Tag: Devotional

“Delight yourself in the things that delight My heart. Become deeply involved in the situations to which I lead you. Invest yourself. No longer remain passive about the world around you. I want you to become passionate about your life and the people to whom I send you. Become passionate about My Word.

"You have lost your first love. Your heart has become hardened in a time when I need people to see the heart of Jesus in you. Shake off your complacency. I need your heart of fire about My ways, not your cold, complacent compliance. Wake up or you will miss My purpose for you. The enemy of My ways is not at rest. You sleep while he makes inroads into the hearts of those who have not heard because you have not told them. How can you not care?”

Esther 4:13-14 AMP

13) Then Mordecai told them to return this answer to Esther. Do not flatter yourself that you shall escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.

14) For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and for this very occasion?

Psalm 106:12-15 AMP

12) Then [Israel] believed His words [trusting in, relying on them]; they sang His praise.

13) But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them,

14) But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God [with their insistent desires] in the desert.

15) And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls and [thinned their numbers by] disease and death.

Proverbs 29:1 AMP 

He who, being often reproved, hardens his neck shall suddenly be destroyed—and that without remedy.

Proverbs 29:21 AMP

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

 

Most of us become so mesmerized by the cares of our lives that we cease to place our greatest importance on the cares of our Lord. We may appear to be following our Father’s will by fellowshipping or throwing money at some cause; but our hearts are most of the time far from the heart of our Father. Eventually, our first heart zeal becomes atrophied. We spiritually zone out and cannot be moved by anything other than those things that directly concern us.

Sensitivity toward the heart of God is the inward desire of the compassionate heart. This heart cannot be satisfied until God’s heart is satisfied upon the completion of all things. It drives a person to whatever end will satisfy Father God’s heart and allow others to see Him. Those with a compassionate spirit unconditionally surrender all control of their lives to the Lordship of Jesus and joyfully embrace a life of self-denial.

Wake me up to Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I would like you to join Me in one of My very important projects. I am deeply involved in the elimination of your flesh in all that you do. When you gave your life to Me through Jesus, you promised to do your part in becoming like Jesus, so that the world would see Him in you. That is what Lordship means. Whether you know it or not, you took Him as your Lord over every item of your being. As Lord, Jesus has the right of entire control over all of your thoughts, needs, desires, and actions. He paid the price for that right with His life.

"If you called upon Him for salvation, you have agreed to that price. Your submission is your part of the agreement. The elimination of your old life is part of Our promise to you. You need to join now in the elimination of that old life instead of resisting that work in you. You act as if you have a right to act in the same way you did before you made the covenant agreement. If you go about the business of doing just enough to get by and to feel good about yourself, you miss the wonder, power, and intent of the covenant.

"Instead, you should be a companion in the search for all of your ways that are out of order, seeing them and requesting change as you do. So much time is wasted during the time needed for conviction to have its work in you when you truly do not understand Our covenant together. Our relationship could be much more fulfilling, Our fellowship much more heightened, if you would willingly participate in separating the dead person you once were from the spirit that has been made alive in you.

"Stop resisting the Word at work within you. Stop looking at this relationship as one-sided. We have joined together for the immediate task of seeing Jesus formed in you. A true bride examines her wedding garment for any blemish in order to please her Groom. Join Me in the search. We could be having such fun together in Our quest.”

I Cor. 7:23 AMP

You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up to become [in your own estimation] slaves to men [but consider yourselves slaves to Christ].

Phil. 2:12-13 AMP

12) Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, 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.

I Thes. 2:13 AMP

And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].

 

When you really think about it, without Lordship or an absolute, full submission of every area of our lives to Jesus, our confession of Christ means little, our commitment to God means less; and our commitment to each other has no true spiritual bond. We would not be much different than any powerless religion.

Uncover any area where I am still in charge, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Choose Jesus! In everything you do, choose Jesus! When temptation comes your way, choose Jesus! When fear attempts to overpower you, choose Jesus! Whisper it quietly, say it out loud, express it from your heart; choose Jesus and watch the enemy flee.

"Planted thoughts, wandering motives, and rampant temptations have no power over your choice to surrender to Jesus and all His completed work in your life. Choosing Him brings His resurrected life to you in full force to overcome. Cease from striving. Call out to Jesus and invoke His covenant promises.

"Choose Jesus over and over again until your choice becomes an expression of praise and a statement of rock solid commitment. Choose Jesus! He is Lord over all!”

 Matt. 13:54-58 AMP

54) And coming to His own country [Capernaum], He taught in their synagogue so that they were amazed with bewildered wonder, and said, Where did this Man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

55) Is not this the carpenter’s Son? Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56) And do not all His sisters live here among us? Where then did this Man get all this?

57) And they took offense at Him [that is, they were repelled and hindered from acknowledging His authority, and caused to stumble]. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.

58) And He did not do many works of power there, because of their unbelief (their lack of faith in the divine mission of Jesus).

Luke 10:19 KJV

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

John 6:57 AMP 

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.

 

This message comes to me as a warm friend. For many years, my thought life seemed out of control. I would be praying, spending time with God, and without warning find myself thinking incredible, wandering, sometimes foul thoughts. I would have to snap my thoughts back into perspective, repenting of my inability to keep focused.

One day, as I was questioning my Father about this situation, He showed me that the enemy planted those thoughts. If I didn’t continue in them once I realized that they were there, I hadn’t sinned. That alone was incredibly refreshing. Then He spoke to my heart, “Choose Jesus.” So simple! Choose Jesus over the prevailing thoughts.

Since those days, I choose Jesus the moment I realize that my mind has wandered. Sometimes I say it out loud. Sometimes I whisper it in love to my Father, confirming and thanking Him for what Jesus has done. It may sound like a formula, and maybe it once was; but it has become a loving heart expression of my acceptance of all that He has done and is doing for me. I choose Jesus and nothing else. There is no other. Saying it has become a form of praise to Him and brings everything into proper focus.

I choose only You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“The highest honor you can bestow on Jesus is to imitate Him in your daily life. He lived to make that visible. He died to make that possible. He now lives as a witness to the wonder of what has been accomplished.”

John 6:57 AMP 

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.

1 Cor. 11:1 NIV

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Ephesians 3:10-12 AMP 

10) [The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.

11) This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord.

12) In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).

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.

 

The life that we have been given is more wondrous than we can ever imagine. Immense heavenly resources were spent so that you and I can flow in the character of Jesus Christ for eternity through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are His because of Him. We remain His because He lives.

Thank You, Jesus!

Jim Corbett

“I miss the time We used to share together. You have become so busy paying attention to the things that seem so urgent that you have forgotten what is really important. In doing so, you are making those things more important than Our relationship. That grieves My heart. You have been reborn to have intimate fellowship with Me. Your new life allows you to participate with the eternal things of My heart.

"Why do you continue to place your priority on things that are passing away? Why do you feel that you can exist without the fellowship in which I have created you to participate? Make Me your priority. Even short, intimate moments together will modify your world immensely. Come to Me now. It is what I have formed you to do.”

John 5:19-20 NIV 

19) Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does…”

Romans 8:5 AMP 

For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.

 

Can you imagine the self-importance of taking for granted the opportunity of going into the presence of God? It took the bloodied body of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross to destroy the veil of separation between the Almighty, Living God and us. We are now invited to share things of importance heart to Heart. Sometimes we say, “No thanks.” Pretty scary, huh?

Break my prideful heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett