GOD’S
GARDEN
By Pastor
Dick
Jesus said, "I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman (gardener)" (Jn.15:1). And what a
wonderful Gardener He is! He takes His garden work very seriously. God has a
garden and this garden was ordained by Him from before the foundation of the
world, even before the beginning of time. Every individual plant in His garden
gets His undivided attention. God is committed to His garden; He has given His
complete love to it. He views it as the best of all of His marvelous
creation.
What I am referring to is
not the earth's vegetation that He created on the third day (Gen.1:11-12), nor
the magnificent Garden of Eden that He created for the first man and woman
(Gen.2:8); I am speaking about the garden God has made for Himself!
Scripture clearly reveals
that priceless garden that has captured the love of God. It is YOU! The Bible
says, "YE ARE GOD'S GARDEN!" (1 Cor.3:9) Yes YOU! Oh, if you only knew
how much God loves you . . . you would never, ever be the same. Your life would
flourish "like a green olive tree in the house of the Lord"
(Ps.52:8).
How does one's life become a
garden of the Lord? Not by any work of man, that is for sure! It is only by the
mighty work of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus said to His disciples,
"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest"
(Mat.9:37-38). Notice, it is His Harvest! It does not belong to man; it belongs
to God! There is nothing accomplished in the garden of the Lord by man; it is
all done by the mighty hand of our Heavenly Father. Don't ever thank anyone
other than God for your salvation or for your spiritual growth, because He is
the Gardener of your life!
Oh, I suppose it is alright
to thank a faithful messenger for delivering a message as long as he knows he is
just a delivery boy. God does use people to spread the glorious gospel of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but He also uses all creation and all
circumstances to bring forth life in His garden. He will move heaven and earth
to bring the gospel message to a single person so that a precious soul may be
saved and securely planted in His eternal Garden of Life.
It is a tragedy when a
messenger delivers the wrong message, or gets bogged down in a religious system,
or burns himself out from running on emotion rather than faith; but his failure
will not terminate the work of the Lord. Life goes on. The Seed will still be
sown and watered; the message will still go forth. When one messenger fails, the
Lord will simply use another, and it doesn’t have to be a human being. Those
mighty angels do not just hang out in Heaven; they are assigned to work in the
Garden of God!
The Lord's garden differs
greatly from a natural one. God’s harvest does not come at the end of the
growing season, but rather at the beginning. His harvest is when the Holy Spirit
brings forth life from the Good Seed that has been sown upon the right soil and
a new plant is born into the Kingdom of God. In a natural garden, harvest time
is when the fruit is ripe. In the Lord's Garden of Life, harvest is the
conception of the plant. Then there should be an unending yield of fruit
produced by the Holy Spirit to the glory of our Heavenly Father.
Also, the Lord's fruit
differs greatly from natural fruit. His fruit does not grow; it is already full
grown, complete and perfect. His fruit does not grow in you; you grow in it. His
love does not grow in you; you grow in His love.
It is the same with His joy.
The Bible says, ". . . for the joy of the Lord is your strength"
(Neh.8:10). What is the joy of the Lord? It is YOU! YOU ARE HIS JOY! Your
strength comes from knowing that He is joyful that you belong to Him! "The
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over
thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing"
(Zeph.3:17). Imagine . . . the Lord has such joy over you that it causes Him to
sing. Now, if that doesn't strengthen your heart, nothing will!
Somehow the mentality of the
world is influencing the precious plants in the garden of God. Many are behaving
like anxious Martha, feverishly laboring to produce fruit (Lu.10:40). Imagine,
trying to produce fruit that is already grown! Few are like peaceful Mary,
sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to His every word and growing in His
incredible love (verse 39). Some plants have left their First Love to labor in
their own self-producing garden of flesh.
Most of us have been taught
from childhood that it is beneficial to be a hard worker. This has caused some
to prosper and others to become self righteous workaholics. Work is a great
blessing only if it is not misdirected.
There are dedicated servants
of the Lord who are working hard but producing the wrong kind of fruit—the fruit
of the flesh. They don't realize what they are doing because it appears to be
good. Some well-meaning evangelists, pastors, Bible teachers and other dear
saints who want to serve the Lord and do what is right have instructed new and
old believers alike to be more fruitful by saying to them, "Be sure to go to
church every week; you must read your Bible every day; and don't forget to pray;
get out there and witness; start a Bible study in your home and invite all your
neighbors to it . . ." It sounds so good. Doing those things is not wrong; it is
right to do them—but only as the Lord leads! It is enough for the evangelist to
preach the gospel and simply instruct believers to stay close to Jesus, listen
to His voice, and do what He personally tells them.
I will always remember a
phone conversation I had with a man who was telling me about a ministry he and
another brother in Christ had formed. He gave up a business to go full time in
this ministry. What they did was to hold regular meetings in different places
with other men who were new believers in the Lord, instructing them on how to be
better fathers, better husbands, and so on. This sounded great to me, and I
said, "Boy, that is sure needed; keep up the good work." But as soon as I hung
up the phone, the Lord spoke to my heart and I heard the words, "That's evil!"
Then I realized that what these men should have been teaching was more about
Jesus and encouraging the new believers just to stay planted in the love of God.
I was calling evil good! I was commending a do-it-yourself gardening
program.
Please don't misunderstand
me; I do believe there is much work for us to do in the service of the Lord. We
just need to find out what it is before we launch out to do it. We can learn
quickly by asking the Owner of the vineyard what work He wants us to
do.
People asked Jesus, "What
shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" and He answered, "This is the
work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (Jn.6:28- 29). Our
first and foremost works are always in the area of believing in Christ. The
Bible tells us, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God"
and that we should "labour therefore to enter into that rest"
(Heb.4:9-11). Laboring to enter into rest is a good work. That is where we
should be planted—in His rest, letting our roots go deep into Christ while
enjoying all the wonderful care of the Divine Gardener.
The Bible says, "Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin"
(Mat.6:28). It upsets the toilers and the spinners when they see a child of God
resting in the finished work of Christ. They will say, "You lazy lily!"
But the Heavenly Father says, "You tree of righteousness, that I have
planted, that I might be glorified!" (Isa.61:3).
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