By Charles Stanley (with A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian & Missionary Alliance)
Also available as a podcast at: http://thelife.com/blogs/experience/kindle/2008/07/22/what-it-means-to-follow-christ-3/
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Please open your Bible and read John 15:1-11.
The spiritual pruning process of our lives includes cutting away all that reflects our earthly passions that are in opposition to God’s holiness. A. B. Simpson writes: “Before the Holy of Holies can be fully opened to our hearts and we can enter into . . . communion of God, the veil upon our hearts must be rent asunder, and this comes as it came on Calvary - by the death of our flesh.
“It is when we yield our own natural self to God to die and He slays us by the power of His Spirit that the obstruction to our communion with God is removed and we enter into its deeper fullness. The greatest hindrance to our peace and victory is the flesh. Whenever the consciousness of self rises vividly before you, and you become absorbed in your own troubles, cares, rights or wrongs, you at once lose communion with God, and a cloud of darkness falls over your spirit.
“There is really nothing else that hurts or hinders us but this heavy weight of evil, this seed of Satan. . . . We can never rend it asunder, but the Holy Spirit can. It dies only on the cross of Jesus . . . under the fire of His descending Spirit. Bring it to Him, give Him the right to slay it, and then the veil will be rent asunder. The Holy of Holies will open wide, the light of the Shekinah will shine through all the house of God, and the glory of heaven will be revealed in your life.”
Question: Have you been “pruned” before in your spiritual walk? How did that experience end up shaping you to have a closer and purer relationship with God?
About this Author: http://thelife.com/experience/devotionalformen/authors/charles-stanley/
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July 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 am
This is a wonderful lesson that underlines that just like a healthy tree we need to continually use the spiritual pruning process of our lives that includes cutting away all that reflects our earthly passions that are in opposition to God’s holiness. It means that we can never rest on today as we are called to address the earthly tempatations and distractions that do not support our spiritual growth.
Thank you for this lesson.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Dear Friends,
Jesus answered his disciples, when they asked Jesus, why he speak to them in parables. ” To you it is given to know the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven, but not to these people.” Matthew13:11 ( Among the listeners were spies who would relate to Herod or the Romans any subversive word.) Christ is sowing and the seeds are words of truth and eternal life which need to grow and mature within the inner-self of all humankind. The seed grows even today and with it the Kingdom of God spreads on earth. It does not require spectacular success(in many listeners it does not sprout or grow at all) - but where it grows, what a marvelous harvest! Rejecting Satan and all of his empty promises is critical if the Word of God is to bear fruit within us.
Francis Andrew