“Do you know that there will be times when you will look like a fool if you choose to serve Me with all your heart? Do you know that you might appear to have missed My will for you, yet be exactly where I want you to be, so that you can learn directly from My hand? The gospels of man cannot understand walking in My Spirit. In their hearts, I am held to perform according to their interpretation of My Word, a very self-serving interpretation. I will never do that. Their doctrines appear to work because they appeal to the carnal nature of undiscerning believers.

"My Gospel calls for absolute obedience to what I tell you to do, no matter what the consequence to you. You may never be vindicated if I should use you to expose the hardened hearts of the hosts of the controlling spirits that you encounter. You may never be a success in the eyes of the world and most of the carnal church. Your reputation may be non-existent as I focus on your character. Remember this. I am the One keeping score. I observe truth from folly. Nothing is hidden from My sight. I see those of you who desire to serve Me without considering the cost, when others have a death grip on what I have given them. You are very pleasing to Me. You bless My heart. I love you very much.”

I Cor. 4:9-14 NIV

9) For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.

10) We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

11) To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.

12) We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted we endure it;

13) When we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

14) I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children.

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 Jesus is our example of living, then having nowhere to lay your head would be the norm as followers of Christ. Money to pay taxes would have to come from some form of a fish’s mouth. Being cursed, laughed at, scorned, and even hated enough to be crucified should be part of our job description; even while we are being used to heal the sick or raise the dead. The possibility of being struck dead because we lie to the Holy Spirit about how much we hold back and consider our own, or imprisoned so that we can bless people there or write God’s important correspondence from our cell, is not entirely out of the picture. Let’s not even begin to discuss those incredible examples of God’s love who died in the arenas. But then, that might mean that this walk with the Lord is not about us and our comfort. Maybe we are not our own? Hmmm!

Teach me truth, Lord,

Jim Corbett