Expect and Accept Pruning

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: According to Dannah Gresh, our spiritual health is closely tied to remaining or staying in Christ and His Word.

Dannah Gresh: The secret to fruitfulness is abiding . . . period. But if you abide, expect and accept the pruning.

Nancy: You’re listening to the Revive Our Hearts podcast for January 12, 2024. I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

If being pruned sounds scary or painful to you, keep listening, and we’ll find out why it’s so worth it.

Well, we’re in the beginning part of the year right now, but I want you to think ahead to July or maybe all the way to the end of the year, December, six or eleven months, or five years down the road. Where would you like to be in your relationship with God? How would you like to see Him using you? Have you set any spiritual goals for your life?

There was a time in Dannah Gresh’s life when she thought God would never use her again.

Yesterday on Revive Our Hearts, Dannah told us that the enemy used shame from secret sins in her past to lie to her. She honestly thought she would never be of any use to God.

Today she’ll explain how the Lord freed her from bondage to that deception. I believe it’ll be a huge encouragement to you as you think about how you’d like to grow in your walk with Him as well.

If you have a copy of your Bible nearby, go ahead and turn or scroll to John chapter 15. Here’s the cohost of Revive Our Hearts, Dannah Gresh, speaking to students at her alma mater, Cedarville University. We’re picking up where Dannah left off, explaining how, when she was a girl, her mother encouraged her to read the Scriptures and to pray on a regular basis.

Dannah: So, my mom fostered this discipleship in me when I was eight years old. When I went to a missions conference at my church, my spirit was very open to the Spirit of God. And one day I walked into my church. Now, my church was crazy for missions conferences. Like, we had huts in the foyer. We had weird fruits from other lands for taste testing. It was, like, all-out everything. Flags of every nation covered the walls.

I remember this particular night that a missionary spoke. They asked if anyone was feeling called by God to the mission field or to teaching the Bible, “We want you to come forward.” Of course, it’s all the adults coming forward, and eight-year-old, Dannah. “Sign me up! I want to go. I want to do whatever it is.”

I remember that night. I remember the flags. I knew right away I couldn’t go . . . yet . . . because I was eight. (laughter) But I needed to get started!

So I went home, and I said, “Lord, what do I do?” I felt like I needed a flag, so I made one. I made a construction-paper flag. I put the letters “T.B.F.F.” on that flag, which stood for, “The Barker Family Fellowship.” The Barker Family Fellowship, yeah, that works. I told my parents and my brother that they needed to report for devotions every day—family devotions—and I would be leading because I needed to start practicing. (laughter)

What passion I had for the Lord when I was eight, and when I was nine, and when I was ten , and when I was eleven. I did everything I could. Like, I volunteered. I taught the three-year-olds in Sunday school because it was the only ones that were really . . . I wasn’t ready for the four-year-olds. (laughter)

As a junior high schooler, a middle schooler, I volunteered for Child Evangelism Fellowship. I just loved serving the Lord.

But when I showed up at Cedarville University, the passion was gone. It had been replaced by shame. It had been replaced by a lie that told me to sit in the back row where I belonged.

What happened? Well, I stopped abiding. I wandered. I didn’t stay. I didn’t remain. At first, it was because I was serving Jesus. At first, it was because I was teaching Sunday school and volunteering for Child Evangelism Fellowship. I was the Yearbook editor, and I was on the soccer team. There was so much I needed to do for God. I needed to do it, get out there, but I didn’t just be with Him.

 

Listen to me: the busier you get, the more you need to abide. The more responsibilities God’s Spirit puts upon you in your life, the more desperately you need to go into the closet and be with Jesus and be in His Word, because “Satan walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” If you have any potential to serve the Lord with your life, he has you in his crosshairs. He had me in his crosshairs.

Even at the age of fifteen when I wasn’t abiding, but I was serving the Lord, I could never ever have imagined that I would give the gift that God meant for me to give to my husband on my wedding night, that I would give that away to a fifteen-year-old boy. Unthinkable. Impossible. Not me! I’m the good girl. I’m the serve-Jesus girl. I was fifteen. I was a baby.

How old were you?

