Main Scriptures: Jn.15:1-4
More Scriptures: Gen.2:15, Jer.15:10, 1Cor.7:1
I love the rendition of John chapter 15 and I trust the Person of the Holy Spirit to help our understanding as shepherds of our sheep and sheepfold.
I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. He lops off every branch that doesn’t produce. And he prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops. He has already tended you by pruning you back for greater strength and usefulness by means of the commands I gave you. Take care to live in me and let me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me. (Jn.15:1-5) TLB
The way a vinedresser invests time, energy and resources to keep the vineyard in good condition, is how you are to take care of your sheepfold. The vinedresser always ensures that he keeps his vineyard not just clean but also to produce more and more fruits. He takes away the weeds and any other plants that may hinder the continued fruitfulness of the plants. His joy and glory as a vinedresser is that his vines are constantly producing fruits. This is exactly who you are as the godly husbandman. This is how your family setting is. You are the vinedresser, your wife and children are the branches and the home is the vineyard. Did you notice that you have a greater influence over what happens to the branches and the vineyard? That is the power that God has given to you as the godly husbandman and God expects you to use it to His glory. As the vinedresser, your job is to make your home comforting for your branches to bear more fruits-spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically and in many more areas of their lives. From the beginning, that is how God has set it out. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to TEND and to KEEP it (Gen.2:15).
Your job is to prune your flock and their environment. And you can do this by ensuring that bitterness, envy, unforgiveness and hatred do not reign in your home. According to Scripture, where there is envy, there will be strife. Very importantly, do not promote any such ungodliness in your family. The Book of Jeremiah says a man of strife and a man of contention…… (Jer.15:10). So, for your wife and children to bear much fruit, you have to allow love, forgiveness, mercy, kindness and friendship to reign supreme at home. However, for you to effectively prune your vineyard so that it would bear more fruits, you will have to commit to watching over your family fold with all diligence in prayers and intercession. Secondly, you engage the Word of God. As you use God’s word to pray for them, they will be cleaned until they grow into the very image and likeness of God. Every vinedresser has an attachment to his vineyard. Protect yours.
SPIRITUAL EXERCISE
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, teach me how to make my vineyard bear more fruits.
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, teach me how to prune my wife and children.
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, fill me with divine wisdom and make me a good vine dresser.
FAITH CONFESSION
I am a vinedresser and I am committed to pruning my vine and vineyard so that it may bear more fruits because that is what makes me the good and godly husbandman in Jesus Name. Amen.
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