"I am the true vine, and my Father is,the vinedresser." John 15:1

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." John 15:1-2

In this scripture Jesus states who he is. He is the true vine! And his Father is the vinedresser.
Do we really believe this?
You see as people meet, there are those who bear much fruit and there are those who don't bear any.
Those who do bear much fruit will be known by their fruit. They will have the love of Christ in them and they will want to do what the Lord asks of them.
Plus they will be pruned! Tribulation, discipline and hated by the world. That constitutes pruning.
Do we think pruning is a comfortable thing? No, it is painful, but in the end it will produce more fruit.
You see when God prunes it is the process of sanctification. A purging of all that is not good being replaced with all of God's goodness. In turn we will be more zealous for His works.
As individuals this will become a daily issue.

In verse 5 Jesus states again; "I am the vine; you are the branches." John 15:5

This is the church! Jesus is the vine and the church is the branches! We are all apart of the vine, and that includes the leaders ie. pastors, elders, and deacons.
We are all a branch attached to the vine.
What seems to be happening in the body is the vine is too full of branches and not enough fruit.
How many mega churches are there in the U.S.?
You see the goal of many "pastors" is to grow, grow, grow! Which means bigger buildings for all of the branches be in.
Yet God is in the process of pruning his church. With so many branches in the body, where is all of the fruit. It seems not much fruit is being produced.
A fruit tree needs to be pruned in order to be more healthy. In turn the branches that are left over end up producing more quality fruit.
Quanity is not always the way. Quality good fruit producing branches do more good than lots of old dead looking branches that can't hold anything.
The pruning going on in the body of Christ right now is being done by the Lord as He is changing the way the body meets.
He is changing the way we evangelize.
He is bringing us back into the confines of what He laid out in scripture.

He is gathering all of the old branches and burning them, because they aren't bearing fruit.
Those that are left will be able to produce more quality fruit.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not about the numbers!
God is not a numbers God, if he was then He wouldn't have picked Israel. He chooses the foolish things of the world to despise the wise.
He uses the small Gideon army to take on the enemy.
He is pruning all of the bad branches, ie. mega churches and bringing the body back into reality!
The road is narrow!
What is the end of all of this?

"By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." John 15:8
True fruit prove to be his disciples!