“The enemy walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,” (1 Peter 5:8) and when he devours you with sin . . . Satan is such a fan of sin before we do it. There is no one more pro-choice than the devil when a woman walks into an abortion clinic. And there is no one more pro-life than the devil when she walks out.

And after the sin, you sit in the aftermath, he tells you over and over and over and over again how disqualified you are. He covers you in a cloak of shame that you think warms you, comforts you, and tells you, “God can never use you.”

Well, enter Cedarville University’s daily chapel. Guess what this is? This is communal abiding. That’s what it is. It’s communal abiding. And some of you are, like, “Well, it’s kind of required abiding.” (laughter) And some of you are, like, “It’s totally forced abiding!”

But, this shame-filled, couldn’t-pass-elementary-math, really-couldn’t-communicate girl sat in chapel day after day after day, and something started to happen.

Shame is really pervasive. Shame is our deepest, most private emotion. It takes control of every part of our life. One of the parts of my life it took control of is, I could not stand to look in the mirror. I would do everything I could to avoid it. Listen, you know what? I put my makeup on for almost ten years without looking in the mirror, including my mascara. Boys, I know you don’t understand that this is, like, a super-human power. But girls, to this day I can put my mascara on in the dark. I feel the lashes. That is how much I avoided the mirror. Why? Because I was ashamed.

I noticed something as I started to be bathed in the Word every day at chapel. One day I looked, and I was, like, “I’m looking in the mirror. What is happening? Why am I not afraid to see that face?”

And I realized that Jesus was beginning to set me free.

Listen, you may not even want to be in this room. I’m telling you that God’s Word does not return void. It does the work it comes to accomplish. And in my life, I did not know the word shame and understand. I mean, I knew the Word. I didn’t understand the concept of it operating in my life. I hadn’t identified the lie that God couldn’t use me yet.

But God did. He saw the shame. He knew the lie was in the roots of my belief system. And He showed up at chapel every day, and He used His Word because. . .”if you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I was starting to know Jesus better, and He was beginning to loosen the shackles in my life. It made me hungry for the Lord. It made me hungry for the Word. It made me hungry.

You know, when we eat too many potato chips, and you just want more? Listen: When you start eating carrots, that’s what you crave. And when we feed our spirits with the Bread of Truth, the Bread of Life, we crave it. We want it. I wanted it.

So I started spending, for me, an hour a day I spend with the Lord, most days. And you might say, “Wow, that sounds really holy.” No. I do it because I’m that unholy. Without Jesus, uh-uh. Talk about emotional wealth. I can bring it. I need Jesus that much.

And so I’ve been abiding in Him. As I have been abiding, I have experienced the freedom that we read about in John 8:31 and 32. I want to invite you to abide. What am I asking you to do? Remain. Stay. Don’t let the busyness pull you away from Him.

And if you have wandered, come back. Jesus is still saying, “Abide.” Jesus is still saying, “Remain.” Jesus is still saying, “Stay.”

If you choose to abide, I want you to expect two things. These are promises that I think I can make you.

If you abide, expect and accept the pruning. If you abide, expect and accept the pruning.

If you have your Bibles, look at John 15 for me. I would love to read the entire passage here, but I live on a farm with fainting goats, and Cindi Lou, ate the bottom of John 15. (laughter) So, we’re just going to read the top. Jesus will do what He needs to do with this. It says, 

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

The secret to fruitfulness is abiding. Period. But if you abide, expect and accept the pruning.

Listen, my sexual sin was just the manifestation and fruit of other deeper sins in my life, more pervasive, more controlling sins in my life.

Sins like unrepentance. If you’re really sorry, you stop. If you’re really repentant, you don’t do it again. You turn around. You walk the other way. And I didn’t do that.

Pride . . . There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “Hey, be careful. If you think you’re not going to do it . . . um . . . you’re probably going to fall” (see Prov. 16:18). And I did. Hard.

Self-sufficiency. “I can do it. I don’t need to tell anyone. Nobody needs to know. I’ll find my way back to Jesus on my own.” You know what James 5:15 has to say about that? “Confess your sins one to another.”

Yeah, that sin. The one you’re thinking about right now. The one you’re thinking, “I could never tell anybody.” Underneath that is the fear of man and the sin of self-sufficiency.

