Isaiah 6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

I wanted to do a telling of the fall season. You can imagine how difficult it must be to find relevant passages within scriptures about the fall season considering the landscape of the middle east. Yet here it is in the last passage of one of the shortest chapters in Isaiah’s writings.

Isaiah 6 is best known for inspiring words in verse 8; “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” We even have a very moving song we sing called Here I am LORD. It is a very touching song and stirs the hearts of the faithful as we sing.

So inspiring that we often forget the words that God called Isaiah to speak. Even if you do remember the call to close the eyes and ears lest they should understand and be saved, you might gloss over this last line and any significance.

The leaves have turned and fallen to the ground and in the Hebrew its meaning is lost its glory. The tree is bare all winter until the earth warms again and in the spring the leaves return bright, shiny and alive with newness of life.

Look again at verse 13 and see the substance is in them, the trees, which is the life of the tree, the sap which returns to the ground causes the life to leave the leaf, wither and fall. We marvel at the colors of fall, we even travel great distances to see and photograph the fall foliage. But it is a dying moment, the glory last only for a short while and then falls to the ground.

We wait with great anticipation for the spring when that which is in us will rise again and show with all the glory of spring all the newness of life that is in us. There is reason and purpose for the seasons that we go thru in life, so that we will know where true life is in us and not our own glory which fades and falls.

Psalm 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Did the enemy steal your joy or did you give it up?

Psalm 12:1 Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

I can’t help but think that things were a little more obvious for Old Testament believers. They were so dependent upon God and had to cry out to His Holy Hill for help in time of trouble. There was nothing in themselves to save themselves.

How does that differ for us, the New Testament believers? That free spirit David cries out for has been freely given to us by faith in Christ and now that strength to help in our circumstances does reside in us. His promise is to never leave or forsake us. So why do we lose the joy of our salvation?

Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Perhaps it is because we have forgotten that this is a cooperative. The Holy Spirit is the third person of God and cannot act in any manner which is not God. Who the Holy Spirit is in us does not change just because He abides in us. Jesus did not stop being Jesus just because He sat down to eat with publicans and sinners. Neither does the Holy Spirit.

When we cease, when we fail, it is not because the Holy Spirit was not leading us in righteousness. It is because we didn’t listen. All we have to do is look at the fruits of the spirit to discover when we stopped being cooperative. You plucked the fruit of joy and ate it and it was good. Then we go our merry way expecting that fruit to grow again while we are not cooperative. Sorry, you ate it, get back to being cooperative with the unchanging God, then the fruit again grows.

A grieving Holy Spirit does not produce fruit by our command.