This is the prophetic word for November 2023 and it is titled Pruning Shears.
Who is this word for? Those who are in a season of building or you are about to start building something – a new church, a new ministry, business, a new relationship, a new baby.
First, God has been speaking to me for the last 2 weeks about Nehemiah. I have written about this already and you can read that prophetic word here. It has to do with building. This is the season we are in right now.
As I was reflecting on building, the Lord began to show me that part of the building process is remaining teachable, continuing to be pliable in His hands (Jeremiah 18), and submitting ourselves to pruning. If we neglect or try to run away from the pruning process it affects our fruitfulness. Especially if you are anticipating a season of growth, increase, abundance and prosperity from what you are building.
This is a season of many doors, and your gifts and anointing will open doors for you but there are other things that keep the doors open and help you to maintain your position in that new place.
Pruning, is not fun!. Just imagine being a rose bush, it must be a very uncomfortable to go through that. Painful. During the pruning phase, you can damage other people with your thorns. You can poke someone’s eye out and they have to use protective gear (the Armor of God) to manage you!
John 15:2 (Voice)
2 My Father examines every branch in Me and cuts away those who do not bear fruit. He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so that they will bear more fruit;
I love how it says He carefully prunes them. He doesn’t want to damage you, He only wants to remove what is not fruitful and the things that He knows won’t be productive
Carefully. It’s going to come in the form of a gentle nudging. You will know exactly what it is because we all have patterns and I am sure if you look back at every door that was closed in your life that started out as a good thing and then took a turn and the door was then closed, there is a pattern there of behaviors, actions, words, thoughts and a mindset that not only closed the door but caused it to remain closed.
Here comes the pruning shears.
He’ll start bringing things about to expose your thorns, or the dead things that need to go, the correct response should be “Geez, This is bad, I need to change this. Lord, help me to change this”. Instead what we do sometimes is we fall into the same ole habits, actions and speech (what you’re saying). And instead of blooming, it’s a flop. You kinda have some growth but it’s not what you expected. That’s because you didn’t submit to the pruning. You fell into the same ole pattern that you always do….and then you made an excuse for it.
It is a self sabotaging spirit.
Well, that’s just the way I am.
Well, it’s the truth.
I’ve been this way my whole life.
Well, it hasn’t stopped me so far.
It’s my culture.
Everybody has something, and this is mine.
You need to just accept me like this.
Many times the things we blame on the devil, he has absolutely nothing to do with it. We go into heavy spiritual warfare prayers against the devil’s arrows not realizing that it’s actually God with the pruning shears!
Your flesh. Your soulish issues. And if you don’t get into the Word of God, read it, and allow it to change you, then you are going to go only so far and no further. Yes, as a new Christian you can get away with some things but after awhile, it will cause you to stagnate! No movement!!! That is the point when you know God is not playing with you about this anymore. It’s not cute. You’ve been saved for too long and know too much of the Word of God to still be doing that.
There is only ONE way to fix your soulish issues. God’s word. Read your bible and so what it says. That’s it! Your soul will be FIXED.
Hebrews 12:6
For the Lord disciplines those He loves,
and He corrects each one He takes as His own.
Most of the things that you want are at another level. But what happens when your speech doesn’t fit that place, your mindset doesn’t fit, your actions don’t fit into that place…and you can literally ruin a good thing. You end up sabotaging yourself.
Have you ever been so sure something was going to happen – a new business opportunity, a relationship, ministry or church opportunity and as fast as the door opened, you watch as it closed?
Galatians 5:19-21 (Voice)
19 It’s clear that our flesh entices us into practicing some of its most heinous acts: participating in corrupt sexual relationships, impurity, unbridled lust, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, arguing, jealousy, anger, selfishness, contentiousness, division, 21 envy of others’ good fortune, drunkenness, drunken revelry, and other shameful vices that plague humankind. I told you this clearly before, and I only tell you again so there is no room for confusion:those who give in to these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.
