The Wisdom of Pruning

In this episode, we walk through John 15–16 and unpack the reality of spiritual pruning—when God leads us to release what is no longer bearing fruit so that we can grow in greater alignment with Him.

This applies not only to relationships, but also to alliances, partnerships, jobs, and seasons of assignment that may have reached their end.

Instead of waiting for things to build up over time, we talk about the importance of regularly taking stock of our lives—learning to discern what is still fruitful and what may be past its season.

Pruning is not rejection; it is intentional care. It makes space for growth, clarity, and deeper fruitfulness in what God is leading us into next.

If you’ve been sensing transition or tension in a current season, this episode will help you process it through Scripture, wisdom, and trust in God’s timing.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Sears Watch. I mean, there's no way around it. Welcome to Sears Watch. Welcome to Sears Watch. I'm your host, Sarah, and I'm joined with Nazeem. And today we are going to be talking about a particular season that we have noticed in the last, I would say what, three months? A pruning season. And before we dive into this topic, Nazeem is going to read John 15 through 16, 16. Yeah. So praise God.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah, amen. Well, Lord, we, as we did last time, we right now we release and receive grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is what's often been called the Last Supper. This is his final big discourse to those who his disciples who'd stay with him through all his trials. It's kind of uh in the middle of it, after the feet has been he's washed their feet. And they actually get up and they're moving forward, which will be to Gethsemane, before before they get there, he says to them, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he cleans. He cleans it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name he may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you. A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have not sinned. They would not have sinned, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned. But now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well, but they have done this to fulfil the word that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. When the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me, and you will testify also because you have been with me from the beginning. These things I've spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcast from the synagogue. But an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me. But these things I've spoken to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me where are you going? But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to you, and when he and he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, and concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you. A little while and you will no longer see me. And again, a little while and you will see me. I thought I just had a thought when we first started, we were kind of making a little joke about it's called Seer's Watch, not the Seer's Watch. So and you mentioned last episode that you had actually made that change like four months ago. But Patrick and I just noticed it Monday. And uh what's interesting to me is the Lord says in in the gospel account of John, do you not say four months to the harvest? Oh and so you pruned that the um Seer's watch. And four months later, we outside of you start noticing noticing it. And so I'm like, oh, that means harvest time.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

We're here.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Uh so that was one thing I just noticed. I don't think it's uh as we're starting a kind of year two.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Uh that's not a coincidence that that uh that I'm thinking that. There's something that's definitely shifting and changing and fruit, and um, so that's that's exciting. Uh, but we have been talking about we are we're often calling it a pruning season, but one of the things that you and I were talking about yesterday that feel like the Lord wants to really upgrade us and our thing renew us, our thinking, is have a value for pruning. Yeah. For this what it looks like, and even asking that question in our dialogue with the Lord, yeah. Pretty periodically, you know, like not just waiting. It's not just waiting until everything just feels off and wrong or it's so heavy, or it's actually a very loving, intentional, good thing that the Father does uh to us because we're if you're in Christ, it's a good thing, it's something to it's not something to be scared of or hesitate because the result is a lot of fruit. So that's one thing we're really hoping is that we get just get a renewed sense of hey, actually, pruning's a good thing. It should be a culture. It's a it's like something we ask, okay, Lord. Like you were asking, like for okay, with the podcast. All right, Lord, what are you doing? Do you do I still keep it? Do I do you trim? Do I do more or less? Like you're asking that because there's a value of understanding, like it belongs to him. It belongs to him, and there's a time for cuts and there's time for shaping. You reminded me of that. That was good. I typically when I think of uh pruning, because of my most recent example that I go to, but you were telling me that you know, like an olive tree.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

You said it's 15 years before it bears fruit. And pruning isn't just for getting more vegetables out of your thing, but it's also to shape how do you want the tree. You're guiding it, you're shaping it. And he has to see long term, you have to see 15, 20 years in advance and shape it accordingly, like that. I love that, and that was a good analogy. Or around here, we had some neighbors planting a dogwood tree. It's small, but we have a fully mature one, so he's looking at ours to make sure, okay, it's gonna look like that you know, in 15 years. I don't want it to hit the power line. Like, so I'm I'm gauging, I have that kind of foresight looking, asking those kind of questions, and I'm like, that's this is all wisdom to glean from view it.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Because I also talked about like businesses, yeah. Because they look at the business or should like every quarter, half point, and then a year. And so to me, because I used to say this all the time, like it's a pruning season, it's like, or it's a prof, you know, prophetically, like it's a pruning time, and it's yes, but also no, like it should be a culture of that, something that we enjoy doing, looking forward to with anything that we have, whether it is the podcast, whether it is a job, whether it's relationships, all these different things is no constantly bring it to the Lord, like quarterly every year. Like I do that now. Like I've been doing that more and more in the last couple of years of just bringing things to the Lord because at the end of the day, I'm like, I want to do things in your well, not my own.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah, and so like there's these things I used to know a little bit more as far as trees and pruning. Like, I knew that then sometimes there's a season where you do the pruning every year uh with trees. I know there's differences, times of it. So I'm okay with saying seasons, but I I think the what we're trying to avoid here is okay, we finally did that pruning season, and then you don't think about it for a year or two years or now it's like no, because then sometimes it's just m regular maintenance where you're checking and you're noticing dead dead stuff. I think that's the word maintenance that that we're like, oh that's dead. You know, you cut that little snip off. Um that's what's what we're trying to get at here because if not, when you neglect things, then things get real hard. You need a chainsaw at some point instead of a clip. So that's what we're trying to avoid here.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, we don't want you to do that.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah. Um so one of the examples that well, first off, let's just look at the Lord real quick to uh help us understand this this um cleaning. The Lord it so you're that translation will say prune, but literally it'll say in the footnote it's actually uses the word clean. And he does that because then the next thing he says, you're already clean because of the word I've stay said. Abide. Now keep abiding. So we can there's a partnership that we get to play in submission, and abiding in him, loving one another as he has just done, abiding in his words, but understanding when the father is pruning, it's love, it's good. But I was thinking about well, what did that prune look like for them? What did that clean? And he just said it, we ended it with this this line in a little while you won't see me. In a little while you will see me. That's that's the cut that's about to happen to their in their relationship. The Lord is about to die and raise again, but they're gonna have to interact with him from that point on in a completely different way than they were used to for three and a half years. And in and and in Luke, Acts, um, one of the it's the beginning of Acts, he says that the for those forty days, he is giving convincing proofs to witnesses of his resurrection, his bodily resurrection. It happened.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

But it says that he was giving the apostles instructions through the Holy Spirit. So he's actually this next 40 plus days of having conquered death, he has all the keys. He's actually teaching them how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and getting instructions from him through Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Uh so that's a prune. That's a big one that happened in their lives, and then he then he ascends, they wait another 10 days in prayer, uh, and then Pentecost happens. So I was like, okay, that's that's actually a the the big example you want to use about uh that happens in life. Yeah, it does. But a minute, remember, it's the father that did that, and that's important for them to see. And then the the fruit is there you go, 50 days later, three thousand people come to Christ. A nation is born in a day. So, like it's that important to get this and to partner with it and and praise God for it. So that was what that was one example for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Well, one thing I do want to ask too is like, I mean, we kind of you kind of went over what is pruning, it's cleaning, yeah, it's maintenance, it's cutting, it's reshaping. How do you know you're in a particular pruning season? Are there any signs? Do you feel anything? Do you because I know we were like, I realized why we were in a more prophetic pruning season is because of the dream that I had back in January after reading Acts. And then that dream in one scene is the utility workers with big pruning shears, yeah, and they're clipping the power line.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, but it was a big knot, which actually shows that the reason for it was neglect. Neglect. That's why it's there's this call, especially in Hebrews, we have to be much more careful what we heard so that we not drift away from it more. We have to pay attention to the gospel more much more clearly because what happens is neglect actually creates these huge knots. It allows for abusers to come in, demonic teaching to come in, and then it creates these um strangleholds, uh thick vines that choke out trees, etc. etc. And then you're you're in needs of need some of some bigger tools. Yeah. And uh so that's what that dream was, and I think that's why it was more of a pruning, quote unquote, season, because some things are finally the Lord is kind of forcing some cuts of relationships. Yes, back there was a backlog, yes. And he doesn't want that, that's not his desire. He actually there's a call of the Lord God in like the Psalms like 32. Don't be like the horse or the mule that needs bit and bridle, or otherwise, which doesn't have understanding, otherwise it it won't come to you if you don't have the bit and bridle. He's like, I don't want that with you, my people. See my face continually. But at times when prophetic history needs to roll on to his purpose, uh, which is his son returning and his bride being ready, he's gotta move, he has to move things. He has to, and so that's kind of why there will be an extended or a very heavy kind of pruning season.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Uh for that, or kind of big new transitions, new new errors upon us. I mean, for them, that's very much a new error. Like Jesus is about to finish his work and the spirit of God is gonna be poured out. Yeah, that this so a new error is dawning. So that's why there's that uh scene, and I think that makes sense for the time we're in in this nation, the church. Yeah, all these prophetic words make sense of why it was that kind of heavy. Uh so uh we see that with uh downsizing. Some people they get a call from the Lord. We have some brother uh a family in our in our midst that has a call from the Lord to just go to another state and move the family, and and it very much has the feel of like Abraham getting the call kind of deal. So one of the things they've had to do is downsize, go from a house to a to an apartment very quickly. Like that is a that is you can see pruning in that. Uh, but then suddenly we're already seeing life. We're hearing life uh in the way they talk, the way they're seeing it. Uh even the way they're going through warfare, it's different. It's it's more life from that cut, from that downsize.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Yeah, well, one of the sisters or the sister that um is doing this, we just connected and yeah, just today. And I told her, I was just like, you know, you guys doing this is actually encouraging me because you're walking it out. You're not only talking the talk, you're walking it out. I have not met many people that do this. Yeah. And it's it is, it's very encouraging, it's inspiring. And I said, just wait because the Lord's gonna show up. Like, I know he's gonna show up. Your testimony when you tell people this years from now. Like, yeah, we went. We just felt this call to go to this particular state. We don't know where exactly, but we went. We sold our house. I'm like, that's going to be such a powerful testimony, right? Where it's just people's, you know, jaws are just gonna drop. Praise God. Because you're following the Lord. When he says go, you go. Yep. So I just wanted to put that in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

That's that's that's one example. You can actually physically see it. You get a prophetic utterance, you're seeking the Lord about it, he's saying go, followed, etc., etc. And uh you literally in that case downsize.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Uh, and so I'm just thinking in the natural, this helps me uh give get lenses to see how it happens in the spirit, is revisiting the physical analogy. So in a tree, when you have dead branches, that's weight on the tree, it's a stress on the tree. If you take the dead weight off, suddenly it can focus more of its energy on that which needs to grow, get healthy. And you it's amazing when you actually do it, whether it's the Japanese maples that we have, how quick things spark up when you give it another little prune. It's beautiful when when you see it in nature happen. And so, well, what is the kind of fruit we're seeing? Well, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, uh, faithfulness, self-control is in there. Um, no, I'm missing some Lord, goodness. You can start to see that in a believer. When a prune has happened, that uh when it whether it be in a relationship or just excess stuff, you suddenly realize oh wow. Look at all the fruit now. You can start to hear it, see it. Even there's even a shine on their face. See more Holy Spirit, like that's what's happening. So that's one one example. I think going back to my first and only time really we were doing vegetables years ago as black zucchini and I had a harvest. It was a nice harvest, they're big big size zucchini. And I said, you know what? I just need a prune. I haven't I didn't think uh I didn't have a book. I just said, I just know it's probably a good idea. So I just started cutting like crazy. And uh I couldn't even write a book on Italian do it because it felt so like so. I was surprised and I don't mean it was probably within a week. Not only was there another harvest, but there was more, and they were way bigger. I was like, whoa Lord. So that is stuck with me. That's how I knew it was God because if I did the same thing again, it probably wouldn't have been that way. But God was trying to help me understand pruning in the spirit. When it's done and done what right, as he just said in that passage, it's to bear fruit, more of it, much of it that lasts forever. And I love it how he says, So the Father, the Father wants you to have this fruit so that whatever you ask him, he'll give you. Something about that. I'm like, hmm. So that's always stuck to me and is a value for when I know I'm being um when it's time to move on, move on, prune, close up, shop on something the Lord has been doing. That I remember those kind of scenes. I'm like, man, this is gonna bear a lot of fruit when it's once it's go goes through. I mean, we had a a thing with the church fellowship, the Lord's like or or you know what I can say that the at college years ago, my first year of discipleship, they had believers on campus. It's a public public institution, but believers are there, we're gonna find a way to connect. And suddenly the Lord was all over it. There was 6 a.m. on a Thursday, I think it was. A good size of believers are meeting to just pray and read the word. They just wanted to. You can see the hunger is beautiful. And so we had uh two of those believers that were there have been long time leaders, and so they're excited to see this kind of whoa. All right, next semester rolls around, and without any seeking the face of the Lord kind of deal, we just said, okay, well, it worked last semester, semester, let's do Thursday at 6 a.m. And nobody shows up. It's like three or four people, and it stays that way for the rest of the semester. And I look back, I was like, yeah, that was um that needed to be pruned. We needed to keep seeking the face of the Lord, but instead what can happen is religious pride. Well, well, we're still gonna be here. I don't know what those other believers flapped out of. Why didn't they why didn't they come? You know, we're we're the real ones, we're gonna like that kind of garbage. It's like, no, we didn't actually seek his face to see what's next. What happens if we would have cut 6 a.m. Thursday as we're seeking his face? I'm thinking maybe two or three groups would pop up.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

To where we're meeting at another another time, maybe he wants to need to meet at night, or maybe it's two days a week, but suddenly if you cut it and put it away, what I know is gonna happen because it's the spiritual principle, more is gonna pop up. But instead we held on to it.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

I think you're just hitting on something uh just now. Um you like old wine skin and putting you know new wine into the old wine skin. What worked in a prior season is not gonna work in a newer season this new season you're in. And sometimes, yeah, it was good at that prior season, what you guys just did in the college, but instead of seeking the Lord, like, okay, do we put this to bed? Do we do we do it the same day? Do we do it a different time? There was none of that. So you're forcing this old um what is it? I'm getting it mixed up, the wine skin.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Uh yeah, so in that case, because the wine skin, the the wineskin is what's holding whatever it is. So yes, Thursday at six is uh and this place is the wineskin. Yes. There you go. So we're saying, okay, same, same. Now it's an old wine skin.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

It's no longer the new you're putting trying to put the new wine in, and it's just not working. Right. It's not working.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

And it might have if we sought the Lord's face and got agreement in the world.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

But that's the problem. A lot of people aren't doing that. So what something was good, whether it's a, you know, this um uh what were you guys doing? Worshiping?

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Well, it was uh prayer and uh reading the word.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah. At college campus, it's beautiful, it's a good thing, but you're not seeking the Lord. What if it's another assignment, whether it's a relationship or work, whatever it is, you're doing the same thing in an old season. You're in a new season and you're not seeking the face. Not saying he he might say, like, yeah, continue what you're doing, but you're not seeking his face. Okay, what's a new strategy, Lord? What's a new strategy? Because here's another thing, too. If I'm not bearing fruit at some point, I go to the Lord, I'm like, okay, what's going on? You should you should be doing that. If there's no movement or barely anything, I want to know. And there's sometimes it might be like the olive tree where it does not bear fruit for like 15 years. Right. But at least I'm always going to the Lord and seeking his face. Do I continue on with this particular assignment? I seek his face because at the end of the day, it belongs to him. It all belongs to him. And I think that's really important when you just were talking about you guys were doing something in one season and trying to do it in a new season and it wasn't working.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Another example that pops up is uh, so I came out of, grew up in the vineyard movement, so I've I'm very familiar with the the testimony. John Wimber, you know, he'd say that we were very knowledgeable in the Bible, they were kind of like Pharisees, but then God just really put it on his heart that uh healing is still for today, laying on hands of the sick is still for today. And um, so he started obeying the voice of the Lord and started teaching out of the gospel account of Luke, and then kept talking about that healing is for today. And then suddenly the he said the the congregants are believing it before he does. He's just preaching it, but not really believing it. Uh and they want to get healed. And he's like, Oh, wait, you actually believe that so so it's it's I love the testimony. It's just so I just it's so fun, Lord. But you know, so they start praying more. They don't know how, you know, all this stuff. But so he said, uh it no one gets healed, you know, for months now, and they actually start getting sick from the other people's and um so he said this is one of the things that happened is at least I think it was a third, at least a third of the church leaves. And uh they get rock bottom. One night he said that they were in prayer, and and those who stayed and were really believing, but they're so broken, and one of the guys even said, I'm never going behind that curtain again. So I guess they had done healing behind the curtain or something, and uh the Lord convicted that guy and he repented, etc. etc. But they were all broken and just man, it's been months. We've played prayed for probably a thousand people and nothing's happened. And he's like, Well, Lord, you you said, and then uh the next day that the first healing, it was an amazing story. I'm not gonna get into the details of it, but uh my point is is there's a prune right there. Yeah, you preach this is the shift, and uh the all those who had unbelief and were gonna stick to it and hold on to their unbelief, religious unbelief, uh, and their own pride had to leave. And they did. And you have a problem with that. Jesus himself, when he's about to heal, uh raise uh the twelve-year-old, Jarius's daughter, he removes the mockery and the unbelief from the room.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Removes it before he actually acts and does the work. That's important.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Um, another one, you know, just fairly recently the Lord was just showing us that uh the you know church that we've been hosting, a house in the house, it hit a hit a beautiful peak that it hadn't in two years and in number and just like this is what we want to see kind of thing. Yeah. But it once it hit that peak for another month or two months, two months probably, it went down and down. Quickly quickly. And so rather than just doing the same thing over and over, which is typically how we we go about it, finally had to come to an agreement. This needs to close.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

It needs to die.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

It needs to die. And all these questions, but what about the people? Like all these things come up, and those are obstacles. You have to you have to address these things. Because one of the things that will prevent us from moving forward in this is we don't if we feel like, oh, you're just quitting, or you're just giving up, we don't want to do that. Uh so that'll make us hold on longer. Um, but then there's also the other side of the spectrum we talked about, another counterfeit to pruning is the spirit of sloth comes in and and tries to find an out so you don't do it. Well, this is why you seek the Lord's face because the way to life is narrow, so you have to find you have to do it by seeking his face, having a culture of that, and having your battle builders to seek his presence, and you get discernment so you know what you're actually doing. It's not under this influence of this spirit. But so we had to work through that together. And uh very next day, so here's how you can tell. There's fruit really quickly. The next day, well, I'm not gonna share that piece, but just very nice fruit happened with the this particular brother with another, and um, but then we get a phone call later that week, and for the first time, the sister who we hadn't seen in a while, we ended up praying together after an amazing report. She had she's she's in her uh twenties, but she has two siblings that are one was like a is eleven and one's seven. And they had that Monday, the day after we close, we say charge has to die. The very next night, like 11 PM, they these three have I mean an incredibly beautiful encounter. Like the kind of visions and things that these little ones were having, I'm not sure I I know I've heard of them before, but it just felt like another degree, a high degree of revelation and insight and the things that we really want started happening, but it happened in her house, yeah, which is 45 minutes from where we typically would meet. Yeah. So there you go, it multiplied over there, that that there, and then we pray, uh the five of us pray together, and we haven't talked to her in prayer, this particular sister in three or four months. So I'm like, okay, that happened. The other connection with that with that brother happened.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

But more fellowship has been happening.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Yeah, and then since then, so two weeks later, I noticed more than ever in our house, yeah, we met for breaking of bread and fellowship. I think it was four times in one week. Yeah, and there it wasn't, hey, we're planning to do this, we're going to fellowship. Well, we did communicate our desire that we would be like in the book of Acts, devoted to the teaching.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Fellowship, breaking of bread, and our prayers. And so that started happening, like, mmm. So that's a very recent in the community kind of when a prune happens, you immediately will start seeing that kind of life and character and other relationships and multiplication, the ministry, and even an increase in power.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

So well, yeah, because sometimes I think we're holding on so long. Yeah. And I know I'm not going to talk about the sloth thing, but it's the um, no, we got to keep going. We got to keep doing it and pushing and pushing. And it's like, but sometimes you might be the delay.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

You're pushing in your own strength something.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

You're doing it now in your own will, not the Lord's will. Yeah. You're holding on to something. And this was not easy like to to let the church die here. Like it was, it's heartbreaking. It's, you know, there's a little grief to it because it was years. It wasn't something that just we did for fun. It was, yeah, it was heartbreaking. And so when we came to agreement, it was sad, but there was also relief. I was like, yeah, this has to happen. But here's another thing, too, when I think about when you let things die, growth actually does happen because we see it in nature as well. Where you remember when we went to Yosemite and we were watching, I think we were watching one of the films, was talking about how initially they would be putting out the fires that happened in Yosemite. Well, what was happening, it was actually destroying the ecosystem. And so what they discovered was like, oh, the fires are actually a good thing. But instead of letting it get out of control, they they control the fires, but it still kills off the old in order for the new to arrive. And so sometimes, yeah, it hurts when you let something die, but something new and something more beautiful. It's like volcanoes have some of the richest soil, some of the richest, if not the richest soil. It's like you have to let things go. We we have to learn how to let it go in this like in a pruning season. And it hurts. I'm not gonna sit here and say it doesn't hurt, depending on what it is, especially if you invested years. Like it's not just a couple months, it's years. But I want to be about his will, not my own will. Doing it my way, not his way. Because sometimes if you're not letting go, you might be the delay for breakthrough. And we don't realize that. And it's like, who do you trust more? Me, the Lord Jesus Christ, or yourself? We have to start asking those questions. So I just wanted to point that out.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

And so, and then so yeah, those are some recent examples seeing good fruit. And I know in me and now in you, it sounds also that we have a value for it. So it's not like, okay, no more until I go home to be with Jesus. No, it's not that at all. No, but that's what we can get. Okay, finally, I'm back in the new context, there's life, and now can there can be this kind of uh holding. Yeah, all right, you're not touching anything else, Father. You know, that's how we feel. It's like it's not just letting go, it's actually letting him cut. Amen. Yeah, amen. When you recognize it's actually pruning in the spirit is actually about a loving, caring, wise father trimming and shaping his son, whom you are now in.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Amen. Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

A project that's millennia old now, yeah, that he is going to finish and perfect so that he can inhabit forever. Or you don't even need a temple in heaven anymore because you are the temple. He he is the temple, and you're in that. You're you're you're an intricate, intricate, indispensable part of that dwelling place.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

That's what's happening, big picture here.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Now when you look, when you realize that, you're like, Oh, oh hey, you you want go ahead and cut me. Like it's almost like please, you invite it.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

In its time because everything's beautiful in its time.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

And it's season. God's made it that way. So that's where we're after is uh a changing in our thinking of value for it because it's a necessary part of this thing. And so on that note, one of the reasons I knew the Lord wanted to do this was uh uh yesterday uh before work I was going to my maintenance uh uh chapters that I read. I read Proverbs and Psalms, and uh so if it's like the sixteenth, I might read if I missed a day, I'll just pile them up, which is great too. I like doing that too. But you know, sixteenth, so I'm reading Proverbs. I was on my way to get there, and I moved the first thing I flipped open to was John 15 about this very thing. I was like, Oh, you're really on this, Lord. So I read that and just was like this is he's really on this. So this is important in this next uh season because a part of pruning also means there's uh persecution, like we just read. Uh those who you you walked with, all of a sudden hate you, you know, like that that happens in these times. And then on that note, I feel like um there's something we initially thought was pruning, but actually wasn't, it's actually deliverance. But we you had mentioned Tangled, the movie. It's uh great movie 2010. It has all the elements of a pure fairy tale. Yeah. And it's just it so you you said something I just never had. There's this epic scene. I'm sorry if you haven't seen it, it's been out for 15, 16 years. So if you don't want to if you want to go watch it and you don't want us to spoil it. Skip this part. Yes, I'll just say that. But I was surprised when I saw this climaxic scene. You know, so Rapunzel is is in a tower, her hair is extremely long. When we say long, we're talking like probably 50, 60 feet long, uh something like that. At least at least. Uh, because she has an abusive uh kidnapper, actually, but she thinks is her mom.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

And who stole her away because Rapunzel had um her mom got sick and when she was pregnant when Rapunzel mom was pregnant, she was sick and they found a healing flower. Yes, uh, which has golden like colors and it made her better, but turns out Rapunzel ended up getting that healing within her.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

And so through the whole movie, you think, and I thought, you know, her hair the healing is her hair.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

And uh so because of that, uh, this the the villain Gothel, she don't want to get old, she doesn't want to die. So she stole the baby because uh if she just sings a song, uh the hair actually makes her young again.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

So she basically hoards Rapunzel for 18 years in this little tower, doesn't let her go outside, and uh Rapunzel's stuck in this tower believing lies.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

So eventually, you know, she gets out and then she comes back, etc. etc. Race through a lot of stuff. But the climaxic scene is Eugene, he uh Gothel is gonna chain uh once Rapunzel by force, because now she knows the truth that she's not a real mother, she actually kidnapped her, is gonna force Rapunzel away, far away from Eugene and everybody else, you know, forever.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

And um she had uh Gothel had stabbed Eugene, so he's dying. And Rapunzel says, No, I'm not going with you, but I will go with you if you let me heal him.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

And then I'll do whatever you want. So she's about to heal him with her hair, sing a song, and he goes in, well, it looks like a kiss, but he actually has a piece of glass in his other hand from a broken mirror and says and cuts her hair.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Really short. And her hair turns brown.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

And Gothel freaks out, trips uh over the hair, and dies.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Well, and then she but she she ages.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

She age she ages hundreds of years and like I mean, she pretty much falls, she becomes dust. She just returns to dust.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

So she's out of the tower, and then Eugene actually does die. Yeah. He dies. And um Rapunzel cries, one tear comes, falls onto Eugene, and it it when it falls and hits his skin, it turns into like this golden like sun kind of heal and resurrection.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Now, what you pointed out, I've seen it so many times, I'd never realized it. I just thought that was a one and done thing, but you rightfully said it had nothing to do with her hair, the healing was in her the whole time. And what I realized through the tear, the healing is in the tears. Amen. And God has been teaching us the last however many months about the cries of the spirit, letting the tears out. They're so in the kingdom, absolutely precious, recorded in heaven. They move the heart of God. He collects them in a bottle, a real bottle. It's in heaven, guys.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

And so when I saw that scene, the tear actually bringing back to life a resurrection, I'm like, whoa, this is really good. And then I said a cut. Oh, it's it's pruning. But then I realized this as I was talking, it's actually not actually not that's not pruning. Like we think of just pruning, maintenance, taking care of a tree. It's actually deliverance from demons. Yeah. Like, and she represents the the spirit of intense fear and oppression and lies. Scoffel does, which binds a person. This is why the Lord said, beware of the false teaching of the beware, watch out for the false teaching of the Pharisees, scribes, Herod. That kind of teaching can bring you into that kind of bondage. This is why Paul is so mmm in Galatians, because that is what will happen if you take on this kind of teaching. It's like a gothel coming into your life, and it will bind you.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

And profit off the godliness grace, because there is a spirit that wants to profit off of godliness. Profit off of it, but keep you to yourself to hoard it. And so it doesn't go anywhere. So I was like, okay, that's actually a deliverance that happens. And it happens through the sacrifice, believing, and letting the full work of Jesus Christ sacrifice have its way. And it casts out because his body blood disarmed all these things. So it casts it out. So I was like, all right, that's really good. Then he gave me the other analogy in the physical in my property here, our property. I love helping birds, you do. And I just found out one day because I watched what kind of flowers they go to. And we have the tree that has these kinds of flowers, like needle-like flowers are really pretty. They're white and little pink in there. But this particular tree in our back backyard, you know, had um thick vines choking it so much over the years it actually scarred and the vines were in the bark.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

And it only had a like four of these flowers. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna on a mission here, I'm gonna clear that area and get all those vines off of it. It still had the scars on it. And it was probably that season, maybe a few months later, maybe a year, but it was enough of a short time. Once it was freed from those strangling vines, it was probably a hundred flowers on that, but it only had a few at first on that place on that. So it was like a a feast for hummingbirds to bring. And I'm like, wow, Lord, that's actually what uh deliverance does, and why we need the gospel proclaimed and demons to get out.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

So that like with that scene, Rapunzel, once that happens, she then transfers her gift, grace, from a little tower hidden away to a kingdom. Literally, it's called the kingdom. It's so funny because it's called the kingdom and a reunite reuniting, yeah, and everything changes, you know, but now the the grace can influence the kingdom instead of being hoarded away by the the demonic kind of gothel oppression, lying, kidnapping, teaching, etc. etc. So this is why there's such an emphasis to keep reading, especially the New Testament and the Psalms. Uh to we read the prophet prophets uh in the in the Bible too, but you need to understand it through the lens of the new covenant and through the teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles. So, but that's an example of a neglect has happened over years. And then it's choking. Because of whether it's a lie you're believing, because of abuse, traumas that were never dealt with and healed, etc., etc. Picking up other strategies instead of Jesus Christ to take care of life. But when it happens, the fruit again comes very quickly. You can see it, it's evidenced, and uh the hummingbirds start coming. Yeah it's coming. God sees it that way too. Hey, I want to, I want this, I want to party, I want you to have fellowship, I want you to know this, I want to do that. So this is why this cut's happening. Yeah, this is why this is happening. Yeah, that's why when I call you, follow me, I say things that are like, What? Yeah, even if your dad had died, leave the dead to bury their dead, you follow me. We have to understand something, and this will all end is when you're called by Jesus Christ, you're being called by God, the one who created you and them and everyone else, and holds them all together right now. Your next breath actually isn't yours. He owns all things. God is calling. The word of God, when he says follow me, it's calling you. Bring back some of this woe.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Like uh Well, because I did bring up uh, what was it, James and John? Yeah. They were in the boat with uh or they were with their father, and Jesus says, Come follow me. And this uh Jesus Christ told them, Come follow me. Yep. And they got up and they left.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Yeah. That's like if you were a manage. This is actually what it's more like. It's because we don't think career. We think, oh, they were going fishing with their dad, having a good time, and Jesus shows up, hey, come follow me. That's not what was happening. This is their dad. He is also their employer. This is their career.

