“You can't develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict.”– Leonard Ravenhill

Prodigo had no input into picking who his parents would be, but nevertheless, he is the genetic byproduct of these two individuals. That means he is the byproduct of their transgression and sins, his grandparents’ transgressions and sins, and also his great-grandparents. He may have had no choice in whom he was at birth, but he has everything to do with who he will become in life. This will be determined by Prodigo’s surrendered response to the gospel of the kingdom message. Will he become poor in spirit; mourn for his bankrupt ways; surrender in gentleness to Jesus, the sovereign, righteous king; hunger and thirst for righteousness; extend mercy to those around him; and yield to God’s pruning process for the growth of his righteousness here on earth? If he does the beauty of the makarios life is for him now in this world and will fully be his in the future kingdom rule of Jesus in the new heaven and earth where God’s eternal lavishing of grace and kindness awaits him.

It is these attitudes and the enormity of God’s response back to Prodigo that will determine whether he is just another transgressor/sinner passing his faults on to his children or as a redeemed child of God, lead them to the road less traveled, the narrow road to the makarios life and the kingdom rule of Jesus.   

This process of change from a blind and ignorant, wickedly insane transgressor/sinner is a lifetime challenge. Though justification is a onetime declaration by God when we respond to the gospel of the kingdom by faith, restoration is a lengthy process covering a lifetime. The beauty of God’s pruning process is that those going through the pruning process are allowed to see God. That is worthy of being pruned!

If Prodigo responds to the gospel of the kingdom message with the attitudes Jesus teaches here in Matthew 5, someday in his future he will be able to pause and look back on the amazing journey he has been on with joy and satisfaction. He will marvel at the times when the presence of God felt so close that everything else in his world faded away. He will wonder over his lowest times when he felt so poor in spirit he was certain he would never bask in the riches of God’s mercy ever again, only to wake up one day and realize God’s lovingkindness was new every morning. He will delight in the change in his nephesh for good that came during the hardest of times. He will smile over his awkward attempts to walk by the Spirit and He will praise God for keeping His promise to never condemn him for his failures no matter how hard he fell. With his head looking towards heaven and his heart bowing humbly to the ground he will murmur a love song of thanksgiving for the kindness and grace lavished upon him by his sovereign, righteous king as he gazes into the very heart of God.

These can be the moments and memories of Prodigo’s life under the sovereign King’s rule but he must respond to the promises of Jesus accordingly or his life will be nothing like this and neither will his future. His life can be as vast as the oceans in possibilities and as high as the heavens in its scope of discovery. That is the promise to the pure in heart, for only they get to see God. Let’s walk together with Prodigo as the Almighty vine dresser cuts away at the weak branches in his nephesh allowing Prodigo to bask in redemption while growing in righteousness.

When looking at the pruning methods of God we must begin with a question: is God responsible for all the suffering that goes on in our world? The answer to this is complicated but it can be understood – He is and He is not. God created freewill and it is through our freedom to make choices that everything which causes suffering, originates. Our wickedly insane and blindly ignorant heart has the ability to make a right or a wrong choice at any time. This is extremely important when looking at God’s pruning methods. God makes choices all the time that affect our lives, but His character and abilities are never enticed to do wrong nor will He ever tempt us to do wrong. All temptations to do wrong originate from our transgressor-influenced nephesh or from Satan.

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He himself does not tempt anyone.” (James 1:13)

Prodigo needs to understand freewill in order to go through a katharos experience and come out the other side, seeing God. If God never tempts Prodigo to do wrong, what is His relationship then with the difficult circumstances that Prodigo will have to face during his lifetime?

The answer to this is contained in the overall plan of God. As a transgressor Prodigo’s vision is greatly blurred. His view is so narrowly focused on himself that he has a very strong tendency to look at God’s plan as only being about him. But God’s plan is not focused on Prodigo. His plan is focused on the future new heaven and earth that will be completely under the sovereign, righteous rule of Jesus Christ forever. It is a world where Jesus is seen and recognized as the sovereign ruling king and the full expression of the deity of God. A world where there will be no opposition to what is good and right. It is a world where God will lavish grace and kindness forever on the people who live there. The concern Prodigo should have with the plan of God is this; will he be one of those living in the new heaven and new earth under the sovereign rule of Jesus or will he find himself in the torment of hell away from the wonder and beauty of living under God’s kingdom rule?