If you enter that new level with all or some of the qualities that you just read, when you move to the next level the people who are in that place look like this …
Galatians 5:22-25
22 The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditionallove, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. You won’t find any law opposed to fruit like this. 24 Those of us who belong to the Anointed One have crucified our old lives and put to death the flesh and all the lusts and desires that plague us.
25 Now since we have chosen to walk with the Spirit, let’s keep each step in perfect sync with God’s Spirit.
What do you think is going to happen? You. Will. Stick. Out. Like. A. Sore. Thumb. They don’t want to deal with your stuff. You are not ready for that place. They saw your giftings and anointing, your talent, your skills but then they will also start noticing the other things and sometimes people will extend grace. But, that only goes so far. They end up closing the door on you. You won’t have longevity. The difference between the men and women of God who lasted for a long time is that they have Christian character. They exhibit the FRUIT of the Spirit. If they don’t, even if they get a little bit of success, you hear about them falling away. Some kind of scandal is coming. The Fruit of the Spirit is evident in those who go for the long haul. They will stick to the end. Finish the race well. They are not a one hit wonder. Some of them you can see that they need pruning, but once they start submitting to it, you start to see the transformation. Some people have a public transformation. If they resist the pruning, God removes them.
Submit yourself to pruning shears.
Galatians 5:22-25 is the word of God that means that this is where God wants ALL of us to be. This is not for some while others are exempt. God loves you but He’s not going to put up with the excuses about your culture or how you were raised or what your ex husband or your ex wife did to you. HE gets the glory…because you changed in spite of how you were raised. In spite of the horrible things that happened to you. You walk in the fruit of the Spirit and You won’t find any law opposed to fruit like this. All the doors will open for you.
The minute you read something in the Bible and you see that you are not what it says you should be, you need to stop reading and start praying, talk to God.
Lord, please help me to not be manipulative and controlling. Lord, help me to be kinder with my words. Lord, help me to see all of humanity the same way and not exalt some more than others. Lord, please heal my wounds from my childhood, show me how to get past this. Lead me to the scriptures that will heal me. Lord, help me to forgive. Lord, help me to trust women again. Lord, I’m about to send this text message help me to phrase this in such a way that it is not said through my own pain. Lord, help me to check my motives. Lord, help me to speak a blessing over this person’s marriage even though mine didn’t work out. Don’t let me say anything that would curse their future because of my own past.
Stop. Think. Pray. Then respond.
The more successful you become at submitting to the Lord, and allowing Him to prune you, the more you will bloom in this next season.
There are going to be so many open doors, and next year when we communicate with each other what I don’t want to hear is this “well, this door opened but then this bad thing happened and it closed”. What I’m going to ask you is what were you saying during that time and what were you doing? What actions did you take? Because that’s usually how it closes…and stays closed. Sometimes a door will close and it is a temporary thing what causes a permanent closure is how you responded/reacted to that thing.
What I would to hear you say is that the door opened, and it revealed many more doors and not only did you experience growth… but you bloomed, you were able to maintain it and you’re prospering in it.
My prayer for you is that God will grant you wide open doors with much fruit.
Watch the video below in the Spirit. It is jam packed with messages. It made me cry watching it because I thought about this rose bush being a person and what God has to do to get us to place of fruitfulness. The process can be painful but in the end what comes, in a short time (4 months), is something beautiful. He makes all things beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
What spoke to you in what you just watched? Put it in the comments, include any scriptures that came to mind.
I can’t help but think how different our lives would look in 4 months if we made just one change today.
Blessings
This song: https://youtu.be/HSB4poSt7UE 🙂
Perfect! Absolutely perfect for this post! Thank you for sharing. I’ve not heard this one before.
So beautiful, thank you for sharing. What a perfect song for this season.
Thank you, Nicole. This word really hit my spirit profoundly. I’ve been in a pruning season with the Lord and at times I’ve been submissive and giving it all to Him and others I have a part of me just jump up to try to defend! I know He defends me so much better than I do, but part of my flesh just rears up and jumps before I seem to be able to get hold of it. I turn and ask Him to help me – I’m just not always out ahead of those auto responses.
