[00:00:00] Welcome to Faith in Focus. Inspired by the Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Kahn, Prune Thyself. We return to the garden where we first saw the man who was trimming the branches. Do you remember what you saw here? asked the teacher. The pruning, I answered. Pruning removes the branches from a tree,
[00:00:23] the branches that hinder the tree's fruitfulness or its well-being, and thus allows it to become as fruitful as possible. Pruning, therefore, is critical to living a fruitful life in God, so God prunes the lives of His children. But in order to live a fruitful life, you must also be part of the process. You must learn also how to prune yourself. At that, he led me over to a tree in need of trimming.
[00:00:53] He handed me two of the gardener's tools, a pruning hook, and a pair of pruning shears. Do you see this? he said. It's a diseased branch. If it's not cut off, it will harm the tree. So any action, course or habit of sin in your life is a diseased branch and will hinder you from living a fruitful life in God. Prune it off. So I did.
[00:01:19] And this here is a dead branch, once fruitful but now detrimental to the tree's health. Any action or expenditure of energy in your life that produces no fruit, even if it once did, is a dead branch. You must prune it off. So I did. And these branches here are hindering the tree by blocking sunlight from the tree's most fruitful branches.
[00:01:45] So in your life, anything you do that keeps you from receiving from God, from dwelling in His presence and His word, is a hindering branch. He pointed downward. And these branches here are too low. They stand for all the low pursuits, indulgences and actions that drain away your time and energy from the higher things to which God has called you. Cut them off. Cut them all off, he said.
[00:02:15] From my life? Absolutely. But from the tree as well, as an object lesson. Cut them all off. It won't harm the tree, but help it. So it is with your life. By giving up, you will gain. Make it a continual practice. And you will become spiritually healthy, strong, great and fruitful. Prune thyself and you will bear much fruit. The mission.
[00:02:43] Today, identify in your life the dead branches, the diseased, the hindering, the wasteful and the low, and cut them off. Prune thyself. Mark 1.35 Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went out to a secluded place and was praying there. Mark 10.29-30 Jesus said,
[00:03:09] I assure you and most solemnly say to you, there is no one who has given up a house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, who will not receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternity.
[00:03:38] John 15.35 John 15.1-5 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 continues to bear fruit, he repeatedly prunes, so that it will bear more fruit, even richer and finer fruit. John 15.35
[00:04:01] You are already clean because of the word which I have given you, the teachings which I have discussed with you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself without remaining in the vine, neither can you. Bear fruit producing evidence of your faith unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
[00:04:28] The one who remains in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For otherwise, apart from me, that is, cut off from vital union with me, you can do nothing. Thank you for joining me on Faith in Focus. Remember, these insights are inspired by Jonathan Kahn's The Book of Mysteries. Until next time, may you find strength in the revelation of his love.