Category: From Our Fathers Heart

“When was the last time that you loved someone with reckless abandon? For that matter, when was the last time you did anything that resembled the character of My Son without the bondages of traditions, personal inhibitions, or fear?

“I would like you to know something. Please, never forget it. Because I love you so much, I have poured Myself into you. My Son gave everything away for your benefit. My people have, for centuries, given everything - even their lives - for the good of others with that same love. They have had the heart of Jesus and were justified in calling themselves by His Name. I was honored to bestow that Name on them. When they lost everything, they proclaimed My Name louder than ever. When they were called upon to give up their lives, their hearts praised Me for the opportunity to do so. No one could overcome them, because they had won every battle in their prayer closets before it manifested itself in front of them. They gave everything away in their hearts long before others took it from them. I had people who could be used to show the world the heart of Jesus.

“I am very concerned about your generation. You hold on to everything I give you, or give only a small portion of it away, calling it stewardship. Your praise is hindered because you have not completely surrendered to My Lordship. Where there is no surrender, there is no real praise welling up in your hearts. How could it come forth when it has not been nurtured in your heart? You are comparing yourselves with yourselves to see how you are faring in My economy. That is one of the reasons you do not come to repentance. Compare yourselves with Jesus, or My true prophets, or those who died praising Me in the arena. Then see how you fare and come to Me in repentance.”

Acts 8:1b and 4 AMP

8:1b) On that day a great and severe persecution broke out against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles (special messengers).

4) Now those who were scattered abroad went about [through the land from place to place] preaching the glad tidings, the Word [the doctrine concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God].

 Romans 15:1-7 NIV

1) We who are strong ought to bear the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

2) Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

3) For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

4) For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

5) May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,

6) so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7) Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

 

I have often thought of writing a story about dropping someone from this generation back into the first century during the heavy persecutions; especially someone who has accepted the prosperity doctrine or the “name it and claim it” foolishness that is so prevalent within today’s church. Where would they find peace sitting in the arena or when fleeing because their homes were confiscated? Could they praise the Lord for the opportunity to lay their lives down as Jesus did, instead of speaking “positive words” to deliver themselves from the trials?

Before the rest of us judge them, how about if any one of us were there? How much fear would we have? How much “justice” would we demand when we were persecuted? How much of our prosperity would we justify when others had nothing? Would we sell everything that we had so others could have a little something? Would we demand the “right” to prosper?

Frankly, I wonder how we can feel proud of giving our pittance to the work of the Lord when Ananias and Sapphira fell down and died because they held back a small portion of what they should have given and then lied about it. Both we and they made the same commitment to God when we accepted Jesus – “Everything I have is Yours, Lord.”

The lesson has little to do with money. It is an issue of the heart. Is everything we have truly His - time, relationships, money, thoughts, etc.? I’m sure that He loves us; but is He proud of us when we have promised Him everything, yet hold back in every way, actually offering even less of what we have than what Ananias and Sapphira held back? I wonder.

Lord, teach me to hold nothing back,

Jim Corbett

“Live out this day for My good! I have appointed it and I desire your participation. Your part in My plan is important. If you waste your time pining over yesterday or spend valuable moments fearing tomorrow, you will not appreciate all that I have for you today. If you live your life in the joys of the past, or base your hope on a better tomorrow, you will not consider today important enough to involve yourself fully in My plan for you.

“Start considering each day as important as I do, be it filled with challenges, alive with opportunities, or a simple day of rest. Learn from your past, look forward to My future with you; but live this day with the passion that Jesus lived each moment He was with you. He understood how important His each and every day was. So must you!”

John 4:34 NIV

”My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

Acts 17:28a  AMP

For in Him we live and move and have our being...

2 Cor. 3:3 AMP

You show and make obvious that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, not written with ink but with [the] Spirit of [the] living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Cor. 5:20a NIV

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

Colossians 1:7-12 NIV

7) You learned it (the gospel) from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

8) and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

9) For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

10) And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

11) being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully

12) giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

 

I am heartbroken over the days that I have wasted by focusing on past mistakes or by worrying about what is ahead. As I think of how little was accomplished by my worry or regret, I can understand why it is so much more fruitful to direct my attention to each day’s tasks and situations as they happen. It also means that I am trusting my Lord with all of the rest. If I seek Him as my priority, I can be confident that He will cover what I have done, and that He is in charge of what comes next.

It’s a matter of trust, isn’t it, Lord?

 Jim Corbett

“Why would you give what I have given you to those who choose not to hear, when there are so many people who are hungry for My Word? I have trained you to walk with wisdom. You have eaten at My table. I have given you My heart. I have whispered My secret longings to you in our intimate times together. Be careful what you do with them. Make sure that you share this wealth only with those who will not throw it down as yesterday’s laundry.

“You have been trained to walk and reason above the ways of the world. Stand until I tell you to move. Go only where I call you to go. You have been taught to move only for My reasons, in response to My heart, not by the needs that you encounter. You are My vessel of service. I have trained you and fed you from My hand. Nourish others when and where I tell you. I love you.”

Exodus 33:13-16 NIV

13) “If I have found favor in your eyes, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

14) The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15) Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

16) How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

 Luke 6:45-46 AMP

45) The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.

46) Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?

Luke 10:5-6 NIV

5) “When you enter a house, first say, ’Peace to this house.’

6) If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.”

Luke 10:10-11 NIV

10) “But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say,

11) ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you’…

 

Moses had the key to a powerful life. He would not do anything unless he was told to do it; and then, he knew that whatever he was told to do was fruitless unless the presence of God had gone before him.

Think of how many times we have gone running ahead of God and fell flat on our faces. Think of how much more peaceful our lives would be if we knew for sure that the Lord had sent us to a specific task, and that He had assured us that He was with us there. Nothing could sway us. We could remain for as long as the Lord asked us to be there without wavering, no matter what the circumstances might look like.

Teach me to listen first, and then wait until You have gone before me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I have always asked you to invest in those things that are eternal, so that your life is of eternal consequence. Most of you, however, are struggling to find what has eternal weight and what does not. The answer is really quite simple. Any way that you spend your time, knowing for sure that what you are doing comes from My heart, has eternal consequences. All of it is called ministry as far as I am concerned.

 “You run into problems when you take on anything that is not directly from Me. When you have not spent enough time with Me to really know My heart, all of the passions, fears, and concerns of the world become big in your eyes and cloud your vision. They are earplugs and eye coverings to My will and My Word for your life. Investing in the eternal is what really matters to Me. Investing in our intimate communion is how you know what that is.”

Psalm 111:2 NIV

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

I Cor. 4:17-18 AMP

17) For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!],

18) Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.

 

God has a proper time and place for everything He does. If we choose to delight in His ways and find what they are for us every day, we will walk in complete, ordered unity. Not only will we be able to discern between what is carnal and what is of eternal consequence, we will also find answers for every need at the proper time and in the proper place, because we have chosen to lay down our will and discover what the Father has in mind for us.

I picture those of us, who desire to follow the heart of God and are spending the necessary time to know our personal directive of our Father, moving at the proper speed - which has been established by the Father specifically for our life plan - with a beat that is perfect for our personality. Walking within these parameters makes us capable of walking in His perfect will, our actions having eternal impact. We will always arrive in His timing for whatever the Lord has established for our lives and our portion in His eternal plan.

Keep me in step, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“When I remove My hand from something, only darkness is left. When I bring judgment upon something, it must reel under the weight of My purposes. It must eventually surrender to My will or it will simply cease to exist.

“People have become used to My grace upon this land for so long that it has been taken for granted. As My judgments flow, many will curse Me; others will see that I am doing what I have promised all along, allowing everyone a final opportunity to turn to Me.

“Even judgment is really My mercy and grace for it brings you, My people, to Me. You really come to Me only because you have need, but you do come.”

Rom. 8:28-31 AMP

28) We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

29) For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.

30) And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].

31) What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?]

 

To say that we are blessed is an incredible understatement. I think of my life; when I realize what I really deserve, all I can do is fall in a heap at the feet of Jesus, thankful for His mercy toward me. He accepts me when I don’t deserve acceptance. He loves me even when I have no idea how to love Him back. He is with me even when I choose to be far from Him because of my choices and failures. I will be with Him forever because He loved me enough to die for me.

The mercy of God is beyond understanding. First, there’s Jesus, the epitome of mercy toward a creation that had no hope of any kind of deliverance from its sin. He came even when we didn’t want salvation; but in God’s mercy, He came to us.

Now, in the closing moments, the incredible patience and mercy of God is the only power holding back the close of all things and the final damnation of all those who scorn God. God wishes that none should perish, so he is giving more time to those who need to repent before He closes the door. Even the tribulation period - with its judgments, horrors, and overwhelming dismay - is God’s mercy. It is a final chance to repent. Those who wouldn’t bend their knee in good times are put under so much pressure that they either bend and repent or walk away cursing.

What an incredible God! What mercy! Thank You, Lord.

Walking with a grateful heart,

Jim Corbett