a wonderful word.
That could have almost come to dear Joseph when he was in the Pharaoh's dungeon. Oh thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, I will. Of course it happened. In the end, from the lowest point in Egypt, Joseph was raised to the highest point and became supreme in the whole land of Egypt. Treasures of darkness, hidden riches of secret places. The Lord promises these to those who are prepared to go that way. That, I say, is fruitfulness. Not something that comes easily or superficially or through some shallow experience, but that which comes through a deep, deep inward history with God. May the Lord help every one of us to be a fruitful bow, by a fountain whose branches run over the wall.
Lord, we know that thy great desire for us is fruitfulness. We know thou has chosen us and appointed us that we should go and bear fruit and that our fruit should remain. Oh Lord, we cry for every single one in this place, all of us, Lord, myself included. Wilt thou help us, Lord, in thy ways with us? Thou dost move in mysterious ways, thy wonders to perform. There are times, Lord, when we feel that thou art not even near us. When, Lord, we could almost say our soul enters into the iron. But Lord, how we thank thee that thine end is an end of glory and fullness and reigning with thee.
And we cry, Lord, that every one of us may be prepared to walk with thee in the way that thou wouldst choose for us, Lord. Oh Father, help us. If there are some, Lord, this morning upon whose lives that half wind is blowing, help them, Lord, to trust thee. And where are others, Lord, who perhaps in that period where there's a gentle wind blowing, oh may they be ready when the time comes for the other wind. For Lord, we know we must have both aspects of that ministry of thy spirit to bring us through to fruitfulness. And when that knife is being used, Lord, to cut out this or to cut out that or to stop us going this way or going that way, Lord, help us.
Thou know sometimes the resentment we have in our hearts, sometimes, Lord, even the bitterness, sometimes the wrong thoughts and insinuations, Lord, that come into our minds about thee, about thy grace, about thy love. Oh, help us, Lord, we pray, that at such a time we may remember until the time for his word came, the word that the Lord tried him. Help us, we pray, Lord, and our great desire is that we shall all be such fruitful boughs by a fountain whose branches run over the wall. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
May your branches run over the wall. May fountains of living water flow from your heart. May you know the deep deep love of Jesus
