The Vine – Cut backs?

I’m still in John 15 :o)

“… every branch that does bear fruit he [our Heavenly Father, the gardener] prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:2

We read this and think that it all seems reasonable, but in reality pruning only makes sense from the point of view of the gardener; to the plant it seems like senseless torture which it just tries to recover from. Little does the plant realise that because of the pruning it will actually bear more fruit in due season.

The same can be said in our lives.
We must trust our Heavenly Father’s pruning. This seems so hard to do in practice because it feels so invasive and painful, it is this that often hinders us seeing beyond what we are going through!
If only life could be easier!
Let me share my story, but please bear with me; it is messy, incoherent and incomplete… but I know that the author is working on it still.

After doing my GCSEs in 1990 I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life, so I just went along to Sixth Form College and picked some subjects that sounded interesting. This resulted in me doing two A levels; Statistical Maths and Religious Studies. Within the first few weeks of term my maths teacher took me to one side and informed me that they did not think that I had the natural aptitude for the subject and recommended that I focus on my other subject. I was outraged and in a fit of teenage rebellion refused. I studied like never before (because I really didn’t have a natural aptitude for the subject) and it took such a lot of effort to pass, but I did it. I didn’t do that well in RS though. We discussed serious religious issues [in far more detail than the syllabus required] until I eventually decided to be baptised. I gave my life to Christ but didn’t do too well in the exam.
By my graduation I realised that I wanted to go into the film industry. I prayed about this and felt a confirming spirit within me. I took up photography and applied to a bunch of universities that offered practical courses but didn’t get into any of them because they required a background in art. Every door was slammed shut even though I had prayed about it. What’s a man to do!
Having failed to get in anywhere I applied to get into a local art school to gain the entry qualification in art that I required. I had no art work to support my application for the art school except my GCSE photography work. At this time I was incredibly shy and didn’t like talking to people (the thought of it would make me sweat!). I decided that I needed to behave more confidently or at least make people think I was confident. My plan to achieve this was to look people in the eye as I talked with them (as opposed to looking away all the time). I tried this out at my interview for the art college. Miraculously, despite no previous experience in drawing/painting/sculpture etc they accepted me a few weeks before the start of term.
In that year I gained a huge wealth of creative experience. As a result of this I was able to get into my first choice university, Newport Film School, even though I argued with the lecturer as to what I believed the role and purpose of filmmaking was in society.
Arriving in Newport I began to look for a church to attend for the next three years. Coming from a Baptist church in Horsham [West Sussex] I marked all of the Baptist churches on my street map and began going along to them each in turn. I’m still not sure how, but one Sunday in January 1994 I turned up to a church that I had not marked on my map called Bethel Temple Pentecostal Church. Beats me how this happened but it did. Even though it felt uncomfortable different from my previous church, I knew this was where God wanted me planted for the time being and so who was I to argue – it is not for me to choose where God wants to place me! “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John15:4
By the time I graduated from university Wales had become my home and I soon got a job with a video production firm in Ebbw Vale. This was great experience but it began to occupy more and more of my time, invading time that belonged to God. In the end I began praying silently for a release from this situation because I knew that it was not spiritually healthy for me. The company then closed the down in January 1997 and I found myself unemployed.
I initially looked for film related jobs but to no avail. Then during a long summer of unemployment I spent my time helping out down the church as we gutted our church hall and redecorated it. Through out this time I had to put must trust and reliance on God for my finances and future. It was hard going and rarely made any sense to me but He never let me down. I eventually had a string of short term jobs which paid enough to live on. This taught me to be satisfied in God more than anything else.
Eventually I found myself being employed by the Office for National Statistics in January 1998, another unexpected door opened up by God! I continued to help out with various things down the church and was eventually roped into helping out with stewarding at an Alpha conference. It was here that I began to feel God really stirring me. Nicky Gumble spoke about every aspect of organising a successful Alpha course which included structured prayer support. The more he talked about this the more I felt my spirit stirring and my stomach churning (since the idea of being involved in corporate prayer terrified me, I still didn’t like speaking in front of people really). In the end when he called people forward to be prayed over [and released] I found myself moving out of my seat – my legs seemed to be responding obediently while my mind was still arguing my comfortable corner!
I was prayed over but nothing much then happened. Just normality.
The Alpha course we ran in our church was a huge success. I invited a girl in work along called Ruth. She eventually became a Christian (her wrestle with God is another story) and later my wife. Slowly prayer became less scary for me, and I began to join any group in the city that were praying in Jesus’ name. I used to meet up with various folk in St Julian’s Methodist church every alternate Saturday morning, and down the Kings on Thursday morning at 6am! All of this built up relationships and introduced me to God’s idea of His church.
Before long I began organising times of prayer in our church. Praying and fasting for key events. I was soon going on weekly prayer walks around Baneswell early in the morning. I even felt led to start organising a whole day of prayer! Before long we began to inviting as many churches in Newport as we could. 12hrs of prayer soon became 24hrs, each time God seemed to use this event to engage his bride, the church, in a fresh way until it developed into FUSION. As an event, it is clear to me now, no one other than God owns it. He has sculpted this prayer event and more than that, He has sculpted me. I am confident that He is also sculpting a FUSION team, a group of individuals whose messy tales God has used to prepare them for their role in His story.

This is part of my story of God’s pruning. It seems messy and poorly thought out; full of ‘dead ends’ and frustrations, achievements alongside failures. If I’m honest I would say that I have exhausted myself resisting God more frequently than I have relied upon Him; this has not been a thunderously victorious story of fusion. But through each step God was preparing me for His service today. The things that He is doing in my life (unwelcome as they are occasionally) will bear fruit tomorrow. I would be lying if I said at any point that I enjoyed the pruning process; it has always been uncomfortable, unsettling and unexpected (because I will have my eye on the ‘easy life’ rather than the ‘victorious life’). It is only when I begin to see the fruit that I welcome the pruning, and even when I do it never prepares me for the next cut. The gardeners work still seems strange and unexpected to me but if He did not I would not bear the fruit that I am designed to bear!

The same is true in your life.