Do you feel like you’ve been pruned? Cut back? Sharply shaped without your permission? You are not alone. A part of me too is all rough edges, exposed emotions and sappy branches.

In what seemed like a moment, the entire world experienced a sharp and swift pruning of our lives. We were sent home to protect us from an enemy that is invisible and deadly. Our “sheltering at home” will either become place of safety and healing or they will become prisons of pain and fear.

Why would God prune the entire world, all at one time? We can find some understanding In John 15. Jesus reveals the Father as a farmer who cares for his vineyard through pruning so that what is “cut back” will become even more fruitful.

There is only one reason that God prunes a fruitful vine and that is to make it more fruitful. He prunes an unfruitful vine as well, but that vine is clipped off as deadwood, never to reproduce again.

You and I are sitting on the cusp of a great revival of faith in Jesus.

Believers have been called into their personal prayer closets. In private, He is tending to our pruned branches, preparing them to bear more weight - more fruit - more of His glory.

Those who have not yet heard the good news or who might have even rejected or ignored the gospel are experiencing the same pruning as a moment of grace whereby their fear and pain can make way for His healing, rescue and His salvation.

Prepare yourself now to share your testimony tomorrow. The whole world is being “ripened” so that man might listen and believe.