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Transcript

God Prunes Us in His Love · First15 Devotional

• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we start to wrap up our week, on different ways we are to abide in the true vine of God.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today we'll look at how God prunes us in His love.
• 0:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Discipline can often be a tricky subject, but it's my hope our hearts would remain soft and open today as we remember how good and loving the God is that we serve.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the first 15 podcast.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our Scripture for today comes from John 152.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scripture says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: The world teaches that discipline is about shaming us into acting perfectly.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Discipline from the world usually comes from a place of selfishness rather than love, a pursuit of perfection rather than godliness, and intends to lead us to the appearance of morality rather than molding and shaping the heart.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: For this reason, we so often run away from the discipline of our Heavenly Father.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Hebrews 12 verses five through six says, my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nor be weary when reproved by him.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: God loves us, so He disciplines us.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has such incredible plans for us that He must mold and shape us into children ready and equipped for authority, influence, and the power of the Spirit.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: His discipline is always intended to lead us to abundant life, not to tear us down or shame us.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: as we look at God's desire to discipline us, allow His love to open your heart, and lead you into the process of pruning, intended solely to refine, help and produce fruit in you.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: John 15 too says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: The only way for us to bear more fruit in God is to allow him to prune us.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The pursuit and cares of the world are like weeds that crowd out and steal nourishment from the good, fruitful branches rooted in God.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: God's plan is to prune, heal, and transform us into children who live in the world but are not of it.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: He longs to tear down the strongholds of pride and sin that have kept us from experiencing the fullness of His promises.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And He plans to lead us to a lifestyle of important and eternal fruit which will fill us with the fullness of joy.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: So how do we allow God to prune us?
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: How can we engage in His process of healing and transformation?
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: It all starts with seeing the depth of his love for us.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 103 verses two through four says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: God's process of discipline is so different than the world's because it is all rooted in his unconditional love for us.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: in order to consistently engage in his loving discipline, we must consistently encounter his love.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have to spend time with the all-loving heart of our Heavenly Father to separate his discipline from the unloving discipline of so many of our earthly fathers.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: His discipline is always solely for our benefit and completely to our good.
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: In order for us to fully give ourselves over to His discipline, we must have continual revelation of the depth of His love for us.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next, we have to choose His ways over the ways of the world.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have to sacrifice what we thought mattered for what He says matters.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Romans 12 1 says, I appeal to you therefore, rather as by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: His discipline will be painful because it will lead you to look different from the world you grew up in.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: He will take our living sacrifice of the world's opinions and transform us into children who solely value his opinion.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Most of us have valued the ways and opinions of the world so highly that living apart from them feels completely foreign and frightening.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we must choose to trust God over what we have understood to be important or valuable.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: God will lead all of us to a lifestyle of humility in opposition to the world's values of pride and success.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: He will lead all of us to a lifestyle of loving others, rather than getting all we can't out of others.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He will lead all of us to a lifestyle of dependence on him, rather than self-empowerment, and he will most certainly lead all of us to a life of relationship with him as our highest priority, over the opinions and friendship of others.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every piece of the pruning process is difficult.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: But every time you agree with and follow the Holy Spirit through the process, you will come out more satisfied, joyful, free, empowered and fruitful than you were before.
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 12, 11 says, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: After you throw off the weight of the world, you will wonder how you ever lived under its burden.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Engage with your loving Heavenly Father in the process of pruning.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Open your heart and allow him to tear down the walls that have been keeping you from experiencing the flood of abundant life and works he has planned for you.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: see his love and respond to it by sacrificing your ways of thinking and living.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has plans to heal, transform, and free you today.
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you will simply follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit through the pruning process, remain open to God as you enter guided prayer.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we begin, meditate on God's desire to prune you, reflect on how God's discipline is always rooted in his love, compare God's desire to discipline you to the world's desire.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: separate his desire from other discipline you have received in the past, if it wasn't done with his heart.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: He bruised 12-11 says, for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
• 9:27
  [UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: and next, open your heart to the Spirit and ask him to tear away any parts of your life that are not bearing the fruit of God.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Follow his leadership as you think about parts of your lifestyle that aren't filled with the abundant life God desires.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: What does he want to change about your perspective, time or relationships?
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is he asking you to do or give up so that you might live more freely, empowered, and fruitfully?
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Take as much time to listen to the Spirit as you need.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Titus III Five says, he's saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
• 11:13
  [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: and last, agree with his pruning and follow through with whatever he is leading you to do.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Make plans to cut out of your life anything he has revealed to you.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Call a friend and ask for accountability to hold you to the discipline God has for you.
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: commit to engaging in the process of discipline on an ongoing basis so that God can continually transform any areas of your life that are hurting you rather than guiding you to abundant life in your Heavenly Father.
• 12:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Romans 12 1 says, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
• 13:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit we can receive is a desire to be disciplined and pruned by our Heavenly Father.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: May we all have the heart of the Psalmist who wrote in Psalm 51 verses 10 through 12, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, cast me not
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with the willing spirit.
• 13:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to today's devotional.
• 14:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Josh Miller with First of Team.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: As you go about your day today, notice any parts of your life that aren't bearing the fruit of an abundant life and come before God with Him to discover how God would prune you.
• 14:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is no greater sense of lightness we can experience on a daily basis, than living free from that which would weigh you down.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have a wonderful rest of your day and may God bless you as you seek him.