Recently, I was in prayer and the Lord gave me a picture. I saw a tree, it was in great shape, a nice full tree with viable limbs and thick with foliage. As I was observing this tree all of a sudde…
Source: For the Sake of Fruitfulness
When prophetic words approach their season.
Did you know that Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life? Therefore the things of the spirit must be spiritually understood.”
Luke 8:18 Jesus : “So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.”
Divine Pruning- To be subtracted from that we might be added to.
This past year has been the culmination of a season of pruning for those marked for leadership in the body of Christ. All of us who press on into the upward call will find ourselves in and out of these seasons of pruning, where God is removing dead works, and unproductive clutter, out of our lives. Often times, we are so preoccupied with expansion, and growth, we overlook the necessary principles of maintaining healthy, and stable, businesses, ministries, and relationships. This season of pruning, for many, has resulted in cut backs. Ministries, outreaches, businesses, and perhaps even a loss of these things, leaving those who have gone through this, a sense of bareness, but it is for our good that the dead things that have no fruit in them are cut away. There are going to be abrupt changes taking place, in so much, that literally we will find what was relevant one day, not at all the next. Looking back a year from now will seem such a faded distance away. Change is in the air. God sees down the line a lot farther than we do. He will get you ready if you’re willing. The baggage we throw our world into, will take wings. WE must put all our trust in Him.
Those destined to serve in divine government have been sorely pruned. The missing branches, taken out of our lives, and ministry, that we thought would fulfill us, were ill equipped, or incapable of producing what was needed in the governmental authority God is preparing his people to rule in, as we move into the decades to come.
The weakened, fruitless, or diseased, branches that would betray us under the pressure of appointment, and position, were cut off, to make way for a stronger, and more productive branch, to take its place. Have faith, what seems to be loss is preparation for great gain. This is 2011, this is 2012. Subtracted from, to be added to, in preparation for government rule.
New King James Version (NKJV)
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Kingdom of God Suffers Violence, And The Violent Takes it By Force
However, there has been another kind of assault against those marked for ruler-ship in the kingdom of God. And this one is of the kind that David and his men suffered in 1 Samuel 30. It is another kind of “removal or subtraction” and that is one of a healthy limb, cut off, or taken by the enemy. A malicious separation by the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
In David’s story we see an aggressive campaign to restore what has been stolen, and a lesson learned regarding a militant watch required on the home front, even as we are off in foreign lands working for the Lord. The story of David and his men (that I encourage the reader to review) speaks of those who are left to watch over the home front receiving like honor, as those in the field.
One area that will bring much healing in the body, and already has, is this subject of honor. Giving honor to those to whom honor is due, will continue to be the healing balm of restoration, and unity for the Body of Christ, as we move forward into a new church era.
The Davidian Rule takes back the lost and stolen. It gives honor to whom honor is due, recognition to whom recognition is due. It Sees the part everyone has in the whole, and rewards it. 1 Samuel 30:21-31
A Sum of All Our Yesterdays, the Beginning of All Our Tomorrows.
For the older saints who still have a few years of work ahead of them, they are seeing, what seems to be no end to it, no retirement possible, in the natural, to do the things they wanted to do for the kingdom of God. Their years of spiritual warfare, and the wrong decisions that others have made, feels as if it has taken from them momentum, time, and money … the actions of others impacting what should have been stored up for their latter years.
Now many are seeing a world that has sown to the wind, and is reaping the whirl wind. The result of sin, and disobedience. How it has impacted there own lives even though it wasn’t from choices they made. As David, they have come home from work, from ministry, from obedience to God, only to find their family members in captivity, their finances depleted, their house, and wares worn out; surrounded by comrades who themselves are angry, and disenfranchised.
The answer to much of this is walking in the revelation that the bear market has nothing to do with the kingdom of God’s economy, but we also, have to remember we are living in this fallen world and the murderer and thief is still at large.
The good news is, Satan cannot win, and even when he does seem to win, that is when he really looses! It is God’s good pleasure to restore to us what has been stolen.
Campaigns To Retrieve the Lost and Stolen
Now is the time to pull all stolen resources out of the camp of the enemy. Calling them out in the name of Yeshuah. (The God who saves) Just as David and his men went after their family and wives who were stolen from them while they were out to war, so there are those in the body of Christ, who have been out doing the Lord’s work and have come back only to find their home pillaged by the enemy. The weakest link in the family/body being zeroed in on to penetrate walls of defense, to get in and raise havoc.
You may not see how it was persecution, but I assure you that for many, that is exactly what it is. You did nothing wrong. A weakness that had nothing to do with you was exploited to the hilt, not because of your wrong, but because of what you were doing right.
Yes, some of us make messy beds we have to sleep in and God is merciful, but this I am talking about is something that would not have been exploited like it was had it not been for WHO YOU ARE.
You will need all that the enemy has taken from you back, for the days ahead. And it is there for you to retrieve, if you will believe. This translates into that which has been stolen from our homes, finances, and families, our church families, and even God’s people through out all nations, for those who are believing for the lost on that level.
Pent up justice, and that thing stolen- from those who have been faithful, is held up for that day of exchange that God has assigned, in a time when it will be needed most. The riches of the wicked, and illegally obtained wealth, is laid up for the just. You have been waiting to long. Now is the time for you to mount up for battle, and demand the thief to restore all that has been stolen- with interest!
Our Own Experience
A few months ago we did just that, we began a prayer vigil, and stand; demanding what has been stolen to be returned. After a few days of prayer we had a break through. The lord gave me a vision. I saw my self walking through a battle field, nothing was left but abandoned tanks, and burning debris, the earth was scorched. I then came upon an abandoned camp, up next to a mountain. There was nothing left in the camp but smoking debris and broken equipment. I felt that what was stolen in the camp had been retrieved, but my eyes fixed on clefts in the rocks of a mountain side, next to the camp.
I walked over and began to search into the clefts and ravines. As I did I began to see souls coming up from between the rocks, they were missed when the campaign to retrieve the stolen, had previously gone through. I Saw Parcels and a U-Haul Bringing Back the Lost and Stolen.
I have had the lost, and stolen restored before, but this was something else. Much more was at stake than what we could possibly have known. When we obeyed God and began this campaign, we saw the Lord work a mighty work. I saw in the spirit a U-Haul truck full of goods. The Lord said, “In a few days there will be three parcels coming in, little things as a down payment, but behind that is a haul. Keep standing, believing, and praying.” A few days after that my camera that had been lost for a year was retrieved. A couple of parcels came in the mail, items left behind from traveling, another parcel was a financial blessing that restored an unjust loss; as He has promised these three parcels came in as a marker for more to come …
To Go the Extra Mile, To Wait Upon the Lord For One More Hour …
It was there the Lord reminded me of something that happened many years ago. We suffered the loss of a fledgling work of the Lord where people were getting saved, healed, and delivered, and this loss came through betrayal. I began to include that situation in our prayers for the recovery of the lost and stolen.
A few days later came the haul. The lives and souls of precious human beings. I can testify that our prayers for the return of that which has been stolen has measured out in souls. Even a new mission presented itself in subsequent days from this focused prayer for the stolen to be returned. God is an awesome warrior who retrieves the lost at every cost, for He has done that, even to the shedding of his own blood at Calvary, for the remission of sins.
What the thief has stolen shall be restored. Many of us in ministry have been interrupted, or intruded upon by the enemy, the cost has been souls, and I shudder for those who have involved themselves in treachery in the midst of God’s work. But in Christ’s kingdom nothing shall be lost, none of His shall be forgotten. He will go the extra mile as the good shepherd always does, not satisfied that He has secured the 99, he continues searching for that one missing.
What we do in the kingdom of God must be done with intent. Make the decision to try again, go back one more time, take one more search party, lead one more campaign in the spirit. Didn’t Jesus say, “Could you not tarry one more hour?” Could we not go back one more time, try once again, and this time believe for all that was stolen to be restored? Ultimately, that is summed up in souls of lost men and women, and hurting boys and girls.
Many times finances hinder the work of God, yet, He promises us that He gives to us all things pertaining to life and Godliness, those things are available to us to fulfill God’s purposes in the earth. If finances are not coming through, it is not because of what God will not do, or what He has not provided. It is because of what the enemy has done. I don’t understand asking God for prosperity, I do understand telling hell to get off of what God has already given us, to serve Him with.
We must take our authority and exact from the kingdom of darkness those things stolen away and hidden in it. God wants us to take back wealth, time, health, strength, all for souls, all to advance His kingdom. He said, ” I have given you power to tread … The kingdom of God suffers violence, but the violent take it by force.
And how is this done? Didn’t Jesus say, the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are truth? That we war not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places? Are we not to command the night to bow to the day, with a two edged sword in our hand, and the High praises of God in our mouths? Speak as Moses spoke to the spiritual Pharaohs of the land and say, God has said, “Let my people go?” Our part should not be left undone for He has said, “Go into all the world … these signs shall follow them that believe in my name …” it is up to us to take possession of every realm and dominion, for He has given it to us.
The bud is yet in the vine.
It was a quiet evening at sundown as I walked around the corner of my house. When I looked up towards the western sky I was startled to see our willow tree sorely pruned. I looked at it wondering if it would ever grow back to its original stature. All of its delicate branches curled down ward were gone. Could it ever be beautiful again? I felt a little sadness, somehow I knew it had to be this way. The tree was cleared of every pest infested, diseased, and broken branch. It was a clearing of the (would be) debris field before the storm. Something caught my eye to the right, as the sky darkened. A movement towards me, I then realized a book was being placed before me. It was a teal colored, thin, book with a long title; embossed in gold lettering. I couldn’t make out the entire title of the book, but was able to see these words very clear as the gold lettering glowed in the twilight, the words read-
Earlier that day I had literally drove past a tree much like the one I saw in this prophetic dream. It was located on the corner of Government and Sycamore. Immediately, when I saw the tree pruned as it was, I felt the Spirit of God come over me and I knew a message would be drawn from what I seen, and one did. A recording of it can be found at Remnant Nation Radio with Newine Pouring. The Winnowed and The Pruned along with Clearing The Debris Field are two parts of a whole. One addresses Christian America, the other, all of those in Christ. To drive home the point, the city I live in had began to prune trees away from the power lines up and down the streets, they did this the entire week I was preparing to record the pod-cast. I could not help take from that, a parallel of how much our broken, pest infested, and diseased branches of government are needing this word regarding the winnowed and the pruned, in order to retain its power and influence in the earth.
Weeks later, when an ice storm rolled into the region our little community was the few that did not have power interruptions. The fact of the matter is that we will have storms, how we fare when we do depends on our preparation, and readiness to respond to the Spirit of God. God wills that NO MAN perishes, but that all come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Most of us understand the significance of the Sycamore tree explained very well in the book called the Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. While we as a country have pushed upward and onward, endeavoring to rebuild where we have been broken, we have ignored the lessons of the kingdom regarding what it takes to become strong. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. To be God strong in America we must decrease, bow our greatness to the sovereign God in repentances, and become the people who are the winnowed, and the pruned. This in return will remove the debris field before the storm, rather than after, where time and chance takes its erratic path.
in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon the children of men …
Recently, I was in prayer and the Lord gave me a picture. I saw a tree, it was in great shape, a nice full tree with viable limbs and thick with foliage. As I was observing this tree all of a sudden a branch grew out from one of the limbs, and as it grew I began to notice that it was a dead branch. Now how can a dead branch grow? Well, in the natural realm it can’t but in the spirit realm (and this is the vantage point from where we are looking ) a dead tree growing, is symbolic to a work that has no life in it, this is a work that leads to death. Or “acts” that lead to death. It can be a sin, sinfulness, or the sin nature. When we belong to God he is ever working with our conscience to purge dead works out of our lives. He does that through his Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. When the conscience becomes seared, our response to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit ebbs away.
At that point in our life, if we continue in sin, we are perpetuating acts that lead to death. Though the tree may be other wise healthy there is a branch that is “flourishing in sin” according to the picture the Lord gave me. He showed me the destructive power of it when I watched this dead branch grow and begin to diminish the beauty of the limb of the tree it came from. As I watched the tree change seasons, I could see that for a season the branch and the limb were fine, but in time the foliage became less and less, and all other branches associated with the limb began to appear more and more barren. I began to realize that the branch was weighty and cumbersome, and when the winds picked up it became a liability to the entire limb of the tree. Yet, before it could cause the limb to break away from the tree, swiftly, and suddenly, the branch was cut off, to my astonishment.
Dead works are works of the flesh. The branch represented acts of sin, the limb of the tree is that which belongs to the tree. The tree is a planting of the lord in his orchard. When the limb was delivered of the dead branch it began to be covered by a thrust of new life and growth, eventually bearing fruit, even more fruit than all the other limbs.
This picture has so many levels of application It is hard to know where to begin. But one simplified truth is this, God is our husbandman. Our keeper. What belongs to him is managed by him. He knows when to act on our behalf, just when the limb itself appeared to be dying, He knew exactly when to come in and remove the dead branch on the limb, letting it come to a full realization of its fruitlessness, while still preserving that which has life left in it, though its potential growth is being retarded, for a season.
Sometimes dead works (that cover everything that is not born of the spirit) must develop into their full term to display the malignancy that they are. When sin is finished it brings forth death. This very object lesson was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis when they found themselves to be naked and their sin discovered, God had to “cover” them with the skins of animals by making garments for them, Adam and Eve knew from where the skins of animals came from, and what it cost those animals to make for Adam and Eve their garments. This was their first experience with- when sin is finished it brings forth death.
Genesis 3:21-22 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” [In a fallen state].
Interestingly enough, this eternal story begins and ends with a tree. From Genesis to Revelation, the tree is a story board of our lives. In Christ we are oaks of righteousness the planting of the Lord. It is God’s will that no man should parish but it is his good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Luke 12:32.
The scripture tells us that the wicked was blotted out of the book of life. Indicating that they were in it from the beginning. That the Lord’s intent is that all be saved, so then we will have to be judged out of the book of life, to no longer be in it.
We can go to the fig tree and learn the lesson of fruitlessness. In the scriptures the Lord gives us the parable of the fig tree that gave no fruit in its season to bear fruit, and even when it was given another chance to bear fruit, even three years, it didn’t, eventually it was cut down. Blotted out you can say, because according to the parable it cumbered the ground. In that parable the orchard worker intercedes for the tree and gives it another season to prove itself. This is Christ ever interceding for us. But a season came and went and there was no fruit. Sometimes all that can be done is done and there is no more left to do. Separation to preserve that which is living entails. Luke 13:6.
We can apply the parable of the severed branch as a principle of every aspect of life. We can look at our own dead works that take from us productivity, and the health and well being of our families. We can look at those things that take away from the productivity of a business, or the promotion of Godly relationships, or the health of a fellowship. We can repent of dead works, turning away from sin, which for many of us boils down to living with out having faith. For without faith we cannot please God, and sin means “to miss the mark”.
So whether it is the works of the flesh as written in Galatians 5:19-21 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Or, whether we are just missing the mark, our conscience bears witness and if we listen to the Holy Spirit who convicts us of “missing the mark” we can live a productive life. In every aspect of it.
