In preparing the disciples for life after He was gone, Jesus said, “I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. He lops off every branch that doesn’t produce. And He prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops. He has already tended you by pruning you back for greater strength and usefulness by means of the commands I gave you. Take care to live in me and let me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me.” – John 15:1-4 (TLB)
Intimacy with God the Father comes through relationship with Jesus and His Spirit. Intimacy with Him is the prerequisite for a fruitful life. We can’t produce fruit apart from Jesus. I think there may be an underlying problem in our culture to understanding this, when our views are so often based on our own moral standards and ideas. If we’ve determined they’re “good” because we’re surrendered to the culture of our day and built our belief around comfortability and acceptance from others, instead of building the foundation of faith around God, His Word and His Spirit, we’ll believe we can indeed produce “fruit” apart from Jesus.
But God sees who is actually producing fruit. He sees what needs to be cut off. He sees what needs to be pruned. Part of His preparation to equip us for the future plans He has for us, is to prune away all that’s hindering us from following Him whole-heartedly. He “lops off” anything that’s interrupting His life-giving power from developing in and through us. That very description sounds painful – and often is. But the beauty of the pruning process for followers of Jesus, is the preparation work the Holy Spirit does in our spirit, soul, and body. God’s not into those that are looking for a superficial commitment here… He wants our whole lives surrendered to Him.
During seasons of pruning and preparation, we begin to understand just how much God’s word is our anchor. Our lifeline to true living. Holy living. Surrendered living. While the Holy Spirit prunes, trains us, and equips us to be able to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy, and against faltering to sin, bowing down to the culture around us or what other voices around us have to say we should do or believe in…. it’s during those times when we know beyond any doubt that the Word of God is living and active.
“For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger, cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts, exposing us for what we really are. He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from Him to whom we must explain all that we have done.” – Hebrews 4:12-13 (TLB)
Fruitfulness is the result of a life-giving connection of intimacy with God. When what’s hidden in us is exposed before Him, and we surrender all of ourselves to Him. When we allow Him to lead us, and we choose to follow Him in all areas of our lives. Trusting the power and holiness of His Word – believing it and following it. Through the pruning and the preparation, He leads us to an abundant, productive, and an eternally-impacting life - one worth living!
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