Category: From Our Fathers Heart

         "Wait! Stand just a little longer! Soon I will move on your behalf. You will see how I have answered your prayers to Me. It is My delight to give you what is best for you. Look through what is visible at first and rejoice as your answer unfolds."

Psalm 111:2 NIV

Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Isaiah 66:9 AMP

Shall I bring to the [moment of] birth and not cause to bring forth? says the Lord. Shall I Who causes to bring forth shut the womb? says your God.

Matthew 10:29-31 NIV

29) "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

30) And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered.

31) So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

Sometimes we don't recognize answered prayer when it comes. More of the character of Jesus is the best answer we can ever receive. It is the gift that compounds itself - straightening our path, meeting many needs; and even modifying our future prayers and petitions as we properly respond to His heart working in us.

True crucifixion means that a death must happen. We are called to be dead in Christ, so that His life can be lived through each of us. The hardest thing about being dead in Christ is lying on the slab as if dead until He calls us forth or answers our prayers.

Most of us, instead of patiently waiting for the Lord to intervene in our lives, get up off the slab, pace around the tomb, kick at the stone; and yell at God to roll away the stone because we feel we've been there long enough. When our patience wears out, we take a pry bar, move the stone ourselves (doing whatever we can do in our own strength to get us out of our pressure situation,) and go forth in very much the same manner as we did before - powerless, fully alive to our own strength, and "lean of soul" in the work of the Lord. We have no real power to give others, because we have not allowed Christ's power to be formed in us.

Give me the patience to wait for You to answer, Lord,

Jim Corbett

        "How do you feel when people you love violate every trust you've given them, break every promise they've made to you; and choose to be friends with those who desire to harm you? What if they never defend you, even if they call you their friend? What would you do to those people?

        "Well, I choose to love you, forgive you; and continue to invest all that I am in you. I will never give up on you! I have purchased you with a great price and I call you My friend forever."

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

8) "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord.

9) "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

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?

It is so very easy to observe the behavior of others and miss our own foolishness. In the beginning of this Father's Heart, most of us would have empathy with the Lord as He asks us the questions above. When we discover that we are doing the very same offenses against Him that we surely wouldn't want done against us, it becomes a much different story.

To top it off, we also find that while we were offending Him, He was pouring grace and mercy our way. That should bring all but the hardest heart to a life change of repentance. It should make even the coldest attitude do an about face. Did it make you choose to change any of your ways?

Break my heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

"The brightness of the light you exhibit to your world is directly dependent on the depth of your intimacy with Me. I don't mean the flashy, impressive-talking kind of religious light that carries many shadows. I mean the world-changing, eternity-impacting, Christ-representing kind of light that changes lives. That kind only comes from being with Me enough to be able to take what I give you and share it with others, without it having lost any of its effectiveness.

"When We are together, I give you Myself. When you are interacting with those around you, how much of My presence you are able to share depends on how much or little there is of you - how much there is of you that has not been given over to Jesus. Come to Me for real life, not for things. I will use you to affect your world."

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.

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.

1 Cor. 6:19b, 20 NIV

19b) ...You are not your own;

20) you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Christ wrote His life into ours when He died on the cross. We have the privilege of sharing that life with others; in fact, it's our life's work if we choose to accept it.

It fascinates me how much we misinterpret the way we are to show Jesus to the world. We study books, go to meetings, pray for things; and do many activities that look and sound as if we are spiritual. We fail, however, to take the path that has been laid out for us - the path of being intimate with God.

At the time of Jesus' death, the veil to God's presence was torn in two pieces, giving us complete access to the Almighty. Foolishly, few of us walk through that opening often enough to take His real presence to others, which we have been given the honor of doing.

Help me wear out that path, Lord,

Jim Corbett

        "It is My desire that you cease to exist as you once were, so that Christ can live His life through you. You have been made new in Christ. Your old nature has no place in My kingdom. It must pass away in the same way that everything not created in Christ will pass away.

        "As a new creation, you have been formed for an eternal relationship with Me. Stop serving what is dying. Submit to the work of the cross. Allow My Holy Spirit to complete that work in you. He will bring forth true life!"

1 Cor. 15:50 NIV

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

2 Cor. 1:8-10 NIV

8) We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

9) Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

10) He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us...

2 Cor. 3:18 AMP

And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

2 Cor. 5:17 AMP

Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ, (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

Jesus was brought into a world so perilous that children were killed at the whimsical edict of an evil king, crucifixions were as commonplace as morning walks, and people were held in slavery to ignorant teachers and foolish guides, yet He was absolutely fearless. His passionate love, His intimacy with His Father, and His zeal for imparting truth made Him "Teflon" in a world seething with infectious evil and eternal danger. His presence in any society was a gift of love from His Father God. We are in training to be the same kind of gift to those around us wherever our Father sends us.

Thank You for the gift of Jesus, so that I may be a gift to others, Lord,

Jim Corbett

        "You need to understand whom I consider successful. Look in My Word. I came against the proud and exposed the haughty. Observe the life of Jesus. His humble presence frightened those who thought they had My heart figured out. I did things My way and confounded those who thought they were wise. They lost control. Most of My really successful people died in the arenas, lost their possessions for My sake, and touched others from prison.

        "Those who would not be taught My ways judged those who were walking in them. It is the same today. Soon, however, that will change. I am raising up a holy bride in the midst of My church. She will not look successful in the eyes of most of those around her, but she will look and act like those who were successful before her. She will look and act like Jesus, while looking and waiting for Him."

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."

Amos 3:3 KJV

Can two walk together except they be agreed?

1 John 2:6 AMP

Whoever says he abides in Him ought [as a personal debt] to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.

If you are in remnant, bridal training, more than likely you will be on the perimeter of most church activities for two reasons. One, you don't want to be part of the foolishness that goes on in the Name of Jesus; and two, those involved in it want to have little to do with you.

Even though it seems that taking a strong stand for Jesus, striving to be more like Him as your priority in life, and living a crucified life is a little thing; it is not little in the eyes of the Lord. You are in training. You are being prepared. Every word that is said against you, every action that is used to ridicule your sincerity, actually strengthens your resolve and refines your walk if you allow it to do so.

Jesus will not align Himself with a whorish heart - one that gets satisfaction from anything other than Him. The successful Christian does not have an easy road. It is strewn with challenges and hardships. The road, however, is the road to bridal purity. It is the road to the heart of Jesus.

Wanting to walk the right road,

Jim Corbett