This video – what stood out is how the gardener is interested in the beauty and health of the roses and he knows how they will grow and what to do to make them produce the beautiful blooms in just the number and place that he wants them. His removal of what would seem to be healthy parts, but that are actually counter productive to what he’s looking for. Mark 12:33 – To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
I love too, how the cane that grew vertical – he was training to also bend horizontally. This seems to speak of the union with God – vertical growth also including union with community – training for horizontal growth, for the fullness of the display of abundant beauty.
The removal of the canes that rubbed on each other or diseased – is self explanatory – God’s removing unhealthy things. But also the removal of things not in the right direction – pointed outward or downward – and the removal of things that are just growing in weird ways – this helps to know God is removing things not in alignment with His direction and keeping/strengthening those that are. And I love the use of the zip ties to train to the right alignment and spacing – holding fast, but loose enough not to cut in. And the cleaning off of old leaves for a fresh start – God takes those old things out to leave clear room for new growth.
I really appreciate this word – Nicole – thank you so much. So needed and so heeded!
Yes!! I saw too that he prune the ones that were initially growing downwards, or outwards. They need to go UP, first, vertical and focused on the Lord. Then HE sends you out – horizontal towards others. Outwards at the bottom, on the middle, or the top, to the left or to the right. We all have a different audience, different sphere of influence, different groups that we are called to minister to. The One who decides where is the Gardener. It is according to His masterplan where He needs you to be. Up first, then He shows you where you go out. So beautiful. Then we need to be anchored (zip ties) so that as we grow we are growing according to the plan. This means we need to be anchored to His word. That’s what keeps us in line. We don’t decide what gets prune, neither does others. This is His job. We yield to His Spirit, His pruning and then beauty emerges. In the end it all makes sense because we can’t be everywhere, neither can we all be in the same place – some are in churches, some do conferences, some are in marketplace, some write books and blogs, others are on Youtube, some do podcasts, some do street ministry, others are on social media, some are in government, others are in media, some are missionaries to the nations. We are going in different places and the Gardener is the One who decides where. But we will never know where, until we first go UP. Blessings
My thoughts on this was { Oh Lord Jesus}..I am dealing in this season with an issue that I have been struggling with, My attitude is like {get me out of here} I feel a tug of war as to just leave my Church or stay, I am being shown by the Lord some pride in my heart, actually I am being provoked to jealousy by someone, and I see the operating of the flesh in my heart…this word goes along with what i am going through, your instruction is good read the word! { I want to come out Victorious!!} I have had many traumas in my life so I don’t always see things with out rose colored glasses on..I really want to be healed emotionally, and mentally , embrace the pruning so I can walk in my calling. This Ministry has been such a Blessing to me, it’s the real thing in a World that can be so superficial. Blessing
Hi Valerie, what you don’t want to do is leave and not have that pruned from your life. Otherwise, you’ll go to another church and the same thing will happen to you again. Make sure to let the Lord deal with your heart on this first. Then, ask Him if you should leave. Don’t leave because you are uncomfortable. It is the pruning that is causing you to feel this way so sit with the Lord and ask Him to remove that from you. He will do it. Blessings
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Without God building the house we will do it in vain. Pruning is what carries us forward otherwise we are heavy with unnecessary things. Glory be to God in highest
Philippians 1:6 TLV
[6] I am sure of this very thing—that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the Day of Messiah Yeshua.
Amen Amen
This Scripture came to mind and a deep deep gratitude to God, His love, His care, our Perfect God who perfects us until that Glorious Day in His Presence…
And every day be His Light, powerful luminaries in this world.
Glory Honor Power to You God Almighty!
Love You Lord!
Thank You so much MOP, faithful servant of God.
Pruning makes sense when you undersatnd the WHY
He is taking away things ”in the way” that prevent the Gardener from doing His work
Old sick, diseased areas are cut out, they are cut out in sections
To become pristine clean for growth the weak leaves are taken off, the laterals and downwards growth are taken off
ALL these actions are done to MAXIMISE the yield
Hebrews 4: 12 The message God spoke to us in Christ, is the most life giving and dynamic influence in us, cutting like a surgeon’s scalpel, sharper than a soldier’s sword, piercing to the deepest core of human conscience, to the dividing of soul and spirit; ending the dominance of the sense realm and its neutralizing effect upon the human spirit. In this way a person’s spirit is freed to become the ruling influence again in the thoughts and intentions of their heart. The scrutiny of this living Sword-Logos detects every possible disease, discerning the body’s deepest secrets where joint and bone-marrow meet.
