Joel Osteen - Pruned for Promotion
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Drawing from John 15, Joel Osteen explains that seasons of pruning—cutbacks, losses, and difficulties we don’t understand—are ordained by God, the Gardener, not to harm us but to prepare fruitful branches for more and much fruit, leading to new levels of blessing and destiny if we abide in faith.
Seasons of Pruning
I want to talk to you today about Pruned for Promotion. We all go through times where it feels like we are going backwards. We were doing so good—business was strong, our family was happy, we knew we had God’s favor—but then things turned. We lost a major client, our child did not get the scholarship, a friend walked away. We wonder what happened? What did we do wrong?
But just because you are having difficulties and things you do not understand does not mean you are not in God’s will. God is ordering our steps. Sometimes He will order a cutback. Just as there are seasons of growth, there are seasons of pruning. Without the pruning, we will not become all we were created to be.
God will not allow a cutback if it is not going to eventually work for your good. It may be uncomfortable—you do not understand it, you lost a contract, lost a relationship, lost an opportunity—God would not have let you lose that if He was not going to give you something better.
He may have pruned a friend out of your life—there is a better friend coming. You may have lost a job—there is a better job on the way. You suffered a setback in your health—better health is in your future. Do not be discouraged by the cutback. It is a sign new growth is coming.
The Gardener’s Work
Jesus said in John 15, «I am the vine, you are the branches. My Father is the gardener. Every branch that does not produce fruit He cuts away.» This makes sense when we have things in life that are not productive—a friend pulling us down, a job not leading anywhere. He will cut those things away so we can put our attention and focus on the things that are moving us forward.
We can understand losing something that is not adding value, but He goes on to say, «Every branch that does bear fruit, the gardener cuts back so it will bear more fruit.» The only way to go from fruit to more fruit is to be cut back.
There are times in life where we will lose something that does not make sense. You are going to work with a good attitude, helping others, faithfully raising your children—you are doing the right thing, but the wrong thing happens. Instead of being discouraged, slacking off, having no passion, recognize it is a pruning season. Without that cutback you will not see new growth.
You may be satisfied to stay where you are, not be uncomfortable, not rock the boat, but God is not satisfied. He loves you too much to let you miss your destiny. He has new levels in front of you. Will you trust Him in the cutback seasons? Will you keep doing the right thing in the times of pruning when things have gone backwards, when you could be discouraged?
Abiding Through Pruning
Jesus said, «If you abide in Me, you will bear much fruit.» He talks in this passage about fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. The way to increase is simply by abiding. He was saying when things happen you do not understand, things that do not make sense, when you could be bitter, you could slack off—instead, if you will trust Me, if you will believe I am still directing your steps, if you praise Me even when it is not fair, if you stay faithful when you could be frustrated, if you abide—that means you keep doing the right thing, you keep a smile on your face, you keep being good to people, you keep expecting God’s favor—then you are passing the test. You will come into more fruit.
When you prove to God that you will be faithful in the cutback seasons, He will release you into much fruit. He will take you where you could not go on your own. But we are not going to see these new levels without going through seasons of losing things we do not understand, seasons that are uncomfortable, seasons where what worked in the past is not working now.
Do not be discouraged—the cutback season is all a part of the process. It is a sign that new growth is coming.
I talked to a man—the company he worked for sold, they let all the employees go, and for the longest time he could not find a new job. He ended up having to move back home to another state. He was living with his mother. He is in his 50s.
Trusting in the Cutback
He said, «I never dreamed I would be here at my age. I do not know what happened.» I told him what I am telling you: you came into a cutback season. It is not a surprise to God. Now whether you stay there or not depends on what you do.
If you get bitter, complain, talk about how bad life is, then you will get stuck. But when you recognize that cutback is a sign that new growth is coming, that more fruit is in your future, that God is getting you prepared for new levels, you make this decision to trust Him, to believe that He is in control—then things are going to change in your favor. You are going to see new doors begin to open.
I saw him about a year later—he had a new job, he had just moved into a beautiful new house. He said, «Joel, I am happier and more fulfilled than I have ever been.» Do not let the cutback fool you.
The enemy did not get control of the pruning shears—he did not overtake God, and now he is directing your steps. God is still in control. You may not like the cutback—it may not make sense. This is what faith is all аbout: «God, I do not understand it, but I trust You. I know You would not have allowed it if You did not have a purpose. I want to thank You that I am not just going to come out, but I am going to come out better.»
