Is God Pruning You?

John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Take a look at the definition of prune:

PRU'NE, v.t.
1. To lop or cut off the superfluous branches of trees, to make them bear better fruit or grow higher, or to give them a more handsome and regular appearance.

2. To clear from any thing superfluous; to dress; to trim.

Clearly Jesus is indicating the two works the Father will do to the two groups of people. Let's look at the second group first. The second group mentioned are those that are “in” Jesus, “abiding in” Jesus, “remaining in” Jesus, “loving” Jesus, “serving” Jesus, “surrendered to” Jesus. Was this group perfect when they have given their life to Jesus? Absolutely NOT! But look at what the Father is doing with them that trust and acknowledge Him in all their ways (as indicated in Proverbs 3); He prunes them. He prunes them because He loves them. Many times the pruning hurts, but as shown in the definition of pruning it is so we can bear better fruit and grow “higher” in Him. Not in status, but in knowledge, service and love. This begs the question, are you being pruned? Do you see the same old garbage falling away with a foul taste for it developing in your mouth? If so, Praise God, He is doing a work in your life!

If not....

Take a look at the first group. Every branch that does not bear fruit He takes away. What? What does that mean? If you look to verse 6 you can clearly see what He means:

John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

This is very scary! A branch lying on the ground doesn't think twice about its condition or consider that something is wrong, it just simply exists and slowly withers. Brutal reality will set in for that branch the day it is picked up and tossed in the fire. The same is true for those not abiding in Jesus. They are moving through life with out much of a thought of their actual eternal destination until that day and they are thrown in the fire.

Many people will hear or read of this reality and say, “that doesn't sound like a loving God, I am not going to worship a God like that.” This reality is what moved God to leave His place on high, humble Himself and provide for us a way to be redeemed. Our rejection of this Way doesn't make it any less true.

This reality is either ignored or considered. If we consider this Truth and God moves us to desire a relationship with Jesus and be saved, what does He want next? He wants to be glorified in you. We can look to verse 8 to see what this looks like:

John 15:8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

If you choose to ignore this:
John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.