Pray that people will understand the wonder of the Word from the manger to the cross and resurrection.
Pray that all of us will be aware of the needs of others and then do something about it.
Pray that we will have patience to wait on God alone to accomplish all He has given us to do.
Do you realize that God's priorities don't include making you comfortable? Of course, He answers prayers, truly helps us when we are in need, and blesses us because He loves us; but He never promises us a rose garden with no challenges. In fact, it's in times of challenge that we grow spiritually and grow closer to Him.
Refiner's fires are God's love in action. The hotter the fire, the more thorough the refinement process is. If you look at 2 Samuel 14:14, it talks about a loving Father who creates ways for those who are heart separated from Him to be brought close. Being close to God is the best and safest way for all of creation to flourish.
If you, as a husband and father, have a desire to lead your family with spiritual success through the challenging times ahead, you'll need to embrace the refiner's fires sent your way. Whatever draws you to your knees is a good thing. Whatever causes you to be out of answers and cry out to the Lord for help prepares you to overcome the world and its ways. Whatever brings you to the end of yourself, so you need God, is of eternal benefit to your family.
If you're not capable of standing still in the face of incredible danger because God told you to do so when everyone else is running, you need to cry out to the Lord to help you. If you can't see the need to have the full power of God with you in your battle to save your children, you need to cry out to the Lord to help you. If you feel you'll be able to go through the coming times with what spiritual life you have at present, you need to cry out to the Lord to help you. Then, you need to embrace every refiner's fire that comes your way with all your heart. Digging in with the Lord is what it's going to take for you to make it. However that happens is up to the Lord. Your job is to surrender. Will you?
Let's talk more!
Jim Corbett
"If I allowed your life to be crushed, would you glorify My Name? I don't mean if some tragedies befell you, or if you encountered some great challenges. I'm saying, would you enthusiastically praise Me with all of your being if you became similar to one who had leprosy, as in the Bible? What if I asked you to give away everything you own, even your ability to make money? All of your savings, stocks, furniture, everything -except the clothes on your back -would no longer be owned by you. On top of that, because you gave everything away, all of your friends left you since you couldn't function in the same way as before. You no longer had what it takes to hang around with them.
"If you lost your reputation, scorned by everyone, would you look to Me with praise in your heart, questioning nothing that was happening to you? If I allowed your land to be consumed by hoards of ruthless people bent on destroying you, your family, and friends, how would you tell others about My love for you? I would like to tell you something. None of the above should affect how you proclaim My glory. I have observed those of you who feel full of faith in your safe world. You praise Me because I have allowed you to be blessed. You believe that you could have enough faith to overcome when times are rough. You believe that you would gleefully praise Me when peril is all around you. You are confident fools and you have missed it.
"Those who will be strong in peril are those who are displaying weakness and repenting of it now. In their hardship, I am training them to trust. In their frailty, I am showing them My strength. Great peril is coming and I will have a powerful people, who will acknowledge their weakness and therefore receive My strength.
"To you who are suffering at present, be encouraged. Be submissive and embrace the trial. I am your strong tower and I am imparting My strength to you. I have not forgotten you. In fact, you are the most prosperous of all My children. You have an acute awareness of your need of Me. That is true prosperity. Never forget that nothing I do or allow to happen affects Who I am. You are functioning in My plan, and I will accomplish it in My way. You praise Me, and trust what I'm doing. That is your part. I will be a trustworthy God. That is My part."
1 Cor. 4:9-13 NIV
9) For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.
10) We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!
11) To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
12) We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;
13) when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
Rev. 3:19 AMP
Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude].
I used to simply tolerate the "super faith" people, who felt that it was a lack of faith in God to display any form of weakness when in the midst of a trial. Now I feel sorry for them. Anyone who is always "high" either has not submitted to the hand of God for training or he's a liar.
In the above verse, God is calling those who are going through the rigors of training and chastening to be enthusiastic. So many immature believers feel that to have real faith, one must always carry a presence of sweetness and joy, never expressing the reality of the hurt that accompanies growth. In our walk, the Lord over and over brings us to the limit of our ability to tolerate the pressure. At that time, inner joy of God's love may be present; but outwardly, if we were honest, we would have the freedom to say "ouch."
