Tag: Devotional

“Get ready! I am about to raise up a holy, valiant people. You can choose to become part of it, or you can wallow in fear with the drooling, wide-eyed masses. Those of you, who have been in My training, have already heard My call to prepare. Now! I am about to call you forth.

"Begin this day to remember what I have been teaching you. Remember your priorities. Time with Me is essential. Trusting in the truth of My Word is your watch word. Submitting to My plan for you, as Jesus did, is your hope for the season ahead. Do not look at the world and its ways. They have no hope. Concentrating on them will cause you to live in fear and walk in untruth.

"Keep your eyes on Jesus. Walk where He is walking. You will be a vessel of honor and bring hope to a dying world. You have been in training. Now get ready. I am about to raise up those who have learned from Me, having My promises in their hearts and on their lips.”

Romans 8:28 NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

II Cor. 4:6-7 AMP

6) For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

7) However, we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in [frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves.

Heb. 12:2a AMP

Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection].

 

In Christ, there is always a time for preparation, and then a time for moving in what we have been taught. God’s preparation is lovingly called a “refiner’s fire.” That term gives little impression of the painful timeframe that one goes through while simultaneously being burned with immense love and experiencing the relentless death of fleshly ways. Once through the fire, however, we come out on the other side, looking and acting a little more like Jesus.

Because our Father is in need of valiant, honorable people to represent Jesus in the times and seasons in which we live, the intensity of the more recent fires has grown. More needs to be burned away in those who choose to serve God with all their hearts.

I am convinced, however, that our loving Father is doing a deeper work in each of us than we could ever know. He is emptying us of all that will not serve Him. He is solidifying our commitment to Jesus and His work. He is eliminating all fear in us, so that we will go wherever He asks us to go without reservation. It is a good time for those who want Jesus to be glorified in their lives.

Keep me in the fire until You have finished Your work in me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I am always for you! Because you are Mine through what Jesus has done, there is never a time when My heart is not looking out for your best interests. I am performing My Word in and through you. Who you become in Jesus is a testimony to the power of the cross. It delights Me to see that work being done in you. It delights Me to be able to have you as My own once again.

"Dare to believe that all of the promises in My Word apply to you. Position your life to trust Me. Walk each day relying on the fact that I am with you in whatever you do in Jesus. If you will only believe that I am with you, your world will change. Your life will be an example of the life that Jesus lived when He was walking on earth. You will overcome and prosper in the wealth of My presence. I am always for you!”

Psalm 20:6-7 AMP

6) Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.

7) Some trust in and boast of chariots and some of horses, but we will trust in and boast of the name of the Lord our God.

Psalm 103:10-12  NIV

10) …he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

11) For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;

12) as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

I Thess. 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].

 

People often ask me how they can truly walk with the Lord. In reality, they are asking me if they can trust God to mean what He says in His Word and if what He says is really for them. The answer is always “yes.” You can trust God, and every promise He has made in His Word is for those who have submitted themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Our problem is that we really don’t believe Him enough to walk as if we do. Stepping out, believing God’s Word and that it is for us, is an act of faith in God. It means that we trust Him, no matter what we feel or what our circumstances may seem to indicate. We simply have a childlike love for Him. We dare to hold His hand through every moment of our day, relying on His integrity.  If we can’t do that, what perspective do we really have of Who He is and why He chose to bring us to Himself?

I choose to walk only with You, Papa,

Jim Corbett

“Few of you are heeding the warnings of peril all around you. Your world is spinning out of control. Hateful, hardened hearts are bent on destroying My influence. Evil is proclaiming its wares with loud voices and murderous hearts. Reprobate minds are being put into positions of influence. Children are becoming apprentices to foolish ways. The enemy has flooded your world and the tide of evil is rising at an unprecedented rate.

"You are the standard that I choose to use, but you will not hear. You will not wake from your slumber! I call out to you and you come to Me with selfish prayers. I shake your little world and you whine like spoiled children. When will you see? When will you hear? What will it take to shake you from your lethargy? When will you weep at My altar for souls? When will you be My standard in a world that needs Jesus?”

2 Chr. 7:14 NIV

“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

2 Chr. 16:9 NIV

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...”

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 29:21 AMP

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

Isaiah 59:19b AMP 

…When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives].

 

When was the last time you became passionate about the Lord’s plans? For that matter, when was the last time the Lord’s plans for your life took priority over the other demands you face each day?

God is clearly requiring each of us to make Him our priority. Still, most of us agonize over the demands of simply living out each day - paying the rent, providing for food, etc. To stop, even for a day, and spend it entirely with the Lord should He ask us to do so would be beyond comprehension for some of us. We are convinced that the answer is heart commitment.

