Pressed and Pruned

Welcome to today's episode of Reflective Hour. I'm Tammy Toney-Butler, Author, Host, and Evangelist. But we all know who the host of this show is. And that's Christ by way of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth that lives in us, works through us, delivers us, restores us, redeems us. It's all about Jesus and the work done on Calvary, pressed and pruned. How many of you are being crushed this season? Pruned so much you are uncertain if you can withstand the next frost or big wind that blows in. You ask yourself, "Why me, oh Lord? Why me?" You ask this question over and over, but no answer comes. You get on your knees. You call out to God. You fast, but nothing has changed in your external outward circumstances. Yet day after day, you seek, you knock, and you wait on the door, a door to open to you, never truly realizing that during this breaking and remaking process internally, you have been pruned as well. pruned of doubt, fear, despair, and a spiritual slumber of of judgment, cleaned and cleared, set free, pruned. You have been awakened spiritually day by day, training your inner man to hear the whisper of God by way of the Holy Spirit. Even silence was an answer you could not see. Silence brought you to the well to drink over and over again, seeking to satisfy your constant thirst. You drank of the Holy Spirit without realizing it because a place of stillness before the Lord has great spiritual significance. I want you to look at Isaiah 20, focus on verse 6. Look at Mark 2 and focus on verse 9. Look at Luke 4 and focus on three. And look at Romans 2 and focus on verse one. What do you see? Reflect on these scriptures. Then go to your quiet place. Get alone with the Lord. Seek and knock and you will receive an answer. The answer you've been longing for. Get on your knees one more time. Trust God. Call out to God and you will get an answer. You will get an answer. You will get an answer. And when I did this and I sat with the Lord in my secret place and went on this little spiritual spiritual scavenger hunt with him, I started looking at Isaiah, how it was talking about where it said fled to people for help. And then in Mark, I focused on get up, pick up your stretcher, and walk. And it made me think about what voice do you listen to? And is it a voice that commands you to act? Is it time that you've sat in stillness long enough and now you have to trust and act? And God is saying, commanding, pick up your stretcher, pick up your mat, and walk. Put your foot in the Red Sea, start walking, and the seas will part. Maybe your season of waiting is over and maybe it's time for you to act, to step out, to step into all God's called you to be. And realize that when you step, he's with you. When when you stretch out your hand, he already has the healing. He already has everything that you need. But you needed to believe it to receive it. And the stillness was changing you. The stillness was molding you. The stillness was was was mending you on the inside of the things that are broken. the things that were inhibiting you from inheriting the promises of God. And when you look at Luke, it spoke of Jesus recognizing the adversar's voice. And now you can too because of the time you spent in the secret place. Because of the time you spent calling out, you sat still with a quiet mind just waiting and waiting and waiting on the Lord and knowing knowing that he was going to speak. soul to soul, spirit to spirit. You calmed your soul, your mind, will, and emotions so that your your human spirit could could be changed and molded by the spirit of God that's in you by the Holy Spirit. And in Romans, you were taught not to judge. And in this season of waiting, in this season of breaking, in this season of pruning, you've been remade. You've become you've been remade to a person that doesn't judge, that doesn't have excuses. That that that you've been pruned of judgment, pruned of excuses. You've been taught to wait in the Lord. Not just on the Lord, but in the Lord, in the Lord's strength, in the Lord's peace, in the Lord's joy. You've been taught to wait in faith. You've been taught and your faith muscle has stretched. You've had an internal pruning and you have been resurrected as a new creature in Christ Jesus in his strength. in his strength. And the stillness has trained your spirit to recognize the calling of your shepherd's voice. An inner knowing of which way to go. Following a voice that's silent still, but you're still being drawn like a magnet in the direction of true north towards God, a knowing. You've graduated from from listening and and and waiting on a command or a directive to knowing to knowing to knowing to knowing to knowing to knowing to knowing this is the way. Walk in it. This is the way God wants me to go. This is the way that I need to go. I didn't necessarily need a voice. I've matured from milk to meat and now I know this is the way. Walk in it. I know that my steps are ordered by the Lord because I have put on the garment of Christ. I resemble Christ. He is in me. There is no separation. I have prepared his temple. I am a holy, righteous tree. And God is calling me now to step to step into what he has waiting for me. To step into my purpose, into my calling. To believe it. To become it. To believe it. To become it. To believe it. to become it. Your crushing season is over. Your pruning season is over. You have risen up. You have grown in him. You have grown in strength. You've grown in spiritual power and might and authority. Start stepping. Start walking. Step into all God has for you this season. Step into all God has for you this season. Step into all that God has for you this season. step into all that God has for you this season. And that's the message he has for you today on Reflective Hour with Tammy Toney-Butler. That's the message He has for you today. And I'm going to link to his creative work, a Holy Spirit inspired creative work, the olive press of affliction, a crushing season fil God. I'm going to put the barcode up for that book. I'm going to link to that book, his book. I want you to read it. I want you to understand it. I want you to use it as a field guide. And I want you to always refer to it, know how far you've come, that you've gone through the crushing and the pruning, and you've overcome. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus.