Prayer Works Morning Devotion: April 24, 2025

"Waiting On The Holy Spirit - Getting Our Hearts Ready for Pentecost"

"Jesus Appears To His Disciples"

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Good morning, family. I'm glad to be on board with you today. Praise the Lord. We thank you for this time to awake and give devotion and give praise to our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ this day.  

And I'm going to be speaking this morning from the Book of Luke, Chapter 24, and we'll be covering some short verses today, but some verses nonetheless that we should be talking about as we are following along the trek and the journey that Jesus  had taken from the time he came into Jerusalem and through to his crucifixion.  

And we will be following along in the Book of Luke through into the book of Acts as we March on through Pentecost, Sunday. And so before we begin let's go to the Lord in prayer. 

Heavenly Father, we come before you this day to give you praise, honor and glory. And thank you, Father for your mighty works that you are doing in us. We thank you, Father, that we are able to awake this day with new breath in our lungs and a new day that you've provided with new grace and new mercies.  

We thank you for your love and your kindness. We thank you Father that you've been so merciful in our lives.

That you have brought this group together on this day to study your word and to be encouraged by your word for the things that your son had to go through on our behalf. And so Father as we go through the scriptures, we pray for clarity.  

We pray for understanding and most of all we pray that Holy Spirit come and lead us this day and touch our hearts and minds and open our hearts to your word to give us an understanding.  

And as for myself, Father, use me, don't allow me to say anything that you do not want me to say Father, pray that your will be done on Earth as it is in happiness.

I thank you for this day and I thank you for this call. And it's with all praise and honor that we come before your throne on this day in Jesus name, Amen.  

So family, we have been walking through the Book of Luke and just this week we read about Jesus's resurrection and the fact that some saw him, and some did not believe that it was him. 

And yesterday we spoke about what it took to actually come to an understanding and to be able to see Jesus as those disciples who were walking along the road didn't realize that they were with him. 

And we also learned again that even yesterday the disciples also came to understand that it was Jesus, but not without full disbelief, I should say and so today we're talking about how Jesus fully appeared to his disciples.  

And I'll just read from verse 36, Chapter 24 of Luke and it says now, as they said these things Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them peace to you.  

But they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they had seen his spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold, my hands and my feet.  

That I myself handle me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones. As you see that I have. When he had said this. He showed them his hands and his feet. But while they did not believe for joy and marveled.  

He said to them, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and he ate it in their presents. So we see here that even though Jesus came to the disciples himself in the flesh, but mind you, this was his glorified body, he says to them peace to you.  

And this was something that Jesus had done throughout his ministry, but they still didn't recognize. And so he asked them, why are you troubled in your heart? You know, we can look back and we understand that there were times that, you know, Jesus had mentioned to his disciples that these are things that had taken place that would have to happen. 

You know, even though he predicted it, that he, he would rise again on the third day. The disciples did not fully understand what this meant. And you know, if we look in Mark Chapter 9, verse 32, it goes on to say that they were afraid to ask for understanding.  

And so, because they lacked understanding they did not believe, and that's a testament to even us today, because sometimes the things that we don't understand, we either dismiss, we bury our heads or we assume certain things about what we don't understand or even have clarity about, and take a stance.  

But again we're talking about Jesus and we're talking about what these disciples had experienced, so let's continue as it says here, they did not expect him, even though he spoke to them.  

They did not expect him to come back from the dead. And you know, it's also interesting that even though these same disciples had witnessed the miracles that he had performed, especially bringing Lazarus back from the dead, they didn't believe that it was him.  

On Tuesday, Pastors Zee had talked about what happened on the road to Emmaus and how Jesus appeared to the two disciples as they walked along the road, discussing the events that had taken place, which those events were, the crucifixion.  

Remember, they walked with him for seven miles into Jerusalem, but didn't recognize that it was Jesus walking with them. So my question is then, when did they realize that it was Jesus with them?  

We can see that it wasn't until they communed with him at the table. The powerful point that Pastor Zee brought out yesterday in yesterday's devotion is that if we don't commune with Christ, we don't get clarity of the scriptures from the Holy Spirit.  

The two disciples that communed with Jesus told the 11 when they were in Jerusalem that they had experienced Jesus on the road and it goes on to say in verse 35 of Luke that he was known to them in the breaking of bread.  

It goes on to say in verse 36 and 37 that as the two were still speaking. Jesus appeared and said to them peace to you. But it says they were frightened and thought they had seen his spirit.  

Jesus asked them why are you troubled? And why do you doubt? With this, he invited them to examine him and showing his hands and his feet. He asked if a spirit would have flesh and bones as he times.  

However, it goes on to say that they still did not believe. It says in verse 41 that while they still did not believe and they marveled over the things that they saw, Jesus said to them, do you have any food here? 

So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. And he took it and he ate it in their presence. Now, not standing in judgment, we need to remember that these were the same disciples that walked with Jesus for three years of his ministry.  

They saw miracles performed. They heard him say on several occasions that the son of man must be delivered up and crucified, die and be resurrected. So why were they having such a hard time believing that it was Jesus before them?  

Even though remember they had communed with Jesus before his crucifixion. The one thing that's missing is that they had not received the Holy Spirit. They did not have clarity of the scriptures and what these things meant.  

We today have the benefit of the Holy Spirit. We today can ask the Holy Spirit to abide with us. We today can walk in faith not by sights understanding that the Holy Spirit reveals to us the deep and intimate things of God. 

Because the Holy Spirit is always around God, and he only reveals the things to us that God says to him. And so we are thankful that we can believe, even though sometimes it's hard, it's hard for us to believe sometimes because we being born of the flesh, have a tendency to walk by sight and not by faith.  

But this journey family that we are all on requires us to walk by faith and not by sight. And so putting our trust, putting our hope. Putting our everything into Jesus and our Heavenly Father.  

We have our hope. We have a view of this world and all that's in it. We are not afraid because Jesus says don't be afraid. These are things that, as it happened in his time we can see are happening even more so in our time.  

But he says do not be afraid. I am with you even until the end of the age, he says to his disciples. And that's for us as well. Jesus is with us as we walk this journey as we believe on him for the things that he has said. 

So we can have clarity, we can understand what the scriptures mean if we seek clarity from Holy Spirit. If we invite Holy Spirit to abide with us, remember those two on the road to Emmaus asked Jesus to stay with them.  

So they actually invited him to sit with them, to stay with them and this is what we have to do. We have to invite the Holy Spirit to be with us, to stay with us, to command us, to guide us and we have to be willing to listen.  

We have to be able to, as Jesus said, about children, to have a child like spirit, so that we can be like children accepting and not questioning. This is the problem for us family. We don't accept what we can't see and so that becomes our stumbling block,  

And the enemy comes in with a strong hope to snatch away what we believed but couldn't see and so doubt creeps in and takes that away. We can't allow the enemy to get a strong hold. We have to stand firm in our faith.  

We have to trust in our Lord and Savior. He has already won the victory. Death is no more, and even for those who are in the body that died, we know that it's asleep. It's not a death and that we will be awakened if we believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.  

So family this was a short scripture reading today. And God willing, tomorrow we will continue on this journey with Jesus.

And we'll get a better understanding of what it finally took for the disciples to come to a full understanding of the scriptures and to finally believe that it was the resurrected Jesus in their midst. Let's pray.  

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. This time for this word that you've given me. I pray, Father, that it has touched someone's heart and that we have an understanding of what's required of us in this walk in this journey.  

In this time and in this season, Father, we ask your blessing on us as we go forth in this day keep a curl of what was said today, Father, what you brought out through your word, of that to nourish us health, that to lift us up, help that to encourage us in our walk.  

Give us the peace Father in our hearts that surpasses all understanding, guarding it from the enemy.

Who would do no more than to come in and take what you've given us for help us protect us, lift us up out of the pit, bother that we often tend to fall in of disbelief.  

We pray Father for your spirit to guide us this day for your holiness to be a part of our security, to keep us on the straightened path Father, we pray, Father, that you will level those mountains that are before us. 

And allow us to walk a walk that will be glorified in your presence and bring you glory, Father, we ask your blessing on our daily stay as we walk in faith and not by sight. We pray for your spirit always to lead us. 

And we pray that we will be your children by representing you to others as we come across those that may be lost by honor, that need a word from you that in season we will have the words that they need to hear to bring salvation to their doorstep.  

I thank you Father for all the for the privilege and honor of being on this call today and for encouraging the Saints that are on this call, I thank you, Father, for the fellowship, the Brethren and I pray Father for our brother, Pastor Zee.  

He is recovering from his dental procedure. We pray Father for him as well as his family. And we pray for those that are on this call that may be suffering from any ailment, illness,  or any Addiction or anything, Father that in both their families themselves, we pray for healing.  

We pray that you will flatten those mountains Father and level those valleys so that all will be able to be at peace with their brothers and sisters as well as those that we are in fellowship with Father. 

So we thank you, we honor you, we give you praise, we give you glory this day, Father and it's in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus that we pray, Amen. Family, it's always a pleasure to come on board and to let the Lord use me in a way that is beneficial to all, even myself.  

I thank you for the privilege and I thank God that he is providing the Holy Spirit to us this day and allowing us to just ask for what we need because we know God knows our every thought.  

He knows our spirit. He knows what we are lacking, and if we come to him and confess. He is faithful. We know this, he is faithful to provide what we need. So I pray that you go in accurate today.  

Go in the spirit that God provides that Holy Spirit lead you and guide you and comfort you in this day, no matter what it is that you're going through family. Know that God is with you and he loves you and we love you and we thank you for joining us this day. Go in peace, God bless you.