It’s hot out! The air hangs heavy with heat just after sunrise at 7AM. The other day I worked in my front yard around the sidewalks, digging up old dead plants, pruning dry lifeless branches and replanting, this time in portable containers. When I returned to the air conditioning of my house, my face was all bright red and splotchy, not from sunburn, but from the heat index. With Florida humidity, it pushed the temperature up over 100F!
Lord Jesus used examples from nature and man’s relation to growing plants in His teachings that all people can understand. He said, “I AM the true Vine, and my Father is the Vinedresser. 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.” (John 15:1-2)
We, God’s people, true believers are the branches. In us flows the life from the Vine, Lord Jesus, which is Holy Spirit. At times in our lives we are pruned of the old dead stuff, diseased parts, and twigs covered with parasites. God the Father decides when, where, and how. He is the Vinedresser.
God does this for our own good because the old stuff is sucking the life out of you. Pruning allows for new growth and an abundance of fresh fruit on green branches.
Sometimes we do not wish to be pruned, continuing in our old habits, living with a painful condition, or holding on to a sin much to our calamity. Resistance against God’s work in our lives produces little fruit. God sees this.
To prune us, God cuts, just as I used pruning shears, large cutters and a saw for branches. Cutting removes something permanently.
God uses the Sword of the Spirit—His Word and Holy Spirit, (Ephesians 6:17) both of which convict us of sin, show us an area of weakness being taken advantage of by the enemy, or expose a curse. He gives us knowledge and power to break these things, cast them off and free us from the entanglements through His Word and by His Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 4:12 states, “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
The process hurts. We must agree to abide by God’s will, but the final result will make us better believers, with improved characters, demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
In the Old Testament, God brought the children of Israel (approximately 2.4 million) out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt. In that country, they had learned the Egyptians’ ways, which included idolatry, grumbling, giving up on God and not obeying Him. They remained wandering under God’s leading in the wilderness 40 years, until the last generation and their sinful ways had passed. The pruning took 40 years. Then they entered a new land. (Book of Exodus)
He pruned the nation that carried The Messiah, Lord Jesus, into the world, of sin with His Word. The Lord spoke to them through Moses, the man of God, and through the Word of God, written on stone tablets with His very finger—the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 31:18)
When God prunes His church, as a body, it takes time. It happens in stages. (Exodus 17:1) The purpose is to bring them into one body, cleaned up and ready to go produce an abundance of fruit!
Some will allow Him to prune them, some will not. Those who don’t will continue in their sins. The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
Every branch that does not bear fruit, He takes away. (John 15:2)
Are you allowing God to prune you of sin?
(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon