Tag: Faith

“I chose you! From the beginning, I knew that you would be with Me for eternity. Long before you even knew that I existed, I had you in mind for all of My future eternities. Since you were born, I have noticed you and wooed you to give your heart to Jesus. I devised ways that would turn you to Me. Now that you are Mine, how could you possibly conceive that I would give up on you, or leave you, or forget about your needs?

“When I first thought of you, I knew what it would take to make you all that you could be for your good for all eternity. Now that you are progressing toward that end, you need to know that I am confident that you will complete the task I have assigned to you. You will submit fully. You will become obedient. You will one day choose only My ways and set aside your ways. I believe in you. I will continue to set forth challenges to which you must respond. Your response shows your progress in becoming more like Jesus. Stay the course. Keep your heart soft to My will. I will never give up on you. I never make wrong choices.”

2 Samuel 14:14b NIV

“God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.”

Jeremiah 1:5a NIV

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…

I Thess. 2:4 AMP

But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the glad tidings (the Gospel), so we speak not to please men but to please God, Who tests our hearts [expecting them to be approved].

2 Timothy 2:12  NIV

…if we endure, we will also reign with him…

I Peter 4:12 AMP

Beloved, do not be amazed and bewildered at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test your quality, as though something strange (unusual and alien to you and your position) were befalling you.

Rev. 2:26 NIV

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations...

 

The idea that the Creator of the universe knew us before we were even born staggers our imaginations. The truth of that realized deep within us would change our lives. If we ever firmly believed that truth, we would cease from striving and look at all the events in our lives differently.

Let’s talk truth. Father God did know us before we were in the womb. Now that we’re born, He has been with us, helping us to see the need to surrender to Jesus. He knew the exact moment that we surrendered to the wooing of the Holy Spirit and gave our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Once we surrendered, He began fulfilling His promise to make us like Jesus. Our time with Him is a short time compared to His time of noticing and caring about us. Our plans are considerably smaller than the plans that He has for us. He’s talking eternities; we’re usually dealing with days and moments.

Most of us have not taken the time to really see our Father’s creation model from His perspective. Knowing the beginning from the end, He obviously sees beyond the conclusion of our instant on this earth. When we were known by Him before we existed, He saw past this limited life in the flesh to our role as the priests and kings of His thousand years and whatever else He has in store for us.

We, on the other hand, are so focused on our physical needs and wants in this lifetime that we rarely see His participation in our lives as preparing us for our future role. We just want our needs met and our eternity secure on streets of gold. If the thoughts of His plans do come to our mind, our carnal mind thinks “lofty,” when it should be thinking honor and responsibility to grow up in our faith so that we glorify Him.

We forget that we are being formed into the character of Jesus for very specific purposes. We also forget that our Father in Heaven is very confident in His ability to overcome our flesh. As we progress, we are often shown how far we have come. We get to see in a very real way how our responses have changed when challenges are presented. Just about the time we feel that nothing in us is changing, that we are the same as we were years ago, something happens and we are proved wrong.

Somehow, in some unknown way, God’s work in us is proven to us. Our faith stands the test. Worry loses its grip. Forgiveness flows in a manner as never before. Fear cannot gain a foothold when our confidence in God stands firm. We make it when we would have failed a short time ago. How wonderful to know that even though we are often clueless, God is faithful!

Thank You for Your love to us, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“When you live fully in the truth, you become untouchable. Those of you who are deep students of the life of Jesus realize that there is a place that is available to you that cannot be invaded by the world and its distractions. It is a place that is unavailable to the surface follower, and misunderstood by those who see little value in drawing deeper with Me. Most of the church has never experienced the kind of freedom that comes with a total death of fleshly power and full surrender to My Holy Spirit power. It is not a place that serves the flesh in any way, so few choose to enter in when I am removing everything that cannot be brought with them. It is the same price that was paid by Jesus at the cross. Most give up because the price is too high.

“For many years now, and for many seasons in times past, I have called my zealous children to an intimacy unknown by those around them. To the others, the invitation of intimacy appeared as the opposite of what it really was. My wooing was not one of offering power, fame, and success. It was a call of sacrifice and presented a path strewn with trials, crushing pressures, and a complete loss of any reputation and appearance of worth to the world and the church. While others prospered, those of you who were functioning in this call on your life appeared as if you could do nothing right. Often, I would lead you to places, knowing your desire to be obedient, only to have you appear as if you had missed My direction altogether. I would then have it appear as if I had left you completely. This was the consuming fire of My love.

“Now, however, that you understand that when there is nothing else, Jesus is all that you need, nothing can touch you. When everything is hopeless, He is hope. When there is no way out, He is the door of peace. Nobody can touch you because of the life that I have given you. The world and most of the church have considered you dead, but I am about to show them My kind of life through you. Because you have submitted to My heavy hand of refining on your life, I will now be able to trust you. When I am all that there is, all that is worthwhile in your life, the temptations of the world fall away. You are free to be used by Me.”

Acts 12:6 NIV

The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

Romans 4:18-21 NIV

18) Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

19) Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.

20) Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

21) being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Romans 5:1-5 NIV

1) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

2) through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

3) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

4) perseverance, character; and character, hope.

5) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

 

There is a place that is available in the Lord that most of you who are receiving these messages know of.  It is a place of unexplainable anguish and absolute poverty, a place absent of any answers. When there, your mind wonders how you could possibly have gotten there in the first place. Retracing your steps, you find nothing that should have gotten you in such a desperate place.

While there, there is nothing that you can do to help yourself. In fact, anything that you try to do to relieve the pressure of the situation only deepens the trial.

Usually, you look like a fool to everyone else. More often than not, most of those who had once been by your side are nowhere to be found, having joined the ranks of those who are filled with advice, but little compassion and understanding.

If you react as I often have, the first several times the Lord takes you there, you panic, struggle, and invent any and all ways to remove yourself. You attempt to remain strong and do what is necessary to look like everyone else.

Soon, however, you realize that your precious Lord has purposely placed you in His kind of helplessness, so that He becomes your only trusted helper. Eventually, this place becomes a comfortable friend, because you understand that it is the Father Himself Who is dealing with your flesh and invigorating your spirit by His Holy Spirit. You delight in the training, even rest in His presence, while enduring the pain of the trial.

As some of you know, an amazing thing happens each time you emerge from this special place with our Father. You find that fewer of the fears and pressures of the world have access to you. In fact, after several of these training sessions, those temptations that once controlled you no longer have access to you. Carnal desires and the things that the world calls important have little value; in fact, they become worthless in your eyes. You are free, more trustworthy, and have a clearer vision of your Father’s plan.

If you are in this kind of trial at present, take heart, Your Lord is with you. You will make it. You will be stronger, more devoted to your Lord, and eventually become untouchable by the world. It is worth every pain. Be encouraged; the Lord loves you and is removing anything that He will not allow in His presence.

Thank You for Your kind of love, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Few of you realize how important it is to walk as Jesus walked. Few of you understand how necessary it is to interpret My Word accurately. The only Jesus that the world will see is you. The only Gospel that they hear is the one that you live. Selfish, lazy lives show Me how little you really care about My heart and My desires that none should perish.”

Amos 8:11-12 AMP

11) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but [a famine] for hearing the words of the Lord.

12) And [the people] shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord [inquiring for and requiring it as one requires food], but shall not find it.

Matthew 5:13 AMP

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality) how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.

 

Few people recognize Who Jesus is because we have never shown Him to them. Most of us have for so long felt that this life in Christ is about us, that we live few of our days caring about whether or not we carry out the Lord’s wishes and plans.

He planned that those who know Jesus should bring others to Him by living His kind of life in their midst. He cares for others. Most of the time, we only care for ourselves.

Isn’t it amazing that we will even place the wishes of God low on our priority list, so that we can consume His Gospel upon ourselves? We don’t even stop to think that our selfish, lazy lives hinder His plans and show Him how little we really love Him, no matter how many songs we sing to Him, promises we make, or words we utter in praise.

Change my heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett