John 15:1–2: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in Me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.”

I want to draw your attention to the act of God, the ongoing act of God in our lives. Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working” (John 5:17). God is at work in your life.

We see God doing two things here: He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit, and He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit. When you go to Paul’s words, he tells you that some of the natural branches (Israel) were broken off, and we, as Gentiles, were grafted in (Romans 11:17–24). That is the same tree‑imagery: cutting away and grafting in.

In John 15, Jesus is giving you a picture of God’s ongoing action, and the action is targeted at fruit maximization. That is the aim of the gardener, the aim of the Father who is the gardener: fruit maximization. There is nothing sentimental in the sense of holding back from pruning because “the tree will feel bad.” The gardener has a singular aim: the maximizing of fruit.

In this context, the “fruit” is especially the result of your spiritual service—what your life produces for God. But we also see the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23, which shows how we are reflecting Christ, how we are mirroring Christ rather than mirroring the flesh. And we are told that we are to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

The Father’s thinking is that you bear fruit, that you maximize your existence in Him. The branch that is bearing some fruit might think, “I am bearing fruit.” But you do not see the potential the Father sees in you, or how He wants to go about ensuring that you bear more fruit.

“He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.” Pruning is cutting off waste. When you look at Paul, he says, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). He also says, “This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal” (Philippians 3:13–14). He is aligning himself with God’s focus for his life—pursuing what God wants him to pursue—and he charges others similarly: redeem the time; the days are evil. There is not much time to waste.

Listen again: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener.” The first question is: have you been found in Him? That is the number one question, because He is the true vine. You can have all kinds of connections to “spirituality,” but He is the connection we want.

“He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.” From the angle of the branch, you may think, “This is a painful thing that has just happened.” The branch is still the branch; it is still in the vine. But when you come back after pruning, the branch looks different. It is not the way it was before. The gardener has been at work to cut off excess, to streamline things, to focus on efficiency—all with the aim of fruit‑bearing.

All with the aim of fulfilling what is in the mind of God for you to fulfill.

God bless you. See you later.