Dead Branches

There are many dead branches still attached to the tree. These branches assume that because they are still attached to the tree, that they are a part of the tree. They are not. They will be pruned by the hand of the Lord and burned. 

Our Lord’s mind toward us is corporate, always, because as the Body of Christ our destiny and make-up are corporate. However, His dealings with us right now are personal and individual. He is building His temple living stone by living stone, and those stones are masoned and set individually. The winnowing fork causes upheaval, tossing grain into the wind for separation to take place. The chaff goes in the direction of the wind, but the grain falls onto solid ground. The grain is indeed falling into heaps, but we have yet to be gathered into the storehouse. Selah. 

(1 Pet 2:5; Eph 2:20-22; Matt 3:12)

Be careful of those who have made a ministry of criticism, those who mistake reviling and slander for Spirit-guided reproach. For the wisdom from above is indeed first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and of good fruits, impartial, and sincere. Selah. 

(James 3:17; Ps 44:15,16; Ps 109:27-29)

Be very careful who you listen to in these days of spiritual treachery, for these are not our days of spiritual glory but of spiritual humiliation. Be wary of the Peters, who speak emphatic “You shall..”s, yet are oblivious that the entirety of their ministrations in the name of the Lord are built not on the concerns of God, but the concerns of men. Selah. 

(Luke 8:18; John 13:8; Matt 16:22,23; Phil 2:8)

Be careful that the light in you is not darkness. Perception is the prism of the heart. Many are focused upon the faults in the matrix and the lens through which they look only darkens their heart. Let your gaze be set singly upon the Beloved, then your perception will be healthy and full of light. Selah. 

(Luke 11:34,35; 2 Cor 3:18)

Be careful that you do not follow men of empty words nor men of strong words. For the Lord is not raising up men in this day, but humbling them. A disciple is not above his Master, and it pleased the Lord to crush His own Son. For in suffering, our Lord learned obedience. And so shall it be with His disciples as well. Selah. 

(Luke 6:40; Is 53:10; Heb 5:8; Prov 17:27)

Be careful that you are faithful in the little things. Those who walk in the flesh seek the extraordinary, yet the Spirit of the Lord dwells in the ordinary. For it is in the ordinary things of life in which a person’s character is revealed. A soul is tempered through a trickle of tedium far more than a torrent of travail. Selah. 

(Luke 16:10; James 1:2,3)

Be careful then, how you walk, not as unwise but wise. Be careful how you listen, whoever has wisdom will be given more, and whoever does not have wisdom, even what they think they have will be taken from them. Be careful how you build, for if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Selah. 

(1 Cor 3:11; Eph 5:15; Mark 4:25; Luke 14:29)

Be careful that you are not a dead branch that will be cut off, but living branch abiding in the Lord to bear fruit. 

(John 16:2-6; Rom 11:19-22)