Imagine someone wanted to have an orchard full of delicious fruit; They had a beautiful piece of land with great soil, but rather than planting fruit trees they just hammered metal poles into the ground. Each day they went out to their orchard and they watered those poles and looked at them with great care...they did this for years, until finally they became so frustrated by their fruitless orchard that they cursed at the ground and abandoned their hope for fruit.
Ridiculous isn't it? To fill a fertile land with metal poles and expect fruit is about as crazy as you can get. Agreed? If so, think about this verse with me:
"They (God's people) have filled My inheritance with the lifelessness of their detestable and abhorrent idols." (Jeremiah 16:18b)
You see, God's people ARE God's inheritance/heritage (See Deut 32:9). In the New Testament we are told that we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit--that the Spirit dwells in us (1 Cor 6:19). Jesus Himself said that He came to give us "Life Abundant" (Jn 10:10) and that by His Life in us He would bear fruit through us (John 15). In other words Christians are meant to be a people filled with LIFE by the Spirit of God--and therefore EXPERIENCING life and fruitfulness through the Spirit.
Yet, I'd be a rich man if I had a dollar for every Christian I've spoken with who complains about the "lifelessness" of the Christian faith, and how they don't hear from God nor experience His power. Think about that---a people meant to be defined by "Life Abundant" and the Spirit of God dwelling in them, complaining about lifelessness! Have you ever done that? I know I have.
Jeremiah points to a problem that I think is prevalent among Christians -- "They have filled My inheritance with the lifelessness of their detestable and abhorrent idols." Now before you reject that about yourself and say "I don't have any idols!" (just because you don't have a literal orchard of metal poles--remember an idol is anything that takes your love and devotion away from God); stop and think about what you fill your life with. Are you daily seeking to be filled up by the Spirit...or is your life full of things that actually do not give life? Are you giving yourself to God for His work and His Kingdom---or are you expecting God to aid you in your work for your own "kingdom"?
If we are feeling lifeless--God is not the problem--we are. He has told us that by His Spirit we can be like a tree that bears fruit always--EVEN DURING DROUGHT! (Jeremiah 17:8) Did you catch that? Even when heat comes, and life gets hard -- we can still bear fruit and enjoy the Life of the Spirit! But if we fill our lives with lifelessness rather than allowing the Spirit to fill us with His life, we should not expect to experience the life of the Spirit when we give Him no room nor permission to move in our lives.
So the question for us all: What is keeping you from experiencing the life and fruitfulness of the Spirit within you? What are the "metal poles" that you have stuck into your life that need to be removed so that the Spirit can have room to work and bear fruit?
