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6/23/21 Learning to Go Unrecognized

“When you are ready, I will use you to show the world signs and wonders, confirming My Word. I will once again allow My Holy Spirit to flow, this time through you. First you need to allow Me to eliminate your flesh. You need to help Me destroy anything in you that will accept the praise and the glory for what I do in your midst, or I will not be able to trust you. If I am unable to trust you, you will be set aside in the same way that I will soon nullify those who have used My Word to build their mansions. Miracles, signs, and wonders are My way of confirming to the world what was accomplished at Calvary. They are not designed to be a side-show for some self-promoting performer. They are to bring the needy to Me. When you desire none of the credit for what I do, I will be able to flow mightily through you. Prepare your heart. Join Me in killing your flesh. Learn to go unrecognized in all that you do for Me. Then prepare to be used.”

 Acts 4:29-31 NIV

29) “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your Word with great boldness.

30) Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

31) After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And all were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

 

The above verses thrill and encourage me more each time I read them. I love the simplicity of honest hearts before a holy God.

What strikes me most is the kind of prayer prayed, considering the dangerous situation that they were in. Here they were, hunted people being threatened with death because of the name of Jesus, all in a room for a prayer meeting. If that situation took place today, the most prevalent prayer would be to somehow deliver us from the dangerous situation and protect us from harm. How different their heart was.

To ask the Lord for boldness to speak His Word, to heal, perform miracles, and present signs and wonders is light years ahead of us spiritually. Pretty selfless stuff if you ask me. Not even one little petition for safety.

In our day, we would have left that room to cower another day after asking for help for the way home. They left the room with their request for boldness fulfilled. They were trustworthy. We need to repent of our religious folly. They got to experience a Holy Spirit house shaking. We have only read about it.

Change my selfish prayers, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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6/23/21 The Difference

A while back, I had the opportunity to observe two families. The setting was at a swimming pool at a hotel. One family was Christian, and the three children had been home schooled all of their lives with God as the center of their schooling and the Bible as the foundation for all that they lived. I know this because I talked to the parents. The other family had all the trappings of the world and typified what most would call the “beautiful people.” Their children were enrolled in a secular, private school and seemed to lack for nothing materially. Both families were there for some educational competition and seemed equal socially.

The families did not know each other, so I was able to observe them in their own environment, separate from each other yet in a common atmosphere. There were differences in age and gender, so they had little reason to interact and remained as autonomous family units.

Over the course of the afternoon, each family obviously had opportunity to interact, resolve differences, and engage in conflict if they were so inclined. That is where the striking differences came forth. The secular family functioned as separate people, loosely joined by a family bond, seemingly only tolerating each other because of that bond. With the father and mother acting as wardens from the sidelines, they trudged through the afternoon, demanding their individual rights, imposing their diverse opinions on each other, and biding their time until it was time to go and do something they had planned for later.  All had something different planned for their individual lives once the pool time ended.

The Christian family was bonded in love and respect for each other. They were a delight to behold as they each seemed to strive to please the other. They embraced the fullness of the day, sharing and loving openly, whole-heartedly enjoying, respecting, and building each other up. They lived the truth of God’s Word as a family. The difference was remarkable, the contrast astounding, and the impact of the truth of the Word in action was evident every moment of the afternoon. The concepts of God and His Word were so lived out by this family that they were “bright” with living truth. Their lives were such a presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that everyone there - even the parents of the other family - noticed that something was different about them. The foundation of their lives, individually and collectively, was biblical truth - and it showed.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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6/22/21 The Antidote

“Holiness and intimacy with Me is the antidote for any terror that comes your way. Nothing can stand against My presence. As you draw close to Me, you will know of My plans, understand My heart, and live My kind of life in your world. You will be impervious to any kind of threat from the enemy of your soul. You will move in unison with My will, hiding in the folds of My garment. There is no safer place. There is no more powerful place. There is no place more peaceful. Rest in Me! It is where you belong.”

 Gal. 2:20 AMP

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Phil. 2:12b-13 AMP  

12b) …work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

13) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Hebrews 10:14 NIV

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

 

Those who desire to draw closer to the Lord and become all that they are intended to be know that religion, soulish good works, and striving have no part in their lives. Sometimes, however, every one of us has a tendency to fall into the trap of each one of those elements, especially when we hear the call to holiness and preparation for the coming of our Lord.

As the Father reveals all aspects of His heart, sometimes I reel with the overwhelming challenge that I am called to face. I begin to condemn myself for who I am not, cower at the prospects ahead of me as a Christian in the coming times, stagger at the weight of my responsibility to represent Jesus properly; and become discouraged as I attempt to prepare for His return. It is then that I remember that none of this was my idea in the first place. My Father has ordained my life and has promised to fulfill His plan for it and in it. My job is simply to need Him desperately.

In the above verse in Hebrews 10, I am so encouraged by the statement “those who are being made holy.” The wonderful part of “have [already] been made perfect” [in God’s eyes] is pretty incredible and difficult for me to understand fully, but “being made holy” soothes my heart.

At this very moment - and every moment until we are with our Father in Heaven - the process of making us holy is being accomplished, because we have surrendered our lives to Jesus and His completed work on the cross. When God is in the process of breaking us, He’s not trying so much to get us to say “uncle” as He is trying to get us to say “Abba.”

Teach me to say more “ABBA” and less “uncle,” Lord,

Jim Corbett

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6/22/21 The Unaware Plague

As I do research for our books and other ministry outreaches, I am pretty astounded by how unaware most people are of the war they are in. They don’t see overwhelming business demands as a tool of the enemy to nullify their real effectiveness. They don’t understand that hours before the television set help erode family unity. Cell phones are divisional devices used to separate families.

Take a look around. Watch how the enemy of everything that God desires is steadily at work to distract, divide, and destroy everything God holds dear in the family unit. He will use anything he can, any way he can, to take the family members’ eyes off of the important and place them on the urgent or the entertaining.

If you think that I’m being a little melodramatic, do this experiment. Pick any device - cell phone, television, business pressure, school, or social engagements and compare the time consumed by them with the time a family spends together communicating and investing in each other.  See how long most families spend quality time together before each member runs off to do something more important. I think you will be amazed at how few people consider their family more important than whatever personal god they serve first. What do you see in your family?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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6/21/21 Your Greatest Asset

“What will be your legacy to future generations should the Lord tarry? For that matter, what kind of gift are you giving to those around you at present? What kind of person do people see when they observe your life? You are very fortunate. I have shown you the kind of character that truly pleases Me. Of course, there is Jesus. He is the One that each of you should emulate. His life was perfect. Throughout the years, however, I have been pleased with many of My children. Their greatest asset was the understanding that their lives really meant something, and they sought to find that meaning by seeking My heart; and then they followed what they learned from Me.

"I observe the lives of you and your generation. It appears to Me that most of you have given little thought to the fact that you are building a legacy. You seem to go about your days focused on your personal, earthly portfolio and have little concern about the impact it has on those who will follow you. I am not impressed at how much you have in the bank, how big your house is; or for that matter, how big your church is. It all came from Me anyway. I am impressed with how much you honor My reputation, how much you value what was done for you on Calvary; and how much you love others. Everything else matters little to Me.

"When was the last time that you began your day with the intent to honor Me in all that you did that day as your priority? When was the last time you determined in your heart to show everyone you met how valuable Jesus is to you? Have you ever begun your day with the goal of caring only for the needs of others, setting your own desires aside completely? That is the stuff I care about. I ask you this. After I call you home, what will people remember most about you? In the same way, what will you have in your portfolio to give to Me?”

Exodus 33:13 NIV

“If I have found favor in your eyes, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”

2 Cor. 3:2-3 NIV 

2) You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

3) You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Heb. 12:1 NIV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

 

One of the realizations that came to me some time ago is the fact that I can do nothing about what I have already done. It’s true. I can mend some broken fences, heal some soiled relationships, and rethink some of the mistakes; but I can’t undo what has already been established as my life. It is what will be presented to the Lord as my legacy when I face Him.

That frightened me enough to push the pause button. In my pondering, the Lord showed me that every action I take, every move I make, every situation I face, every interaction I have, and every word I say are creating my legacy. The moment they occur, they are unchangeable, cut in stone for eternity. I wanted to stop time, move the clock back, erase the board, and hide away until I could come up with a better game plan than I had so far. It was a very rude awakening.

After I pushed away a feeling of panic, wanting to try to stop my life from infecting more people adversely, I realized two things. First, the Lord showed me that His abundant mercy more than covered my abundant foolishness. He had it covered! Whew!!

Second, now that I was aware of the fact that my life really mattered to the plan of God, I had a responsibility to do something about it. The bottom line was I called myself a Christian, so I represented Jesus in everything I did or said whether I wanted to or not. I am the letter that He sends to those in my determined circle of influence. I am what He looks like to the grocer, the baker, and the candlestick maker. What I say and do to them is, in their eyes and in the eyes of My Father, my representation of Jesus. They see who He is by who I am!

One day I will see how well I did. I’m sure that my legacy will be covered in abundant mercy, but will it look like a crown?

Needing to really understand the impact of my life,

Jim Corbett

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