God is in a process with every believer wherein He is moving towards a goal. This goal is for the Church to end up as a people of excellence, the most different, glorious powerful, holy group of people on the planet – manifesting the character of Jesus, which means perfection. We have the Holy Spirit residing inside of us by whom God will gain his goal. However, God does not deal with us en masse, but as individuals and is lovingly (not punitively) committed towards training and developing each one of us unto maturity – this end result will be to His glory. A picture of this is the parable told by Jesus about the branches of the vine being lifted up, washed and pruned towards greater fruitfulness. The more connected we are with Christ in a personal relationship, the more fruitful our lives will become. The washing and pruning in our lives and characters is done by hearing the Word and our response thereto. The Bible is a book concerning the thoughts which God has towards us and they can only be revealed to us when our minds have been renewed through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps and trains our conscience to be synchronized to the truth of the Word and to believe. To effect change in us where we fail to live up to the standards of the Word, there needs to be a heart attitude of sincere, godly sorrow without self-justification, comparison with someone else or trying to shift the blame onto someone or something else. We need to embrace God’s pruning in our lives – it is to our benefit. The pruning brings us to greater fruitfulness, to a place of more dependence upon Jesus, assures of his love, it brings us to a place where He can answer more of our prayers; it takes place in order for our lives to bring glory to Him and that His Word can become flesh in us. God is always good to us, regardless of which circumstances we find ourselves.
