Girdling is a technique that kills woody plants in place without cutting them down. It uses a sharp tool to cut through the bark of a woody plant in a strip all the way around the stem down to the wood. This severs the vascular cambium of the woody plant and cuts nutrient flow between the foliage and the roots. As a result, roots are starved of nutrients and the plant cannot grow more stems and foliage. Unless the plant can heal over the wound it will die unless it has reproductive capacity to send up resprouts.
I came across the phrase ‘girdling root ‘ as we had our morning family devotion from the title roots by Matt Witmer in September 16 2024 version of Our Daily Journey.
As our second daughter read through the scripture, It dawned on me that the Holy Spirit is revealing something to me. This is instructive in view of the fact that I have noticed the tendency for my family struggling with spiritual pursuit was becoming palpable.
Of note was the fact that on Sunday, BL wanted to keep our second daughter from going to church due to a minor injury she sustained some few days back. While the wound has not completely healed, it was nothing to keep her from going to church. I sensed then in my spirit that something drastic must be done: I stood my ground and at the end we all went to church.
Scripture says in Matthew 15:10 and Matthew 3:10; every plant that the father has not planted must be uprooted, and the axe is laid at the root of every plant that bears no fruit and thrown into the fire.
In view of this, the decisive action is to uproot this root that is gradually choking the spiritual fervour in the lives of membrs of my family.
One dangerous thing about this is that ones life would appear normal on the outside, but death is occuring on the inside.
This is the technique that the devil is using. It can be a girdling of money, bitterness, anger, malice, sexual deviation.
Another key thing to note here is Matthew 12:22-37 says a house divided against itself will eventually fall!
It is noteworthy here that what cause a division is primarily the deviation of purpose. When one member of a family decides on another purpose other than the one ordained by God, a girdling root has set it, and a drastic action is required to reverse the gradual process of complete death.
The decisive uprooting of this girdling root and reversal of gradual death is the instant focus.
…making them ready