Category: From Our Fathers Heart

“Have you ever wondered why the battle sometimes takes longer than you would like? From My perspective, battles in any form accomplish much. They define motives, strengthen resolve, and determine alliances. Often, they bring heart issues to the forefront and create platforms for deep-rooted angers to express themselves. In most cases, the hardships that create seemingly endless difficulties in a person’s life are the very steppingstones to holiness. I watch every situation in which you find yourself. I examine all aspects of each encounter and make sure that everything purposed for that situation is accomplished.

“As you grow in Me, you will realize that I really am in total control of all situations. My will is ultimately accomplished. Once that is fully ingrained in you, your battles become opportunities for you to rest in Me, while the battle rages all around you. While all forces are working to accomplish My will, you and I can rise above the clatter and enjoy each other. I will impart more of Myself to you because of your need of Me and your submission to Me.

“I would like you to remember some of the “impossible” times in your past.  What was the main outcome of each one? It was a deeper commitment on your part, and a closer relationship with Me. If that didn’t happen, you missed an incredible opportunity. You missed the privilege of allowing Me to fight on your behalf. The next time a battle of any sort arises in your life, use it as an opportunity to spend time with Me, rather than engaging in it yourself. You will find that the benefits of the situation far outweigh the hazards, no matter how difficult they might seem. When I become the reward for anything you do, you are greatly increased in more ways than you will ever know. Come to Me in all seasons of your life. I am always there for you.”

Joshua 5:13-15 AMP

13) When Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up, and behold, a Man stood near him with His drawn sword in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

14) And He said, No [neither], but as Prince of the Lord’s host have I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, What says my Lord to His servant?

15) And the Prince of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, Loose your shoes from off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so.”

Psalm 46:1-2a AMP

1) God is our Refuge and Strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation], a very present and well-proved help in trouble.

2a) Therefore we will not fear…

 

The above verses in Joshua have taught me as much about our relationship with God as any other verses in the Bible. Joshua was ready to engage in a battle that the Lord had ordained for him. All of a sudden, a mighty warrior was standing before him. The logical question was asked of the warrior, but a “not so logical and quite frightening” answer was given. “Whose side are you on?” made a lot of sense. “Neither” must have made Joshua’s heart skip a few beats until he heard the rest of the statement.

What makes me so excited was the whole scenario that was being played out. It is so simple when observed from a relationship perspective.

Joshua was entering into a battle that the Lord was going to win for him. The Prince of the armies was there to oversee everything. He didn’t take any side but the Lord’s, because the physical armies were only playing out the Lord’s will. All Joshua was really required and invited to do was to understand that the Lord was present, which made the very ground that he stood on holy; and therefore, worship of the victor was in order. The battle was relatively inconsequential; the outcome was predictable. The posture for Joshua was to get out of the way. “Come with Me while the work is being done. It is My battle.”

We all know how the battle was won - not by their power, nor their might, but by the Spirit of the Lord, God Almighty!  What fun!!!

Teach me about You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Most of you, My children, are afraid to need Me. You fortify your lives with support systems. You build back-up schemes, devise measures to remain safe, and implement plans to make sure you have the means for tomorrow in case it rains. You do not realize that you are building a house of cards. Nothing you are relying on will remain.

 “Little of what you are building has eternal value. Little of what you spend your time fretting about has My heart in it. In this closing season of time, My presence is in the midst of those who desperately need Me. My power is with you when you are helpless. I will never be only one of your many answers. I am your only answer!”

 Psalm 20:6-7 AMP

6) Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.

7) Some trust in and boast of chariots and some of horses, but we will trust in and boast of the name of the Lord our God.

Psalm 46:1 AMP

God is our Refuge and Strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation], a very present and well-proved help in trouble.

Isaiah 31:1 AMP

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek and consult the Lord!

 

There is only one God. He is the One and Only God. All other gods can never be trusted to take His place, no matter how powerful they may appear to be.

Teach me to trust only in You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

 

“Few of you really understand the plans that I have for you. Many of you read My Word in an attempt to pattern yourselves after the heroes of the faith. You examine their lives, dissecting them to find the pieces that you feel comfortable enough to emulate. You will never find proper direction until you realize that difficult times require a hero’s heart. The times in which they lived demanded hard choices and selfless decisions. My warriors were ordinary people just like you, but they were valiant in their approach to the call that I had on their lives. I don’t see that same heart in most of My church today.

“You are on the brink of major changes in your world. You know that the culmination of My plans is fast approaching. You see the times and seasons in which you live. Still, you have not made the heart decision to become a real player in the unfolding drama. You still consider your life, your finances, and your time to be your own. You have this hope that what you are seeing is not really happening. You are preparing for a time when things will return to normal. Your world will never be as it once was. You must finally accept that and plan your life accordingly.

“Stop padding your personal portfolio. Draw a line in the sand of your life, and cross over to My side. Ask Me for a hero’s heart. Require of Me what is needed to equip you to represent Me properly. Pursue the kind of faith that allows you to sell out completely to My plans. The time is fast approaching when you will need to walk free from fear and from the entanglements of selfishness. You will be required to hold nothing as your own. Practice that now. Take on My heart motives as your own.

“Do an about face from your personal plans and begin to walk with My motives for your life. Plan on being My new heroes. Equip others who have begun to move with Me until you can do so yourself. Plan on being a hero to those who will spend eternity with Me because of your representing Jesus to them.”

Hebrews 10:32-36 NIV

32) Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.

33) Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

34) You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

35) So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

36) You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV

1) 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.

2) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3) Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

 

Being in a ministry that observes the plans of God and encourages others to participate fully in those plans, I have seen many people stop short of the fullness of their calling. It is painful to observe someone on the brink of fully appreciating the reason he was born and the plan for his life; and then watch helplessly as he turns away because the cost is too high. Most people take on a posture of doing many “good” things in an attempt to make up for the emptiness that is in their hearts from knowing what they have done.

At this very moment, the signs are all around us that our world is changing. Who we once were as a great nation is long past. What we are to become is all part of the end-time plan of God.

What amazes me is how few people are really acting as if they have consciously considered the times in which we live. It is almost as if they do not want to acknowledge what is happening. We have become a church with white knuckles from holding on to the treasures that hold our hearts. Most of us will not even attempt to press into the plan for our lives. The price seems to be much too high to go all the way, even when God is calling us to do so.

I am reminded of the horrible scenes in movies taking place during the beginning stages of the Holocaust in Germany. Gallant people, who without knowing it were on their way to the gas chambers, feverishly packed their meager belongings and personal treasures to take with them, hoping to somehow hold on to the things they loved. They had no way of knowing how valueless those things would become in their near future. I can’t begin to understand the fear they must have been going through, so I won’t begin to claim that I would do anything differently.

The point I believe I’m supposed to make is how fast value that is placed on the things of this world can change. What is deemed as most important can become worthless in a matter of moments. Still we, being on the very threshold of possibly the most important time in history, are positioning our hearts for better times coming in the future, hoping that things will soon be back to normal. We are holding on to our treasures, treasures in each of us that Jesus spent His life for, and which are ordained for the work of God in these perilous times. It is as if we are looking and listening to what the Lord is saying, but not seeing and hearing what He is telling us. We do not even consider going to the Lord and asking for a spiritual hero’s heart, a heart like Jesus’, that will guide us properly during the challenges ahead.

Make no mistake. Investments in this world could overnight have little value. Investments in the desires of our Father God, however, will reap untold eternal harvests from the ripe fields around each of us.

Wanting to have the heart of God’s kind of hero,

Jim Corbett

“If I were to take all hope from you, how would you fare? You would be left in dismal surroundings with nothing to look forward to. You see, I could never do that. It is against My nature as your Father. It is against My Word for you. Sending Jesus alone is hope beyond measure. What He has done in the heavenlies has brought hope to you. What He is continually doing makes a bright future for you.

 “Look around. You have much for which to be thankful. You have a hope. You have a wonderful future, no matter what you might be facing at present. Place all that you are and all that you desire in My hands.  They are hands of hope.”

2 Samuel 14:14b NIV

“But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.”

2 Chr. 16:9 NIV

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...”

Jeremiah 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.”

 

There is no one with a brighter future and more hope than a servant of the Lord. Submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ piles on reward after reward to our lives and gives us a destiny that cannot be matched by all the treasures the world has to offer.

Our future is bright. Our destiny is assured. Our life paths can be straight and our eternity is full of hope. We are truly blessed because of what Jesus has done for us and because of the love of our heavenly Father.

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.

Remind me to keep my eyes on You, Lord,

Jim Corbett      

“It’s time to enter into the prosperous life that I have provided for you. Become engaged fully in My kind of existence, rather than flirting with the ways of the world. You no longer belong there. If you attempt to live in both worlds, you will eventually find yourself gasping for life and wondering why you have little peace and no power to overcome.

“Start by remembering what was accomplished on the cross. Study the power of the blood. Observe once again those who have gone before you. Examine who you really are. How far are you living from who you know you were meant to be? Stir up the gifts that you know are part of your life. Shake off anything that hinders you from selling out to My Word completely. Renounce your sins. Embrace a crucified life. Go for it.

“In your prayer times, allow Me to show those things that are hindering you from becoming all that you have been born to be. Stop listening to the lies of the enemy that remind you of your weaknesses and failures. Listen to My Word. I know who you are because you are in Christ. I understand the power that has been placed in your inner being. I understand My covenant promises to you. Nothing is more powerful than My presence. My Spirit now resides in you. You can rise above anything and are capable of any task because of My presence within you.

“Why would you settle for a mediocre life when I have a victorious life available to you because of Jesus? Be strong in the power of My might! Stop wallowing in a life that is less than you have been appointed to be. I can’t wait to show you who you really are! You have everything you need to fulfill your calling, if you will only surrender fully to Me. Do it now. Enter into the joy of the Lord!”

Joshua 1:8 NIV

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and

successful.”

Phil. 4:13 AMP

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

Heb. 12:1-2 AMP

1) THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.

2) Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

III John 2 AMP

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers.

 

We really have this life backwards. Our thinking is directly opposed to the thinking of our Lord. What we call prosperity is light years from its biblical definition. Still, somehow, it never sinks into the block between our shoulders that it would be wise to consider the Lord’s definitions, including prosperity, as our guidelines for life. They might make us truly prosperous.

I remember a season in my life before I came to the Lord. I was so doped up, full of lusts and booze, that I couldn’t think straight.  My confusion was apparent by the extremely ignorant decisions that I made. At the time, though, I thought I had it all together. Everything I did seemed logical and actually quite wise in my blinded eyes. After my head was cleared by the Lord, I could see how far my life was from any semblance of reason. I couldn’t believe how far I had migrated from the straight road.

That is the way the Lord must see us when we minimize the wonders done for us and in us because of Jesus. Our desires to remain anywhere near our old life must look so foolish to Him. From His perspective, knowing what is available to us, our carnal decisions and desires must appear as foggy thinking. No wonder He is continually goading us to draw closer to Him to receive His kind of wealth.

Turn my heart toward home, Lord,

Jim Corbett