Christianity is not a solo sport, friend. You are part of a Body. “Confess your sins one to another.”

 

My first year or so at Cedarville, I was dragging around dead branches. I wonder if you’re dragging around any dead branches? Branches that Jesus needs to prune.

Pruning is a good thing. I pruned the Lilac bush on my farm. You know why? So that next summer it produces fruit, it produces flowers.

Jesus needs to cut off the dead branches in your life.

• I got repentant.
• I broke off that relationship.
• I got humble.
• I realized that I had proven that I was capable of any sin, and that I was a sinner.
• I got dependent.
• I confessed my sin to my friends.
• And I got free.

The very thing that you think will disqualify you . . . “Oh, if people knew . . .” It might set you on the sidelines for a moment or two, as God heals your heart. That lilac bush, when I pruned it real hard, it takes a year off. And sometimes we need to, too.

But after that, I became fruitful. That’s when I started to be fruitful. After I did those things, fruit started happening in my life. Things I desired to do but couldn’t do on my own human power. Listen, it’s Jesus in us. It’s His presence in us that produces fruit. And that fruit can’t grow unless the dead branches are cut off.

Here’s the other promise I make you: if you abide in Christ, He’ll reset your emotions, and you’ll experience love and joy. It actually says that. Cindi Lou who didn’t eat these verses, so I’ll read them to you:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

Do you hear all the love? You know what happens when you start to experience love? The love of God . . . perfect love . . . “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). So I can stand before you today because Jesus has cast fear out of my life through His love.

The girl who was terrified to give a seven-minute speech . . . I’m not as scared today. I am a little scared (laughter), but perfect love is with me, in me right now.

And then it says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be full” (v. 11).

Listen, two years ago I was invited to speak at chapel, and it was during a season of pruning. Boy, He likes to prune. Boy, Jesus, He loves His shears. He just prunes and prunes, and I don’t know when and if there’s a time when you get to be, like, “I’m done! Come get me, Jesus!” But I’m not there yet.

It was in a season of pruning, and the circumstances aren’t important. It was a very painful time in my life. And so I showed up at Cedarville, and I didn’t have it in me. But I decided, “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to abide. I’m going to fast, and I’m going to pray.”

I think fasting is a very overlooked discipline in the Christian life. It’s one way we tell our flesh that it’s not the boss of our spirits.

And so I was fasting, and I was praying. I was excited about ministering to you. And I was also excited about Colonial Pizza after. (laughter) But I was fasting, so I couldn’t eat it until, like, when the fast was over, which wasn’t until the next day.

But here’s the thing: because I was so needy for the presence of Jesus before I spoke in chapel, I spent the night abiding. And when I left chapel, the presence of His love was so deep in me, the joy was so deep in me, that I went back to my room at the Heartstone Inn, and I kept eating granola and apples, because I did not want to leave the presence of Jesus.

I want to tell you that there’s been many times in my life that I experienced joy the way that I did that day. It was just, like, bubbling up effervescently, flowing out of me. Why would I want to leave that?

 

Listen, my circumstances hadn’t changed. They were really bad. It is not our circumstances God needs to change. It’s us.

Elisabeth Elliot said, "The secret is Christ in you, not a set of circumstances."

Jesus will help you with your emotions. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It set me so free that I’ve been fruitful, very fruitful. And if that sounds prideful, man, you have not been in the pit of shame that I’ve lived in. You have not carried around the lie that God cannot use you. Because, when I said I’ve been fruitful, I’m, like, “Whoa! God did that with this?”

You know that lie, “God can never use me”? Well, a few years ago my husband went to the Dominican Republic. We get a lot of letters from Dominicans that use our resources. He came back, and he said, “God is really moving in the Dominican Republic. I think we’re supposed to start a “True Girl.” It’s supposed to be there.”

And I was, like, “No.” I was so overloaded and so stressed out, how could I do anything else? How could I do more?

What I said, what we do, what we Christians do before we actually say, “No.” Because I thought, No. I didn’t say it to Him. I said, “I’ll pray about it.” (laughter) And I did.

A few weeks later, my dear friend, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth called me, and she said, “I’d like you to help me do the first international Revive Our Hearts event. Will you go?” 

And I said, “Sure! Where is it?”

She said, “The Dominican Republic.” (laughter) So I went.

We have a beautiful, rich ministry to all of Latin America out of the Dominican Republic. But let me tell you what happened at that event, at that conference.

It was in a room about this size, with 3,000 or so women in it. At the beginning of that event, I’m sitting there, and every now and then, that thing rises up, “Oh, who are you? Who are you? Why are you here? How’s God going to use you?”

I’m sitting there, and it’s getting me, and then Nancy says, “I’m so excited that women from all over Latin America are here today.” And suddenly the crowd went crazy and flags went up across the entire crowd from every country in Latin America. And it was like God’s Spirit said, “Do you believe now? Have you stopped believing the lie? How much fruit do you need to know I want to use you? How much fruit? I know you had that thing about the flags, so I brought them here for you today.”

I felt like God was saying that to my heart, “Abide. Remain. Stay. And if you’ve wandered, come back.”

I want to pray for you just briefly. Would you stand up if you have believed the lie that God can’t use you? If you’ve believed that at any point in your life. Maybe you’re over it, but somebody else in the room needs to know. “Yes, I believe that.” I want to pray for you.

And if you’re standing next to someone who’s believed that, just put your hand on them. The Bible talks about . . . Oh, you’re all standing. (laughter) Put your hands on others.

Father God, use these students. In the name of Jesus Christ, set them on a mission that can only be accomplished because You are in them, and You are abiding in them, and they are abiding in You.

Father, set them free. Cut off the dead branches. May they give You permission to do that, Lord. You’re such a gentleman. You don’t bring the sheers out until we submit. So, Father, may they submit today, get honest before friends and family, be repentant and turn around.

And, Father God, make them fruitful. May they know the love and the joy of Jesus Christ in the way that I have. I pray this in the precious name of my matchless, the matchless name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Nancy: What an encouragement it is when God gives us little gifts along the way to remind us that He’s still at work in us.

That’s what those flags from around the world did for Dannah Gresh. I hope her story inspires you to set aside any lies that you might be believing and replace them with the truth—God’s truth. You and I cannot know the truth in any kind of life-altering, life-giving way without abiding as Dannah’s been describing.

We have so many free resources available at our website, resources that will help you read and study and abide in His Word. Be sure to check them out at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Today’s program is sponsored by listeners like you who see the value of bringing the message of freedom, fullness and, yes, fruitfulness in Christ to women all around the world.

Women like Daniella who lives in Italy. She wrote to thank us for the help she’s found through Revive Our Hearts. She says she was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2020. She had just gotten married. Can you imagine?

Well, a friend pointed Daniella to a book that my husband and I had written together called, You Can Trust God to Write Your Story. And that’s how she discovered Revive Our Hearts. She wrote and said to me, 

Your podcasts were so helpful during the long hours I spent at the hospital for my treatments. I was particularly encouraged by the series, “Singing the Lord’s Song in a Foreign Land,” because that’s exactly where I’d been living—in a foreign land called cancer, where I had to learn a new language, meet new people, and cope with a new me.

Over the months as I’ve listened, it helped me a lot to remember that even in my darkest hours, the Lord reigns and heaven rules. And that’s exactly what I repeated to myself every time I walked along those hospital hallways that led to the oncology department. So thank you for being part of my recovery.

Wow! That gives me goosebumps thinking about how God was at work in that woman’s heart during this difficult time. Thank you, Daniella.

I’m always encouraging to hear from listeners, whether from here in the U.S. or Italy, or anywhere in the world. And, by the way, if you’re telling someone from another country about Revive Our Hearts, be sure to check and see if we have content available in their language. All of our non-English languages are listed at ReviveOurHearts.com/languages. Be sure and check that out so you can recommend it to friends whose mother-tongue is not English.

Well, next week we’ll hear a riveting story from Elizabeth Mitchell. She’s the author of a book called, Journey for the Heart: Hope When Life’s Unfair. I know you’ll be encouraged, especially if you’ve ever lost a child or know someone who has.

Have a wonderful weekend, and be sure to join the Lord’s people for worship. I hope you’ll be back on Monday for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women in freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.