"What is your part in My plan? Do you even know? I'm not talking about how much you go to church, or how much is required of you to maintain your lifestyle. I am asking you if you really have spent enough time with Me to know why I have called you into being.
"What is the purpose for your life? In the seasons ahead, those in the world will have to adapt themselves to the changing times. They will have to modify their direction and rethink their lifestyles to adapt to the dictates of their circumstances. Many of their hearts will fail them because of fear. What they have valued and coveted as their god will have vanished. All the times they worshipped and served that god will have been in vain and absolutely fruitless. There will be no evidence of their life's work.
"Will you be the same? Will there be a need for what you do in the near future? If there is not, what will you do? How will you respond to the changes that take place? How will you bear up under the pressure? Better still, will you prosper because you flow easily from what is viable at present, directly into what is needed at that time?
"Have you sought out your anointing and are you honing your gifts, so that they are sharp and fruitful when you are called upon to use them? Do you have the souls of people constantly in mind now and are you actively doing something about them? Do you care about the needs of others at present? Do you care about the calling that I have for you, or are you so caught up in your own needs that you can't even take time to find out what that calling is?
"What if I needed you tomorrow and allowed your world to change overnight? Will you be able to hear my directions, or will you be cowering in fear just as the world will be? You need to be in training and listen even now. Flow in My anointing now, so that you will be ready then."
Ps. 31:15 AMP
My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes and those who pursue me and persecute me.
Isa. 55:6, 8-9, 11 AMP
6) Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near.
8) For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.
9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
11) So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Jer. 29:11-13 NIV
11) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
12) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Acts 8:1b, 4 NIV
1b) On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
4) Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
Have you ever tolerated one of those comedy shows where one of the main characters is placed in a position for which he is not qualified? When called upon to function in that position, he flounders, flubs, and generally goofs everything up, all accompanied by canned hysterical laughter. By the end of the show, however, everything works out. Those who are hurt by his foolishness are nowhere to be found, and all is well. We're ready to go on to the next plot in next week's show.
We are Christians. We have taken the Name of our Savior; and, in essence, we have promised our Lord that we would represent Him properly in our world. Someday, possibly someday soon, we are going to be called upon to act as Jesus would act in possibly very dire circumstances. How will we fare? Will we flounder through the situation with the same kind of recklessness as the character in the sit-com, because we haven't submitted to the required training and have no idea what He would do?
We have a problem if that is a possibility in our lives. The problem is that no one will be laughing when we cower in fear along with those of the world. There will be no happy ending for those who did not hear the gospel of salvation, because we could not tell them how Jesus could be found amidst the hatred and murder in the world. There will be no "show" next week for the person who perishes before seeing Jesus in us and wanting Him, because of the way you and I conduct ourselves. There will be no good way to explain His power to overcome anything, when we don't experience it in our own lives. Things won't work out for the best for those who are counting on us to help them, if we can't give them what is required. His Name is Jesus and we are in training to be like Him - for the good of others, and the glory of God. Maybe it is best that we make it our priority to get on with it.
Needing to submit to the training now, so that others can benefit then,
Jim Corbett