The Activity of God in the Life of Man

In John 15 1 we hear Jesus say I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman in scripture We often find God as a vine dresser or a tiller of the soil in the affairs of his people in Isaiah chapter 5 we find the parable of the vineyard where God is portrayed as the vine dresser Who exercises great care over his people Israel? Comparing them to the vineyard we read beginning in verse 1 Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and Planted it with the choice is fine and built a tower in the midst of it and also Made a winepress therein and he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth Wild grapes, I will stop there friends Here we see the activity of God in the life of his people Notice the great love he has for them the great care he Exercises over them the great expectations He has for them, but alas they turn out to be a great disappointment to him Because of instead of being a fruitful bough rich with luscious grapes They only produce wild grapes which cannot be used and are worthless I Don't want you to miss the Analogy here friends for the Christian life is very much like this God loved you with an everlasting love He sent his only begotten son Jesus to die at Calvary for a He saved us from the penalty of sin and redeemed us by his blood He gave us his Holy Spirit to convict us and instruct us and sanctify us All of this divine activity in our life is for the express purpose of Producing his fruit through and in us that he can use for his glory The activity of God in the life of man is a grand theme throughout my Bible where he is working where he invites man to Participate with him in his kingdom work. I want to delve deeper friends into this truth today as we study Isaiah Chapter 41 and verses 18 through 20 you can turn in your Bibles there now friends I will first read the striking passage of Scripture and then elaborate upon each head Bear in mind it is the Lord God speaking in the text about what he will do here now is the Word of God and may the Spirit of God attend the reading of his holy Word I Will open rivers in high places and Fountains in the midst of the valleys I Will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. I Will plant in the wilderness the cedar the shitter tree and the myrtle and the old tree I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine and the box tree together that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy one of Israel hath created it.

I will stop there friends Notice four key words stand out in our text open make plant and set You open something that's closed you make something. That's new You plant something to grow you set something with an intended purpose like the place with care or deliberate purpose as you set a chessboard or set a table The activity of God has a design purpose behind it God is the vinedresser and he has a design for the vineyard and an express purpose For the vineyard it's planted with care God declares in the last verse of our passage from here in Isaiah that he wants you to See his activity in your life He wants you to recognize it to know about it and consider it and also to understand it So you will know he is acutely interested and involved in your life Involved and active in every detail and overseeing every circumstance That he allows to come your way friend for your good and for his glory How we recognize the hand of God or the activity of God in our life is Critically important to our walk with him. He wants to develop our faith strengthen our obedience Sanctify our life in Christ and Expand our horizons.

He is working to open areas in our life whether career-wise or ministry wise or relationship wise God is currently at work in your life friend Opening the door here or closing the door there Is he planting you in a new town or a city? Is he making something new right now in your life? Is he at work? setting things in place for your career path or ministry service or Marriage to strengthen you and enlarge you We can be sure that God who created us and the Christ who saved us is exercising tender care over us over every detail of our life by Planting here and setting their life circumstances and experiences before us to give us spiritual maturity and To make us more Christlike for the good of the kingdom the advancement of the gospel and the glory of God