Let’s talk about the pruning season. What exactly is the pruning season? It’s the season of obscurity. Your faith is being tested, it’s trial after trial, it feels like more doors are closing than opening, basically nothing feels like it is working out. For many people including myself the pruning season started in 2020 when everything felt like it was falling apart. However, what does God say about these seasons? If the scripture tells us that in this life we will have trials why do we rush to get through the pruning season rather than trying understand what God is teaching us this season?
Anytime I think of a pruning season, I think of the story of Job. The part of Job that always sticks out to me is Job 1: 13-19. Why? Because it was one loss after another. Within just 6 verses he lost his animals which was a sign of his wealth, servants, children, his home, basically everything. For many us that’s how this year has felt. Within the span of just 2020, you’ve lost family members, jobs, resources, opportunities, and even lost your faith that things can get better. What we need to remember like Job is that God knew all of this would happen before Job actually experienced the loss. God knew that Job could handle a season of blessings and he also knew that Job could handle a season of obscurity. God knew every single attack that would happen in your life. He delights in blessing you because you are his child but he also created us to be dependent on him. Sometimes being dependent on God means having nothing in order to rely on him for everything. Yes this year has been hard, yes it wasn’t fair for your family members to die so suddenly, yes depression hit you hard, and yes it seems like God isn’t close to you in this season but I promise you that he is.
Your pruning season will teach you obedience and discernment. You must learn to hear and listen to God’s voice especially when he tells you to move and when he tells you to be still. Obedience is so important especially in a pruning season because our fleshly desires to take control of everything can sometimes cause even more damage than was intended. For example, the job opportunity didn’t workout so now you’re trying to make moves, form the wrong connections and take control of the situation because you don’t think that God will provide for you. When in reality God just wanted your obedience and to teach you how to trust him. It’s easy to make plans based on what we think is best for us not realizing that we must remain still enough in order for God to allow his will to be done in our lives. The less you do , the more God can do. I’m not saying don’t be productive, but be still enough to trust that God’s plan will produce more fruit in your life than your original plans ever could.
You have to be ready to fight in order to make it through this pruning season. Prayer and fasting are your weapon. Prayer is our communication with God, it’s how we speak to him and learn to hear his voice. Fasting is powerful because we deny our fleshly desires in order to feed our spirit. Many of the battles that have come this year will require you to go into your prayer closet with your bible and PRAY AND FAST. You must know what God’s word says in order to counteract the lies of the enemy.
When anxiety hits: Proverbs 3:24 “When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
When suicidal thoughts attack your mind” Psalm 139:13-16 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
When you feel like God doesn’t hear your prayers : Isaiah 65:24 “ I will answer them before they even call to me.While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!”
When you feel stagnant : Deuteronomy 31:8 “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
The power of your pruning season lies in your response. In Job 1: 11, Satan told God that Job would curse God if all the great wealth and blessings Job had were taken away from him. My question is , in this pruning season as it feels like more is being stripped away from you than added on, have you proved the enemy right by turning away from God or have you stayed the course? The enemy knew how blessed Job was and he sees how blessed you are.
Someone else’s freedom depends on you making it through this pruning season. You are breaking generational curses and you think the enemy is going to make this easy for you? He knows you’ll be the first to graduate college in your family, the first to own a home, the first to own a business, the first to pursue purity, the first to become a doctor, the first go into ministry. He knows the imprint you are leaving right now will set the stage for your children’s children so he’s not going to let up. The more you fight to make it through this season, harder he will try. That’s where obedience comes in because you have to listen and obey what God has told you in this season instead of turning away. Exodus 34:7: “I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.”
Whatever you do please don’t resent your pruning season. God is giving birth to so much in you but you have to trust the season you are in. No attack, job loss, financial loss, relationship hurt, failure, or pain is bigger than God. Anything that comes your way falls under the authority of GOD. We are his children so he has given us the authority to fight through these trials with our weapons ( prayer, fasting, scripture). Remember who you are and WHOSE you are.
1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
Proverbs 4:25“Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path.Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.
Leviticus 26:13“I am the lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high”
Joshua 1: 9.This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”