Tag: From Our Father’s Heart

“I would like to thank you for the impact you are having on the rest of My family. I am talking to those of you who are daily laying your lives down for others and not living for yourselves. You need to know that every time you say a kind word, give mercy, or do a good turn to someone in need, you are bringing glory to My Name. Each time you choose to not repay an injustice, or forgive someone who has hurt you, you are implementing the same Holy Spirit that took Jesus to the cross. Every time you repent to Me, or to someone you have harmed, you prove that the work of the cross is functioning in your life.

“These may seem like simple things to you, and they are basic tenets of My expectations; but they are very important. You need to know that I notice them. I hover over them to bless their impact. I am pleased as I see you function in My kind of love.”

Prov. 16:7 AMP

When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Rom. 15:2-3 AMP

2) Let each one of us make it a practice to please (make happy) his neighbor for his good and for his true welfare, to edify him [to strengthen him and build him up spiritually].

3) For Christ did not please Himself [gave no thought to His own interests]; but, as it is written, The reproaches and abuses of those who reproached and abused you fell on Me.

Eph. 4:32 NIV

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

Few of us realize how important a kind word, a good gesture, a loving smile, and a steadying hand of support are to some people. The world seems to be better at functioning like this than the church. God, however, considers the reason for doing something more important than the act itself. When we, as believers, live Christ’s life before someone, it is a cup of cold water in the Name of Jesus. It lifts up His Name. Kind acts in the Name of Jesus, for the sake of Jesus, resound in the heavenlies and have eternal impact. We need to make a habit of flowing in God’s love, so that He is pleased.

Show me whom I can bless with my actions, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“What if I told you that I care little about anything that distracts you from Our time together, no matter how good it may appear? What if I showed you My perspective about your purpose for breathing, and you found that nothing is more important to Me than who you are becoming in Me?

“When I observe your life, I see that you often forget that I desire to order your days to accomplish My plans in and around you. You have gone about your own business for so long that you can no longer even hear Me when I call you to change your ways. I remind you that I have also numbered your days. Stop wasting them on padding your comfort areas and going about your own business.

“You are My ambassador. You are the only way that people will see Jesus and come to Him. What are you doing about it? What has become more important to you than that? One day I will show you.”

Matthew 21:28-31 NIV

28) “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

29) “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30) “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will sir,’ but he did not go.

31) “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

James 4:4-5 AMP

4) You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God! Do you not know that being the world’s friend is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.

5) Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?

 

Throughout most of our lives, the enticements that the world offers us, not the passions of the Lord, have proven to be the focus of our attention. They are the basis for our selfish pleadings to our Father and really are the gods that we serve.

Because of our lack of desire to focus on our life in Christ as the only reason that we breathe, when the world grows darker as predicted by the Bible, most of us will be so consumed with fear that we will be unable to represent Jesus to those who desperately need Him. We will walk around the same as those in the world, wide-eyed and drooling rather than being able to rise above all of the clamor as Jesus did.

We forget that we are in training. We forget that our training has a reason and an eternal purpose. So many of us come to the Lord and begin to use our newfound hope and our new nature to build our lives around the promises of God that are good for us, rather than really finding His plan for our lives and the reasons for our salvation.

Give me Your heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Passion and zeal are two elements that I choose for you to put back into your life with Me. I want you to set aside all distractions and focus on the specific calling that I have given you. Determine in your heart to follow My instructions carefully as I lead you through these final steps, leading to the coming of My Son. Build on what I have taught you, hone your defenses, polish your spiritual weapons, and rethink your commitment.

“Ten percent OF you is not enough to accomplish what I have planned FOR you. I am giving you new commands that will require you to step out of the well-worn patterns that have held My people in bondage for too long. If I prosper you, it is not so that you can build bigger and serve yourself more. It will be for you to place vast amounts of wealth into the hands of those who will reach people in powerful ways designed by Me.

“The old ways are limited, and some are hindered by self-serving interests. I am about to reach large amounts of people in a small amount of time. If I call you to minister, sell out to Me in a way that is beyond your ability. Cry out to Me for My ability. It is the only way to accomplish spiritual callings. If I call you to prayer, pray empowered by My Spirit and move in My presence. The times of tolerating My complacent church are over. Anyone who chooses to stay there will find himself walking in the flesh in an attempt to appear spiritual.

“To My real church, these efforts will appear comical, and you will separate yourself from them. To the world, they will appear as the foolishness they are. You who have ears to hear, join Me where I am now! Continue with Me where I am going. Move with Me or be left behind with the cold and the dead.”

Rev. 2:3-5 AMP

3) I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary.

4) But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].

5) Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent (change the inner man to meet God’s will) and do the works you did previously [when first you knew the Lord], or else I will visit you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you change your mind and repent.

Rev. 3:15 AMP

I know your [record of] works and what you are doing; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!

 

I don’t believe that many of us really understand our responsibility as Christians. We have lived under God’s grace for so long that complacency has set in and spiritual zeal is nowhere to be seen. Holiness is thought of as an unreachable goal, designed for the past saints of God, those who lived during Jesus’ time.

In most areas, our ignorance of God’s ways has gone beyond immaturity, past selfishness, and deep into dead-cold religion. We have the audacity of believing that only ten percent of anything we earn is God’s but claim that He is the One who has prospered us. We claim to praise Him in our services but fail to spend time with Him when we are alone. Love is one of the main elements of what we believe, but the simplicity of loving one another evades us. Most foolish of all, we submit to traditions and beliefs designed by empty preachers and cold denominations that have little to do with the heart of God. Holiness is not even a consideration for most of us.

I’m convinced that our Lord is just about through using and including those of us who have responded irresponsibly to being entrusted with His work. We - as stewards, leaders, preachers, and teachers - have failed to respond to the heart of God; and He is about to replace us with responsible servants if we don’t change. Time is too short, and the wooing is too clear for Him to wait much longer.

Needing to set aside what does not matter and embrace what is important to my Lord,

Jim Corbett

 

“I have allowed this specific mountain to be placed in front of you so that you would need Me. You are attempting to finish in the flesh what I have begun in the Spirit. That will not do! I am investing in you. I am training you to need Me. You cannot survive what is ahead for your world without Me. You will be harmed if you attempt to continue on your own. Need Me desperately and you will prosper through trials, especially through trials. Look around! Remember! I have held you in the past when you were too weak to stand. I will do the same now. I am right here with you. Turn over everything to Me. Trust Me! I love you.”

Jer. 2:13 AMP

For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.

Gal.2:20 AMP

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Phil.2:12b-13 AMP

12b) …work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

13) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Hebrews 10:14 NIV

because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

 

One more time the Father is calling on all of us to understand our rightful place in His world. We are to accept our complete bankruptcy and submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of our lives because we are on our way to holiness. Jesus showed us the way; now we must submit to our Father’s will as He did.

Jesus was brought into a world so perilous that children were killed at the whimsical edict of an evil king, crucifixions were as commonplace as morning walks, and people were held in slavery to ignorant teachers and foolish guides, yet He was absolutely fearless. His passionate love, His intimacy with His Father, and His zeal for imparting truth made Him “Teflon” in a world seething with infectious evil and eternal danger. His presence in any society was a gift of love from His Father God. We are in training to be the same kind of gift to those around us wherever our Father sends us.

Jesus could be fearless because He loved perfectly. He cared only for others and desired nothing for Himself. Even though He had all power, He was under full submission to the will of His Father. In His heart, He had given away everything, so He had no fear of someone robbing Him, even of His life. He held Himself in lower esteem than everyone, even the lowly leper, so no one could destroy His reputation. Jesus’ love was so pure that He was absolutely free from any peril that the world would attempt to place on Him.

I choose to need only You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Practice My presence. Learn how to comfortably be with Me. Make Our time together a priority of your days. It is a formula for an intimacy that will be needed in the time to come. Those who really know Me will be the extension of My love in times when love is absent in the world. You will have answers when truth is rare. Come close to Me and hear My heart. Come close to Me and see My love. I will share Who I am with you and who I desire you to become. Jesus paved the way for you. Come to Me now!”

Ex. 33:14 NIV

The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

2 Chr. 16:9 NIV

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...”

Ps. 46:10 AMP

Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth!

Ja. 4:8a AMP

Come close to God and He will come close to you.

 

Becoming comfortable in the presence of the Lord is a concept that is not often talked about, because few people are really comfortable being with Him. Most of us understand the concept of His place as God. Most of us understand that we have access to Him because of the blood of Jesus.

Few of us understand, however, that the blood of Jesus allows us to come to Him as part of our heritage. We have inherited the same access to Him that Jesus has because we come in His Name. In covenant, we can do that! Never will He deny us access to His heart. We are always welcome.

Maybe it’s time that we go to Him just because we can, rather than go to Him for things. Maybe just being with our Abba is the most important reason we should desire to be with Him. Maybe everything else will fall in place in our lives when we cherish our time with Him more than anything else we desire.

Make my heart Yours, Lord,

Jim Corbett