“Fellowship with Me should be your priority in life. It is where all your other comings and goings should originate. When they originate from circumstances, traditions, and emotions, you will find yourselves seeking Me for help to deliver you from wrong and harmful situations. You will need to seek Me then, so why do you not choose to seek Me first and avoid unwanted difficulties?

"There is great purpose in My desire to have you spend time with Me. Most of it has become obvious to you over the years, but some of it is only evident as I reveal it to you. The obvious is My desire to simply be with you.  You have been created, and then redeemed, so that can happen. It is the reason that Jesus gave His life. For you to not honor that act would be a travesty.

"Not so obvious - or at least not quite as evident - is the fact that by being with Me, I take you out of harm’s way. Our fellowship allows you to avoid not only the pitfalls that will not occur while We are together, but also those that you will avoid because of the wisdom I impart to you. You benefit from Our fellowship more than you know. You can’t see what didn’t happen—those instances that didn’t occur because We avoided them together. That may seem simplistic, but it is eternal wisdom.

"Before We came together because of Jesus, what was your life like? How did you fare? What controlled you, and where did it take you? You eventually saw the need to turn to Me, didn’t you? Now that you have the ability to let Me direct your steps, wouldn’t it be wise to make Our times together your priority? I would think so. I have planned it that way.”

Haggai 1:3-10 AMP 

3) Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4) Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house [of the Lord] lies in ruins?

5) Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways and set your mind on what has come to you.

6) You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it.

7) Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and present conduct) and how you have fared.

8) Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild [My] house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord [by accepting it as done for My glory and by displaying My glory in it].

9) You looked for much [harvest], and behold, it came to little; and even when you brought that home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of My house, which lies waste while you yourselves run each man to his own house [eager to build and adorn it].

10) Therefore the heavens above you [for your sake] withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its produce.

I have often observed the youth who have met the Lord and follow Him closely and compared them to those who are in the world. There is a difference between darkness and light.

Those, who do not have the privilege of knowing the Lord, follow their flesh from folly to folly, as a bull being led to slaughter. There is no hope to reach them other than by the power of the Holy Spirit because of the immense clutter that life piles upon them day after day. Real direction and purpose elude them. Any counsel is sought through worldly sources and help is temporal at best.

On the other hand, people, who have made Jesus the Lord of their lives, have access to God’s wisdom, and it is incredibly evident. The path of their lives is much straighter. Their purpose is continually unfolding before them, and the normal destructive pitfalls of life are often avoided. They visibly exude the character of Jesus and the strength of the wisdom of God. Surrounded by those with valuable resources because of their relationship with Jesus, there is hope for proper guidance throughout their lives.

Not only do we have the supreme honor of our Lord’s presence, each of us has an open door to the Creator of the universe for encouragement, wisdom, and guidance for our daily lives— and then for eternal freedom. How foolish of us if we do not take every advantage of the incredible gift we have been given!

Needing to understand fully the gift I’ve been given,

Jim Corbett