“Times are changing. What happened in the heavenlies times ago is oozing upon the earth with increasing speed. Evil is gathering momentum while good desires to remain comfortable. When you wake up, it will be too late to present Jesus to those who hate you. You will have missed the time of training unless you choose to invest in My heart now. The world and My unprepared church will respond to evil with carnal weapons because they choose to live with a carnal heart.

"I am after your heart so that We can walk together spiritually against the warfare at hand. Learn of My spiritual weapons. Learn to love those who hate you. Learn to use My mighty power against those who cannot fight My kind of warfare. It’s time to use wisdom before it’s too late and you have no power to overcome. Turn your priorities around. Become a study of My ways.”

Ps. 56:1-4 AMP

1) Be merciful and gracious to me, O God, for man would trample me or devour me; all the day long the adversary oppresses me.

2) They that lie in wait for me would swallow me up or trample me all day long, for they are many who fight against me, O Most High!

3) What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You.

4) By [the help of] God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear. What can man, who is flesh, do to me?

Isa. 59:19b AMP

…When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight…

Jer. 15:19-20 AMP 

19) Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you – not you to [the people].

20) And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord.

Phil. 3:10 AMP

…and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness…

We don’t like to hear it; but it is, nonetheless, true.  To become like Christ, it will cost you everything that you desire in the flesh. To finally renounce everything that hinders you from becoming like Him, you will experience the death of those things one-by-one. The trials that come allow us to choose the sufferings of Christ in order to deny those hindrances any place in our lives.

Let’s talk about two kinds of suffering - suffering for Christ and suffering with Christ. To care only about what Jesus cares about means you willingly die to what you value. (Did you really hear that with your heart?) God’s trials and purging in our lives bring about this heart in us. It’s His heart with all of its characteristics, passions, and zeal.  It is the only way to be transformed into His likeness.

Paul knew it and accepted it fully. It then became a lifelong joy.  He joined God in killing his “flesh” man to become like Jesus. His joining with God against everything that denied Christ in his life, instead of fighting God over those issues (sin,) allowed the Lord to flow unhindered through him.

Because Paul did not cling to fleshly desires, he could take on the desires of his Lord. He felt the pain of those who would be separated from his Father for eternity. He understood the desperate needs of those around him. He had compassion on those who were in desperate need. After putting aside his flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit, he could take on the heart of Jesus that his heavenly Father willingly offered while they were in communion.

 Teach me Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett