Category: From Our Fathers Heart

“When Jesus died, He was thinking of everyone but Himself. It was the perfect act of selflessness and set the pattern for you to live. If you focus only on yourself and your needs, you have little or no time to think of the needs of others. Not only are you useless to My plans, but you become useless to those around you. Selfishness is murderous to any relationship. It hinders Me from pouring My wealth into you because you will misuse it. It eventually kills any hope of service to others. It also destroys the ability for those around you to see the heart of Jesus through how you act. Overcome selfishness through service. Serve as Jesus served. Come to Me to learn His heart and to gain Mine. Then walk in Our love toward others.”

Exodus 17:12 AMP

But Moses’ hands were heavy and grew weary. So [the other men] took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other side; so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

Joshua 24:15 NIV

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

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.

Luke 12:19-21 NIV

19) ‘And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’

20) “But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21) “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Luke 23:34a NIV

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

 

The fastest way to stop someone from seeing the heart of Jesus in your actions is to think and act only for yourself. Walking past the needs of others is the opposite of the heart of Jesus. Going to Father God with a continual laundry list does not resemble nor define the kind of relationship for which Jesus died. Consuming what you have been given on yourself consumes wealth designed for Kingdom use.

Teach me Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Intimacy with Me is where your new life is fulfilled. Your inner being thrives in My presence. It is where you learn My heart and the heart of Jesus. It is where you receive grace and mercy. You will receive power to overcome all the challenges you face. You become changed when We are together. Come to Me. I will give you rest. I will give you My time. I will give you what is needed for your life and for My plan. Make intimacy with Me your priority. Jesus won that place for you with Me. You are invited and welcome; why would you not come?”

Luke 23:44-45 NIV

44) It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,

45) for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

 

For some unknown reason, most of us avoid the most incredible privilege known to mankind. We have been invited into the presence of the Creator of all things. We have been asked to come into His presence because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Other generations were not even allowed to look upon Him. We are invited to spend intimate time with Him.

But we don’t go! We do all kinds of activities for Him. We come to Him with our laundry lists. We tell others about Him; but we deny the work of Jesus, nullify the torn veil, and minimize the astounding privilege that has been earned for us. How foolish!

I no longer want to be a fool, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Do not allow your heart to be swayed by the things that are large and looming, those things that deny My plans and My purposes for your world. Do not allow your mind to be captured by the lies that seem larger and more powerful than My Word. You know what is true. You know that you live in a world full of fools who deny Who I am. There are those who have agendas that are designed to distract you from My task for you. They will cause you to look at circumstances and forget what I have promised. They will attempt to lure you to walk in arenas that have little or no eternal value. Give them no notice. Those places are not for you.

“I have called you to rise above the lies of the world and live in the power of My Word. I have provided others who hear the same call that you do. Walk with them. Be advocates for one another. Together you will walk through the fires of darkness, fulfilling the light of My Word in those who need to see clearly. Together you will be My true church. Now is not the time to pull back because things are changing around you. Now is the time to draw near to Me.  Now is the time to implement what you have been learning on My lap, in My presence. Listen only to what I say and have always said. Listen to My Word. Listen and act upon only what you know to be true. That is where I am.”

Exodus 17:12 AMP

But Moses’ hands were heavy and grew weary. So [the other men] took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other side; so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

 Joshua 24:15 NIV

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Acts 4:29-35 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 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

32) All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.

33) With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

34) There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales

35) and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

 

Reacting to circumstances is never what God intends for His people. Those who accomplish mighty things for Him have learned that difficulties will always be present. They see challenges as opportunities to drive them into an intimacy with their loving Father. From His lap, the view of things becomes very clear. They take on an eternal perspective where God is completely in charge. As we respond to circumstances from God’s perspective, there is an eternal impact, not one that is reactionary and possibly motivated by fear or anger or whatever else the enemy chooses to stir in us.

The world needs to see true followers of Christ. They need to see how He responds. They need to desire the more wonderful ways of His life. That can only be accomplished as each of us comes to know Him by spending time with Him. If He is our study and priority, His nature in us will then prevail over anything and everything that comes our way. His light will then shine brightly through us and be noticed by those who choose to see.

Never allow my heart to change just because the world is changing, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“When My Son prayed, do you know what the “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” part means? I know that most of this is quite obvious, but it means that all of your creation and the angelic creation before you are continually transferring what is accomplished here in the heavenlies with Me to the earth. My overall plan for your world is being accomplished. It is being brought to My determined conclusion precept by precept. I have set in motion natural laws that each moment are fulfilling My timetable. The angels observe and implement for Me. And then there is you, My children. Your portion is also to implement what is accomplished in the heavens on your earth.

“Let Me explain. Every “war,” a term you can understand, is actually the pushing aside of what is at present and replacing it with what I desire to happen. It is all spiritual. In fact, it is the spiritual transferred into the physical realm by My agents. My Son demonstrated the accomplishing of My will when He said that nothing was done of Himself, but only through Him by Me. He wasn’t saying that He was weak. He was showing you how to freely live and move and have your existence in Me as agents of My will, overcoming your portion of your world.

“I have given you all authority to implement My changes through My presence in you. The problems arise for you when you attempt to engage in the “war” of furthering My purposes in your own strength and wisdom. Most of the time, you don’t have any idea what I am trying to accomplish in a given situation. You don’t spend enough time with Me to find out what I am really doing. You make assumptions, pray fruitless prayers, and wonder why you are in trouble. It is because you have determined to do your will, sometimes even calling it My will; and, in essence, are opposing Me in the process. That is a hard road to travel.

“Your burden becomes light when I give it to you and then carry it for you. Find out what I am doing and then simply use what I have given you to accomplish it in My strength.”

Matt.16:19  AMP

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful ) on earth must be whatever is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.

Col. 3:1-2 AMP

1) If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

2) And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.

 

When I was young, I had a tendency to take the more difficult road. “Paving new paths” I would call it, rather than walking the proven, successful way of doing things. When I did this, and when the egg was very evident on my face, my dad had a kind way of cutting to the chase concerning my folly. He would say, “You roundhead.” It was really a loving term. I knew exactly what he meant and we would laugh, the failure and guilt were gone; and we would examine ways for me not to get in trouble again - at least in theory. My actions became “round” more often than I care to remember.

The ease with which we can avoid all the pitfalls in this life is really astoundingly simple. We must determine what the will of God is in any given situation and then walk in it, “loosing” it on this earth.

The problem is that most of us are spiritual “roundheads.” We won’t spend enough time with our Lord to find out what He wants done. We say, “God said” this, “He told” me that. We bind this, loose that, and pray for our own will and call it His. Then we wonder why nothing happens.

Sadly, even more shameful, is how we appear to the unsaved world. Our foolish words and powerless actions have painted a picture of a weak, powerless God who doesn’t answer prayer or change anything. We present an image of Jesus that few people would desire to follow. Plus, we can’t even explain why things are happening as they are, because we don’t really know.

Maybe it’s time for us to determine to wait in the presence of our Lord until He shows us what to do each day. Maybe we should determine to do only His will instead of ours. Maybe we should…

Tired of wiping spiritual egg off my face,

Jim Corbett

 

“Why do you have preconceived notions as to how I am going to answer your prayers? Most of you miss many of My answers because you are looking for something other than what I have provided for you. You need to look around and try to see My answers to your requests that may already be in your midst. Remember, I always give Myself. That means that My answers come in forms that have to do with strengthening your faith or solidifying your resolve to serve Me.

 “Take the time to observe the patterns of your past requests and compare them to how they were answered. Learn My heart. Learn My ways. You will be surprised at how you have missed some wonderful answers simply because you did not recognize them.”

Matt. 13:54-58 AMP

54) And coming to His own country [Capernaum], He taught in their synagogue so that they were amazed with bewildered wonder, and said, Where did this Man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

55) Is not this the carpenter’s Son? Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56) And do not all His sisters live here among us? Where then did this Man get all this?

57) And they took offense at Him [that is, they were repelled and hindered from acknowledging His authority, and caused to stumble]. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.

58) And He did not do many works of power there, because of their unbelief (their lack of faith in the divine mission of Jesus).

John 1:45-46 AMP

45) Philip sought and found Nathanael and told him, We have found (discovered) the One Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote about – Jesus from Nazareth, the [legal] son of Joseph!

46) Nathanael answered him, [Nazareth!] Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip replied, Come and see!”

II Cor. 10:10 AMP

For they say, His letters are weighty and impressive and forceful and telling, but his personality and bodily presence are weak, and his speech and delivery are utterly contemptible (of no account).

 

There are no knights in shining armor, no new redeemers, and no super-spiritual appearing people that are going to come to our rescue. If the Lord sends people when we pray for help, they will point us to Jesus. They will be ordinary, common, everyday people who have spent time with God and have words from the lap of our Father. They will come from common places and have common backgrounds. They will also have an uncommon relationship with the Lord.

Most every answer of God will be a challenge to have us draw closer to the Father in heaven. They will show us the coldness of our own hearts or our dead religion, challenging us to be broken before the Lord. Instead of God changing someone else or our circumstances, He has been known to first change us, allowing us to see our situations through His eyes before things change outwardly. God is in the business of refining His people to become more and more like Jesus. He sometimes uses our requests to show us our needs and improper heart motives, and then reveal His kind of answers.

Let me see with Your eyes, Lord,

 Jim Corbett