I got reminded that only God Almighty does the pruning with no help needed from us and that the intention is the fruit that we will produce. That He prunes as He sees as He is all knowing and that it is easier if we trust Him as He does not need hints and instructions from us.
I felt sorry for the plant at first, but I kept telling myself it’s going to turn out well. Also as the man was talking, what came to mind, was the man said He “plans” and reminded me of God. He planned to do this in the future to make it like that but for right now we shall do this. ‘Master Pruner’ came to mind haha I smiled big at the end of it all, because it came out so beautifully. Thank you for sharimg ( :
Isaiah 55:8 “8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 64:8 “But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.”
JOB 14;7-9
7 “If a tree is cut down, there is hope that it will grow again and will send out new branches.
8 Even if its roots grow old in the ground, and its stump dies in the dirt;
9 at the smell of water it will bud and put out new shoots like a plant.
Luke 13:6-9
6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’
8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.
9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
It reminded me the chances God gives us but at the same time He has also a time limit. We need to embraze a good trimming and cutting. It is hard when God tells you, your time at your job is coming to an end and it pays $120,000 a year and all you can respond is Lord that they don’t put to shame and that they will offer me a package and submit to the prunning even on the job you held for 22 years. I praise the Lord every day how he did that because I could not done it without his gentle touch when he prune me from my job and I am transitioning to full time ministry…thank you for this Word and the video was awesome because I have been looking at all the beareness and lacking in my life but spring is around the conner and it will be full bloom!
An awesome lesson. What dropped in my spirit while watching the video, is to not allow someone to tell you have you should be prune. The gardener have no one else he was talking to, but just did the pruning. We are to seek God for our purning and grow. God, father, son, holy spirit, are the only ones that can do it and they don’t need assistance, just our surrender. Then God gave me a memory of how someone told me how to prune my tomatoes for a larger harvest, but they didn’t know we didn’t need a larger harvest, due a allergy to that type of tomatoe. God then told me that everyone doesn’t receive the same type of pruning because they need pruning in different areas. We are to surrender to God, allow Him to do the pruning, and the growth will come.
Wonderful lessons:
1. God will take away people and things that will hinder our blooming in Him.
2. God will take away whatever is out of the way of his beauty in us.
3. God will take away whatever will contaminate us
Verses that came to mind while reading and watching:
1- I have loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3
The context: Jeremiah 31:3-4 => The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. 4 I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.
2- John 15 (MSG)
verse 5-7 => “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire.”
verse 9: “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me.” (Jesus was prune/stripped down/persecuted for our sake…) Verse 20: “Servants don’t get better treatment than their masters…”
3- John 15: 16 => “I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.”
4- What spoke to me when I watched: the 4-month period. My pruning started 4 months ago (I am getting to the end of that 4-month period tomorrow). I am also eager to see what will bloom over the next 4 months, as the end of that cycle will correspond to a key date.
If he did not prune in early spring, in summer the roses would be overcrowded and probably not as healthy.
He certainly did a lot of pruning. Someone would not have guessed based on how bare the shrub looked that it would be so full in summer.
Thank you so much for this wonderful prophetic message, after reading it I asked God what’s my take home from this message,he said your temperament had been an issue, learn how to slow in reacting to thing. I said Lord I have been so calm this days he said more. Am already raising my eyebrows.
I really do need the pruning.
Blessings.
I loved this video! Also this scripture is one of my faves:
He makes all things beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
When watching the vid, I immediately thought about the scripture in John 15:1-8
e
Resources
Hebrew/Greek
Your Content
John 15:1-8
New International Version
The Vine and the Branches
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also 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.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Thank you for the pruning God!
God will do a new thing in you came to mind.