Tag: Devotional

“When was the last time you blessed your wife or husband? What about your children? How about your friends or even your enemies? I don’t mean blessing someone by buying them something or doing them a favor; I want you to call down My blessing upon them. Do you know that in doing so, you become an instrument of My power to turn them to Me? You can wake up the deadened and dying heart, encourage a discouraged spirit, and destroy lying spirits by being My vessel of blessing. The world may consider it foolishness when you bless; I consider it an impartation of My courage and an inroad to My kind of healing. Begin to bless from your heart. Watch how people change as you do.”

 Ephesians 3:14-19 NLB

14) When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,

15) the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.

16) I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.

17) And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.

18) And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.

19) May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

 

Most of us understand the biblical principle of blessing our enemies and those who use us, but few of us fully understand the incredible power of invoking those blessings on others.  Fathers, when was the last time that you took your children aside and imparted a fatherly blessing on them? Husbands, how often do you place your hands on your wives and bless them and thank them for who they are and how much they add to your life? What about your friends? Have you ever invoked blessing upon those who have been given to you as alliances by the Lord? Take the time with the Lord and have Him show you how He feels about the impartation of blessing and its effects upon others.

I remember a specific instance when the Lord intervened in the middle of a season of dealing with rebellion in my then young daughter. Something was different from the norm. The rebellion seemed to take on a spiritual state, rather than simple, childlike misbehavior.  I was about to impart consequences for actions taken when He said to my heart, “Father, bless your daughter.” Being the “spiritual giant” that I am, I was too out of patience to do it at the time.

The next day, He wouldn’t leave me alone. Given His strength, I took her aside and invoked a loving, confirming, fatherly blessing upon her. I could see her melt as I did. With every word, she brightened and the rebellion actually disappeared from our household. I believe that far more was accomplished than I will ever know.

Show me Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Woe to some of you who claim to be teachers of My Word. You will be held accountable for every interpretation of what you claim that I have said. You will face My wrath for every child that you have caused to stumble or have led in a direction that does not bring them to the cross that I have provided for them. If you were in the military, I would hold some of you in no higher esteem than a tyrannical dictator, because of your dealings with those whom you are supposed to serve.

"You create laws that justify your hedonism and say that I have given you the right to live as kings in the midst of the hungry and oppressed. You take from the poor to pad your nests, promising them wealth of their own if they give to your cause. You use My provision for your own gain while My troops never have enough for tools and equipment to wage the proper warfare needed to make a difference. You have distorted My promises, misused My Words to you, and misdirected My little children, all for your own gain. Your focus is on yourselves. Your teachings are nothing more than misguided principles that cause those who follow you to stumble and fall into the same traps you find yourselves in. You appear prosperous because of the principles that you teach, but you are poor and awaiting My judgment.

"Soon you will be exposed for who you really are. Your manufactured formulas will not work. Your false securities will fail you. You will stand alone, cowering, without answers when things fall apart. Those who have looked to you will be weak because you have taught them your weaknesses. They will perish because you have not taught them to find real nourishment. I am against your folly. I am not with you. I hate how you have distorted My Word. Woe to you!”

 Hosea 4:6 AMP

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge…

2 Peter 2:3 NIV

In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

James 3:1 NIV

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

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.

 

If we call ourselves Christians and truly followed after Him, we would walk and conduct ourselves in the same manner in which Jesus, the Christ, walked and conducted Himself. We would have only the Father’s desires in mind. We would hold nothing as our own, have nothing for ourselves, and care only for the needs of others. We would show others that the crucified life is the life that eliminates all flesh, and gladly live that life so that others might prosper as the Father sees prosperity. Our only goal in life would be to glorify our Father in heaven and teach others to do the same. The souls of those who are perishing would be our major concern, and anything that distracted us from that mission would be in our way. Our goal would be to lay our lives down so that others could live. Hmmm!!!

Needing to follow only Jesus,

Jim Corbett

“When was the last time you expressed the joy of your salvation? For that matter, when was the last time you were even thankful that you have been saved from eternal separation from Me? How hardened has your heart become? Are you using your salvation as a license to not care for the well-being of others? Why are you not shouting the joy you’ve been given from the rooftops to others? Why are you not filled with delight every day so that others can see your joy? Have you forgotten the incredible value of the free gift you’ve been given? Sometimes it seems that way to Me!”