There is a great difference between a self-serving attitude of whining and complaining, and a warlike countenance when our flesh is being destroyed. Under His hand during the time of pressure, we may squirm, squeal, and hurt. The trial shows our weakness; but by our submission, we gain His strength, ready for the next limit of our endurance. The next trial always has higher limits because we have grown.
The enthusiasm that is spoken of in Rev. 3:19 should not be interpreted as enjoying the pain. We are enthusiastic because we have a loving God who cares enough for us to continually take on the responsibility of eliminating our weakness. Jesus Himself endured, tolerated, and hurt on the cross for a future joy. He wasn't smiling in the garden or on the cross. Only at the resurrection was His joy complete. Before that He was real and hurting, but in His pain He was still full of faith and supremely confident in what His Father was doing.
Willing to say "ouch," but remembering the love,
Jim Corbett
In November of 2008, the Lord showed me that He has done three things that will affect the course of our lives. First, He has turned the world over to a reprobate mind. Second, His people will go through great refiner's fires to prepare them for the seasons ahead. Third, He is aligning all of the nations for His end-time plan. Today and the next two days, we will be dealing with these issues one at a time.
Up until this time, you - as a husband and father - have been able to navigate your life and the lives of your family because the world made sense. Logical thinking, reasonable attitudes, and integrity have been the basis for your decision making. Common sense could be relied upon in most business and personal decisions.
That is now changing because reprobate thinking has little to do with truth, logic, or normal thinking. It denies all reason, and forms conclusions based on directions from a spiritual enemy bent on confusion, instead of truth. All the lusts of the flesh, reasonable or otherwise, guide the actions of those who are not aligned with God and directed by His Holy Spirit. Starting with those who can most easily be swayed and eventually permeating our laws, people who have the decision-making power to influence social behavior will create a world that allows mankind to plunge into the darkness of the lowest form of living. This life makes no sense to those who have the mind of Christ.
As you look around, any thinking person can see the illogical, base nature of mankind creeping into every element of society. Right is being deemed wrong, and wrong is applauded and heralded as freedom to choose. Decisions and laws, at times, have become sadly laughable to the reasoning mind. Slowly but surely, you and I will live in a world where opportunities we've had in the past to raise our families in an atmosphere of reason will be gone.
As a husband and father, how are you going to overcome, or even survive in a world that has such foreign thinking and no deep, personal relationship with Father God? Without wisdom from the throne room of God, how will you be able to show those you love the answers they'll need to deal with the amazing challenges they'll soon face? How will you be able to make it from day to day without continual guidance from the Holy Spirit? Guess what? It won't be possible.
Let's talk more!
Jim Corbett
"Be careful where you place your allegiances. Make sure you know the agendas of those you decide to support. Be on guard for those who sound as if they are hearing from the Lord but have their own programs for you to follow. There is little time to be sidetracked. There is no time for you to be sidelined because of confusion.
"I am calling for a crucified life. I am calling for a bridal heart, one looking only for Jesus. I am allowing refiners' fires to refine My true believers. I am not calling you to live in prosperity and comfort as the world sees those things. How could I call you to pad your comfort areas, when there is so much to be done? How can I call you to sit on the sidelines, when a war is raging against the souls that I love dearly?
"Don't be fooled by the loud voices and exuberant preaching. They are working up an emotion, not flowing in My Spirit as they would have you believe."
2 Chronicles 16:9 NIV
"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..."
Psalm 25:12 NIV
Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
John 5:19 AMP
So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His own accord); but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way [in His turn].
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.
Rev. 3:18-19 AMP
18) Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined and tested by fire, that you may be [truly] wealthy, and white clothes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nudity from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, that you may see.
19) Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude].
I wonder when a true anointing was traded for screaming and jumping and emotionalism? How can Jesus be pleased, when we use Him for our own comfort? How can we say that we are following Him, when our lifestyle has little resemblance to His?
Help all of us to see truth, Lord,
Jim Corbett
