Sabbath – a Time of Worshipping the Father and our Lord Jesus through His Spirit of Truth, Leading us to a Place of Resting in His Presence.
The Garden Catalogue For Today
IF YOU HAVE SEEN ME !
If You Have Seen Me (John 14)
By Sharon Jane
If you have seen Me
Then you have seen My Father
Father God in Heaven,
Maker of the whole world
Father of Love
I Am the only Way to Life
When you see Me
You will know Father of Love
You will know His promises
of new life and hope and peace with God
You can trust
You can trust in Me
Trust in God
He is Faithful
Faithful to His promises
I will take you with Me
When I come back for my Bride
Beautiful and ready
We will go to the place prepared
For us for eternity
Eternity
Don’t be afraid
I will give you peace
And send the Comforter
To help you and teach, teach you all things
If you love Me
You will obey
And I’ll come and live in you
I’m coming back for you
Coming back to you
I’m coming back for you
My foundation was not on others but on Him alone.
There was a point in my life even AFTER truly receiving Jesus and having much personal intimacy with God that I really needed a person to be there for me but there was none. I remember going through my whole address book (before the internet!) And not a single person was home or available to talk to. It didn’t seem to make sense…it was unnatural. I remember slumping down against the cold wall and feeling desolate. As I sat there I knew deep inside that this was a purging. I had depended on how people saw me and the comfort they brought me all my life. Now God was teaching me not to be a user but a giver.
He was building in me the resources to truly love. He was showing me that my foundation was not on others but on Him alone. This is such an important part of growing and maturing and becoming a victor in this world and not a victim.
“Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:25-26 WEB
Sharon Jane
We learn to hear His voice when we stop talking
Many years ago God showed me a different way to pray to what I grew up with. He showed me in a real way that Jesus is really living inside me by His Spirit and He relates to me. That’s His nature, To know us intimately. Everything I learned as a child came alive in a very dynamic way. Bit by bit as I could process it with Him leading me.
He led me to jump right into this way of living without turning back to self reliance. So trust is the biggest thing to overcome. Our culture teaches us not to trust. Even our Christian culture tells us to be careful not to listen to wrong voices. But we need to learn to listen to the Right Voice, the Holy Spirit living in us that will guide us into all Truth and bring comfort to us. He joins with our spirit so we can call out, “Daddy” to our God and know we are His. He also groans in us with utterances so deep they communicate with God way beyond what our mind can.
This is our deepest need: to know God and be known by Him. Not just know about God. But truly know Him and learn His ways like we do our spouse. This is the intimacy we are built for. This is the intimacy Jesus died for. So that we would be one with Him and the Father just as He is. (John 17)
We will never be satisfied with less than intimacy with God. We are designed for it and we yearn for it. It has it’s complete fulfilment in eternity yet we are given the deposit now…His very Life, communicating with us here in this life.
We learn to hear His voice when we stop talking. When we expect. When we wait. When we give up trying to control everything ourselves. When Jesus Christ is our righteousness we know the Father’s acceptance and we trust that He comes to us by His Spirit, just like He promised.
“I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive, for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me. “I have said these things to you while still living with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.”
John 14:16-17, 23-27 WEBBE
“In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.“
Romans 8:26-27 WEBBE
Sharon Jane
Our Worship Song for the Week:
Thank You Jesus for the Blood
Song by Charity Gayle
I was a wretch
I remember who I was
I was lost, I was blind
I was running out of time
Sin separated
The breach was far too wide
But from the far side of the chasm
You held me in your sight
So You made a way
Across the great divide
Left behind Heaven’s throne
To build it here inside
And there at the cross
You paid the debt I owed
Broke my chains, freed my soul
For the first time I had hope
Thank you Jesus for the blood applied
Thank you Jesus, it has washed me white
Thank you Jesus, You have saved my life
Brought me from the darkness into glorious light
You took my place
Laid inside my tomb of sin
You were buried for three days
But then You walked right out again
And now death has no sting
And life has no end
For I have been transformed
By the blood of the lamb
Thank You Jesus for the blood applied (thank You Jesus)
Thank You Jesus, it has washed me white
Thank You Jesus, You have saved my life
Brought me from the darkness into glorious light
There is nothing stronger
Than the wonder working power of the blood
The blood
That calls us sons and daughters
We are ransomed by our Father
Through the blood
The blood
There is nothing stronger
Of the wonder working power of the blood
The blood
That calls us sons and daughters
We are ransomed by the Father
Through the blood
The blood
Thank You Jesus for the blood applied
Thank You Jesus, it have washed me white
Thank You Jesus, You have saved my life
Brought me from the darkness into glorious light
Glory to His name
Glory to His name
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to His name
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Charity Gayle / Bryan Mccleery / David Gentiles / Ryan Kennedy / Steven Musso
Thank You Jesus for the Blood lyrics © Centricity Music Publishing, Watershed Worship Publishing, Mccleery Msc, Steven Musso Music, Gather House Music
Ps Jeff’s Special Today: “Disobedience to parents.”
God’s Word could not be more clear: “Children obey your parents in the LORD, for this is right.” (Ephesians 6:1). And again in Romans, chapter one, this disobedience to parents is one key sin bringing on God’s wrath. Romans 1: 28-32 (amplified).
For [God does not overlook sin and] the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in their wickedness suppress and stifle the truth, because that which is known about God is evident within them [in their inner consciousness], for God made it evident to them. For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense. For even though they knew God [as the Creator], they did not honor Him as God or give thanks [for His wondrous creation]. On the contrary, they became worthless in their thinking [godless, with pointless reasonings, and silly speculations], and their foolish heart was darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God for an image [worthless idols] in the shape of mortal man and birds and four-footed animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their own hearts to [sexual] impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin], because [by choice] they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading and vile passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural [a function contrary to nature], and in the same way also the men turned away from the natural function of the woman and were consumed with their desire toward one another, men with men committing shameful acts and in return receiving in their own bodies the inevitable and appropriate penalty for their wrongdoing.And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God orconsider Him worth knowing [as their Creator], God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are improper and repulsive, until they were filled (permeated, saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice and mean-spiritedness. They are gossips [spreading rumors], slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors [of new forms] of evil, disobedient and disrespectful to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful [without pity]. Although they know God’s righteous decree and His judgment, that those who do such things deserve death, yet they not only do them, but they even [enthusiastically] approve and tolerate others who practice them.
Being candid with yourself and the Holy Spirit, is this issue of disobedience to parents something blocking your serving your Almighty Creator? Is there any remnant of disobedience to parents, towards you or by you, needing to be confessed? And then repented of ? Do you think His Word is only for 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 and Comfort on this issue. May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
