Tag: Christianity

“Resolve in your heart that you will serve no other gods, and I will be all the God you will ever need! I promise! Of course, I never change. You, however, have a choice to make. If you continue to look in other places to find happiness of any kind, you will always have need of more than you will be able to see in Me. Your vision will be so obscured that I will never appear to be enough for you. That is, of course, pure foolishness. If, however, you turn from anything that takes My place in your heart, you will never need another love again. My love will fill you full. You see, I formed you. You fit nicely in the palm of My hand. My desire is to share Myself with you.

"All that I have done on your behalf has been accomplished so that you and I can spend time together. I love you more than you will ever know and take great pleasure in you becoming all that you have been created to be. You are the desire of My heart and the work of My hand. I will always be there for you. I will always be for you, never against you. Lay down everything that gets in the way of Our fellowship, and you will never be the same again. You will be complete for the first time in your life. I will be your God and you will be My people, a people blessed beyond measure, rising above every frailty of the world. I love it when that happens!”

Psalm 46:7 AMP

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge (our Fortress and High Tower). Selah [pause and calmly think of that]!

1 Peter 1:3-4 AMP 

3) Praised, (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

4) [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you.

 

As the darkness gathers strength, in the midst of our training to become all that we can be in Christ, isn’t it just like a loving Father to take the time to encourage us with His love? I love the idea of pausing and calmly thinking of that!

There is no question in my mind that we are in training for the closing, probably most difficult times since creation. I believe that our Lord is calling each of us to unprecedented union with Him so that His will is accomplished in our lives. There is no question in my mind about the seriousness of our calling and the intensity of His work being done in each of us.

The wooing to His love, however, brings glorious light in the midst of the death-life process that is taking place. We are called to remember the most important part of all of it. He - our Father God, the One True God, the Creator of all the heavens and the earth, that singular, magnificent, Holy God - loves us softly and tenderly. He desires to spend time with us while the salvation process of the whole world is being worked to its conclusion. That is a pretty astounding truth. I’m sure that He desires to bring comfort to our hearts as we ponder and embrace it.

I remember a song by Twila Paris called “The Warrior Is a Child.” It tells of a time in which the battle rages and the warrior comes running home to the safety of Father God. Part of one of the lines in the song says, “…I come running home when I fall down.” What a picture of our incredible heritage!

Thank You, ABBA,

Jim Corbett

“How do you rate other believers? When will you give up on those who do not believe? In fact, what is the benchmark you use to classify anyone that I place in your path? Do you know that My love has no limits? Everyone that has been given breath is very precious to Me. Jesus gave His life for your worst enemy. He died so that the one who hates you may find eternal peace with Me. Do you know that the very people that are part of your world are there so that they might embrace the work of the cross because you show it to them?

"You might encourage someone who is about to give up on Me, because they do not understand My ways. You might have the privilege of displaying the virtues of Jesus to those who hate Him and scorn His work. Contact with you might soften his or her heart. It could happen tomorrow. The very reason you may want to escape from the pressures of scrutinizing eyes and judgmental lips may be the reason I have placed you there. You are the vessel of My hope placed in their midst. What are you doing about it?”

II Cor. 6:3-13 NIV

3) We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.

4) Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;

5) in beatings, imprisonment and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;

6) in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;

7) in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

8) through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;

9) known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;

10) sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing and yet possessing everything.

11) We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.

12) We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.

13) As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

 

Most of us wait to one day be in ministry. What few of us realize is that from the moment we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we have entered the ministry. You and I are in full-time ministry. How and where we minister is the only difference.  Someone once said that “ministry is a whole lot of ordinary days.” I find that very true.

I am often approached and asked how to get into full-time ministry. How do I start a youth group? How do I start a church fellowship? How do I win my husband or wife to the Lord, and so on?  The Lord showed me the biblical formula for every one of those questions. His answer to me when I asked Him some of the same questions was: “Fall deeply in love with Jesus and begin to love those around you.”

Show me how to live Your love, Jesus,

Jim Corbett

“If I were to remove everything that you hold dear from your life, would you still serve Me with all your heart? You really need to think about that! Some of you base My love for you on how I have blessed you. You see yourself as being in right standing with Me because you have much to show for your efforts. You are living far from truth. The epitome of My love hung on a cross, bleeding for those who cursed Him and Me. That is how He prospered. He was the most prosperous person that ever walked your land. Jesus loved so much that He kept nothing for Himself, even His life.

"Arrange your priorities to be in line with His priorities and you will truly prosper. Start by loving others more than you love yourself. That means some of you will have to eliminate the gods you have formed for yourselves - those gods that you really serve, and those that you demand serve you.”

Psalm 25:12-14 NIV

12) Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

13) He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land.

14) The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes His covenant known to them.

Proverbs 29:21 AMP 

He who pampers his servant from childhood will have him expecting the rights of a son afterward.

Luke 9:23-25 AMP

23) And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

24) For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [from the penalty of eternal death].

25) For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and ruins or forfeits (loses) himself?

 

When I study Proverbs 29:21, I see a picture of many of us who call ourselves Christians. The proverb reveals a heart that has become so blinded by his comforts that he has forgotten that they all have come to him because of the mercy and grace of his master. He now demands from the master instead of being grateful.

In these closing hours of time, God is revealing our true heart motives and demands. He is separating sheep from sheep, finding those of us who follow the Shepherd out of love rather than comfort and safety.

If your comfort, safety, and all the things with which you identify your prosperity were gone, would you still follow your Shepherd with a loving, devoted heart? You must, you know!

Teach me how, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“When you are ready, I will use you to show the world signs and wonders, confirming My Word. I will once again allow My Holy Spirit to flow, this time through you. First you need to allow Me to eliminate your flesh. You need to help Me destroy anything in you that will accept the praise and the glory for what I do in your midst, or I will not be able to trust you. If I am unable to trust you, you will be set aside in the same way that I will soon nullify those who have used My Word to build their mansions. Miracles, signs, and wonders are My way of confirming to the world what was accomplished at Calvary. They are not designed to be a side-show for some self-promoting performer. They are to bring the needy to Me. When you desire none of the credit for what I do, I will be able to flow mightily through you. Prepare your heart. Join Me in killing your flesh. Learn to go unrecognized in all that you do for Me. Then prepare to be used.”

 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 all were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

 

The above verses thrill and encourage me more each time I read them. I love the simplicity of honest hearts before a holy God.

What strikes me most is the kind of prayer prayed, considering the dangerous situation that they were in. Here they were, hunted people being threatened with death because of the name of Jesus, all in a room for a prayer meeting. If that situation took place today, the most prevalent prayer would be to somehow deliver us from the dangerous situation and protect us from harm. How different their heart was.

To ask the Lord for boldness to speak His Word, while You extend Your hand to heal, perform miracles, and present signs and wonders is light years ahead of us spiritually. Pretty selfless stuff if you ask me. Not even one little petition for safety.

In our day, we would have left that room to cower another day after asking for help for the way home. They left the room with their request for boldness fulfilled. They were trustworthy. We need to repent of our religious folly. They got to experience a Holy Spirit house shaking. We have only read about it.

Change my selfish prayers, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Holiness and intimacy with Me is the antidote for any terror that comes your way. Nothing can stand against My presence. As you draw close to Me, you will know of My plans, understand My heart, and live My kind of life in your world. You will be impervious to any kind of threat from the enemy of your soul. You will move in unison with My will, hiding in the folds of My garment. There is no safer place. There is no more powerful place. There is no place more peaceful. Rest in Me! It is where you belong.”

Gal. 2:20 AMP 

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Phil. 2:12b-13 AMP  

12b) …work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

13) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Hebrews 10:14 NIV 

because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

 

Those who desire to draw closer to the Lord and become all that they are intended to be know that religion, soulish good works, and striving have no part in their lives. Sometimes, however, every one of us has a tendency to fall into the trap of each one of those elements, especially when we hear the call to holiness and preparation for the coming of our Lord.

As the Father reveals all aspects of His heart, sometimes I reel with the overwhelming challenge that I am called to face. I begin to condemn myself for who I am not, cower at the prospects ahead of me as a Christian in the coming times, stagger at the weight of my responsibility to represent Jesus properly; and become discouraged as I attempt to prepare for His return. It is then that I remember that none of this was my idea in the first place. My Father has ordained my life and has promised to fulfill His plan for it and in it. My job is simply to need Him desperately.

In the above verse in Hebrews 10, I am so encouraged by the statement “those who are being made holy.” The wonderful part of “have [already] been made perfect” [in God’s eyes] is pretty incredible and difficult for me to understand fully, but “being made holy” soothes my heart.

At this very moment - and every moment until we are with our Father in Heaven - the process of making us holy is being accomplished, because we have surrendered our lives to Jesus and His completed work on the cross. When God is in the process of breaking us, He’s not trying so much to get us to say “uncle” as He is trying to get us to say “Abba.”

Teach me to say more “ABBA” and less “uncle,” Lord,

Jim Corbett