But I wonder how many times we are fighting what God has ordained. Now, I believe in standing against sicknesses, addictions, dysfunction, but every difficulty is not the enemy—it is the gardener. God prunes us. He cuts things back not to limit us but to get us prepared for new growth.
The Gardener Knows Best
Are you discouraged over something you lost, something that did not work out, thinking the enemy is hindering you when in fact it is the hand of God? We give the enemy too much credit. He cannot touch you without God’s permission.
We believe that God is directing our steps when good things are happening. It is easy to thank Him in the harvest seasons, the growing seasons, the promotion seasons, but in the pruning seasons you have to dig down deep.
Your praise in the cutback seasons carries more weight than in the harvest seasons. You are not only showing God that you trust Him, but God is doing a work in you. Your character is being developed—your spiritual muscles are getting stronger.
We may not like the pruning seasons, but God is the gardener. He knows when to cut something back or we will get stuck. He will not prune something away if you needed it. He is not going to cut something back without giving you more in return. Dare to trust Him.
A couple of years ago, I planted some trees along my fence in the backyard to help block the view. I bought the biggest ones I could find. They were about fifteen feet tall, and they are the type that form a thick hedge that you cannot see through.
They are outside my kitchen window, and I was constantly checking their growth—I could measure how close they were getting to the telephone lines. They were doing really good. About six months later, the man that helps with my landscaping trims the trees and trims the bushes. He said it is time to do that—is it okay?
I told him yes, but not to touch the trees along the back fence. I wanted that thick hedge. He said okay, but they are not going to grow like they should. I said, what do you mean? He said when we prune them, it stimulates new growth. If we do not cut them back, they will not be as tall and thick as they should be.
Pruning Stimulates Growth
I am not a gardener—I thought just the opposite. To grow them, they are doing good—do not bother them. The gardener knew if he did not bother them, if he did not take them through a cutback, it would actually limit their growth. Next year they would not be where they should.
In the same way, God is your gardener. He is not going to cut you back without a purpose. He is not going to prune you if it is not leading to more fruit. It may not make sense to you—you feel like you are going the wrong direction. God knows what He is doing.
That landscaper said to me, let me trim them and watch where they will be next year—you will be surprised at how big and full they are. You may have been cut back—God is saying watch where you are going to be next year, watch the people that are going to come into your life, watch the opportunities and the new doors that are about to open.
You will not be complaining about the cutback—you will be saying, Lord, thank You for pruning me. Thank You for getting me prepared. Thank You for taking me to new levels.
What I want us to see is the pruning is not because you have done something wrong—it is not because God has forgotten about you. It is a test: will you abide? Will you stay in faith?
Yes, the pruning seasons are not comfortable—we do not like it, but it is all a part of the process. It is what leads to much fruit. You cannot get to much fruit without being cut back.
If you do not understand this, you will be frustrated. «Joel, I come every Sunday, I volunteer at the hospital, I am always cheering people up, and now I am the one that is down—I had a bad break.» That is not the enemy trying to stop you—that is God getting you prepared for new levels.
Enduring Like Paul and Jesus
The Apostle Paul never prayed for God to remove his difficulties—he prayed that God would give him strength to endure whatever came his way. If we could pray away the cutback seasons, Jesus would have done it.
The Scripture says He endured the pain of the Cross, looking forward to the joy that was coming. Some things we have to endure. The way to do it is to know that it is not permanent and to know that you are going to come out better.
Keep reminding yourself that cutback is leading to new growth. What is interesting is God cuts us back when we are bearing fruit—not when we are off course, doing things wrong, but when we are doing things right, when good things are happening.
Now I could have taken the pruning shears and thought I am going to save some money this year—I am going to trim my own trees. The problem is I do not know when to prune and I do not know where to prune.
Some plants need to be cut back in the spring, others in the fall. Sometimes you may skip a season. Pruning shears in the wrong hands can be detrimental. I can have good intentions and cut at the wrong time, at the wrong place, and damage my trees—do more harm than good.
When Victoria and I were first married, she said: Joel, let me put some blonde highlights in your hair just to lighten it up and give you a new look. This is not going to turn out good.
I was so in love and so respectful—I would let her do anything she asked. So she put these blonde highlights in my hair—I had foil all through it. We had to wait thirty minutes. When she took the foil off, Victoria started laughing and laughing.
Now when Victoria is nervous or afraid, she does not panic, she does not get upset—she laughs. I knew this was not a good sign. When I looked in the mirror, my hair was as orange as can be.
The Right Hands
For some reason, I did not see the humor in that. I said: Victoria, you have to put it back. She laughed and said: I do not know how. Here is my point: the right tools in the wrong hands can be dangerous.
Thank God my hair grew out, and we are still married. The good news is God is your gardener—He is the only one that can prune you. He is in control of your cutbacks.
When Satan wanted to test Job, he could not go in and get the pruning shears, do whatever he wanted. He had to ask God for permission. When you go through a cutback, a loss, things you do not understand, remind yourself God has the pruning shears.
He is not going to prune you to where you end up with less: less joy, less strength, less resources. That may happen temporarily, but if you will keep abiding, that cutback is leading to more fruit. God would not have allowed it if He was not going to bring you out better, stronger, wiser, with new growth.
You may be in a cutback season now, wondering how you went from doing great to where you are. You were being your best—looks like you have lost ground. Yes, but that loss is not permanent.
What you cannot see is that cutback is setting you up for new levels. You are about to come into a season of much fruit, a season where you see increase like you have never seen—good breaks, promotions, relationships better than you have imagined.
A while back a cable network that aired our services on Sunday nights informed us that they were going to start running movies at that time. They had to cancel our contract.
We had been on this network for thirty-five years—we had a loyal audience, people that watched us there faithfully each week. Plus this was our only commercial national airing.
At first I was disappointed—I thought: God, I do not want to go backwards—I want to go forward. That was one of our best outlets. Here we were doing the right thing—we were bearing fruit, people were being helped.
Closed Doors to Greater Openings
But sometimes God closes a door that we do not understand—closes doors that do not make sense. I have been buying air time way back with my father’s ministry for many years. There is nothing available on Sunday nights, especially commercial television. It looked like this cutback was permanent.
About six months later, a man we work with called—said: Joel, I could not find another cable network on Sunday nights, but I did get the broadcast networks like CBS and ABC. They agreed to move their programming Sunday nights after the news so they could air your program.
The audience on the broadcast stations is three times what it was on the cable network. I went from fruit to more fruit. Notice how it happened—I was cut back. I did not understand it—it did not seem like a good thing at the time, but now I say: Lord, thank You for cutting me back. Thank You for opening doors I never dreamed would open. Thank You for ordering my steps.
The cutback you are disappointed with now—if you will keep abiding, thanking God, being your best—one day you will look back and say that with me: Lord, thank You! You know Your ways are better than my ways—You could see things that I could not see.
Trust Him in the cutback seasons—believe that He is still directing your steps. Remember He has the pruning shears—the enemy cannot cut you back. God has a hedge of protection around you.
In the Scripture, God told Abraham to take his son Isaac on top of a mountain and sacrifice him. We think of Isaac as being a little boy, but most scholars believe he was in his late teens.
The Scripture says he carried a pile of wood on his shoulders for the fire. He could have resisted laying on the altar, resisted letting his father tie him up, but he was willing to go through with it.
I believe one reason is because he knew the knife was in the right hands. He knew he could trust his father. When you understand the pruning shears are in your Heavenly Father’s hands, when you know He will not cut you back without a purpose, that whatever He takes away temporarily is so He can bring you out with more—then like Isaac you will not fight the cutback seasons.
Trusting the Father’s Hands
You will not be bitter: God, I was doing my best—why did this happen? You trust your Father—you know He is in control of the cutbacks, and He would not have taken you backwards if He was not going to bring you out with much fruit.
I have learned God’s idea of much is very different than our idea of much. You think you are blessed now—you have not seen anything yet. You should see what God has in store for you.
I thought I was doing good all those years working behind the scenes with my parents, putting my father’s ministry on television. I never dreamed one day I would be up here—people would be watching all over the world. I went from fruit to more fruit to much fruit.
But what brought me here was not necessarily the good times, the times everything fell into place—it was the cutbacks, the things I did not understand, the loss of my father. But in all those times that did not make sense, I have learned I can trust the One who has the pruning shears. I know the enemy cannot cut me back.
