Tag: Bible

“Do you know that part of your life with Me must include suffering? I know that in your need you will cry out to Me. I know that when you have no answers, your independence of Me will be nullified and you will listen to My direction. There are times when your rebellious heart will be turned to Me because you’ve come to a dead end in your life. So many times, you squirm and complain when your life seems out of order, or you are uncomfortable. In those times, you need to surrender to Me. Find out why you are in the place in which you are. What is being done deep within you? What kind of training are you in?

“Accept the fact that your life is out of order when I show you the error of your ways. Repent of your sin, not to be removed from your trial, but because sin is an offense to Me. Get your heart right. I need obedient, trustworthy servants for My work. Submit to My hand of love upon you. Submit to the changes that need to be accomplished in you. Your life has been purchased and I am teaching you to represent Jesus. I can use you if you submit to My work in you.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

8) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

9) “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Phil. 3:10-11 AMP

10) [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

11) That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

 

Peace enters our lives when we fully understand what this walk with Jesus is all about from God’s perspective. We have been formed to represent Jesus. God promises to change us into His image to represent Him properly.

So many of us desire to have all of the good stuff without going through the suffering that conforms us into the image of the Lord. We also miss the suffering that Jesus feels for those who will be separated from Him for eternity. We don’t really care about the souls of those who are going to hell for eternity. Consequently, we take our head knowledge to those around us. The further consequence of that is that few, if any, people are changed by head knowledge.

God is right this moment calling for a holy generation - a resurrection generation, one that has embraced the cross, waited as if dead to our own abilities to push the gravestone aside; and allowed the Spirit of God to completely eliminate our flesh and renew our spirits. We are a remnant, waiting as if a bride for the Lord to complete His work in us.

There are no shortcuts to completing the work that needs to be accomplished in each of us. Our Lord is very good at placing us in situations and circumstances that are intended to change us. He wants all of us. That’s how much He loves us.

Do what it takes for me to submit to Your hand, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“How much do you really trust Me? How far will you go to place everything that you are and all that you own, even your very life, in My hands? Would you purposely move in harm’s way if I asked you to do so, knowing that you are needed there? Would you forsake your livelihood and all of your possessions to be endued with My power to do My work? Would you embrace the thought of bringing My life to those who hate you, even if it meant your life? These are difficult questions, I know. They are, however, questions that require answers if you say that you serve Me.

“I look at My church and I see weak, shallow relationships that signify a weak, shallow relationship with Me. I see people who call themselves followers of Jesus who have no clue what that really means. They think that I am pleased with their commitment to Me if they give a teeny portion of their money to My workers, go to a cold fellowship regularly, and do little harm to others. That is a religious system that I detest. I have never required anything less than everything from those who follow Me. I have never said that your comfort and safety is My goal for you. I have never given you the freedom to take what is Mine and use it for your comfort areas.

“When will you hear My call to holiness? When will you truly observe the life of Jesus and understand that I expect you to live the way He did? When will My will become your will? I have shown you in My Word, I have warned you, I have sent messengers with exhortations to seek Me and live a Christ-like life. Soon, you will need what you can only find in My presence. Begin to practice My presence now. Begin to seek Me with all your heart. Call upon Me with all your heart, so that you can learn of My heart and My desires for the life that I have given you. Learn to live My kind of life before it is too late. I am waiting for you.”

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.”

Acts 4:29-31 NIV

29) “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

30) Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

31) After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

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.

 

I love the prayer that the apostles prayed in that room together. Knowing that they were under scrutiny - Peter and John having just been chastised and warned to no longer do anything in the name of Jesus - their prayer was empty of any selfish motive. They prayed for boldness, not safety for themselves. They prayed for the will of the Lord to be done, not to find a way to avoid any trouble. Look what happened. The place was shaken, and then the world was shaken.

Immediately after that, the Word goes on to tell of a life that is unheard of in these days. In fact, the actions of sharing everything one with another, selling possessions so no one has need, is rarely talked about or preached. To do so would empty most churches.

What is noticeable, however, is the connection between walking in the power of the Lord and absolute unselfishness. Rarely are the qualities of total dedication, unconditional surrender of personal well-being, and full surrender of the ownership of everything equated with the ability to boldly speak the Word with true signs and wonders following. We do wonder, however, why the power of God to proclaim His Word with boldness, followed by authentic signs and wonders, is not readily available in our churches today. Hmmm!

Needing to lay it all down,

Jim Corbett

“For so long, I have not been able to trust My church. For much longer, My church has been unable to trust each other. Because of pride, selfishness, and simple immaturity, trust is a word that does not apply to you, My church. I can’t empower you with the deeper things of My Word, because you will use them to proclaim your “spirituality,” or testify to others of your position in Me.

“So often in the past, when I have placed My mantle of anointing on one of My children, it has been used to draw attention to that person rather than to My Son, Jesus. In doing so, what I have intended to be a witness to those who have not seen Him in action has often become a laughable side-show. Obviously there have been exceptions; but in most cases, it is true. I can’t trust you until you die to any desire to be seen, so that you can show others My Son.

“In the same manner, you can’t trust each other. You have become foolish in your lack of integrity. Think on this. If it is important that inner needs be shared with someone so that person can hold them before Me until I heal those needs, why have you stopped being honest and vulnerable with each other? It is because you know that your personal need will be exposed before everyone at the very next phone conversation or prayer meeting. Sure, it will be masked as a prayer need, but the violation of a trust still happens.

“There have been so many violations of your intimate needs, one to another, that you now find it impossible to be honest with each other - and rightfully so. Isn’t it time that you realize that being untrustworthy has brought you to a position of surface relationships with Me and with each other? I want to be able to trust you; so do your friends and so does the world. Determine to come to Me and be changed. I need you to represent My Son to the world. People need you to help them present their needs to Me. Repent today. Much is to be done.”

Prov. 18:2 AMP

A [self-confident] fool has no delight in understanding but only in revealing his personal opinions and himself.

Hosea 4:6 AMP

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge. I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me…

 

I have been given a Bible study on marriage.  One of the healing elements of the teaching is when we understand the “violation of a trust.”  The violation occurs in many ways, but the result is always the same - separation - first heart separation, then physical separation.

Many times, partners don’t understand why their marriage does not have the fullness that they feel it should or why it has completely fallen apart. The root is often that they cannot trust the other with their most intimate needs because those intimacies have been violated over the years.

Little words, mindless jesting, blatant ridicule, all eliminate the intimate “gifting” of one person to the other. I am convinced that one of the biggest hazards to intimacy (the ability to confide in your spouse and know that your needs are safe with your spouse) in a marriage is the best friend. If every word, every failure, every wound is automatically sent to that friend - or to anyone else, even in the form of a prayer need - communication between husband and wife shuts off and separation ensues.

It is the same in the church. Confidences almost surely will turn up as prayer needs or badges of knowledge. God calls it gossip, and He hates it. He also despises the misuse of His gifts. They are not given to promote a person or ministry. They are given so that the world can see Jesus. Is it any wonder why they are rarely functioning anymore? To whom can the Lord entrust them?

Needing to close my mouth and open my heart to God and His ways,

Jim Corbett