Fear or Faith?

Allow God to Prune "Your Tree"

What is pruning? Jesus said in John 15:1&2 KJV

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

²Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

The Amplified says:

²Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.

Pruning is a continuous cleansing, trimming, taking away, so that the tree may beat more richer and more excellent fruit!

Look around you and see the empty seats? This is a result of a cleansing a taking away, and it is a process that goes on repeatedly so that the tree (us) we can bear more excellent fruit! Halleujah!

Jesus specifically said that He is the Vine…….

Lets continue to read

⁴Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

Let me just pause and give a hint right here, ONLY those who are preaching and teaching God’s word, Jesus, his death , burial and resurrection can be pruned!!!! All the ministries that are not teaching the Word of God are not being pruned, they are being judged!!!!!

Let me prove it!!!! Keep you finger here and turn with me to

Luke 3:8 John the Baptist is speaking here to the multitudes who are coming to be baptized and he says:

⁸Bear fruits that are deserving and consistent with [your] repentance [that is, ^[^f^]conduct worthy of a heart changed, a heart abhorring sin]. And do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up descendants for Abraham.

⁹Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

John them just because you are descendants of Abraham does not exempt you from need repentance and salvation.

In our terms, just because you have 5,000 members and things seem to be going well for you does not mean that you are bearing fruit, It is what you do to bring Glory to the Father that determines if you bear fruit or not!

Back to John 15:5

⁵I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

⁶If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.

⁷If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

OH my God!! It’s not until you remain faithful and in the Word in the midst and through the pruning process that you can ask whatever you will and it shall be done!!! When you are able to handle the pruning and still preach the Word, still pay your tithes, still give and offering, still sow into the lives of others, still praise, still worship, THEN YOU CAN ASK WHATEVER YOU WILL in prayer and GOD WILL GIVE IT!!!! Hallelujah!!

Let’s keep reading

⁸When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.

You prove to yourself and others that you are a follower of Christ when you bear fruit in the pruning process!

⁹I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [^[^a^]continue in His love with Me].

¹⁰If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and live on in His love.

¹¹I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.

Jesus said I am telling you these things, so when the pruning comes you will be encouraged because you will know what is truly going on!

Judges 7 (Amplified Bible)

Judges 7

¹THEN JERUBBAAL, that is, Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

²The Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel boast about themselves against Me, saying, My own hand has delivered me.

³So now proclaim in the ears of the men, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him turn back and depart from Mount Gilead. And 22,000 of the men returned, but 10,000 remained.

⁴And the Lord said to Gideon, The men are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And he of whom I say to you, This man shall go with you, shall go with you; and he of whom I say to you, This man shall not go with you, shall not go.

⁵So he brought the men down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone who laps up the water with his tongue as a dog laps it, you shall set by himself, likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.

⁶And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

⁷And the Lord said to Gideon, With the 300 men who lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others return every man to his home.

God gives specific instructions when He purges, will you listen, There are people that were with you at one point or one level in ministry and sometimes they have to return to where they came from, because they are not equip to take you and lead you to the victory!

Lets read on verse 16

¹⁶And he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets and empty pitchers, with torches inside the pitchers.

¹⁷And he said to them, Look at me, then do likewise. When I come to the edge of their camp, do as I do.

¹⁸When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, For the Lord and for Gideon!

¹⁹So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when the guards had just been changed, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

²⁰And the three companies blew the trumpets and shattered the pitchers, holding the torches in their left hands, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow [leaving no chance to use swords], and they cried, The sword for the Lord and Gideon!

²¹They stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the [Midianite] army ran--they cried out and fled.

²²When [Gideon's men] blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every [Midianite's] sword against his comrade and against all the army, and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah by Tabbath.

²³And the men of Israel were called together out of Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.

²⁴And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites and take all the intervening fords as far as Beth-barah and also the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together and took all the fords as far as Beth-barah and also the Jordan.

²⁵And [the men of Ephraim] took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

When there is a pruning, you have to encourage your leadership! Notice the people praised GOD first then they let Gideon know they had his back!!!! Let’s have our leaderships back during the time of pruning! Most importantly it is the corporate that brought the victory!!!!!! Let’s praise GOD like never before during this pruning season and watch HIM….

You think because now you are down to one income that you are going to fail this is the time to praise and sow, watch GOD give you vicotory HE pruned the tree praise GOD!!!

Romans 11:

Romans 11 (Amplified Bible)

Romans 11

¹I ASK then: Has God totally rejected and disowned His people? Of course not! Why, I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin! [I Sam. 12:22; Jer. 31:37; 33:24-26; Phil. 3:5.]

²No, God has not rejected and disowned His people [whose destiny] He had marked out and appointed and foreknown from the beginning. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?⁽^A⁾

³Lord, they have killed Your prophets; they have demolished Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.

⁴But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal! [I Kings 19:18.]

⁵So too at the present time there is a remnant (a small believing minority), selected (chosen) by grace (by God's unmerited favor and graciousness).

During this pruing process don’t think you are the oly one going through what you are going through, Elijah thought the same, but GOD was showing him, that HE loved HIM so much that HE hand selected him for this purpose!!

7,000 others wo did not bow the knee , meant this:

You cannot bow the knee unless you had an opportunity to bow!!!!! Repeat!!! 2x’s others had the opportunity as well and refused just like you!! You were the one I just gave the voice to because of my grace, not because of anything you did, it is because of my grace,

That kills pride right there!!! YOU think you are the only one that has gone through what you have gone through, you think you are the only one wjo lost a loved one, you think you are the only one with finainvial troubles,,,,,no there are others that could have bowed the knee, that did not, I just gave you a voive because of my grace!!

It Gideon went from 22,000 to 300 in an instant, How much more is the pruing for a Son or a Daughter with one income or with 30 members now you have three!!! God is pruing the tree to bring more, more more excellent fruit!! Praise Him during the pruning! Praise HIM! Praise HIM!!!

Praise HIM for the victpery prasise hIM~!!!

In closing John 15:12

¹²This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.

¹³No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.

¹⁴You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do.

¹⁵I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing (working out). But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father. [I have revealed to you everything that I have learned from Him.]

¹⁶You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as ^[^b^]presenting all that I AM], He may give it to you.

It is not because of your works, or because of you status, neiborhood or race, it is because Jesus, GOD THE FATHER CHOSE YOU, I appointed you ! I am Pruining yOU Prase ME in the pruining!! I am pruing you so that the folks that walk through these doors will remain they will lead to the victory and your fruit the WORD you put in their spirits will remain. They will stay saved and on fire for Christ!!