Each and every one of us, who call ourselves Christians, must make a choice to live Christ’s life passionately throughout our very ordinary days. We are to approach the tasks and the people placed before us with His kind of zeal and unquestioning love, presenting every one of them as an offering to the Lord for His glory. We are convinced that this life is not so much about what we do as it is about the One for whom we are doing it.

If everything that we become involved in is truly offered to the Lord and placed under His Lordship, the fluff will fall away and the eternal purposes of God will become priorities to us. Living Christ’s passionate life unto the Lord will change us and those around us who are looking for answers.

 Take our stuff and replace it with Your stuff, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“The world as you know it is passing away. The order that you are accustomed to will keep diminishing until only chaos is evident. It will be the valley of the shadow of death. Fear will prevail in the world and in most of My church. Whatever you have trusted in will fade away and become only dim memories of what once was. Those, who have not heeded My call to intimacy and all My warnings to repent, will find themselves foreigners in their own homes, and without My power and provision to sustain them.

"In that time, however, I will have a people that prosper. Without fear, without worry, they will go about their days reaping My harvest. My miraculous provision will be there for them. My sustaining power will guide their every move as they represent Me. I will have My people. They will be well trained, obedient, immovable, and untouchable—even unto death.”

Isa. 55:11 AMP 

So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth; it shall not return to me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Matt. 9:35-38 AMP

35) And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and every weakness and infirmity.

36) When He saw the throngs, He was moved with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered (harassed and distressed and dejected and helpless), like sheep without a shepherd.

37) Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few.

38) So pray to the Lord of the harvest to force out and thrust laborers into His harvest.

 

Paul exhorted believers to flee from the small life of fear and selfishness into the spacious life of love, self-denial, and service—no matter what the circumstances around them dictated to the flesh. He said that those who knew their Lord should open up their lives because others were watching. People who did not know the Lord needed to see the light and smell the fragrance of Jesus from those who did know Him.

Comfort, safety, self-preservation, retaliation, revenge, and fear were not even part of his thinking. He loved the souls of those who needed Jesus. His teaching was encouraging those being persecuted to live the kind of life that Jesus did - a life totally dead to themselves and alive to the greatest need or needs of others. Jesus loved deeply and forgave completely. That’s what took Him to the cross and allowed Him to stay there until His work was finished. Now it was their turn to show that same kind of love to those who hated them, just as their Master loved.

I don’t believe that the Bible has changed, do you? When we see and hear of all the changes that are taking place around us, our job is not to “hunker down,” as so many of us tend to do. Our job is to exhibit the love of Jesus. It is to openly flourish before others, so that they can see the real power and freedom of a life submitted to Jesus.

We are to remember what those who have gone before us have already done. This life is not about us. It is about the Lord and His love for the souls of people who will be watching us because the difficult times will have eliminated all the answers they once had. That’s when we will be able to show them the One Who is the answer. That is the only pattern of life that will be free to love during perilous times. Right now, we are in training to be able to be truly prosperous when it’s our turn to show others Jesus. Or should we have been doing that all along?

Needing more of Jesus,

Jim Corbett

“Some people in My church are telling others about a Jesus that they do not personally know. They are telling of one they have only heard about but claim to know intimately. They are doing fleshly works in His Name. They are singing praises in His Name. They are even casting out demons and prophesying in His Name, but they don’t really know Him. They have not spent enough time with Me to get to know Who I am. Do not be part of this. Come to know Me.”

Genesis 1:26 NIV 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…”

John 1:1-4 NIV 

1) In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.

2) He was with God in the beginning.

3) Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that had been made.

4) In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

Matt. 7:21-23 NIV 

21) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

22) Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

23) Then, I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

 

Many in today’s church are mesmerized by those who look or sound as if they know God, especially if they perform words of knowledge, exhibit signs and wonders, and display what seem like miracles. There is little discernment about what is being said when the one saying it either talks loudly or shakes as if under an anointing. These kinds of spiritual gymnastics fill churches and gather large audiences.

God is found in the prayer room of repentance. He is in the quiet moments alone with His Word. He loves pressing toward the contrite heart.

Soon, the foolishness that opens pocketbooks through manipulation and leads hearts to another gospel of prosperity will be exposed for what it really is. God will not be mocked. He is calling for a holy people, who desire only the heart of Jesus and are willing to pay any price for it. He is with those who desire only Him and want Him to be glorified in truth.

Guide me to truth, Lord,

Jim Corbett