If you have ever had a large tree hanging over your house, you understand that it can be pretty concerning. If that tree were to fall, it would have terrible consequences to your house and possibly to your family.
Spiritually, this tree is a lot like bad decisions in our life. Adultery, pornography, theft, idolatry to mention a few are like that tree, they hang over your life, over your home, over your family and threaten the safety and happiness of everyone involved.
When you decide that your home and family is more important than your bad decisions, you essentially decide to cut down that tree.
As you approach the tree, you decide which direction you want it to go, and you step out in faith by cutting a notch in the tree in the exact direction that you want the tree to go. Spiritually, you assess the situation that you need to change and decide how to proceed purposefully to end the bad decisions – this may be going to a counselor, therapist, someone who you have wronged, (etc) and developing a plan to make things right.

Once you know what you want to happen, you can proceed with purpose, but you must get a clear picture in your head of what success is and what it looks like.

Just like cutting down the tree, once you know the direction that you wish to go, you step out in faith and make the first cut/get help/confess your sins one to another/schedule counseling/etc…

Next comes the back cut or release cut on the tree. If you do not cut through the fibers in this part of the tree, it will continue to stand. In order to proceed, you must make this cut. This cut can be quite scary because as you cut through this part of the tree, it can be come unstable and if it is performed without a plan in place, the tree could fall and destroy the very home that you are trying to protect! If you get on the internet and search for tree felling accidents you will find many, many examples of someone failing to have a good plan in place (spiritually, this plan will involve at least one counselor, therapist, partner, pastor, etc…)

As the saw cuts away parts of the tree during the back cut or release cut, you pause and drive a wedge into the gap to give temporary support to the tree. This temporary support from the wedge helps to insure that the tree will not go in the wrong direction and possibly cause a bunch of damage to the home/family/marriage. Spiritually, the temporary support can come from the people who have experience in this area and are helping you to navigate this situation safely and with purpose. Listen to their advice!

Once the back cut or release cut are made, the tree will be completely cut in half except for the “hinge” which is approximately 10% of the diameter of the tree. Spiritually, it seems to me that there is always a small portion of the bad decisions that we are just not quite ready to let go of just yet. We know that we must if we are ever going to be free, but yet we tend to cling to them and make excuses to ourselves as to why they are not that big of a deal.

Next comes the amazing part! You put a wedge of separation into the gap on the back side of the tree and you begin to hammer it into the opening. Each time you drive the wedge, it sinks a little bit deeper into the gap, gets a little bit wider, and lifts the tree in that area causing a little bit of separation. To watch the wedge and the opening, sometimes the movement is so small that you can barely see it or maybe not even see it at all, BUT!! If you look up… you will see movement! Each time you drive the wedge with the hammer, you will see the top of the tree move in the direction that you are striving for! Spiritually, the wedge of separation between us and evil is driven in by prayer. Each time the wedge is driven (by prayer), it sinks just a little bit deeper and moves that tree! Just because you do not see a lot of movement at the wedge does not mean that there is not a lot of movement throughout the entire tree!

As you continue to methodically and purposefully drive the wedge of separation into the tree – possibly even adding additional wedges of separation for even more power, the tree moves away from the home and begins to fall in the desired direction! Spiritually, when you continue to drive the wedge and continue to gain ground in the battle against bad decisions you may not see much change at the beginning. Do not despair, as the wedge of separation is driven through prayer, the pressure increases and the bad decisions begin to move, it will become easier to drive the wedge, and you will begin to notice movement even at the gap (close up)!

As the tree topples, the notch cut closes up. The notch cut the very first cut that you made as you prepared to remove this tree. As the notch closes up, it closes with such momentum that it simply eliminates the hinge (the remaining 10 percent). Spiritually, the hinge represents that last little bit of bad decisions that we were not willing to let go of when we started this journey, but now, as we are so very excited to see this big dangerous situation toppling out of our lives, we are much more able to let go of the last little bit of bad decisions that we could not bring ourselves to let go of before. Now we can watch it come free and happily let it go!

We can now look up at the bright sunny beautiful day and realize how much sunshine that tree had been separating us from.

Sin is what drives the wedge of separation between me and God.
Prayer is what drives the wedge of separation between me and evil.

Jesus said “My house will be known as a house of prayer”. We are bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit inside of us means that we are to be a “house of prayer”. Let’s purpose to use prayer to drive the wedge of separation between us and evil very deeply and consistently in 2024!