SPEAKER_05 41:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

And uh you're in the middle of that career with your dad, with that boss, and then uh Jesus calls and you literally drop your nets and leave. That'd be like you're um at I work at retail, so that'd be like you being an assistant manager, you're on shift and you're in the middle of a conversation with another store manager about, you know, typical stuff, or maybe you're about to wait on a customer to cash register. Jesus calls and you literally just dip out. You don't do the procedure of um, you know, you have to count the till at the end of every shift. That's really important. No, you don't even do that, you just left. Yeah. Okay, let's bring some of this offense back. So when these people kind of get these uh speculative stories about, man, Zebedee was so happy when his sons did that, or like that's probably not how he felt initially. I know I wouldn't in the flesh. Like these are my they're gonna be carrying on my business sons, and they just left me in the middle of this business, in the middle of fishing. Yeah, this is our livelihood. Yeah, they they might be irritated, they might be upset. You can see why um Jesus said things like, You're you know, your family's gonna be against me. Yeah, there's actually gonna be some division in your household. Yeah, two, three against two, two against three. This is why it re He wrecks everything.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

Well, because I do want to like yeah, and but also with uh relationships, because somebody recently had to deal with something and it was like they got attacked. It's like don't be surprised when that happens when you you you're doing these cuts because people don't like that, and they don't like that version of Jesus where he says, Come and follow me. Well, that's not nice, that's not loving. It's like, who are you to say that?

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Yeah, you don't know what real love is. You don't. Yeah, you don't know what love is. Well, the blind in that case, the blind is leading the blind. So someone's eyes need to get opened. And if the only way your eyes are gonna get open is by obeying his call and following him and not looking back, yeah, then maybe later on I'll be able to lead a blind person out. Yeah. You know what I mean? But right now, no, you both are blind and you're both gonna fall into a pit.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Someone needs to go. Yes. You know, and just To follow him.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

And then he has the right.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

He does have the right. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

He has the right. Everyone, we are made by him.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Okay? And through him and for him.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

So he has every right.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Yes. So when Jesus says go, follow me, you follow him.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

I love what he says to Peter at the end after he reinstated him in John and the Cosmo with John. What about him? If I want him to stay until I return, what's that to you? You follow me. I love that line because this is what we do. Yeah. Sometimes what about, you know, him over there? Looking over left or shoulder. Like in racing, I was told this when you're running sprinting. You actually, if you turn to look at the other runners, you actually lose a step. Wow. If you want the best time, especially if you're an Olympian and you're looking you're trying to get that tenth to set a world record, you don't look behind or to the side at the other runners. You stay in your lane and you keep going and you go through the finish line.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

That's really important. That's actually what's happening, I think, at the end of John. That kind of what's that what's that to you? What is that? That kind of question you're asking is not I'm my brother's keeper, I'm looking out after him kind of question. It's um never mind that. Um, I'll take care of him. He's gonna follow me. You follow me.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

And it's funny, those two are now in the next scene at the gate called Beautiful. Well, a little bit later, not too too far, where they the go out guy that had been lame since he was like 40, or no, had been lame for like 40 years, gets healed. And it's both those two, Peter and John, that are together. But he has to get that fixed first. First, you guys need to understand you follow me and you follow me. Yeah. And then it works really great. You can work together when you're both following me all out. So yeah. So that's that's the kind of intro for this new era. Yeah. Of this this yeah, this next year, next era. And we're just like, okay, Lord, we want to upgrade our value system and seeing a loving father pruning pruning his son that we're a part of because we abide in him. We love Jesus Christ. He is the vine and we're the branches. Praise God.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Praise God. Have a good one.