It is the mercy of God that prunes from us the branches and twigs of dead works we have allowed to flourish. Shall we gain the whole world and lose our own soul? The author and finisher of our faith is not going to allow that to happen if we have put our trust in him. Sometimes, when we have moved away from God’s counsel in our lives, radical separations shake us to the root, businesses are lost, relationships, jobs, a marriage, even our health that wake us up from the bigger picture of where we are heading, and the ultimate loss we are facing, if we do not surrender ourselves to the author and finisher of our faith. When those kind of disruptive, and painful losses occur, a death as the result of “missing the mark” in our lives take place, because of living according to the carnal nature, is naturally taking its tole. The more dedicated we are to the sin nature, the more that nature takes up good ground of potential, and draws away from it the strength of those things that are in Christ”, we will have to see loss to understand- when sin is finished it brings forth death. The good news is as much as their has been loss in our life, there is potential for restoration, if we turn to God and continue to put our trust in him.
1 Corinthians 5:4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
As trees from the root to the fruit- our works are examined, as trees in his orchard, we are pruned that we may bear more fruit. Wild fruit trees grow out as high, and wide as they can, but an orchard tree grown for its product is trimmed and pruned to bear full limbs of accessible fruit. In contrast the wild tree has smaller, more sporadic fruit growth, often inaccessible in high limbs, and diseased.
The mercy of God is dealing with individuals, people groups, and nations. What is yielded to him is pruned, whoever is yielded to Him WILL be pruned. Dead trees, on His farm are subject to removal in this old world. But if there is any life left in it, the faithful pruner will war for its life. What is left of it may not look pretty but in due season life will do what life does. It Lives! When every thing that hinders is moved out of the way. We have to “give” ourselves to the work of the pruner. This is our will and desires. When we have gone through the ravages of sin, been given over to it, have suffered loss, we still have one thing more valuable then anything we could ever have, we have our souls, we have our repentant heart, crying out for mercy. God is the author and finisher of our faith, and his desire is that we bear fruit and are fruit will remain.
1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
The same principle works for lawlessness as well, (acts of the flesh gone viral) when the dead work is cut off from, it can no longer draw from the living. The nature of everything that grows which is dead, cancer, addictions, lust, greed, gluttony will come to its natural end, when it has destroyed the host upon which it feeds, it will die. So also, is it when a wayward heart is left to itself, when sin is finished it brings forth death. This is Satan’s desire for all mankind in his jealous rage against God’s creation. This the nature of sin, and the end for the “man of perdition” when all that intercedes for him is taken out of the way. In the same way, nations erupt in lawlessness, when that which is holding it back is taken out of the way. The prayers and intercession of the saints is what is keeping this world from going into complete anarchy.
In the end the hope is that men and women will call upon the name of the Lord. For God gave His only begotten son that who soever believes upon him will not perish but have everlasting life. Nevertheless, He has said, “My spirit will not always strive with man.” And in a another place, we are urged to call upon Him while he may be found, and whosoever calls upon Him, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. It is impossible to please God with out faith.
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
When we come to God in true repentance and trust in the work of the shed blood of Christ, we take on His righteousness, with our conscience cleansed of sin that we may, with boldness, enter the throne room of grace, where by we obtain mercy in times of need, that we might serve Him. The hope is that we never leave the Fathers house, that we never squander our inheritance and loose it in the pig pens of this world, in the deceitfulness of sin, as did the prodigal son. The son who remained in the Fathers house inherited all that was the Father’s, the prodigal found out in his utter lostness there is no place like home, knowing that to be a servant, a door keeper, in the house of our God is far better than to be lost.
The prodigal came home with nothing. But at least he came home. This is the bones of how it works when one is given over to the destruction of the flesh, it is merely letting their carnal desires take them when they choose that over the provision of eternal life, for temporal pleasure that leads to death. This proves a appoint, that in the kind of existence they’re preferring, there is no satisfaction. As the prodigal son left the Father, so it is with God, it is not His nature to leave us, it is our sinful nature leaving Him. Yet, in every son there is the memory of the good Father sealed up his heart, with a natural knowing, that He will never turn away His own child when they come back to Him, and God will do all that is in His power, through the work of the Holy Spirit to bring the prodigal home to Him. He who is the author and finisher of our faith. Nevertheless, the scripture admonishes us to come to Him while He may be found. Not to be foolish with our time in this world, but to live in such away that we are a fruitful vine.
NeWine 
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