Tag: Bible

“Are you really aware of those who are around you? When you are blessed, is it good for your community of believers or do you consume your blessings upon yourself? I place you in the midst of others so that they benefit from who you are and what you have to offer. Some need an attentive ear. Others need a service. Still others need My financial wealth, which I have entrusted to you. All of them need the Jesus that resides in you. Are you really aware of that? Is that your mode of thinking when you see them? Jesus saw the needs and died for them. You have been given the same eyes to see and a heart to love because He dwells in you. Are you using them, or have you closed them so that you can serve yourself?”

Rom. 8:5b-11 NIV

5b) …but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

6) The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;

7) the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

8) Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

9) You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

10) But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11) And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Some time ago, I talked to an individual who stated that the Lord gave him a financial windfall. He was obviously excited and with good reason. After our conversation, I began to think about the things that he said. It was then I realized that nothing was said about what the Lord wanted to do with His blessing. Being familiar with where this man lives and understanding the needs all around him, it came to me that the blessing was not for him. It was to bless others.

The man had more than enough to live on and was wealthy already by almost any standards. In the spirit, I saw that the Lord was trying to make him a conduit of blessing, one through which mighty rivers of financial wealth could flow to those sent to him, not hindered by greed. We need not judge, for every one of us is guilty of the same sin as this man. Money is not the only conduit of blessing that is misused. However we are blessed, we are to use those blessings only how the Lord wants us to use them. They are not always only for us.

Make me a willing conduit, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“What is it going to take to break your heart and return to first love? What must I do to convince you that you live in very volatile times? How long before you begin to prepare in earnest for the return of Jesus? Do you see how your world is changing and could be unrecognizable in moments? Do you see how your planet is groaning as if in birth pains? What more do you need to get serious, really serious about your life with Me? Get your eyes off yourself and sell out to My plans. You are called for your specific generation. I have a plan for you. It’s time for you to really get on with it!”

Isaiah 28:9-10 TLB 

9) ”Who does Isaiah think he is,” the people say, “to speak to us like this! Are we little children, barely old enough to talk?

10) He tells us everything over and over again, a line at a time and in such simple words!”

Isaiah 42:25 AMP

Therefore He poured out upon [Israel] the fierceness of His anger and the strength of battle. And it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach]; it burned him, but he did not lay it to heart.

Isaiah 48:3 NIV 

“I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”

Jeremiah 12:5 AMP

[But the Lord rebukes Jeremiah’s impatience, saying] If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if [you take to flight] in a land of peace where you feel secure, then what will you do [when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted by lions] in the swelling and flooding of the Jordan?

Let’s see! We have a holy God Who has been warning us to prepare at every turn. Our world is changing, groaning, and deteriorating minute by minute. We say that we know we are living in the end of the end times.  Why is it that we remain selfish, self-centered, and secretly hoping that what we know is about to occur will not happen, so that we can remain as we are a little longer? Why will we not respond to what we know is a herald of repentance and bridal heart preparation, calling for a radical life change? Why are we so foolish as to shake off all the warnings?

I sense that the Lord is about to do what it takes to refine this generation of His own. I’m afraid that most of us will be walking around wide-eyed and drooling at the mouth, the same as those who are called foolish, when it happens. Instead of being prepared vessels who are able to pour the life of Jesus into those who need, we will be needy ourselves, consuming from those prepared to represent Jesus to the lost. All because we will not hear now!

Help me hear and act, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I am a God of order and a God of completion. I will do everything that I have promised, and I will do it in the way that I have planned it. Everything will fall precisely as I intend it to fall. There will be no delays. There will be no changes. I have given you enough information to allow you to see that I mean what I say. I have also proven to you that I know what I am saying so that you can trust Me. Those of you who choose to come close enough to hear My heart will not be taken by surprise as the promised future unfolds. Remember My promises. Remember My purposes. Remember that My plan will follow what I have stated in My Word. I am not subject to the plans of mankind. They are subject to Me. Be a student of My Word. Spend time with Me. You will rejoice, others will grieve, as My plans unfold.”

Isaiah 30:21 NIV

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Matthew 26:31 NIV

Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ”

Matthew 26:53-54 NIV

53) “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

54) But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

Most of the authorities of the world follow aimlessly after their own foolish notions. All the great thinkers, who are followed by mankind, have no knowledge of what is real if they do not follow after God and His Word. Nations have risen and have been defeated. Heralded rulers, along with those whom they have ruled, have come and gone for generation after generation. Most have cursed God and His ways; some have not. All have, however, even without knowing it, fallen in line with and fulfilled part of His promised plan.

This day, take account of the incredible God that you serve. Visit once again what has happened to you because you called upon Jesus as Lord of your life. Open the Word of God and review the immeasurable wealth that it contains with renewed awe. Remember the countless times your Father in heaven has been faithful to His Word in your life alone, not even counting all the centuries before you existed. Remember also that you have been bought with a price and that you are no longer your own.

You and I have a choice. We can honor our Lord by submitting to His perfect will for this day’s and every day’s activities, or we can fail to consider what He really has for us to participate in. Either way, His will is going to be accomplished. One way, we will reap the benefits of our obedience and honor our Lord. The other way, we become a hapless non-player, while still fulfilling a “non-God-glorifying” part in an astounding eternal program.

Teach me to seek You, Lord,

Jim Corbett