Author: Jim Corbett

“Some of My people have tired of the way that I do things. They have become hardened to the crucified life and have decided to live most of their lives for themselves rather than for others. That means that they have stopped living only for Me. They have redefined My true Gospel. In their folly, they no longer take correction from their peers. They have become thin-skinned one to another.

“Everyone feels that they hear from Me. Few are really hearing what I am saying. They make up their own gospel that allows them to remain deceived about their cold love for Me. Soon they will harden their hearts to even the strongest Word when I call to them. They will tire of all correction and seek only comforting words, words that make them useless to My desire that none should perish. That is a very great falling away.

“I weep as I see even some of My most loyal children succumbing to weariness and dullness of hearing, rather than turning and running into My presence. Soon they will feel that they have need of nothing and deserve everything. They will feel that they are fine in their form of religion. All passion for My ways will be gone. It is a very dangerous place to be.

“This day I ask you to check your heart. How far are you living from the way that Jesus lived? Any path that leads away from that standard is a path away from Me. Turn from it now before you become poor, blind, and naked!”

Jeremiah 2:13 NIV

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Jeremiah 9:6-7 AMP

6) Your habitation is in the midst of deceit [oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit]; through deceit they refuse to know and understand Me, says the Lord.

7) Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will melt them [by the process of affliction to remove the dross] and test them, for how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

Jeremiah 15:19 AMP

Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece...

Rev. 3:15-18 NIV

15) “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

16) So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

17) You say, ’I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

18)  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

If we are on a path to destruction, we tire of hearing correction. It is a matter of heart. A full hardening of our hearts does not mean that we visibly turn from God; it means we stop heeding His warnings. We even feel little need to repent of the differences between our lives and the life of Jesus.

Take this day’s message. If you do not go to God with fear and trembling to have Him search your heart, if you feel that you could never succumb to a falling away, if you feel that the message is for others and not for you, you are on dangerous ground.

Soft hearts toward God heed every opportunity to check themselves for any hint of offense against God. They check their lives against the plumb line of God’s Word and Jesus’ heart. To not do so continually, at every opportunity, is the path to needing nothing - first from others who care and eventually even from God. That’s a really big oops!

Soften my heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“The holy life of Jesus that has been designed for you in My presence and bought for you at Calvary is not for the faint of heart. It is not for the self-serving, the materialistic, or the controlling. If you truly want to live out the life that has been planned for you, it will cost you everything. It cost Jesus everything to win it for you; now it’s your turn.

“I want all of you. I will take all of you, if you will respond to Me with all of your heart. Submit to My Word. Submit to My ways. Submit to My heart. Submit to My hand of training. I will reproduce the character of Christ in you, so that I can touch others through you.

“You must come to Me completely willing to do My will, whatever the cost to you, just as Jesus did. I will then take who you are and who you are not and eliminate them, replacing them with who you are designed to be. The death of your old ways will bring forth His ways, which are My ways, by the power of My Holy Spirit.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27 NIV

26) “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

27) And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

John 1:10-14 NIV

10) He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

11) He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -

13) children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14) The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 3:30 AMP

He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.]

John 6:57 AMP

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.

Hebrews 10:14 NIV

…because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The pursuit of Jesus usually begins for our good and pleasure. He meets our needs, brings us to salvation, and makes us feel good every time we go to Him. That’s good for us. There comes a time, however, that we understand the Father’s plan more clearly.

He shows us that this relationship is not only about us and our needs. He brings us to an increasing level of maturity. As we begin to understand His character better, we understand and move with His heart more often. As this action, response, action, response relationship continues, we gain more of His heart, and love more and more as He loves. We also begin to identify with His heart so closely that it becomes our heart.

The closer we get, we actually fall in love with His ways and move from admiration of Him to a love for Him. Getting to know Him and His ways leads to increasing love for Him, because we are changed more and more from being in His presence. Once we know Him, we act in a way that pleases Him because of the love for Him that has been placed in our hearts.

Destroy everything that is of me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“When Jesus paid for you with His blood, He bought everything. He owns your memories, your present days, and your future plans. He owns your past sins and your eternal future. There is nothing that is not under His blood.

“Some of you walk in the sins of others that have harmed you long ago. Why do you do that, when they have been made powerless by the work of the cross? You now have the right, the command, and the power to forgive anyone and everyone who has done you harm.

“Choose to forgive and I will heal you. Walk in forgiveness and I will set you free. Choose to love as Jesus loves and no one can ever harm you again. Allow Jesus to love through you and you will have an eternal impact on others - even those who hate you - just as He did.”

2 Chr. 7:14 NIV

“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Isaiah 30:21 NIV

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying “This is the way; walk in it.”

John 13:33-34 NIV

33) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

34) All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

I Cor. 7:23 AMP

You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.

Gal. 5:13 AMP

For you, brethren, were [indeed] called to freedom; only [do not let your] freedom be an incentive to your flesh and an opportunity or excuse [for selfishness], but through love you should serve one another.

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].

How can we say that we follow Jesus, the One Who gave His life so that each of us can be forgiven, and not forgive those who have harmed us? The root sin of unforgiveness is pride.  Because that is rarely recognized, it is never really dealt with as such; and we evade submitting the root sin to the total Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I Will Remain in Charge – the Antithesis of Submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

Anyone harboring unforgiveness toward another has, in essence, determined to hold that sin (real or imagined) over that person and has chosen to be the “lord” of that incident or grieving situation.  The dominance and control exercised by the unforgiving party denies all that was promised to God when he/she committed to the Lordship of Jesus in all areas.  This area, therefore, remains under the dominance of Satan. Pride caused him to be expelled from the presence of God, and he is delighted when we follow his lead in any area of our lives.

If God has forgiven the person who has offended you but you won’t, are you not telling Him that your position is loftier than His? In light of the truth, that’s not possible, is it? What do you need to do at this point? God demands that we forgive if we desire to be truly free.  He even shows us, in Luke’s account of the crucifixion, that Jesus forgave all those who harmed Him; and also the repentant thief just before he died. We must do the same.

Unforgiveness, although often deeply masked by wounds, scars, and self-pity, is one of the greatest causes of weakness in the body of Christ and it will cripple any attempt to draw close to the Lord if left unconfessed. Once this main stronghold is acknowledged and confessed, a tide of healings and freedoms are able to surface, and it can be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Help me to forgive as I have been forgiven, Lord,

Jim Corbett