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4/15/23 True Obedience

04/15/2023
by Jim Corbett

Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered, meaning the times that He won over His flesh. Complete obedience means that He willingly and joyfully submitted to His Father in all things, no matter what. The heart of someone who is truly obedient thrives in doing another's will, forsaking his own will in the process.

Please notice that there’s a difference between obedience and compliance. Compliance is doing something because we fear the consequences if we don’t. Our joy will never be complete as compliant individuals. We will always want more for ourselves in our relationship with God. Obedience is doing something we’re told to do out of love. When we cease from doing the right things only because they’re right, and do them only because we want to bless our Lord, we enter into that little known realm of true obedience. When our greatest joy is to do our Father's will, we will walk in true obedience.

As husbands and fathers, it’s impossible to represent Jesus properly to the world and our families unless we take on His heart. He was always obedient. In obedience to His Father's will, He lived, loved and moved as His Father desired. God can’t trust merely compliant men to raise His children and properly care for their wives as He desires. He can only trust Christ-like, obedient servants who understand His heart. Which one are you?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

4/14/23 Motivated by Love

“As I raise you up in the truth, you must learn to love those who have not heard what you have heard. Arrogance on your part stifles any work that I might have you do. I will not reside where pride is at work. I will not be able to work through you in full measure if love is not the motive in all that you do. Observe the life of Jesus and pattern your life after His reasons for doing everything He did. He walked in love. His great love for My wishes and for your well-being motivated His every move. I desire you to do the same. Turn your cold hearts around. Begin to love others and move in My love for their best interests. I will then be with you in power.”

John 15:12-13 NIV

12) “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

13) Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

Until we understand that everything that Father God has done in both the Old and New Testaments was motivated by His great love, we will never see the might of His hand in our work for Him. To do even the very best of things and have no love as their driving force produces empty works at best and foolish religion at its very worst.

The modern presentation of the Gospel for the most part is absent of the wonder of the heart of God. We have the facts. We know the words. We may even have zeal; but without love in our hearts, everything falls far short of the purpose that God intended for our actions.

Help me to love, Lord,

Jim Corbett

4/14/23 A Witness to Many

I once heard a character in a movie state that people marry so they have someone to witness their lives. The more I thought about it, the more I saw it to be the world’s way of feeling valued and needed. People without the Lord continually attempt to find acknowledgment and purpose for their lives. They marry for their own good to satisfy an inner need of some sort.

One of God’s purposes for marriage is for the husband and wife to witness each other’s life so they can help each other become all they can be in Christ. They’re to observe each other’s spiritual needs so they can pray and encourage each other in the things of God. It’s the opposite of the way the world thinks.

We, as believers, are to marry for the good of the other. The world marries for their own good to fulfill their own needs. As Christian men, we are to lay down our lives for the good of our wives. Our obligation before the Lord is to love our wives as Christ loved the church. He died for the church. We are to die to our own desires daily for the good of our wives.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

4/13/23 Time Well Spent

“I’m looking for aggressive warriors who are willing to win at My kind of warfare. I am at war against your flesh. You can win through submission to My will. When I show you your sin, repentance brings forgiveness. As I explain the truth of My Word, We overcome the lies of the enemy of your soul. Fear is removed as you see who I am. Spending time with Me is the most powerful kind of warfare. There is no way to counter these weapons and the many others that I have provided for you. Stop choosing the ways of the world. Choose My ways. I always win.”

Psalm 127:1 AMP

Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.

Isaiah 2:22 AMP

Cease to trust in [weak, frail, and dying] man, whose breath is in his nostrils [for so short a time]; in what sense can he be counted as having intrinsic worth?

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

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

9) “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I have found no better explanation of true spiritual warfare than this example from my friend, Pastor Ron Auch, who is now home with the Lord.

“Many intercessors and leaders in spiritual warfare seem to think we have to some way, somehow, “deliver” a city from spiritual oppression or past evil curses in order to have the way paved for the presence of God to come into that city. However, the goal of spiritual conflict is not to usher in the presence of God by that means. Spiritual warfare is not the way to bring in the presence of God, but quite the opposite.

"It is not the battle that ushers in the presence; but rather, it’s the presence that originates the battle. The presence of God is the starting point. Because of the presence of God, there will be war since the inhabitants of darkness cannot stand His presence. All of our strategies, banners, chants, and shouting “per se” will do no harm to the devil. In fact, we can be sure that the devil will help us do our “spiritual warfare” as long as we are replacing the presence of God with our own battle turmoil. I believe along with some others that the devil has been teaching the church how to do spiritual warfare! The Israelites marched around, shouted, sang, worshipped, broke pots, suddenly pulled out torches in the middle of the night, and fought battles in usual and unusual manners; but it was not the strategy or the activity that gave them victory. It was the presence of God who went before them. Without the presence, they would have been the most foolish army in history.”

Wanting to win Your way, Lord,

Jim Corbett

4/13/23 More Than You Know

As men, the training God is putting you through and the challenges you’re facing are doing more than simply making you strong and capable of holding your marriage together and raising your family. They have a much greater and more extensive purpose.

Other men need to learn the wisdom you’re gaining as God puts you through His school. Unsaved men will soon be reeling as all their handles of safety disappear, and they can find no stable footing or belief to see them through life. If those men give their lives to Christ, they will need guidance and direction from someone who can point them to God and His Word to fulfill their real needs.

As a man of God, you have a wonderful opportunity to help others. You’re being taught life lessons - not only for the good of your family, but for the benefit of other men around you. You have the privilege of sharing solid, foundational truth in a slippery world of changing values. You have trustworthy answers to desperate questions in changing times. You are needed!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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