Ps. 13:5-6 AMP

5) But I have trusted, leaned on, and been confident in Your mercy and loving-kindness; my heart shall rejoice and be in high spirits in Your salvation.

6) I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Ps. 40:16 NIV

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “The LORD be exalted!

Ps. 149:4-5 NIV

4) For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

5) Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.

Rom. 15:13 AMP 

May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing  (bubbling over) with hope.

Phil. 4:12-13 AMP

12) I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.

13) I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

 

I have experienced some people who call themselves followers of Jesus who are real prune faces with dead hearts. I believe that if the Lord would choose to give them a million dollars, they would complain about some other area that makes them a teeny bit uncomfortable.

How foolish have we become? How far have we fallen?  When are we going to remember what this wonder-filled relationship is all about and bubble over to others in our joy?

Teach me to bubble rather than blubber, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“As I unfold My plans and the events that were promised long ago come to pass, many around you will need what you have. That is why I am taking the time to train you now. You see your present pressures as challenges to overcome. I am using them to teach you to submit. You see your needs as temporary circumstances that you can work your way through. I am teaching you faith in Me. Few of you know how to trust Me, really trust Me. I am taking care of that. Embrace your trials as the eternal work that they are. Begin to see with My eyes. Look past your needs and covet only My presence. Grow past your self-serving hopes and dedicate your entire being to My ways. It is your only place of honest service.”

John 17:15-19 AMP

15) I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one.

16) They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.

17) Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by Truth; Your Word is Truth.

18) Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

19) And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) Myself, that they also may be sanctified (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the Truth.

Jam. 1:2-4 AMP

2) Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.

3) Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.

4) But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

 

A good friend called me a while ago. In the course of our conversation, through the obedience of this vessel, the Lord exposed my fickle heart. I had taken on the responsibility to make happen what only the Lord was supposed to do. Repentance was necessary and I did so.

After a while, the Lord showed me where my heart really was and how my sin had affected my relationship with Him. I had taken over the lordship of my circumstances once again, a heart position that deeply offends Him. I had decided that my ways were better than His ways for my life - no small matter. In fact, my foolishness grieved my God the same way that the Israelites offended Him over and over again by not trusting Him after they were delivered from Egypt.

In this time when we, as God’s people, lounge under His astounding grace and mercy, and vacation in His overwhelming forbearance, we must never miss the fact that His heart never changes. This life is all about His ways. He is God, and we are not.

Forgive me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“What are you not understanding about what I’m telling you through world events and weather patterns all around you? How clear do the times and seasons in which you live have to get before you move from your complacency and begin to live completely for Me? Do you realize that I inform you, My children, first, so that you are ready when I move My hand? It is for good reason. I want you to wake up and be ready to represent Jesus properly when the world is out of answers.

"You are not responding to My clear warnings. You are far from responding to what you see around you with My heart in mind. You are only concerned for your personal safety. Where is the heart of Jesus in My church? I want to place it in you. Come to Me now for what is needed to be formed in you. Come to be made ready for when I need to call upon you to represent the way My children are to live, no matter what is happening around them. Wake up! Listen to what I am saying. Repent of your foolish ways.”

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 111:2 NIV

Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.

Isaiah 30:21 NIV

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

 

One of the reasons that we have been given access to Father God through the blood of Jesus is to be able to discern the times and seasons, so that we can warn others that they may come to Christ. We are never to be date setters or doomsday prophets, but we are to be astute when it comes to Bible prophecy, applying it to the time in which we live. We are also to live our lives according to what we understand and learn from being in the Word and with our Father.

I believe that Bible prophecies are unfolding before us at an accelerated pace. I believe that we have a responsibility to take the knowledge that we are gaining and live the kind of life that will be most advantageous for the Lord to use us. We are to be prepared and ready to be used by Him, no matter what the time or season, or when the challenges come.

Make me ready, Lord,

Jim Corbett