The moment Prodigo makes God’s plan all about himself he will no longer be able to experience the makarios life in the middle of great difficulties. The blessedness that comes to Prodigo from being pure in heart and seeing God will only come from his understanding that he has no right to be included in God’s plan. With his poor in spirit attitude though, as a born-again Christian he possesses all the privileges afforded God’s family. This way of thinking is what will allow Prodigo to be gentle enough to accept God’s pruning as good and with joy welcome them.

From this vantage point the katharos takes on a whole different view for Prodigo. His treasure is in heaven, not on earth, therefore his time on earth is all about building the treasure he will have waiting for him in heaven. This is where freewill develops its proper perspective. Remember, in the new heaven and new earth Prodigo will be clothed with the righteous deeds he did while living on this present earth.

These righteous deeds are not those Prodigo does mechanically. Righteous deeds are those done willingly from a heart free to choose another way. If God were to force Prodigo’s obedience his actions would not be considered righteous deeds because robotic obedience is not how God designed Prodigo to function in life. That is certainly not the way the image of God operates. Willingly accepting God’s pruning methods of trials and tribulations without fighting or resisting them is a righteous deed when Prodigo considers the trial he is faced with as help for him to become the person God created him to be. Welcoming the difficulties of his life with joy because they give him the opportunity to see God is also a righteous deed. These responses are the righteous way Prodigo is supposed to respond to God’s promises and pruning. It is how someone in the image of God lives life. This is what it looks like to walk in the Spirit and truly believe.

We cannot talk about the trials, tribulations, and the pruning methods of God without dealing with Satan. The pruning methods of God come from two sources: of course they come from God but they also come from Satan and the demonic angels who follow him. Satan and the demons are extremely powerful. They are created beings and have the freedom to make their own choices to do right or wrong. Fortunately, God is so much greater than Satan which makes Satan under God’s authority just as everything is in the universe.

What we label as acts of God here on earth are most often acts of Satan where he uses nature and people to kill and destroy. Prodigo needs to understand that Satan has the ability to influence the environment. He also will use human transgression by stirring up hostilities of one group of people or individuals against others to such an extent that there are wars, mass killings, murder, stealing, and horrific atrocities. Satan has the ability to even use disease as one of his weapons. But maybe his most treacherous means of harming humans is through his methods of discouragement, which will lead to many other difficulties in life.

All of Satan’s methods have two purposes. The first is to get Prodigo to walk away from the sovereign, righteous rule of God. The second is to prohibit him from living the fullness of the makarios life here on this earth. God gives us an inside look at how this occurs through many stories in the Bible. Two of the most revealing ones are the story of Joseph and the story of Job.

The story of Joseph gives us a clear look at how our transgression-influenced nephesh can be used by Satan for evil. The best way to describe how this occurs is through the story of Joseph.  Satan set out to devour him using the jealous intentions of his brothers. Years later when the God-orchestrated circumstances of Joseph’s life brought him face to face with those same brothers he said this to them, “You meant it for harm, but God meant it for good.”

These words describe exactly what Satan wants to do with Prodigo; to create circumstances that will cause him harm and then as Prodigo struggles with the result of these bad circumstances cause him to become discouraged and lose his faith. But God will take the same circumstances and use them to accomplish good IF Prodigo has the right attitude toward them.

The story of Job gives us an inside look into the evilness of Satan’s ways and intentions. Job suffered as much as any human has ever suffered. Everything that happened to him was the direct result of Satan wanting to get at God by harming Job. But God is so much greater than the circumstances of life and can take everything Satan does and use it for good.

God had declared Job to be upright and blameless, a man who feared God and turned away from evil. But Satan’s intentions right from the start were to prove God wrong about this by getting Job to no longer be in submission to God’s rule. This is what it means in the Hebrew language when Satan said he could get Job “To curse God to His face.”

Satan told God that Job was only blameless and upright because God was protecting him from the struggles that others have to go through. Satan said that if the wall of protection God was providing around Job was removed, he could get Job to walk away from the sovereign rule of God.

This is where Prodigo needs to see the relationship God has to the trials and temptations that come to his life. God did remove the wall of protection He had around Job, which meant Satan could then change the circumstances of Job’s life from good to horribly bad.

This is God’s relationship with the trials and temptations that Prodigo will be up against. He gave permission for Satan to do whatever he wanted to against Job but God did not choose the circumstances. Satan did and designed them to destroy Job. God knew what Satan would do, but the evil that came to Job did not come from God’s hand. It came as the result of God removing His wall of protection around Job.

Why then would God do this? Because God had a remarkable purpose for Job, just as He does for Prodigo. He didn’t just expose Job to Satan’s evil desires. He intentionally put Job in a place where he could then fulfill what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14, 15:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” 

Job was a very good man who sought God’s ways in his life in everything from the smallest details to the largest ones. But after this incredibly difficult katharos he went through, Job became a shining light for God throughout all cultures and generations then and in the future. Almost everyone has heard of the trials and tribulations of Job. Most of our lights burn out only a generation after our death, but not his. Job’s will last forever for God recorded his story in the Bible for every generation of humans to see his light shine brightly. 

Satan caused the catastrophic events that became the temptation for Job to curse God. These methods were the destruction of Job’s material wealth, disease to Job’s body, discouragement from Jobs wife, demoralization from his close friends, and death to Job’s family and servants. These are the methods and weapons that Satan will also use to try and get Prodigo to curse God but God will use them to prune Prodigo so he can see God.

God’s permission for Satan to do what he did to Job was not a temptation for Job to do wrong. That was Satan’s desire. God had a completely different purpose for Job’s trial and temptation just as He has for Prodigo when he is faced with difficult circumstances. He allowed Satan to use whatever method he wanted and then God used them to build Job’s treasure in heaven while allowing him to see God as few have ever been able to.

Seeing God is so remarkable that, after all Job went through, when he did see God his response was, “I repent in dust and ashes.” That was Job’s way of saying, “You are so magnificent God that I have no other response but to be poor in spirit.” God then blessed Job twice as much as He had before. What an incredible consequence from one human life. The trials and tribulations that Job experienced solely came from the hand of Satan who only meant it for harm whereas God allowed it for good.

Sometimes difficult circumstances will come into Prodigo’s life directly from God’s gentle hand of discipline.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:5, 6)

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11)

If God reaches out His hand to hurt He does so with the full intention of molding a faltering transgressor/sinner, into His peaceful and righteous image. There will never be any condemnation towards Prodigo when God prunes or disciplines him. It is always for this same purpose, to restore His image in Prodigo and allow him to see God more clearly. God calls this type of pruning discipline because at times Prodigo will find himself stubbornly living his life in such a way he is hurting himself and limiting his ability to experience the fullness of the makarios.  

I have personally experienced the pruning discipline that comes from God’s hand and the pruning trials and temptations that come from Satan meant to discourage me and cause me harm. Though both hurt me to the core of my nephesh, there is a definite difference in these two. Satan meant only to rob me of the makarios life and drive me away from God, while God’s discipline meant to give me the fullness of the makarios life that I was running away from and draw me deeper into relationship with Him. 

The potential for Prodigo’s life is limited only by his willingness to yield to the pruning process that can make him pure in heart.  If he understands the plan of God, then Prodigo can respond to the circumstances of his life, whether they are good or bad, in such a way as to build his treasure in heaven. Prodigo’s treasure can be seen in the way he responds to the difficulties that come into his life. The greatest treasure Prodigo will ever have is the clear view of God he receives by becoming pure in heart. And the clearer his view of God is the clearer his view of himself will be, which will keep him in joyful acceptance of the pruning methods of God. 

 

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