Month: October 2023

“You are running out of time before your world changes drastically. The enemies of the cross and all that it stands for are marshaling their forces. They are planning their strategies to fulfill their plans. Although they are ultimately planning and scheming their way into doing what I have called into being long ago, anyone who is not close to Me will soon have no answers. I have told you to prepare. Some of you are listening and seeking intimacy with Me. Others of you have become foolish in your hearts, thinking that your comfortable world will continue forever. It will not.

"Your resistance to My warnings is disobedience. You know better. It is sin. It is selfishness. I warn you because you once had an open heart. I need to use you when there are no answers other than My answers. You need to be able to keep your head when others are losing theirs. You need to point many to Jesus. If you are not preparing to know Me intimately now, I will not be able to use you then. Wake up! Repent of your selfish ways and begin to understand your position in Me. I need you to grow up.”

2 Chr. 16:9 NIV

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...”

Esther 4:13-14 AMP

13) Then Mordecai told them to return this answer to Esther. Do not flatter yourself that you shall escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.

14) For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and for this very occasion?

Proverbs 29:21 AMP 

He who pampers his servant from childhood will have him expecting the rights of a son afterward.

Isaiah 48:3 NIV

“I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”

 

We, as Christians, need to continually discern the difference between the urgent and the important. The urgent is everything that distracts us from doing the perfect will of God. It is anything that fills our days with incessant needs that have little eternal worth. Most of it is simply called daily life.  Although we obviously need to address life’s situations, we must shake ourselves loose from those things that are unnecessary, those things that are redirecting us from our participation in the Lord’s will.

The important is anything that God considers worth focusing on. As far as the Lord is concerned, important things have eternal worth. They are the reason we have been called into His presence. They are the reason Jesus died. They are the reasons we seek the Lord to find our portion in His plans.

Teach me what is important to You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Do you know that I will use your weaknesses to bring many into My kingdom? That’s right. The offenses that we’ve worked through and completed will be a testimony of My love and keeping power. They will also show the world of My patience, mercy, and grace. You need to never give up. You need to understand that when you have sinned, you need Me the most. When you have need of forgiveness is when I am waiting for you to come to Me to be forgiven. The enemy of your soul will lie to you and tell you that I have closed the door to My presence when you fall. He will say that you have sinned the same sin once too often to be able to come to Me.

"Do not listen to Him. I knew how many times you would sin after you gave your life to Jesus, and I still invited you into My family. I also know the day you will be released completely from that sin that keeps you from being whole. I want to be with you all the time. Come to Me especially when you have sinned. My love will bring you to repentance, so that you can be free. Let’s overcome those things that harm you one by one. I love you.”

Romans 2:4 NIV

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

I Thess. 5:24 AMP

Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you].

I Pe. 4:8 AMP 

Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others].

 

Most of us forget that our understanding of our need for God’s mercy is what separates us from the world. It is our understanding that we have need of a Savior that allows us to open our hearts to Father God’s provision of salvation. That understanding is what brings us to repentance and draws us to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

At the cross, the tabernacle veil was torn in two, signifying that we have full access to a Holy God because of Jesus. Before this incredible gift, only a high priest was allowed into the presence of God. Now, since Jesus died for our sins, we - even when we are filthy from sin - are looked upon through the shed blood, and fully accepted as His loved child. We can go to God because of our need, not after our need is gone.

When I first came to the Lord, I avoided going to God after I sinned. I felt that He would hold my sin against me. I would go to Him only when I could no longer bear to be apart from Him and only after a reasonable time that He might “cool off.”  I didn’t know that He felt the loss of my presence and was waiting to forgive me so that our fellowship could be restored. What an astounding God!

Thank You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“As you submit to Me, you will understand why I take you to places that require more than you have in your own strength. I take you there so that you will need Me. The one thing that separates you from those who will be separated from Me for eternity is that you understand your need of a Savior and they do not. That understanding allows you to call upon My power. Each time you call, you are confirming your need and your understanding of Lordship. You are humbling yourself. That is wisdom. That is truth.”

 2 Samuel 14:14b NIV 

“But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.”

Ps. 25:9 AMP

He leads the humble in what is right, and the humble He teaches His way.

James 4:7-10 AMP  

7) So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.

8) Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].

9) [As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].

10) Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].

 

As the world defies the wisdom of God by inventing ways to never need Him, we are privileged to have expressed our need of His mercy. Personally, I didn’t have enough brains to do it in a logical way. I had to be broken and desperate before I surrendered and admitted my inner bankruptcy. It was the mercy of God that took me there.

Everyone has the same opportunity to respond to God, for it is the same God who is devising ways to bring people to Him. He does not hold one person higher than another. The next time you meet someone who really needs God, it would be good to remember that it is only through God’s power, mercy, and grace that you and I had enough stuff to even respond to His call to us. You are to pray for that person, not come against or consider yourself better than that person.

I need to always remember, Lord,

Jim Corbett