Jesus is the Gardner tending and cultivating us, His New Creation, to remove the blockages in our Hearts & Mindsets (flesh beliefs), so that Jesus can Live in and through us, so we can become abundantly Fruitful for the Father’s Glory, (John 15:8)
If we give Him permission to do so!
The Garden Catalogue For Today
I AM STATEMENT FOR THE WEEK:
I AM the True Vine (John 15:1,5)
The Sons Come Home to the Father
What was Christ’s Victory won at the Cross so we become sons and daughters of the True Father?
Referring to: Matt Perman – the 6 things Christ Accomplished at His Death
One of the six core things Christ accomplished in his death, was ‘removal of our sin and guilt’. Now we can become sons and daughters of the Father with Jesus as our brother, as we enter into the New Covenant relationship us and our Heavenly Father and His family is made New. Our HOPE in God is restored through Christ shedding His blood on our behalf:
- Expiation
‘Expiation’ means the removal of our sin and guilt. Christ’s death removes — expiates — our sin and guilt. The guilt of our sin was taken away from us and placed on Christ, who discharged it by his death.
Thus, in John 1:29, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Meaning: Jesus takes away, that is, expiates, our sins.
Likewise, Isaiah 53:6 says, “The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him,” and Hebrews 9:26 says “He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
Theme for the week: ‘I have decided to Follow Jesus and to Come home to our Father whole heartedly!
This week Let Us explore the Scriptures about our Father God’s passion for us, His beloved children, to no longer be as ‘orphans or slaves’, but to become His precious sons and daughters ( Jn 14:18, Rom 8: 14-27, Gal 4:1-7 & see prayer of the Prodigal’s return on Day 5) He, the Father of the prodigal sons (in Luke 15:11-32) is inviting us to be restored to His heart and to belong in His family in loving unity and community. This is all the more so, with the shakings coming upon the earth (Haggai 2 & Heb 12). Creation is groaning for the sons of God to arise (Rom 8:18-23)
God in His Goodness spoke back in time (in Isa 1:18-20 and Rom 2:3-11) as He does today, calling His people to return to Him, to reason together with Him that He might cleanse, heal and deliver us; to make our sins that are as scarlet, whiter than the snow. Now is the time for us to come back home.
Our Father is inviting us to come and eat with Him at His table, (Acts 2:42) just as they started off doing in the early church, in close communion as His praying ‘Community of Hope’, (see article on Day 6). Ever since Adam and Eve’s breaking covenant with Him, their Father in the Garden of Eden, by eating the fruit of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they and us and all humanity after them, have been ‘separated’ from full relationship with our True Father and from the Garden of Eden…..
Until Jesus came to reveal His Father to us, to Be the Truth and the Way for us to come back to the Father. (Listen to the Good Friday & Resurrection Sunday messages on Day 6) – God is still speaking to us today in this season through many voices…will we heed His call (Isa 55:1, 6-12)
Jesus expressed this relationship of restoration by saying ‘I AM the True Vine and My Father is the Vine dresser; you are the Branches.’ (John 15:1,5) His sinless death on the cross and resurrection life from the dead has opened up The only ‘Way’ this to become a reality through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer.
We surrender our wills and our lives to Jesus and the Father through repentance. We can then fulfil God’s plan and purpose for us, as we discover the HOPE of His Calling. (Rom 5:5, Rom 8:24-25, Eph 1:18). When we enter fully into our Father’s Kingdom, we are baptised, born again and become disciples of Jesus. We discover that through Jesus’ shedding of His Blood at Calvary on our behalf, He instituted His New Covenant for us to enter into relationship with Him and the Father. Then through the Power of the Holy Spirit, we can do the greater works Jesus said we would do. (John 14:12)
Today, we focus on responding to our Father’s invitation to come back whole heartedly to Him, and to spend time with Him in His Presence at His table. We’re coming back into the Garden with Him, out of the world of the flesh life, into the Life of the Holy Spirit living inside us. This was the decision the prodigal son made when he returned home to his Father, but his elder brother’s heart was hardened. Will we come back even as David did in Ps 51 and seek our Father’s Mercy as in Isa 55:1, 6-12 ?
Then we discover that we have a new relationship with Jesus as our brother and His Father having become our Father as Jesus spoke to Mary at the empty tomb after His resurrection in Jn 20: 17b, and we are invited to be part of His family !
