Tag: Church

“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

 

“Do not trust your thoughts! Your mind will play tricks on you, creating imaginations and lofty things that are against what I have established as truth. You need to discard them and throw them aside for the lies that they are. There is truth, if you make Me your priority. If you learn of My ways through the intimacy established for you by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you will find it. I will write My truth on your heart.”

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.

Proverbs 16:9 AMP

A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.

Isaiah 55:8 NIV

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

Jeremiah 24:7 NIV

“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”

Jeremiah 31:33-34a NIV

33) “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34a) No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.

1 Cor. 13:11 AMP

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.

II Cor. 10:5 AMP

… [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),…

Phil. 4:8-9 NIV

8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

9) Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Ephesians 1:17-19a NIV

17) I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

18) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

19a) and his incomparably great power for us who believe…

 

People will be reached by our righteous living in their midst.  We are an extension of His plan to draw all people to Himself.  If we are not holy (righteous) in their midst, no one will see God.

Righteousness (a heart that desires holiness) means to be set apart. Any ungodly person can return evil for evil, or good for good. Only a godly person can return good for evil.

Righteousness is a spirit of God. It is a quality of God.  It can only develop as we submit to God. Righteousness is a heart desire, not just deeds done in the spirit of religion or only for external appearances.

Instill in me the desires of Your heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett