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6/29/21 Getting Honest with Yourself

Men, if you are typical of the Christian man of today, you function as if you are unable to recognize your spiritual impotence to the point that you do not desire to see the character of Christ reproduced completely in you or in those around you as your priority in life.  As a typical Christian man, you have chosen to set aside God’s desire for your life in order to fulfill your own concept of what your life should be, or maybe just survive in an incredibly difficult world. You feel that you are spiritually comfortable and adequate, and see no need to consistently act as Jesus would act and love as He would love in your family.

Like a gelded horse that no longer has an interest in mares, most of you have little Christ-like spiritual enthusiasm toward the people within your circle of influence or for your part in God’s plan for mankind. Remember, we are talking priorities. If you would really get honest with yourself, your thoughts are not continually on where others will spend eternity or on who they could become in this lifetime through your influence on them by the way you represent Jesus. Even the spiritual well-being of your family, those God has entrusted to you as His steward, falls somewhere behind economic challenges, your job demands, the home and yard work, the toys you want to acquire, and the sports teams you idolize. If this is you, you are impotent in discerning the things that are important to God.

As an example of your impotence, if you sports fans would also get honest with yourself, you’d admit you focus more on whatever teams you follow than on the spiritual condition of your wife and children. Even if you do care about their spirituality, you probably have little ability, little desire, and few tools to foster their spiritual growth, to do whatever it takes to have them able to present a significant life to God. If you are not that heavy into sports, you can substitute the word “sports” with any other personal god, such as worry, fear, work, success, money, or worldly power, etc., to which you’ve pledged your allegiance.

[Even attempting to gain a significant life for your own good shows your spiritual impotence.]

If you take that same “getting honest with yourself” and carry it further to the point of getting honest with God, you will have to admit that the things that are important to God have been placed somewhere behind the things that give you some semblance of purpose for your life here, not eternally. Focusing on your personal fulfillment for so long, you may have actually become impotent in even discerning the things that are important to God.

Think of the eternal impact of those last statements if they are true for your life. Ask the Lord to reveal how accurate they might be for you. They may not be exactly where you stand with God; but more than likely, they’re quite close to the spiritual impotence you experience every day, if you are like Christian men in general. To whatever degree you are dealing with spiritual impotence in your life, the sooner you realize and admit it, the sooner you will be on your way to a significant, world-overcoming life in God’s eyes.

(From The Father Factor by Jim and Merry Corbett)

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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6/28/21 Return to First Love

“Be very, very careful. You need to watch what you are doing in the Name of Jesus. His reputation is at stake and I am very protective of His reputation. Some of you are going around proclaiming your foolish wisdom to a world that thinks you represent Him. You are light years from presenting His heart. You have taken the privilege of calling yourself by His Name and use it to mouth empty words and make-believe doctrine. Sometimes you even proclaim modified doctrines of the world and call them Mine. You have become moral watchdogs and boastful fools, instead of sin-convicting, holy people. You are proclaiming another gospel and I am tired of it. You are under a strong delusion from the enemy of your soul.

"Return to your first love. Return to proclaiming the heart of Jesus. Repent of your arrogance. You are doing much harm to My work. Either stop proclaiming a false gospel - one that is attempting to change your world and come against those I love who won’t join you - or stop calling yourself a follower of Jesus. His Gospel brought people to Me.”

 Hosea 4:6 AMP

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

John 3:30 AMP

He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.]

John 14:10-13 NIV

10)“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

11) Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

12) I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

13) And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.”

 

There is a clear line being drawn down the center of those who are calling themselves Christians.  There are those who are doing His work after studying His life and doing the same as He did, while seeking to become like Him in every way; and there are those who are proclaiming their own idea of His work and putting His Name on it.

Show me truth, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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6/28/21 Too Many Times

When I was young in the Lord, I had many besetting sins. Even though I loved the Lord with all my heart, the bondages had not yet fallen away. The Lord was removing them one at a time and I had many left to address.

Once after many failures, I cried out to the Lord, asking Him how He could continue to forgive me. It seemed like the thousandth time I had come to Him. In the quiet of the evening, He came to me and said, “Do you know that I forgive you no longer unto My remembrance?  I don’t have a bad memory; I choose to forgive and forget, never remembering the last time you offended me. Your sins are as far as the East is from the West.”  He then told me I had a million “forgivenesses” in my account and many more after that if I needed them.

