Tag: Church

“If you were not allowed to speak at all, would everyone around you know that you have given your life to Jesus by the way that you lived? Would your works of service and your countenance testify of a love within you that defies the circumstances around you? It must, you know! You must display the character of Jesus by presenting His life to those hungry for life. You must be so bold in your presentation of My truth that people need to make choices about their lives when you are in their presence.

"It is your privilege to love deeper and give greater gifts to the world, because the One who is greater than anyone or anything that the world has to offer dwells within you. You can be full and overflowing if you would only sell out fully to My Holy Spirit. Stop limiting what I can do through you. Begin today to speak out loud to everyone of My love, and if need be add some words to your sermon. Sit with Me first; I’ll show you how to do it.”

Rom. 12:1 AMP

I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.

Eph. 5:10-11 AMP

10) And try to learn [in your experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him].

11) Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and enterprises of darkness, but instead [let your lives be so in contrast as to] expose and reprove and convict them.

1 John 4:4 AMP

Little children, you are of God [you belong to Him] and have [already] defeated and overcome them [the agents of the antichrist], because He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world.

 

I’m convinced that if Jesus never said one word during His life among the people, His message would still have been presented. It would have occurred for one simple reason. His priority was to spend time with His Father.

Most of us who call ourselves Christians scurry here and there trying to convince the world that we are who we say we are. Very much like the Pharisees, we herald our sermons from the lofty places with flourish, expounding our wisdom to those “poor and unfortunate” people who are dying in their sin. Most of those around us wonder what the silly noise is all about. If everything we do would be done only after we have spent enough time with our Father to know what He would have us do, we would leave His lap full of His presence. Our world and the world would never be the same.

Close my mouth and open my heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Too many of My children are still not getting it. So many who call themselves “Mine” are going about their “business as usual” lives without giving thought to the signs all around them. I am heralding the call to lay down your lives. I am wooing My people to an intimacy with Me. I am asking those who call themselves Mine to love deeper and care more for others, so that the world can see My Son through them.

"If you hear these calls, proclaim them to those who cannot hear or have become deaf. You proclaim a selfless life of love by your actions, not your words. Love like My Son did in a world where people are desperate for answers and direction for their lives. He showed the way; now it’s your turn.”

John 3:30 AMP 

He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.]

I John 2:5-6 AMP 

5) But he who keeps (treasures) His Word [who bears in mind His precepts, who observes His message in its entirety], truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected (completed, reached maturity). By this we may perceive (know, recognize, and be sure) that we are in Him:

6) 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.

 

For many years, I thought that following Jesus was only reading the Word, gathering together, and singing praises. I thought that the more I did those things the more I could build myself up to become a spiritual person. While it is true that doing all those things is very important in the Christian walk; I found that, more importantly, the Word that is effectually at work in me was completing its task at making less of the person I used to be. I thought that if I would become more, do more, learn more, preach more, it would make me a better Christian. All the while, Jesus was making me less, just as promised.

He knew that all of “my stuff” had little to do with representing Him. What I needed was more of Him and less of me.

He came to die for the best interests of others. He came empty of His own agendas, open only to the heart of His Father. He put aside Himself so that you and I might live eternally.

Now, those of us who believe and call Jesus “Lord” are asked to do the same for others as our only life’s work through God’s power, just as He did. Why is that so difficult for us to understand and submit to, especially in these closing days when our Lord is speaking very clearly to those who will hear?

Needing a whole lot more of that “less” stuff,

Jim Corbett

“Failure to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a crucial error. Your submission to His Lordship transfers ownership. You submit to His blood purchase. You are no longer your own, but His. It transfers allegiances. You submit to His will over your life. The world no longer has control over you. You are free from its death and decay. It transfers eternal homes. You are safe with Jesus for eternity.”

 Ezekiel 36:26-27 NIV

26) “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

27) And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Matthew 16:24-25 AMP

24) Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].

25) For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting].

John 3:3 NIV

In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5-8 NIV 

5) Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6) Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

7) You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

8) The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

Here’s a thought! Let’s all declare personal (spiritual) bankruptcy, so that we can function as that new creature in Christ, which we became when we put Jesus in charge of our lives. Confusion and difficulty arise when we continually try to become better Christians.

God never asked us to do that. His desire is that we become empty, so that the life of Jesus is free to function in us. We seem determined to add our own efforts to God’s plan for us, and then we never reach the fullness that total dependence on God brings. Selah! (Pause, and calmly think of that!)

Jesus, You are Lord over every aspect of my life,

Jim Corbett