THE PRUNING OF GOD: THE INDICATOR OF THE SPIRIT OF CONTENTMENT – TO ABOUND AND TO BE ABASED IN THE GRACE! 

“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would JUDGE [EXAMINE] ourselves, we should not be JUDGED [EXAMINED]. 32 But when we are JUDGED [EXAMINE], we are CHASTENED of the Lord, that we should not be CONDEMNED with the world. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another” 1 Corinthians 11:30-33/Emphasis mine. 

During the SUMMER period, to those who were opportune to visit us, the front and back garden was blossoming with the beauty of the planted flowers of various species. My dear wife Nkem Faith was prepared to spend what it takes to ensure a lovely, beautiful, and most importantly, a welcoming garden. It was so well created, crafted and rebranded with such a good-looking environment, that for me, it’s something to look forward to by waking up a great while before the dawn day, to go to the garden and have a gracious outdoor welcome. 

And I will go out to the back garden to sit, and the sitting area is lighted to read while relaxing. And going to the cool garden early in the morning with a cup of tea and reading materials while seated to enjoy at the abounding and blossoming garden before the sun rises was so refreshing and rejuvenating and very welcoming for me and for family and friends who made it to the garden. And the good feeling and welcoming sphere, is simply because the lighted swing sitter makes the garden effect cozy and inviting, as the garden swing’s special location and positioning marked it uniquely. 

And most importantly, the cool fresh oxygen aeration in the morning that’s being produced and introduced by the surrounding hedges, the plants flowering and lovely scented places, makes the daily exercise to be at the garden so, so beautiful; and as a welcoming place for me to look forward to, during the summer period; it made me look towards the next morning and later, the cool evening for rest and relaxation, especially when there’s not much of obligatory things to do beyond the house environment. 

Now the Summer is over and the blossoming and abounding sight is wearing away. So, I’ve noticed some new looks was happening at the same garden until I found out what was happening. A couple of days ago, as I was stepping out of the house to the Office building that’s detached from the house, I noticed that the front and back access doors to the gardens that I need to take to the office were both open. There, I beheld my dear wife at work in the garden, already PRUNING the plants and remaking the soil and sorting out other horticultural activities. Then, I recalled it’s AUTUMN. And Autumn indeed for plants to ABASED, humbled to the change of weather until another opportune time to come to ABOUND. 

She must have spent quite a long day doing the PRUNING process, and supposedly overtime, until I took notice, as gardening is something she has come to embrace and cherished as a new dawn hobby. 

And why PRUNING? Supposedly to give the plants the opportunity to rebrand and navigate the harsh weather they are going to experience in the cause of the AUTUMN and WINTER, until the SPRINGS and SUMMER returns for another abounding moment. For the time of Autumn, Winters, Springs and Summers are seasons in life that will ALWAYS come. And as it’s the gardens, plants time to being ABASED, meaning, humbling for adaptation to the weather changes and not necessarily for degradation, will certainly come; and afterwards, times to ABOUND will surely come too. That’s the worth of the process and processing of life from phase to phase, as from glory to glory at various times. This thus indicates that whatever happens outside the process is a FRAUD and a SCAM. 

“While the earth remaineth, SEEDTIME and HARVEST, and COLD and HEAT, and SUMMER and WINTER, and day and night shall not cease” Genesis 8:22. 

What then is PRUNING? and why PRUNING? and what are the benefits of PRUNING to our physical and spiritual wellbeing as it is to plants. It is these questions and more that are some of the matters I want to address in this segment and context of this writ and discuss. However, let’s see firstly through the eyes of the horticulturists for the plants and then our husbandman, Father God, as in John 15:1-16 scriptures.  

The act of PRUNING is the selective removal of branches, buds, or roots from a plant to improve its health, structure, and appearance. Key goals include removing dead or diseased parts, controlling size, encouraging new growth or flowering, and enhancing air circulation. The best time and method for pruning depend on the specific plant, but generally, it’s done when the plant is dormant, and sharp, clean tools are essential for making proper cuts.  