‘I AM the True Vine’…….is how Jesus expressed Himself as the source of life for us as believers. He described Himself in relation to His Father’s role that His Father is the ‘Vine Dresser’ in the imagery found in the Bible illustrating their intimate and ‘entwined’ relationship with their Disciples. He was speaking of His vital life-giving relationship to continue with His Disciples. That through this, they could fulfil their call to be spiritually fruitful, through abiding in His covenant love and life empowering Spirit, keeping His commandments, to make more disciples – all for His Father’s Glory. Jesus spoke this strategically at His Last Supper, as He was teaching about His sending them His Holy Spirit. This would bring His Love after His sacrifice and full Victory was won over all evil, darkness and death at the cross.
The True Vine John 15:1-8
15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Love and Joy Perfected John 15:9-17
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.
What is vital is that we Receive, Believe in and Trust in the Words of Jesus as we learn to receive the Love of Jesus in His presence in our quiet times. That’s how we stay connected heart to heart with Him and through His word, worship and prayer.
Remain continually connected in relationship with Him, in His Love and in His living Word by His Spirit.
Before He was going to the cross Jesus was cautioning His Disciples, as He does us today, that they needed to remain continually connected in relationship with Him, in His Love and in His living Word by His Spirit. After He was crucified, He would no longer be physically present with them.
Jesus emphasised that He alone is their source of Life and Truth. That is the same for every one of us who believe in Jesus.
He repeated and clarified that they were not the True Vine, He was. The function of the vine is to pump life to the branches. The function of the branch is to produce the fruit of the vine. The disciples were the branches that were sustained by the nutrients from the roots of the vine. Jesus was speaking about us drawing from the living waters of the Holy Spirit life that sustains us, not relying on religious methods.
Jesus drew from the familiar Vineyard reality of vines bearing fruit of grapes for new wine. This was to show His Disciples their relationship with and to Him was not just for them, but through them His life and love could spread out to others to be empowered to reach out to others. He also stated that His Father was the Vine Dresser, the One who does the vital pruning so that the branches of the Vine will not just be full of leaves like the hypocrites, but that they would be abundantly fruitful with the new life of new believers coming into His Kingdom. This only happens by His abundant life of Holy Spirit flowing in and through us as surrendered vessels to Him, to sustain us to bring multiplication and increase for His Kingdom Coming on earth. No human effort can do this.
He was explaining to them also about the Holy Spirit that He would send after His death and resurrection ……..They needed to spend time in His word and to obey it. Then they could draw from the Holy Spirit of Truth at all times, and in all places. They needed to stay open to hear His voice, talk with Him in times of prayer and in their daily lives. Then we know His promise is True, Jesus is with us always and we can ask the Father anything in His Name. As He first loves us and choses us, He draws us to be born again from above by the Holy Spirit coming to indwell us. We then enter into the Kingdom of God and as a branch draw deeply from the roots. In this way, we as a branch can be fed, filled and nurtured spiritually from His living waters. This causes us to flourish and be strong, able to resist the devil’s strategies to rob, kill and destroy. Holy Spirit brings us into His Truth. He empowers us to proclaim the Good news of His Kingdom. Also to be able to have God’s wisdom and compassion as to knowledge how to nurture His new disciples that He entrusts to us.
Jesus exhorted them to be abundantly fruitful in preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and bringing souls home to His Father. This would give His Father great Glory. However, if they went off and did their ‘own thing’, they would win no souls to their True Father, they would not bear the Fruit of His Kingdom. Only if they were fully grafted into Him who is the True Vine then they and we can bear, manifest and demonstrate the Fruit of Jesus as He alone is Saviour- The True Vine.
Another question we could ask is: Are we bearing the Fruit of His Tree of Life as in the Garden of Eden? OR Are we in our own strength drawing of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, of the false father of lies and deception?
Our True heavenly Father so deeply desires that we be His true sons and daughters and remain in and with Him to grow to true maturity in His way and time. We need to be fully grafted into Jesus the Son of God in His Community of Faith and Hope, with our True Father of Light in whom there is no shadow or turning to manifest His fruit that remains. Jesus said that by our fruit we shall be known.
In Jesus’ priestly Prayer of Jn 17, our being in unity and oneness with Jesus and the Father can be fulfilled. This is through the Holy Spirit ‘s 9 Fruits, including Love, Joy and Peace being established in our hearts as we desire Jesus’ nature to be conformed in us Rom 8:28-30. Only then can we manifest His Love to a hurting, broken and deceived world of people desperately needing Jesus, who is the only True Way of Salvation.
Hence Jesus calls us…to remain in His Love…to abide in Him and in His Word. Then we are empowered to love others who receiving His Truth who can become believers in Him as His True Disciples. Then, Father & Jesus come and dwell within us too. This is His Blessing of experiencing eternity now walking in His Spirit as Jesus promises this blessing in Jn 14:20-21 & 23, and Jn 17:3.
This was in the context of Him alone being the only Way, the Truth and the Life by which we may be saved (John 14:6). He was willing and obedient to His Father to be crucified the sinless Passover Lamb sacrifice, so that through His blood being shed and His death on the cross, He was the one and only sin-offering required, taking all the judgement we deserve, on our behalf.
Through His Victory on the Cross over Hell and Death and His Resurrection Life from the dead, Jesus opened up the Gate of Salvation for our restoration back into relationship with our Father in Heaven, to have abundant everlasting life!!
His resurrection from death to life occurred on the First day after the Sabbath, at the end of the week of Passover, which fulfilled the Feast of First Fruits. He’s opened the way for us now living from the power of His Resurrection Life and Love as we remain in the Vine. Jesus is our Living Hope. This is why Jesus is our Salvation, and the only way to the Father as we remain as a branch in Him blessed by His full Victory won.
If we do not remain in Christ, but turn away to rely on our own strength, understanding, drawing on our flesh life, we are like broken-off branches that wither and are picked up and thrown in the fire. That is what happens when pride and independence creep in. We then attempt to be The ‘Head’ of ‘our ministry’ or ‘our Church’ – that means we’re not grafted into Jesus’ True church which He is Head of, so our work becomes as ‘wood, hay and stubble’. Only by staying connected to Jesus can we receive life and bear His good spiritual fruit. It’s about His making the new wine of the overflow of power of God’s Love into the world through His Disciples.
There is another analogy we can explore in Rom 11:11-36. This is the mystery of the Father’s plan from the beginning to fulfil His promise to Abraham, that He would be the ‘father of all nations’ through ‘his seed’. His seed is Jesus the Messiah the ‘True Olive Tree’. The imagery of the Blessing of the Gentiles who belong to Christ Gal 3:29, being the wild olive branches through the new Covenant being grafted into the True Olive Tree, whose root is Holy, it is Jesus Christ (Rev 22:16).But also the restoration of the Jews who by unbelief, the branches were cut off, but when they come to receive revelation of messiah and the veil is “stripped away” (2 Cor 3:15-16) they are re-grafted back into the Ture Olive Tree and their acceptance will be as ‘Life from the Dead’ (Rom 11:15).
Let us Discover Who the Father says He is, and how we can relate to Him.
God’s Orchard – Fruitfulness & the Flourishing Vege patch
By Hilary and C-HOP Team
Welcome to your Discipleship Journey. You are about to embark on an intentional season of healing the wounds of your heart. As you heal, obstacles to intimacy with God will be removed. You will find that not only will you receive healing, but you will also experience a real deepening of your relationship with the Lord. Each week we will look specifically at God’s Word in the light of different issues.
Week 2 The Truth about Hopelessness – I have a Living Hope in Christ
We will be drawing from Thom Gardner’s Book ‘Healing Journey’ p157-175
Check out the Truth of God’s Word below.
We suggest you repeat these Truths aloud, close your eyes & rest a moment in each truth, then speak out loud these scriptures below and rest a moment in each of these truths – repeat them through the week.
In this season, God is the Gardner of our hearts to set us free from the many lies we believed due to our past experiences. In the previous 42-Day Banqueting journey, each week, we explored a particular area of mindsets of Hopelessness that have blocked our capacity to believe in the Goodness and the Truth of who God is.
This week, let us refresh our understanding about the lies of the issue of hopelessness, such as where we have believed “God doesn’t care about me”. “All my hopes and expectations are shattered”. Please Click Here to refresh your mind from Part 1 of the 42 Days Banqueting Journey – Week 2 – Day 3
Now, in this 50 days Journey we will invite you to intentionally declare God’s Word into your spirit with His Truths, to replace the lies we’ve believed. In John 8:31-32 “[31] …Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. [32] And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Let us focus on abiding in God’s Word and opening our hearts to receive our Father’s Love towards us as His sons and daughters, to discover how He sees us, and to believe His promises in His Word.
Truth: The Father’s thoughts of me are always good and filled with hope.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; Jer 29:11-14a
Truth: My Father is walking before me, preparing the way.
“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isa 43:18-19
Truth: My Father’s Loving Heart has planned help for me.
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Isa 58:11
Truth: The Father is Trustworthy in times of difficulty.
“Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God. Isa 50:10
Truth: The Father makes a way for me even through depression.
For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. Ps 18:28
Truth: My Father is pouring out fresh mercy for me today
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. Ps 30:5
Truth: I can do all things through Christ; He is in me.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13
To them God willed to make known, what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Col 1:27
A WORD FOR THOSE IN DESPAIR OVER UNFULFILLED DREAMS & PLANS
By: Nate Johnston
I had a dream last night that was so simple yet powerful.
In the dream I was with a group of people standing at a large bronze gate waiting to inspect and survey this dream property.
“What are we waiting for?” I ask.
“The keys to the gate” someone next to me said.
Then out of nowhere discouragement broke out and they began to say “This won’t work. It’s past its due date. It didn’t happen and it’s now time to let it go”
Suddenly a man in a tattered jacket takes out a thick document and throws it on the ground and walks away In utter despair.
They all left In a broken-down truck together leaving me standing there at the gate wondering what I had just witnessed.
I felt grieved because it seemed like they had poured their lives into this vision but they just felt done with believing for something that hadn’t come to pass.
They were over pioneering and stewarding prophetic words that didn’t come to any level of fruition.
I know the feeling. It can be painful and perplexing.
As I stood there at the gate I began to have my own moment of despair as it brought up some unfinished dreams and gates that had not been “UNLOCKED” that I had felt that God wanted us to pursue over the years.
“Yeh Lord didn’t you say………”
“Didn’t you give me all those dreams?”
“What about all the prophetic puzzle pieces over the years that lead to this? Now the gate just remains shut?”
I slumped to the ground feeling overwhelmed with the feeling of failure and like I had bought a lie and I knew this is what that group that left felt too.
Deep hope deferred and soul sickness..
But then the Lord began to speak;
“Get up! Get up! Shake off the dust! Pick up your building plans! Pick up the vision that you dropped!”
“For I am not a man that I should lie, and I am not one who gives false hope”
“I do not give dreams to string you along but to keep you fixed on the vision that I PROMISE TO FULFILL!”
“And just as despair and delay is causing my people to let go of what I gave them because the gate seems locked shut, Watch now as I BUST IT WIDE OPEN!”
“And this will be a season of SUDDEN PROVISION & DIRECTION to bring to pass what I gave you long ago”
“And you will see what has felt at arms reach come into your grasp so you can finally BUILD THE BLUEPRINTS I PUT INSIDE YOU”
“For you have said “I can’t go beyond this point without the keys and provision”
“And this is why the enemy has assaulted you on every side with lack, loss, debt, red tape and closed doors – so you would go back to survival mode and FORFEIT FAITH”
“But you aren’t empty handed and I am not late”
“Now watch me FINISH IT!”
You can read the Rest of the Word on his website – www.nateandchristy.co
TWICE Jesus says: repent or PERISH ! yes ! those are our two eternal choices! repent today by turning back to Him, to Almighty God, and join His Kingdom through His gift of repentance: Matthew 4:17; Luke 24:47—-OR—you will die in your rebellious sins and spend eternity without Him.
DECIDE TODAY!!!!!!!!
Please subscribe to this NDR channel; pass the word to others; and let me know how I can pray for you: pastorjeff@repentday.com
Ps Jeff’s Special Today: “Passive support for evil leaders”
You and I are to abhor evil. (Psalm 36:4). Romans 12:9 repeats this: ” Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” And in 2 Timothy 2:15-17 there is Wisdom for all of us: ” Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babbling, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort.”
Being candid with yourself and the Holy Spirit, is this issue of being afraid to call out evil in any leader, something blocking your serving your Almighty Creator today? Is there any remnant of this old pattern needing to be confessed? Do you think this is only applicable to the disciples 2,000 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 that issue.
May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
