PRUNING MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU LOST SOMETHING VALUABLE. THE TRUTH IS THAT PRUNING EMPOWERS YOU FOR INCREASE YOU WOULD HAVE NEVER HAD WITHOUT CUTTING SOMETHING OFF.
You know that verse “Be not CONFORMED to the world but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind?”
Conforming is pressure forming you from the outside in.
Transformation is pressure forming you from the inside out.
What if there are areas we've been conformed into and did not know it? Fear of what others will think? Need to look like a success? Can't be happy without money? Need to be the smartest guy on the team? Afraid of losing? Then one day you screw up, the business goes south and everybody knows you've fallen on hard times. WHY would God do this? Maybe He didn't do it. But maybe He is not rescuing you…just yet, because He is letting you get FREE from all the baggage you used to conform to.
God releases the hidden man on the inside as soon as he emerges out from beneath being buried under layers of “conformity” cloaks. What comes out seems smaller. Pruned. But if you look closely there is an authenticity and freedom in that new look.
Soon foliage is forming and its twice as dense and more copious in fruit than anything that existed before.
Ever consider what Lazarus went through after Jesus raised him from the dead? He was wrapped in mummified strips of gauze. The had not hardened yet when Jesus said “Lazarus Come Forth.” He now had resurrection life in him, but he was still bound. Jesus did not supernaturally free him from the bandages and cloth but rather commanded: “untie hims and let him go.” I can imagine that they either went in circles around him, or he helped and turned in circles as they unwound him.
Point? Either way he was going through cycles related to a problem, but each spin cycle was bringing him closer to total liberation.
God can be using the cycles of your life – even negative cycles, to prune you of old scripts and areas of insecurity formed by the pressure of the world. What comes forth is a freer more fruitful you!
May you exit your cycles and step into your new freedom.
In Jesus Name!
-Lance
