Fruitful Land

Have you ever considered that you are planted, nurtured, fed, pruned, and watered specifically and individually by God so that He can display His goodness and glory through you and your life?

Isaiah 61 identifies the people rescued of God as Trees of Righteousness.

Trees have been around forever (almost), they are found all over the world in almost every climate and culture, and people use trees for construction, heat, boat building, food production, decorations, and countless other things. Trees are everyday things they give shade from the heat, protection from the wind, they are valuable, versatile, common and yet priceless, and varied, and ... beautiful. We can all relate to trees in one way or another. It is so much like God to choose the simple and common to communicate the deeper Spiritual realities of His Kingdom. He does this so that everyone can grasp the full depth of Him and His ways. Let's take a closer look.

Consider the following passage:

Isa 61:1-4 .  The Good News of Salvation

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me

To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,  To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations,

And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.

New King James Version

God delights in helping, healing, and restoring people

Jesus read the first portion of this scripture one particular Sabbath in a local synagogue (see Luke 4:16-22 ). At the end He stated, "This scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." To paraphrase, Jesus said that God empowered Him to give good news to the poor, heal every broken heart, loose all captives, and untie everyone in shackles and chains.  I believe that He was talking about every form of captivity and prison and poverty, not just the obvious.

When He spoke those words, there was no more waiting for these things, but as you read on in the prophecy you can see that there is a lot more to come from the day that Jesus proclaimed that passage as reality. I believe that there is much more done and much more to come even today, but in the end we can see great purpose God has for our lives:

"That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

God who is Spirit (John 4:24 ) can actually be seen in our restored lives. The testimony to the greatness of God is not so much that He can bring great storms and destruction upon the evil ones, or that He has the capacity to tame the Leviathan that no one man can even approach. He can do these things and many more.

But His Glory is in us RESTORED.

But it does not stop there. Afterwards, WE REBUILD, rise up, and repair the ruins, desolations, and cities.  This is not mankind pulling himself up to his higher self and getting on with the improvement of ourselves and our cities. That kind of thing is the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9 ) and we are still living under the influence of some of that mentality today.  This Glory is the core motivation and work of God on earth. We are living in the middle of an "impossible" search and rescue operation by God for us, and the completion of it shows the almost unbelieveable Love of God  for one and all.

It is His Glory.

We are His glory.

The Glory of God is Man fully restored. (See Waking the Dead by John Eldrege)

"Trees" are used to help convey the message.

In another passage  (Ezekiel 47:1-12 )

Ezekiel 47:12

Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine."

NKJV

We are trees living by the river of God that flows from Heaven to earth.

It says that the leaves of the trees are for healing (others)

And that the fruit is for food (for others)

In this picture, we can see that we (the trees) are flourishing because we are drinking the water of heaven on earth. This is intimate restored fellowship and the life of God coming right into us. We in turn, and quite naturally become the healing for the nations (leaves) and a source for life (fruit is for food).

At this website, I want to bring these images and truths right up close in our own backyards. When we see the extreme variety of trees we come across every day, be reminded of the diversity of people, their cultures, and their callings. Be reminded that the Lord is working to bring them all into His Glory and His Glorious Church.

I want us to be reminded that as we work to produce fruit on our land be it large or small, the Lord is working us and working in us for the Fruit that feeds and fills the needs of others. This fruit is not our ideas about benevolence, but it is His ideas and plans for our lives. It is much better than good deeds, it is Life.

Proverbs 19:21

Many plans are in a man's mind, but it is the Lord's purpose for him that will stand. [Job 23:13 ; Psalms 33:10,11; Isaiah 14:26-27; Isaiah 46:10 ; Acts 5:39 ; Hebrews 6:17 .]

AMPLIFIED BIBLE

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

New American Standard Updated Bible

Remember

We are the trees, but God is the Husbandman (John 15:1 ) that makes it all happen, and the resulting actions and attitudes of our lives are the fruit for the healing of the nations.

In this pursuit is the very Glory of God, a very high call.