Reflecting on God’s Promises
The Garden Catalogue For Today
Dr Hilary Moroney – Canberra House of Prayer for All Nations
Let’s listen to Dr Hilary as she unpacks the theme for this week in 2 Parts, where Jesus was saying I AM The Resurrection and The Life – and what it means to live in the Righteousness & Resurrection LIFE of Christ…
Why not read Matt 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 as well as John Chapter 11 for yourself, for a deeper insight of when and why Jesus said “I AM the Resurrection and the LIFE”, and journal any additional insights you discover…
Living in Jesus’ Resurrection Life is by His Holy Spirit indwelling us; His loving, guiding, teaching and comforting us.
Living in Jesus’ Resurrection Life by His Holy Spirit indwelling us, is our LOVE Relationship with Jesus and the Father. It is a mystery how the One true God who created us to receive His Holy Spirit is so that God can dwell and abides in us. God IS Love and His deepest desire from when He first created Adam and Eve, right to the end of the Bible and the book of Revelation, is that He would live in the midst of us, individually and corporately sharing His relationship of love with us as we worship Him and receive from Him by His Spirit. He yearns to be in close fellowship and relationship with each of us who He created. He desires to live inside of and with us, and He becomes One with our Spirit as we receive Him. This happens as we stay close prioritising and worshipping God. As the veil of our flesh life is removed the more we spend time responding to His love, He draws us by His Spirit to desire to spend more time in His beautiful presence, so we desire to obey His voice and His written commandments in His Word and trust Him in Faith.
In fact, it’s more than that!
As we spend time in His presence our old flesh nature dies off. This gives room for God to live His life in and through us. His fruit of His Holy Spirit Gal 5:22-24 is forged in and through us, as we experience the fires of affliction and purification in our journey through life, bringing all our hurts and needs to Him. This relationship can never be forged through our human efforts or religious works of self-righteousness. Gal 2:20. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew ch 7
Gal 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Galatians 5:22-24
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
What does Jesus say about His Word, for us His believers to be like Him? Let’s explore His Living Word…..
Jesus expressed His heart of desire for us to enter into the same Love relationship that He, as God’s son, enjoyed with His Father and the Holy Spirit from the beginning, and to experience, eternity; His resurrection life now John 17: 3-8
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Before Jesus obeyed His Father in going to the cross, in His great trial before His death, He Prays for His Disciples
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
At the Passover, His last supper with His Disciples, He described His life indwelling them by His Holy Spirit of Truth that He would send when He was raised to new life again.
Those the Father had given to Him would enjoy this same depth of relationship of Love with Him and the Father. This would become possible through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, even as Jesus explained to His disciples in Jn 14:21 and 23
John 14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”…………
19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’
Love and Joy Perfected
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Later, the Apostle John wrote the believers in the early church who were being persecuted and deceived
1 John 4:4-6
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore, they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Knowing God Through Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Seeing God Through Love 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love a bides in God, and God in him.
The Consummation of Love
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
Obedience by Faith 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Let us Repent of how we have not fully surrendered our own autonomy and self-life /love and have not fully embraced God’s love, nor known how to experience His presence. We have not given Him our time, to allow Him to change our hearts by experiencing His great love. Too often, we’ve been holding onto old hurts, misunderstandings bitterness and unforgiveness and our flesh ego self-conscious life has blocked the free flow of your Holy Spirit Life.
Father forgive us we pray, just as you did your disciples who slept and did not keep Watch with you in Your time of trial in Gethsemane. When you came to them in your resurrection and life body in John 20, you were so merciful to them in their fear and grief. We ask you for fresh encounters with you, to experience the reality of who You really are.
After Jesus’ Resurrection from the grave, He specifically came to Mary and His disciples in His Resurrection body. At first they did not recognise Him – How would we have responded in their place? Would we have believed?
Jn 20: Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
(Jesus was sent by His Father to say in his last breaths on the cross Father, FORGIVE them, they know not what they do’ as He had taken upon Himself, as the sinless Passover Lamb slain for the sins of the world all evil, depravity sickness and darkness, on our behalf to die on the cross for us. So now He is sending us.)
The manifestation of Jesus’ Resurrection life in and through us is by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, just as He commanded His disciples to Receive the Holy Spirit. This is His grace strength and capacity indwelling those who believe in the Victory Jesus accomplished on the cross and by His Resurrection from death to life. He iS alive, and holds the keys of hell and death. Rev 1:18
We need to fully understand this to be able to forgive others their sins against us. One of the greatest miracles of God, is when we become His family and fellowship of the forgiven. That is those who receive Jesus’ forgiveness granted to us on the cross, just as the thief did on the cross beside Jesus who recognized His innocence and Holiness and desired to be with Jesus in His Resurrection life forever.