WHY PRUNE? 

1. Health: To remove dead, diseased, or damaged branches to prevent the spread of infection and improve overall vigour.
2. Structure: To shape the plant to create a strong, dominant structure, which can help it withstand storms.
3. Flowering and fruiting: To encourage vigorous plants and controlling the shape can lead to more abundant blooms and fruit.
4. Safety: To remove branches that could fall, rub against structures, or create hazards.
5. Clearance: To trim branches to maintain clearance for pathways, buildings, or power lines. 

HOW TO PRUNE: 

1. Use the right tools: Use clean, sharp shears, loppers, or saws to make precise cuts.
2. Remove dead, diseased, or damaged parts first: Start by removing anything that is not healthy.
3. Remove crossing branches: Cut branches that are rubbing against each other to prevent injury.
4. Make proper cuts: Make cuts just above a node where a new leaf will grow. For thicker branches, use a “step cut” to prevent the bark from tearing: make an undercut, then a second cut from the top to remove the branch, and finally a third cut to remove the stub.
5. Prune For Shape: Remove “water sprouts” [fast-growing vertical shoots] and “suckers” [shoots that grow from the base of the plant].

WHEN TO PRUNE: 

1. Winter: Many deciduous trees and shrubs are pruned during their dormant season (winter) when their structure is visible.
2. Spring: Shrubs that bloom on old wood (last year’s growth) should be prunedimmediatelyafter they flower, often in the late spring or early summer. 
3. Summer: Regularlydeadheads spendflowers on annuals and herbs to encourage more blooms. 
4. Other times: Specific pruning times vary widely by plant. It is essential to research the specific needs of your plant before pruning. Avoid pruning when conditions are damp or wet to reduce the risk of fungal infection.

Now, looking through the eyes of a horticulturist in terms of the WHY, HOW and WHEN to execute the pruning, I may not be able to tell how God will prune you as a person or your family or Church but one thing it’s assured, God will prune His own in cause of times with him; and one can resolve to make self-examination and self-assertiveness ahead of time in order to ensure their humility before the Lord God is exerted on them. 

“EXAMINE YOURSELVES, WHETHER YE BE IN THE FAITH; PROVE YOUR OWN SELVES. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. 7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” 2 Corinthians 13:5-8. 

There’s a God gracious reason for pruning us and He’s indeed out there as God, PRUNING us His children to ensure that we are able to be EFFECTUAL, that is, to be productive and result-oriented, in our workplaces of assignment in the grace. He wants us to blossom and be fruitful. He wants us to have an onward and upward trajectory in the grace. He prunes us from a no-fruit bearing to a fruit bearing, more fruit bearing, much fruit bearing and to the fullness of a much more abiding and abounding fruit bearing in cause of times. 

These process from no-fruit bearing to the much more abiding and abounding fruit bearing, that God injects comes by Him PRUNING us in love, in His gracious garden of assignment. It’s humbling to be PRUNED but it’s ends makes a better us. Being humbled to be pruned, is to be ABASED, then to abide and ABOUND with much fruit bearing. 

And it takes the spirit of CONTENTMENT, to know, understand and appreciate the process of the kingdom, in God’s dealing with us. This helps an individual to know that your challenging times, in most cases it’s God dealings with you to bring out your best but when you resist and still want to be God’s child and enjoy His FULNESS, He will keep taking you through the processes until you recognise His dealings with you. And it varies to every Believers in the grace to be abased and abound, to enable one appreciate the process of God’s dealing of His people as the book of John thus indicates: 

“I am the TRUE vine, and my Father is the HUSBANDMAN. 2 Every branch in me that BEARETH NOT FRUIT he taketh away: and every branch that BEARETH FRUIT, he PURGETH [PRUNETH] it, that it may bring forth MORE fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth MUCH FRUIT: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father GLORIFIED, that ye bear MUCH FRUIT; so shall ye be my disciples . . . 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring FORTH FRUIT, and that your FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” John 15:1-8, 16. 

In the same scenario as per the above scriptures and writ paragraph, God wants us to fulfil purpose. Knowingly and unknowingly, living to fulfil and accomplish God’s given assignments and purposes in our life is at a cost, so that one does not jeopardise the essence of His enabling grace upon one’s life, unto the ends of the earth. For everyone born of God in Christ Jesus that loves the Lord, are set to do life and live godly with the PURPOSE of God in their spirited hearts and minds. And because they love the Lord and His work, God will cause all things to work together for their good. This is so, that the built-in default about His people that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard and that which have not entered the hearts of any man, can then be made manifest, as God reveals them by the Holy Spirit that dwells in as written. 

“And we know that ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER for good to them that LOVE God, to them who are the CALLED according to His PURPOSE” Romans 8:28. 

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath PREPARED for them that LOVE him. 10 But God hath REVEALED them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit SEARCHETH all things, yea, the deep things of God” 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. 

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 in whom also we have OBTAINED an inheritance, being PREDESTINATED according to the PURPOSE of Him who worketh all things after the COUNSEL of His own will: 12 that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ” Ephesians 1:10-12. 

God knows that as His people that have being called, and have obtained inheritance, and have been predestined to succeed and more, that in our journey to fulfil His purpose in our lives with His endorsement, endowment and enduement, there may be challenges; and to keep us steadily steady and focused, He uses the process of HUMILITY as a guardrail to keep us together in all that pertains to doing life and living godly in Him in the grace. 

This act of humbling us is not to degrade us but to make us MORE effectual, that is, to be more productive and result-oriented, in our Faith in the grace. That’s why to be ABASED in scriptural context as said of Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:11-13, wasn’t as sure about degradation of a person as some purport; but it’s the PRUNING process of our Father God to keep us away from the danger and consequences of pride and arrogance. And also, in order to ensure that we are following after His path for our greatness and exaltation in Him, in walking in the faith as assured only by humility in the grace; more so, to ensure and assure us to know and understand that our sufficiency is of Him in Christ Jesus stead. And being our God, He’s the source of our total supply, to all our needs, according to His riches in glory, in Christ Jesus, as it’s written: 

“And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19/Amplified. 

Suffice to say, that, it’s because of an act of pride and arrogance that God drove the devil once called Angel Lucifer and cohorts called the angelic stars from His presence [Ezekiel 28:1-10; Isaiah 14:12-19; Revelation 12:3-5]. They fell from grace to grass because of pride and arrogance which God does not tolerate, for He resists such spirits, and will always not tolerate those whose tendency shows such characteristics of pride and arrogance. So God PRUNING, can only be easier to follow through, by the one that’s determined with the concept to be abased and to abound, to ensure the spirit of CONTENTMENT in the grace. 

“But He giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God RESISTETH the PROUD, but giveth GRACE unto the HUMBLE” James 4:6. 

“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God RESISTETH the PROUD, and giveth GRACE to the HUMBLE. 6 HUMBLE yourselves therefore UNDER the mighty hand of God, that he may EXALT you in due time: 7 casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” 1 Peter 5:5-7. 

Therefore, let it be registered within you spirit-being, as a default in the grace, that when God prunes or is pruning us, it’s to make us better and not bitter. It’s to lead us to a place where we are made to become more fruitful in humility and not in and through pride. For pride goes before the fall. And the whole concept and process of pruning does keeps one humble – which is the benchmark of being ABASED, which may not be a plenteous moment of time. And certainly, as always, after we’ve been abased by the pruning process, God will then bring us to the place of grace to abound, therein He will strengthen us, establish us, comfort us and settle us in His grace as enjoined in 1 Peter 5:6-11. 

