You Are the Branch

The following is from Watchman Nee's devotional book The Lord My Portion:

"Once  a  brother  expended  great  effort  in  seeking  for  victory.  He acknowledged that in spite of his constant asking, God had not given him victory. One day he read Christ’s words in John 15.5:   'I am the vine,  ye  are  the  branches.'  Instantly he  received  light.  He  knelt and prayed:  'I  am  the  most  foolish  person  in  the  entire  world.  The victorious  life  which  I  seek  is actually  something  I  have  already possessed.  You are the  branch,  Jesus  said,  and  not  that  you  shall become a branch.'

"For many years he asked to be joined to the tree like a branch, not realizing that he was already a branch joined to the tree.  Not till then did he receive the revelation of God, and have real faith.

"Later he said this: 'I was defeated, so I sought for victory; but victory never came.  But on the day I believed, victory did come.'"