Will we obey Jesus’ first Commission to His disciples, to go and forgive others from the heart, the way the Father sent Him? Will we release ways others have wronged us to Jesus with the burden of their debt and become His Fellowship of the Forgiving? This is truly living in His Resurrection life within us.
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” ( Thomas then believed and worshipped Jesus as God)
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Phil 2:9-11 The power is IN The NAME of Jesus –His Authority in Resurrection Life Prevailing over darkness
6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus in His mercy met the disciples off fishing up at the Galilee after catching no fish all night. He wanted to Restore Peter and to Re-Commission him to serve and obey Him.
Jn 21:4-19 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.[c] 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
After Peter’s 3 denials of Jesus, Jesus’ one question of Peter He asked three times was ‘Do you love me’?
It was as if, for each denial, Peter needed to choose to be restored and re-Commissioned, and to face the reality of his priorities. Peter was humbled to face the reality, that his natural capacity to love was not yet with Jesus Holy Spirit sacrificial unconditional ‘agape’ Love, but only with a more human level of immaturity of basic ‘fileo’ brotherly love.
Jesus Reinstates Peter
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Jesus having conquered death was speaking in His resurrection life body to Peter about the manner of death Peter would die as a martyr. Perhaps He did this to strengthen Peter so that He would remember and be resolved to be obedient to His Master who had gone before him.
Jesus also went and found some other disciples, who were in their grief leaving Jerusalem. They would have missed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that would happen on ‘Pentecost’ in Jerusalem. Jesus, as the Resurrected Good Shepherd, came alongside them to herd them as His sheep back into alignment with His Father’s will. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was to fulfil God’s feast of commemorating His giving the Torah, His covenant instructions and words to Moses on Mount Sinai for governance of His people.
Luke 24:13-49 Jesus Has Risen and on the Road to Emmaus Jesus Appears to the Disciples
24
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Let us pray that we, like the grieving disciples on the Rd to Emmaus – may have our eyes opened to see our Resurrected Lord breaking bread, that by the power of the Holy Spirit being stirred up within us He will open our minds so we can understand the Scriptures and be those to GO and share the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem and into each of our communities.
Let us Pray……..
May we not be like the religious people in Isaiah 58 who God corrected due to their hard heart attitude of religious pride and angry words. May we be full of the wisdom, compassion and kindness of Holy Spirit and His power that Raised Christ from the dead to set captives free from spiritual bondages. May we be those who help people receive revelation to come out of darkness into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son Jesus and into His marvellous light and revelation of who Jesus really is.
Isa 58 May we repent of being Busy Busy doing religious works for God, loving study but with no love for God or other people, missing the first and second Commandments.
May we stop profit driving employees who fight & bicker and ‘show off their humility’. This is not the fast day God likes. That Fast is not for our Glory, but for Your Glory Lord-May you prevail through Your Righteousness
May He be our strength and hope as we serve our families and communities – resurrection love and life of Jesus be made known
Lord, may we be those to whom you can trust your heart and your people into your care. Teach us how to Free the oppressed, help others to cancel debts, invite the poor into your own homes, be available to your own families – Lord your righteousness and light come, we cry out and you will hear –
Have deep mercy upon us in Jesus Holy Name
Amen
The Eighth Session of the 1st Holy Spirit Retreat (28th-31st March, 2024) exploring the Victories of the Cross in the Scriptures and through Prayer in the Presence of the Lord.
The Videos of the Last 3 Sessions of our 2nd Holy Spirit Retreat (26th-28th April, 2024) exploring the the Letters of the Apostle Paul to Colossians & Ephesians, as well as the Letter of 1 John.
Ps Jeff’s Special Today: “Unable to show mercy”
Today’s issue is unable to show mercy. The classic case for mercy is in Micah 6:8: “ He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Jesus/Yeshua speaks to this directly: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:13).
Another word for mercy is lovingkindness, and it is a gift from God: “God is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…(Ephesians 2:4,5).
James, also, gives us this Truth:” For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13).
As you sincerely repent humbly to come into His Kingdom, you will receive the indwelling Holy Spirit of the Risen Christ Who is FULL of mercy, ready to speak through you to others.
Being candid with yourself, do you sometimes think this concept of “mercy” is for someone else? Is there any old vow you made in this area that now needs to be removed? Do you think this is only applicable to the first disciples years ago? Do you have any residue of a residue of this issue for such a time as this? Was it connected to your upbringing as a child? Was it a family pattern in any way?
God bless you as you seek His Holy Spirit Wisdom on this vital issue. May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