So I have done my best to just keep abiding—being faithful when I could be frustrated, doing the right thing when the wrong thing was happening, thanking God through the disappointments, through the loss, through the times that did not seem fair.
If you will keep abiding, at one point you will come out of the cutback season into a growing season—out of not having enough into having more than enough.
Steve Jobs was one of the most brilliant minds of our generation. He founded Apple Computer—it grew larger and larger, became very successful. But over the years he had conflict with his board. Eventually they voted him out. He was fired from the company that he founded.
Examples of Pruning Leading to Promotion
It did not seem fair—he could have lived bitter, upset. Instead he went out and started another company. It became so successful—a few years later Apple bought his company, brought him back, and put him in charge.
He said: if I had not been fired by Apple, I would have never developed these skills that have made me into who I am. God knows what He is doing. He is not going to let you be cut back without a purpose.
It may look like a bad break, but if you will keep the right attitude, you will see how it will all work to your advantage. He knows when to take something away—it is not to limit us, it is to promote us.
If that person left you, it was not an accident—their part in your story was over. God pruned them—now keep moving forward. If that project did not last, it was not supposed to—God closed the door.
Do not sit around discouraged thinking «poor old me.» Like Steve, you are being pruned to bear much fruit. Get ready for the new thing God is about to do. Get ready for new levels of favor, new levels of abundance.
This is what my father did. Back in the 1950s he was pastoring a thriving church. They had just built a beautiful new sanctuary—he had seven hundred members. That was a big deal back then. He was on the state board for his denomination—his future looked very bright.
My sister Lisa was born with something like cerebral palsy. My father began to search the Scriptures in a new light—he saw how God is a healer and how He wants us to live a blessed, victorious life. My sister was eventually healed.
He thought the congregation would be excited about his new message of faith and victory. It was just the opposite—it did not fit into their denominational teaching. There was a lot of opposition—they ended up asking my father to leave.
He was devastated. Lifelong friends never spoke to my father again. It did not make sense—it did not seem fair. He could have been bitter: God, why did this happen? I was being my best—why did I go backwards?
From Cutback to Much Fruit
He understood every branch that bears fruit will be cut back—not to stay at a loss, not to live defeated, but for one reason: to bear much fruit. Sometimes the favor of God is disguised as a cutback.
It takes maturity to distinguish between the enemy trying to stop you and the gardener at work. Too often we are discouraged over what God has ordained. Instead of being sour, my parents went out and started Lakewood.
They did not have a beautiful new sanctuary—they had an old run-down feed store. They did not have seven hundred people—they only had ninety. A cutback looked like they were going the wrong direction.
There are times God will take you backwards before He thrusts you forward. The cutback season is a test—seeing what you are going to do when you have a bad break, it did not work out, you worked hard but the business did not make it, you were good to that person but they walked away.
What you do in the pruning season will determine whether you stay there or whether you come out better. My parents just kept abiding—giving, serving, loving. They did not focus on what they did not have—they thanked God for what they did have.
This did not happen overnight, but like God promised, they went from more fruit to much fruit. Lakewood grew to a church of many thousands—we are still going strong today.
But we all want the much fruit. The question is: are we willing to go through the process? Will we do the right things in the time of pruning when things do not make sense?
My father would have never come into much fruit without the cutback. He would have never become all he was created to be in that limited environment. That is why God pushed him out.
Sometimes God will close the door because where you are is too small. You may not be able to see it—it is big to you, it is fulfilling, but God’s dream for your life is much bigger than yours. His idea of much is very different than our idea.
I am asking you to trust Him in the cutback seasons. We are not going to understand everything that happens along the way. God knows what is best for us. That is why the Scripture says His ways are not our ways.
You may be in a time of pruning—you have had some cutbacks, you have gone the wrong direction, now you are kind of discouraged. Recognize God is getting you in position for new growth. He would not have pruned you if He did not have something better.
Now do your part: keep abiding, keep thanking Him, keep trusting Him, keep staying faithful. If you will do this, I believe and declare that cutback is not permanent. Like my father, you are about to come into much fruit. Abundance is coming, promotion is coming, breakthroughs are coming, the fullness of your destiny—in Jesus' name.