As I continue this journey, my present, overwhelming topic continues to be centered around Spirit–my spirit and The Holy Spirit. This morning’s devotional readings have shown Light which I want to dwell upon. An excerpt from my devotional says: “To be truly free is to live in perfect unity with me and reliance upon me. It comes from a lifestyle of submission. This isn’t submission that stems from duty and obligation, but a true yielding of every aspect of your body, soul, and spirit, out of love….” When you couple this with the scripture reading in Romans 11:10-18, I begin to see something I’ve not begun to understand until now.

The roots of our life are embedded in spirit, not flesh. God is Spirit and so is Satan–evil. When we accept Jesus into our lives He brings with Him The Holy Spirit who waits for us to surrender everything about us to Him–not out of duty and obligation as is in the quote above, but in genuine love. Our flesh seems to know best the spirit of evil–selfishness, pride, self-centeredness, etc. The roots that God has grafted us into when we accept Christ into our lives are the roots of Himself–The Holy Spirit. I am finally grasping this much more clearly. The mystery of this is becoming much less vague.

When the scripture says that God prunes us, I’ve always seen this through the lens of flesh. What I believe I’m starting to understand is that the pruning is the evil spirit beliefs I’ve had far too long. God prunes away the selfishness, the pride, the self-centeredness, etc. I know a lot about pruning and this is finally making sense to me. I have so much to learn and understand! I’m so glad God is PATIENT!