Tag: From Our Father’s Heart

“Where are you leading those who are following you? Where are you taking those whom I entrust to you? Are you giving them your brand of religion, or are you leading them to Jesus? Have you studied how He would walk in your generation, and then are you teaching others to do the same? Are you the example of who He is, so that they can emulate your life and be prepared to face Me with complete confidence that their works will not burn away?

“Let Me tell you some of the things that are going to burn away. All good things, even good things done in My Name that have not come directly from Me. Warm religion. Your independence of Me. Going to church because you have to go. Everything you have left after you are gone. You see, on the day that your life is reviewed, few of the things that make you feel religious and that you have done enough are what makes a difference to Me. I will measure how close you looked and acted like Jesus to those around you.

“How many people cultivated taste buds to serve as He did, because they saw you doing it? How many sought to crucify their flesh through My power, because that was the example you set? How many wept for lost souls because you taught them the meaning of My kind of life? Look around you. Examine your life before it is too late. How close do you resemble Jesus to others? What are you doing about it?”

1 Cor. 11:1 NIV

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

Hebrews 12:12-13 NLB

12) So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs.

13) Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.

 

Standing before God is not the time that you want to hear surprises about your life and the example you set for others to follow. When Jesus dropped into a society, that society noticed that He was there. They may have hated Him, or loved Him, or they ran from Him. The one thing they couldn’t do was ignore Him. His every action moved others to a decision of some sort about Him, and consequently about themselves.

Merry and I have traveled to a fair amount of places; in fact, we’ve moved to different locations as the Lord directs us. We do this on faith that the Lord will provide for us to get there and when we are there. In our travels, we have seen a pretty clear cross-section of the body of Christ. There really is a different spiritual climate in different communities. Most of the time, the spirit of that community continually entices you to fit into the religious rut of that area. When you don’t, you are set aside in some way.

We try to follow hard after Jesus. We believe that He should be our only source, and that following Him leaves little room for embracing the things of the world and calling them Christian. Our joy is Jesus and what He is doing, not what activity in His Name is prevalent at the time. It consumes our conversations, permeates our actions, and garners our full attention. Needless to say, once we have been found out, we are not liked very much. If fact, we have been the burr under the saddle of many places we have been and people we have known. I’m not talking about the world; I’m talking about the church.

We have often been told that “we just don’t fit in.” The fact is, we don’t. Empty conversations are boring compared to talking about Jesus. At social gatherings, if we are invited, we run out of things to say. Our thinking is different; our outlook is not the same. We are weird ducks, and people sometimes flee from us. (By the way, we have found many fellow weird ducks along the way. We have real, vibrant family all across the nation. God has truly blessed us with others who challenge and encourage us by their lives. The real church of Jesus Christ is alive and well in the hearts of many all across this land. People are being prepared for what is ahead.)

How well do you fit in? Are you any different than the cold spiritual climate of your area? Do you challenge anyone to live like Jesus did in His society? Are you building a portfolio of people and places that have attempted to destroy you, so that they can remain in their sin? You should be! Does the area that you live in know that you love Jesus with all of your heart, and are attempting to live as He did? If not, why not?

Desiring to truly live and love as You did, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“You need to be patient. Allow My plans to unfold. I am at work, no matter how things may look to you. As you wait for Me to complete what I am doing in you and those around you, I desire to be with you. Determine in your heart that Our time will not be about things, needs, and wants. Let’s minister one to another. Let’s simply be together because it is wonderful to do so. Our intimacy is why I have created you. Do not waste a moment of it.”

Psalm 37:4 NIV

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 46:10 NIV

“Be still, and know that I am God...”

Psalm 150:1-6 AMP

1) Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the heavens of His power!

2) Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to the abundance of His greatness!

3) Praise Him with trumpet sound; praise Him with lute and harp!

4) Praise Him with tambourine and [single or group] dance; praise Him with stringed and wind instruments or flutes!

5) Praise Him with resounding cymbals; praise Him with loud clashing cymbals!

6) Let everything that has breath and every breath of life praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

 

Going to our Lord, laundry list in hand, becomes old quite quickly. Spending intimate time with Him is the reason we have been created. We are formed to be in His presence. Adam and Eve closed the door with their sin. Jesus made the way at the cross.

It fascinates me to observe how little I really use the most incredible opportunity presented to me and to everyone who has surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. We have been invited to spend unlimited time in the presence of our Father in Heaven, simply because He loves us. How often do we misuse or abuse that privilege?

Forgive me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Never believe the lie that I can’t use you. Never think that the school you are in is not training you to reach others with My heart. Each and every lesson We go through together is valuable material for your future and the future of those I send your way. Even the smallest lesson can be used to help someone else at a future date. I am imparting the wealth of My Word in you as you seek answers for your needs. I am showing you Who I am when We spend time together. I am teaching you how faithful I am whenever I answer your needs.

“One day someone will need what you are learning. Each trial, question, or need will not be wasted. Someone, sometime, will need what you have learned from Me. Trust Me! I am making you a part of the answer for someone else’s need. When you least expect it, I will use you to help that person to know Me better.”

Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV

11) “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

13) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Romans 8:28 NIV 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Eph 4:12-13 AMP 

12) His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),

13) [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and the completeness found in Him.

Hebrews 12:12-13 NLB 

12) So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs.

13) Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.

 

I love the phrase in Hebrews that reads “stand firm on your shaky legs.” I am to do that so that others who follow me in the future might be helped in their walk. To know that in my weakness someone else might be made stronger encourages me to keep going, even though what I might be going through at the time seems to be of little benefit to others or to God.

Over the years, the Lord has used instances from my past to help others. As a matter of fact, everything I share or teach in some way comes from the sum of my past experiences with God. How about that! Not only do we get to share His message; but He makes sure we are the message, so that others can be encouraged when it’s their turn to grow.

Cause me to learn and then give away what I have learned when it’s needed, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Why do you hold back from selling out completely to Me? Why do you choose to remain with one foot in the world? You are so close! You are on the threshold of entering into the rest that I have for those who no longer fear the world or choose to gain from it. It’s just commitment, a determined purpose. Say yes to Me and I will do the rest. Draw close. Choose the things that please Me. I will change your heart. I will bring you to a place where no one or nothing can touch the real you. I will strengthen your inner being.”

Psalm 51:10 AMP

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.

Amos 5:14 NIV  

Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.

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. 3:10-11 AMP

10) [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as  to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

11) That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

 

The life that the Lord intends for each of us to live is one of total freedom, overcoming the things that hinder us from living through the power of Christ. That kind of wealth comes from total commitment - the Lordship of Jesus over every area of our lives. Far from a single “altar call” experience, we are to submit every area of our lives to Christ’s Lordship as they are exposed to us. Step by step, submission by submission, a holy work takes place thereby creating more of the character of Jesus in us and eliminating more of our old life with its fears, longings, and lusts of the flesh. For some reason, some of us choose not to submit specific areas of that comfortable old life; and would rather stay very much as we are, even though victory eludes us and compromise surrounds us.

Give me a determined purpose like Paul, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“When will you give up? When will it become too hard for you to continue, so that you quit proclaiming My Word? If everyone stood against you, decided that you were a liar, and became determined to destroy you because of Me, would you stop serving Me? What if you were falsely accused, condemned, and run from their company? Would you hold unforgiveness in your heart and strike back at those who knowingly or unknowingly came against you? When will you take the posture of the world and hate like they do, attempt to defend yourself like they do, and strike back out of anger just like they do? The moment that you do, I have lost a representative of Jesus. In that moment in time, you will have destroyed everything that I have worked in you. You will be no different than the world.

“Jesus never defended Himself, never struck back, and readily forgave everyone who came against Him. He even forgave those who drove the nails in His hands. He died for you. He died so that you would no longer hate Me. He died so that you and I could fellowship once more. It cost Him His freedom, His reputation, and even His life. I require you to do the same if you want to be endued with My presence.

“My child, you need to become mature in Me. Stop functioning in the ways that are understood by those who hate Me. They are looking for you to fight their kind of fight so that they can win. You come to Me. I will be your defender. I will be your strong tower. I will be your reputation.

“I need to see this in you, however. If I should not vindicate you for My own reasons, if you come home to Me hated, despised, and alone, will you still praise Me, serve Me with all of your heart; and lay down your life for Me without hesitation? I need to see that I can truly trust you before I give you My presence for your end-time work. Otherwise, you will be vulnerable to the ways of the enemy.”

1 Cor. 4:9-16 NIV 

9) For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.

10) We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

11) To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.

12) We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

13) when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

14) I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children.

15) Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

16) Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

 

The religious leaders of that day hated Jesus because they couldn’t touch Him. All of the normal ways in which they destroyed anyone who usurped their authority or challenged their pompous arrogance failed miserably time after time. He challenged the very core of their lives, and it exposed their true nature. They had such hatred in their hearts that they wanted to kill Him.

Goaded to their actions by Satan, the only thing they could do to stop the threat that Jesus had become was to kill the flesh. What is so fascinating is that by killing the flesh, they accomplished exactly what the Father had planned. The flesh of the first perfect man had to be put out of existence so that the new spirit man could rise in its place.

Standing before Pilate, Jesus had already willingly given His life. His surrender of His life, the only power that they held over Him, automatically caused them to lose the battle. In giving them His life rather than fighting for it, He did not participate in their kind of fight so they could not really be declared the winners - even if it looked as if they had won. Jesus won the spiritual battle in the heavenly realms, destroying the enemy’s tactics forever.

When you and I attempt to engage in fleshly battles, we are on the enemy’s turf. Whenever we go there, the enemy wins. We have no weapons to fight in that arena, no power to stand and glorify God, and no right to even be there. Our Father has already won the battleground of the flesh through Jesus.

Our battles are in the spiritual realm, where our Father engages in every one of them on our behalf. That is where we are to function. That is where we cannot be defeated. No wonder the enemy always wants us to engage him on his turf with his kind of war!

Your grace is sufficient!

 Jim Corbett