Our Great Friend Kenny Peavy Gives Us this Special Devotional Message as We Learn to Pivot in this Crazy Season
Pruning Shears by L O R A via Unsplash
First, and foremost dear ones, I bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Your fearless leader and my dear friend, Craig McClurg asked me to pray and share a word I sense God wanting to give to you. As I seek God to fill my heart and mind with His word for you, He has overwhelmed me with His love for each of you around the world. I am compelled by Father God to share with you that you are so special to His heart. You belong to Him (1 John 4:4), He loves you (Romans 5:5, 1 John 4:16) You have not been forgotten, and you are never ever forsaken, and He knows exactly what His plans are for you. (Jeremiah 29:10-14). He is for you. His face does shine upon you. He sees you, and hears and knows you and adores you, you are His beloved children. Better yet, He is with you. He has promised us over and over that He will be with you (Isaiah 41:10, Joshua 1:9, Matthew 28:20), and even better yet, He has seen fit to dwell within you (John 14:23, 1 Cor. 3:16) He will quiet the fear, the worry, the anxiety, the not knowing, at once, with His Love (Zephaniah 3:17). He will give us eyes to see from Heaven’s perspective (Eph. 2:6, 1 Cor. 2:10-16). So in this hour, with the story of Corona Virus and its affects all around us, how do we rise up above such a story to once again partake in His victory over us, in us, and through us? How do we partake in His story mentioned above?
Let Him Do It All the Way His Way
It is out of His great Love that He prunes you to rescue you, to remind you, to revive you, to simplify you, to purify you, to set you free, unto the return of your first love. Let Him do it, all the way, His way. For He has always been your Reward. The fruit on the tree was never what made us worth His love, or their support, whoever they are. It was never what legitimized us as missionaries. Jesus was always the Reward before the fruit ever became important. In this season of pruning, let God shake you out of any daily routine other than one that reinforces intimacy with Him (Hebrews 12:27-30). Let Him do it, all the way His way. Second, let Father God prune you from the fruit. What is coming is amazing! It is better! He already knows what it is. He is the Author and Perfecter of it. Let Him do it, all the way, His way. Third, let Him lead you to the surrender in your heart, that you may enter that secret place filled with His grace and mercy. He has done it all to bring us to such a place of intimacy with Him. It is here, with the world’s story all around us that we can finally just gazeupon the Vine once again. It is in this place that all things become new, again. It is in this place that the Vinedresser removes all that subtly made our relationship with Christ conditional. It is here that Father God reintroduces us to the Vine, and the Vine shows us the conditions of our hearts. He fills us with His presence and His perfect Love heals that which has been broken in us, and He returns us to our first love. Let Him do it, all the way, His way. He restores that which has been broken. He renews a fresh fire within us. He reminds us of what was forgotten. He makes all things new. He releases the fullness of His affections for us, throughout our very beings, and we are free from it all. Let Him do it all, His way, all the way. It is in this place that our full trust in Him has been restored. It is in this place where intimacy is reborn. Our assurance of the mighty Savior of the world is made new, again. It is here that he reveals the strategies on His mind with us, and with wisdom for the revelation (Ephesians 1:17-20), we understand the Word of the Lord for this hour! It is in this place that we begin to Remember the faithfulness of His goodness as evidenced by our own personal testimonies, and we come back to that beautiful place where we are really free to worship Him with childlike hearts again. Freedom is fun y’all!
Beloved, in this hour, take your pain, your questions, your desperation, your anxiety, your everything, and throw yourself on the alter, and praise Him like you did when there was no ministry, no family, no spouse, no idea of your big vast future out in front of you; just Jesus, His Cross, His Blood, and your salvation. Worship Him. It is when we worship Him with such an abandon that we lean and fall onto Him and not on our own understandings (Proverbs 3:5). It is then that we can see Him, hear Him, feel Him, understand Him, align with Him, abide with Him, and in His presence choose to remain in His Love (John 15:4). It is here, in this place, that we can know and apply HIS story into the one we see unfolding before us.
In closing, Psalm 40:1-3 says, “…I waited…He turned…He heard…He lifted me out…He set my feet…He gave me…He put a new song in my mouth…many will see and fear the Lord and out their trust in Him.” This is the essence of His pruning in our lives. Our simple first love is our only love, and greater fruit is produced from the experience.
Application
Take the next 20 minutes and remember the goodness of God in your life. Respond with absolute personal expression of thanksgiving (for what He has done) and praise (for who He is). Write down what God speaks to you or reveals to you. Start there. Do it again tomorrow morning, and tomorrow night. Practice being in the presence of the One Who’s presence lives within you. I have included three worship songs to serve you in your worship. I worshiped God with these when I was praying for this letter to you. He was always there, He is with you right now, and He will always be with you, guiding you through every single circumstance. Let Him prune you in this season from the fruit, that you may gaze upon the beauty of Vine. His new fruit He will produce from His pruning process in you, your family, and your ministry, will be greater than ever before (Haggai 2:9).
Kenny Peavy