As I was praying, I saw an image of a banana. I feel that God is saying that He wants to strip away the things in our lives that are not from Him, for they are keeping us from walking in the fullness of the calling He has placed on us. Just as the banana’s peel has to be removed before it can be used, so our “peel” has to be removed by God.
I felt God saying, “Surrender yourself to Me. Lay yourself down on the altar and allow Me to remove the things that are preventing you from stepping into the ‘more’ of the calling I have placed on your life. Submit yourself to Me, that I may break away the walls you have built around yourself. Allow Me to remove the hurts, doubts, scars and pain you have suffered. Allow Me to cut away the things of the flesh, setting you free from them. I will lead you into the abundance of the calling on your life.”
When we surrender ourselves to God, we have to become vulnerable before Him. This may seem uncomfortable, however it is the only way for us to be purified and stripped of everything that is hindering our walk with God. Through this process, we will experience a deeper intimacy with God and be utilised for that which He has in mind for us.
I was reminded of Colossians 2:11 – “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature],”
John 15:2 – “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that continues to bear fruit, He [repeatedly] prunes, so that it will bear more fruit [even richer and finer fruit].”
Let us surrender ourselves wholly to God, allowing Him to prune us and to strip away the things that are hindering us, so that we may enter the fullness and abundance of God’s calling on our lives.