Pruning and Increase

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, 

while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

-John 15:1-2

These past few months have been, well, difficult. I've spent most of the time in la-la land, floating around, not sure where I'm supposed to be headed, but blindly walking and stumbling through life. There were several mornings that I wasn't sure why I even woke up; what was I going to do that day? I had no agenda and no purpose. It was hard.

Since the beginning of November, I've experienced an amazing amount of breakthrough, as I wrote about before. It was also during this time that I ran across this quote from Bill Johnson:

"...some things end only because we do not become the person He needs us to
be in order to give increase to us."

(from The Essential Guide to Healing by Bill Johnson & Randy Clark, pg. 44)

I'm not chiseling this in stone, and it's not Scripture, but my thought patterns lately have been to this tune: there were things in my life that God wanted to bless and give increase to, yet I would not have handled or stewarded it well at the time. God needed to prune, so to speak, my branches so that I could be even more fruitful.

How so?

I've experienced a lot of breakthrough financially in regards to attitudes about jobs, spending habits, and outlook of the blessing of an income. If these things were to have happened back before June, I can't say I would've been amazing as learning them or carried them well. I needed to really understand, experientially, what they meant. I've also experienced breakthrough in how I view my purpose to shine a light wherever I go. It's really hard to do when you work with all Christians! You need to find the darkness in order to shine a light. Once that environment was removed, and I was placed in an environment of nonbelievers, my light is allowed to shine. I'm also learning HOW to shine that light and practically, all the Starbucks recipes. :)

As I was searching for the above Bill Johnson quote, I came across these others that are good as well:

"Character enables us to receive glorious promises of destiny without taking the glory to ourselves." 

(from Dreaming with God, pg. 135)

"But if He cancels [a dream], its only because He's got a better one in mind."

(from The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, pg 147)

So although I may not understand ALL of what has occurred this year, I'm extremely grateful for the pruning. It's hard, but it's SO worth it. Trust me!