Tag: From Our Father’s Heart

“What are you doing for others? I have placed you in places and given you tasks to do, so that the people around you will see Jesus. That is one of the main reasons why you have been called into My kingdom. I want you to represent Me. Look away from yourself. Look to the needs of others as your priority. I will take care of you. Be an advocate for someone just as Jesus is an advocate for you. Love deeply. Care more. Walk with real purpose for your life. Serve instead of expecting to be served.”

II Cor. 5:20a AMP

So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us.

Heb. 12:2 NIV

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  

  

As the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus, who functions as our advocate, delights to see us accepted and perfected. He would gladly go to the cross again and again, if He had to, so that we could prosper and be complete in His Father’s love; and so that His Father would continually have the pleasure of our company. (Praise God that everything was finished once and for all at Calvary!)

With Jesus as our example, and with the Father’s love flowing through us, we are to walk as advocates for our Lord, each other as believers, and then on behalf of those who have need. Our adoption into the family of God, our sonship, gives each of us the heritage and ability to do so through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Those walking as advocates delight in seeing others become all that they can be in Christ. Seeing any less motivates them to respond for the good of those individuals, even at a loss to themselves.

When someone comes against the advocate heart, there is a godly desire to have the offender eventually walk in all of the wealth of the Lord, for the sake of the Lord. To respond in any form of retaliation would be unthinkable. Advocates will love deeper than any argument. In fact, any accusation or injustice only causes them to desire that the other is forgiven and restored before the Father, never from a position of loftiness, but from the heart of lowliness.

Recognizing their acceptance with God, their heritage, their rights, and their privileges (which come via the work on the cross,) but esteeming others more significantly than themselves or their own needs, people walking with the heart of an advocate are wonderfully free. Jealousy, loss of reputation, perceptions of others, fear, and pride have no hold on them.

Teach me to ignore me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“If you seek Me with all your heart, you will receive everything you need to walk in the love of Jesus. I will hold nothing back. I love you and that is My promise. I also love others. They need to see Who Jesus is. If you begin to live like Him in their midst, they will be able to savor His presence. That changes things. It makes darkness light. You come to Me. I will build His life in you. Then I will give who you have become to others.”

Romans 12:1-2 NIV

1) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

1 Cor. 11:1 NIV

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Colossians 1:9-12 NIV

9) For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

10) And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

11) being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully

12) giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

 

As important as it is to suffer for Christ through the laying down of your own will so that the will of your Father can be accomplished, it is equally important that there are times when you are called upon to suffer with Christ. Few people in the church are willing to take on the burdens that Christ feels toward those who are not saved, or toward those who made a commitment, but are living far from Jesus. To care about what Jesus deems important, to hurt as He hurts for the lost, to be burdened with the things for which He is interceding is more than most of us delight in doing.

Not everyone accepts a suffering spirit when it is given. Some reject it because it is too difficult to carry. You simply do not fit in.  It is for those of you who have felt the burden of God and carry it with Him on behalf of another.

Until you understand that some of what you feel is God working with you for the sake of others, you will believe that there is something wrong with you. You need to know that the Lord is asking you to suffer with Him in that specific area, to carry the weight that He is feeling for a specific situation. It will be an intense time and you may need to be alone with Him. There will be a myriad of people in the church who will be delighted to give their opinion, confirming that you have gone nuts. Don’t listen to them. They cannot see and they do not understand intercession.

Teach me to live Your way, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Don’t doubt Me! Don’t doubt My Word. Stop questioning what you know to be true. I am in your midst working to make all things in order, even if there is no visible evidence of My presence. I have promised that I would always be for you. I have promised that you are Mine and that I would take care of you. I will never fail or forsake you. You are Mine and I love you. Now go and do what you know to do. Seek Me for My will and then move in the promises I have for you. If you have nothing to do, go find a need and fill it. Be the face of Jesus to someone. It will help you to get your eyes off yourself while I am working in your life.”

Ps. 139:7 AMP

Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?

Matt. 24:35 NIV

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Matt. 25:37- 40 NIV

37) “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

38) When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

39) When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40) “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

 

Most of us tend to lose sight of what our purpose on earth is when things start to get a little rough, especially when we are waiting for our Lord to move in a certain situation. We start to look inward instead of reaching to others as Jesus did and does for us. We get selfish, think about our own needs; and lose the true perspective of who we are and why we are saved in the first place.

This life is not about us and our needs. God doesn’t owe us a thing, especially a continually comfortable life. In fact, part of His promise to us is that we will have trials and troubles. Jesus did, His apostles did, many saints that have gone before us did. What would make us think that we have any right to a trouble-free life? Where in the Word does it say that we are ever to focus on ourselves and our needs? When are we supposed to stop looking out for opportunities to share the wonderful gift we have been given?

Open my heart and my eyes, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“You need to take some steps in the direction of your calling. It is time to set aside your fears, wounds, and excuses and begin to move with what you have in your hand. I will provide whatever else is needed along the way. Take a look around. Why would you think that you have time to sit on the sidelines when there is so much to do?

“Your days are cluttered with events that have little eternal consequence. Change that by responding to a need, lending a helpful hand, or assisting someone who is overburdened. If you have no direction, come alongside someone who does. They more than likely have need of what you have. Put aside the fear of rejection. Set the woundedness on the shelf for a while. If you have been unjustly used before, offer it up as a sacrifice.

“If you have little skill, use My skill. Start today. There are many people waiting for what you have to give. Look who I’ve placed in your path and move as I tell you to do so. You will be surprised how soon your life will have clear direction and purpose.”

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.

John 4:34 NIV

My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

 

Something needs to be put in perspective. Our lives have been bought with a price. We are not our own. We must have the same priority as Jesus - “to do the will of him who sent me.”

Most of us have our priorities backwards. We have a tendency to place the work of the Lord far behind the needs and desires of our everyday living, when the opposite is the desire of our Father in heaven. His work should be our priority. Whatever else that needs to be done should be fit into what we are doing for Him.

Most in today’s church rely on “those who have been called to ministry” to do the work of God, while lending fragments of time, energy, and resources to assist them. At the same time, most of the church is looking for some sort of revival that will somehow bring an outpouring from the Holy Spirit. We expect it to touch each of us as we sit on the sidelines of God’s plan and help ourselves to major portions of His bounty. Our perspectives are way out of line.

Revival of our hardened hearts begins by holding the hand of someone who has need of knowing our Lord, or by easing the burden of another, or by providing the tools to those who are working, or by coming alongside the fearful, or by helping the wounded, or by feeding the hungry every day, or by clothing the naked, or by praying for our enemies, or by…

Revive me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I brought forth life, Who overcame death, so that you could live. His Name is Jesus. He is the Lord of everything! You have the high honor of honoring Him for eternity.”

John 1:1-5 NIV

1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2) He was with God in the beginning.

3) Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4) In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5) The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

John 1:10-14 NIV

10) He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

11) He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -

13) children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

The wonder of the provision of salvation given to us by God is far beyond our comprehension. Jesus, Who lived in all of eternity past, was born visibly so that we could be born of the Spirit. He then gave His life to overcome death. We must die to this life, so that we can gain a life that is able to live with Him. He lived to die, so that we could die and really live. That’s some pretty astounding stuff!

We are amazed by You and Your Word, Lord,

Jim Corbett