To been abased keeps one humble in the grace as Apostle Paul, experienced. It’s such that, with all his privileges of abounding in inspiration, revelation and empowerment, he still found himself in prison, a place of humility. To be abased does not necessarily mean degradation but humility. Apostle Paul was only moved from a place of plenty and abundance of grace to a place of humility not humiliation; because while yet in Prison, he wrote the concept of the month theme about the spirit of CONTENTMENT, to be ABASED and to ABOUND in the grace. He wasn’t spiritually impoverished for being in prison, though in his physical disposition he’s in prison; and though he was in prison, the prison wasn’t in him, just as Joseph with a dream to be Prime Minister one day by God was in prison, yet the prison wasn’t in him. 

And being in prison though wasn’t palatable in physical sense but humbling; and unfortunately, why being there, some so-called Gospel Ministers, took advantage of his imprisonment to say many unwarranted things about him. That’s what propelled, compelled, constrained, persuaded and made him to write to the Philippians Church on how to stay safe from the pervert and arrogant so-called Ministers, that are taking advantage of his imprisonment. How many Ministers there today, would have been humbled without creating a scene, to be taken on the pathway as Apostle Paul, to experience being imprisoned for the purpose of following God’s blueprint cause for their life in the grace? It’s worth to PAUSE and THINK about it. 

“Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: [16] the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: [17] but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. [18] What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice . . . [27] Only let your CONVERSATION [CONDULT] be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; [28] and in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. [29] For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; [30] having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me” Philippians 1:15-18, 27-30. 

So beloved, know of a truth, that when God chastises us, it’s to humble us and to save us as such, that we will not be condemned with the world in the same fits. For those that God loves, He humbles them and such path of pruning is by chastisement. But it’s done in love and not in wickedness or degradation. Hence you have to respect the process, to make you better without being bitter in any form and ramification. Hence, we have to cultivate the spirit of self checks every now and then against the spirit of pride and arrogance, especially while in our abounding time and much more, while we are to be ABASED in the grace. 

“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are JUDGED [EXAMINE], we are CHASTENED of the Lord, that we should not be CONDEMNED with the world” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32. 

“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” Hebrews 12:5-11. 

It’s my earnest PRAYERS, that you let God work on you for your own good and goodness. Knowing also, that when and while you are being humbled, as God’s defacto default process to exalt us and to make us able to be ABASED and to ABOUND in the grace, that you don’t undermine the process by living in denial; if otherwise you do, you are going to keep resitting and repeating the process while you still remain in the grace, in order to fulfil the kingdom cause purpose for your life if you except to ensure God’s pruning; if otherwise, you choose to backslide from the grace like Judas Iscariot, and walk away from God’s love in Christ Jesus, and from the lighted place of glory to the night of darkness, as one who only prefers to abound and not ready to be humbled, by being abased. 

“Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of THIS WORLD unto the Father, having LOVED his own which were in the world, HE LOVED THEM UNTO THE END . . . 30 He then having received the sop went immediately out: AND IT WAS NIGHT” John 13:1, 30. 

May you be found to abound and be abased, as a mark of the spirit of contentment resulting from pruning. And Blessed regards God’s grace and blessedness in Christ Jesus stead. Amen. 

SCRIPTURAL THOUGHTS WORTH PONDERING IN CONTEXT: 

“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are JUDGED [EXAMINE], we are CHASTENED of the Lord, that we should not be CONDEMNED with the world. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another” 1 Corinthians 11:30-33/Emphasis mine. 

“Know ye not that they which RUN IN A RACE RUN ALL, but one RECEIVETH the prize? So RUN, that ye may OBTAIN. 25 And every man that STRIVETH for the MASTERY is TEMPERATE in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as UNCERTAINLY; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 but I KEEP UNDER MY BODY, and bring it into SUBJECTION: lest that by any means, when I have PREACHED to others, I myself should be a CASTAWAY” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 17 These things I command you, that ye love one another” John 15:1-17. 

“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” Hebrews 12:5-11. 

REV. CHUKIE MORSI