Our Father is on our side. He knew how many times we would fail Him even before He asked us into His kingdom, and He still asked us! He is in the forgiveness business as long as we are in the repentance business. That means we always have His power available to us to do whatever tasks we may have on hand with the knowledge that He is with us.

Men, there are times when you and I fall down on the job concerning our families. If things are so bad that the possibility of reconciliation seems hopeless, we can be confident that the Lord is with us in our time of need. He is waiting for us to call out to Him, and by the power of His Holy Spirit, He will do whatever it takes to help us overcome our situation.

You can’t fall down one too many times. He will be there, enabling you to repent. Your life is His. It was His idea in the first place, and He delights in your need of Him.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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6/26/21 In the Palm of His Hand

“Resolve in your heart that you will serve no other gods, and I will be all the God you will ever need! I promise! Of course, I never change. You, however, have a choice to make. If you continue to look in other places to find happiness of any kind, you will always have need of more than you will be able to see in Me. Your vision will be so obscured that I will never appear to be enough for you. That is, of course, pure foolishness. If, however, you turn from anything that takes My place in your heart, you will never need another love again. My love will fill you full. You see, I formed you. You fit nicely in the palm of My hand. My desire is to share Myself with you.

"All that I have done on your behalf has been accomplished so that you and I can spend time together. I love you more than you will ever know and take great pleasure in you becoming all that you have been created to be. You are the desire of My heart and the work of My hand. I will always be there for you. I will always be for you, never against you. Lay down everything that gets in the way of Our fellowship, and you will never be the same again. You will be complete for the first time in your life. I will be your God and you will be My people, a people blessed beyond measure, rising above every frailty of the world. I love it when that happens!”

Psalm 46:7 AMP

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge (our Fortress and High Tower). Selah [pause and calmly think of that]!

1 Peter 1:3-4 AMP 

3) Praised, (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

4) [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you.

 

As the darkness gathers strength, in the midst of our training to become all that we can be in Christ, isn’t it just like a loving Father to take the time to encourage us with His love? I love the idea of pausing and calmly thinking of that!

There is no question in my mind that we are in training for the closing, probably most difficult times since creation. I believe that our Lord is calling each of us to unprecedented union with Him so that His will is accomplished in our lives. There is no question in my mind about the seriousness of our calling and the intensity of His work being done in each of us.

The wooing to His love, however, brings glorious light in the midst of the death-life process that is taking place. We are called to remember the most important part of all of it. He - our Father God, the One True God, the Creator of all the heavens and the earth, that singular, magnificent, Holy God - loves us softly and tenderly. He desires to spend time with us while the salvation process of the whole world is being worked to its conclusion. That is a pretty astounding truth. I’m sure that He desires to bring comfort to our hearts as we ponder and embrace it.

I remember a song by Twila Paris called “The Warrior Is a Child.” It tells of a time in which the battle rages and the warrior comes running home to the safety of Father God. Part of one of the lines in the song says, “…I come running home when I fall down.” What a picture of our incredible heritage!

Thank You, ABBA,

Jim Corbett

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6/26/21 My Weakness Brings His Strength

So many men, whether they admit it or not, don’t like to be labeled as weak in any area. All the criteria dictated by society tells men from the time they are little boys that they need to be strong and good in bed, must have answers; and, in general, never let anyone know that they are frightened by anything. That kind of attitude has been ingrained in men for so long, that it permeates everything we do without us even being aware of it.

I’m convinced those teachings are some of the major stumbling blocks that hinder men from giving themselves over to the complete Lordship of Christ. Letting go, giving it all over, is so foreign to our thinking that most of us have to be broken before we’ll even consider surrendering everything to Him. In most cases, being out of control is very unfamiliar territory to a man.

God asks us to surrender everything we have and everything we are to the Lordship of Jesus. He asks us to rely totally on Him and His Word in everything we do without question, no matter what the consequences. In God’s economy, full surrender to Him is the opposite of weakness. Total reliance on Him is the strongest, most powerful position any man can take. It allows God’s limitless power, wisdom, and caring to flow in our direction, making us capable of overcoming everything the world has to offer.

Men, it’s time to finally lay down all false dictates and fully surrender to the Lordship of Jesus. It’s time to become weak, so we can become strong in Christ. It’s just time, isn’t it?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

 

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