Tag: Faith

“There is coming a time when proclaiming My true Gospel will be against the law. In that soon coming time, to say that you are a follower of Jesus will cost you everything, even your life. Your lives will mirror the lives of My early church and the lives of many who have gone before you as martyrs. How will you fare during those times? Who will you hate? How long will you fight for your rights or your right to be right?

"I am preparing you to act as Jesus acted, so that those who hate you because of Him will see My love for them. When will you wake up? When will you see the times in which you live and begin to prepare yourself to glorify Me when people will take joy in hating you? Time is short. Prepare now! I need you to be able to love as Jesus loves when the world is reeling in hatred of My truths.”

Isaiah 48:3 NIV

“I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”

Jeremiah 12:5 AMP

[But the Lord rebukes Jeremiah’s impatience, saying] If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if [you take flight] in a land of peace where you feel secure, then what will you do [when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted by lions] in the swelling and flooding of the Jordan?

Acts 8:1&4 NIV

1) On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

4) Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

2 Cor. 1:8-10 NIV 

8) We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

9) Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

10) He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us…

 

From the novel, A White Stone, by Jim and Merry Corbett

“My friend, why don’t you just listen and let me explain.” As he poured each of them a diet soda, Carl began. “For as long as I can remember, I have been deeply concerned about this world and its growing global problems, as my father was before me and his father before him. I sat many long hours at my father’s knee as he explained the “special” people and organizations and plans that really ran this world. They orchestrated the rise and fall of governments, implemented wars and skirmishes; and, in general, did what was necessary to bring forth their overall agenda for a peaceful society.

“When I became old enough and was allowed to join these organizations, I gratefully did; knowing that they had the answers to the world’s needs: a unified world, a “New World Order” with one democratic government, one people, one plan, and one common good, all controlled from one place and policed by one police force.  It would be a utopian society, where only peace and safety exist for those who desire it. The plans were not being carried out by one organization, however; but by thousands of organizations - many, many levels of operation that knowingly or unknowingly were fulfilling that ultimate goal.” Carl gestured toward the panel they had just walked through. “This is one small section of many such locations, all in place to do the required work when called upon.”

Carl took Tom’s glass and refilled it without asking Tom if he wanted any more. It didn’t matter, however, for Tom was too interested in what Carl was saying to even notice. He again sat across from Tom and continued.

“I thought no one knew about this plan.  For as long as I can remember, I was taught never to share anything I knew about our work. Sure, there were always remote articles written, and periodically, someone would uncover some plan or another talking about the secret societies; but they would be discredited or disappear or something and it would all be over. Great pains had been taken to hide all of this,” Carl stated, again pointing to the paneled wall. Then quietly, he began again, looking directly into Tom’s eyes.

“Can you imagine my astonishment when I began reading the Bible? What I had been a part of almost all my life, thinking we had this revolutionary idea for the final good of all mankind, hating God or at least thinking we were doing it without God - if there really was one - had been foretold by Him from the beginning.  We are scheming our way right into what God predicted all along that mankind would do.  What an awesome God!” Tom smiled as Carl marveled at the ingenuity of His God, Lord and Friend, and then continued.

Your ways are amazing, Lord!

Jim Corbett

“Do you realize how important one soul won for eternity is to Me? It is important enough for Me to hold up My plans until the last one comes in. I wish that none should perish, so I will wait. You need to repent of your non-caring attitude. It is not My heart. It is not the heart of Jesus.

"Determine this moment to seek Me to change your heart. I need you to be My representatives. I may need you to touch the very last person, so that all things can come to pass. It may be one of the most important reasons that you have been given breath.”

Prov. 11:30 AMP 

The fruit of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a tree of life. And he who is wise captures human lives [for God, as a fisher of men – he gathers and receives them for eternity].

Matthew 11:12 NIV

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”

II Cor. 2:14-16a AMP

14) But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere,

15) For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:

16a) To the latter it is an aroma [wafted] from death to death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh].

 

Everything that Satan has is being thrown at you and me to sway us from our destiny of loving God above everything else and then loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we would one day wake up to the fact that we really are in a war, one to hinder the work of God, we would never be defeated again.

So many times, we think that success is finding ourselves overcoming some personal trial. Have you ever considered that the trials that are not intended to build us up and make us more like Jesus are intended to stop us from reaching others for Jesus? We spend so much time attempting to make ourselves more comfortable, that we have already placed ourselves on the sidelines in the battle for souls.

Let Your heart of compassion beat steadily in me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Love others as I have loved you. Turn from thinking only of yourself. It consumes too much of your time and energy. When functioning outside of My ways, your carnal mind begins to worry and becomes concerned about the circumstances around you, because it can only function in carnal ways while living in carnal responses.

"When you love others with selfless love, you function in spiritual realms where the Holy Spirit moves to change you. My power anoints your days. My presence brings you the kind of peace that allows you to remain functioning with Me, no matter what is happening around you. Choose this day to love others as I love. I will then choose to bring Myself into your midst.”

 

Most of us fail to continually function in the spiritual realm because we have such limited knowledge of how it works. We don’t understand that powerful spiritual tools - such as loving someone or forgiving someone, especially someone who hates us or misuses us - initiate spiritual responses from our Lord. These responses change our character more and more into the character of Jesus each time we choose to function in them, rather than functioning in our old carnal ways of hate and unforgiveness. God’s spiritual responses bring us close to Him, while carnal reactions keep us imprisoned in our old carnal ways and submitted to the father of lies.

Most of us go through this walk with our God void of any of the fullness that was intended for us. Our days are filled with seemingly meaningless - but at the time urgent - tasks that fill our time until we are caught in an endless circle of lifeless days. There is reason for this: it is because we do not love others as God does.  Here’s what His Word says:

John 15: 9-14 NIV 

9) “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.

10) If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11) I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

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.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command.”

The Father saw Jesus through His kind of love and His joy was complete.  Jesus saw us through His and His Father’s kind of love, and His joy was complete. He told us of His Father’s ways, so that our joy may be complete. He has us in mind in all that He does. We see others through our imperfect, selfish kind of love and wonder why we have little or no joy.  It doesn’t take much reasoning to figure out the simplicity of God’s equation.

It goes like this: Choose to love others with God’s motives for loving someone, and then there will be great joy in every area of your life.  If you choose not to love with God’s kind of love, joy will not be found in you, at least not complete joy.

Let Your joy be complete in me and through me,

Jim Corbett