Tag: Jesus

“You are not your own. It has been very costly to purchase you. Nothing but the blood of Jesus was of sufficient value to redeem you from eternal separation from Me. Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself so that you could be spared the horrors that awaited you because of the one to whom you belonged. Now you are legally Mine. Your heritage has been restored. Never forget Who you now represent. I am perfecting you to represent Our Family properly.”

John 8:42-44 NIV

42) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I come from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.

43) Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.

44) You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.”

I Cor. 6:20 AMP 

You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own].  So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.

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.

 

Maybe one day we might get it. I wonder if we will ever comprehend what has happened because of the cross of Jesus Christ. It is no small event to change families. It is no little thing to have averted eternal damnation and been given eternal union with God.

I believe that it is important for each of us to remember who we were, who we now are, and who we are to become. We must never forget how much mercy we have been given. None of it has to do with what we deserve. All of it has to do with how much we are loved.

Never let me forget, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“When was the last time you blessed your wife or husband? What about your children? How about your friends or even your enemies? I don’t mean blessing someone by buying them something or doing them a favor; I want you to call down My blessing upon them. Do you know that in doing so, you become an instrument of My power to turn them to Me? You can wake up the deadened and dying heart, encourage a discouraged spirit, and destroy lying spirits by being My vessel of blessing. The world may consider it foolishness when you bless; I consider it an impartation of My courage and an inroad to My kind of healing. Begin to bless from your heart. Watch how people change as you do.”

 Ephesians 3:14-19 NLB 

14) When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,

15) the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.

16) I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.

17) And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.

18) And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.

19) May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

 

Most of us understand the biblical principle of blessing our enemies and those who use us, but few of us fully understand the incredible power of invoking those blessings on others.  Fathers, when was the last time that you took your children aside and imparted a fatherly blessing on them? Husbands, how often do you place your hands on your wives and bless them and thank them for who they are and how much they add to your life? What about your friends? Have you ever invoked blessing upon those who have been given to you as alliances by the Lord? Take the time with the Lord and have Him show you how He feels about the impartation of blessing and its effects upon others.

I remember a specific instance when the Lord intervened in the middle of a season of dealing with rebellion in my then young daughter. Something was different from the norm. The rebellion seemed to take on a spiritual state, rather than simple, childlike misbehavior.  I was about to impart consequences for actions taken when He said to my heart, “Father, bless your daughter.” Being the “spiritual giant” that I am, I was too out of patience to do it at the time.

The next day, He wouldn’t leave me alone. Given His strength, I took her aside and invoked a loving, confirming, fatherly blessing upon her. I could see her melt as I did. With every word, she brightened and the rebellion actually disappeared from our household. I believe that far more was accomplished than I will ever know.

Show me Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Woe to some of you who claim to be teachers of My Word. You will be held accountable for every interpretation of what you claim that I have said. You will face My wrath for every child that you have caused to stumble or have led in a direction that does not bring them to the cross that I have provided for them. If you were in the military, I would hold some of you in no higher esteem than a tyrannical dictator, because of your dealings with those whom you are supposed to serve.

"You create laws that justify your hedonism and say that I have given you the right to live as kings in the midst of the hungry and oppressed. You take from the poor to pad your nests, promising them wealth of their own if they give to your cause. You use My provision for your own gain while My troops never have enough for tools and equipment to wage the proper warfare needed to make a difference. You have distorted My promises, misused My Words to you, and misdirected My little children, all for your own gain. Your focus is on yourselves. Your teachings are nothing more than misguided principles that cause those who follow you to stumble and fall into the same traps you find yourselves in. You appear prosperous because of the principles that you teach, but you are poor and awaiting My judgment.

"Soon you will be exposed for who you really are. Your manufactured formulas will not work. Your false securities will fail you. You will stand alone, cowering, without answers when things fall apart. Those who have looked to you will be weak because you have taught them your weaknesses. They will perish because you have not taught them to find real nourishment. I am against your folly. I am not with you. I hate how you have distorted My Word. Woe to you!”

 Hosea 4:6 AMP

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

2 Peter 2:3 NIV  

In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

James 3:1 NIV

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

1 John 2:6 AMP

Whoever says he abides in Him ought [as a personal debt] to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.

 

If we call ourselves Christians and truly followed after Him, we would walk and conduct ourselves in the same manner in which Jesus, the Christ, walked and conducted Himself. We would have only the Father’s desires in mind. We would hold nothing as our own, have nothing for ourselves, and care only for the needs of others. We would show others that the crucified life is the life that eliminates all flesh, and gladly live that life so that others might prosper as the Father sees prosperity. Our only goal in life would be to glorify our Father in heaven and teach others to do the same. The souls of those who are perishing would be our major concern, and anything that distracted us from that mission would be in our way. Our goal would be to lay our lives down so that others could live. Hmmm!!!

Needing to follow only Jesus,

Jim Corbett

“When was the last time you expressed the joy of your salvation? For that matter, when was the last time you were even thankful that you have been saved from eternal separation from Me? How hardened has your heart become? Are you using your salvation as a license to not care for the well-being of others? Why are you not shouting the joy you’ve been given from the rooftops to others? Why are you not filled with delight every day so that others can see your joy? Have you forgotten the incredible value of the free gift you’ve been given? Sometimes it seems that way to Me!”

Ps. 13:5-6 AMP

5) But I have trusted, leaned on, and been confident in Your mercy and loving-kindness; my heart shall rejoice and be in high spirits in Your salvation.

6) I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Ps. 40:16 NIV 

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “The LORD be exalted!

Ps. 149:4-5 NIV 

4) For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

5) Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.

Rom. 15:13 AMP

May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing  (bubbling over) with hope.

Phil. 4:12-13 AMP

12) I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.

13) I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

 

I have experienced some people who call themselves followers of Jesus who are real prune faces with dead hearts. I believe that if the Lord would choose to give them a million dollars, they would complain about some other area that makes them a teeny bit uncomfortable.

How foolish have we become? How far have we fallen?  When are we going to remember what this wonder-filled relationship is all about and bubble over to others in our joy?

Teach me to bubble rather than blubber, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“As I unfold My plans and the events that were promised long ago come to pass, many around you will need what you have. That is why I am taking the time to train you now. You see your present pressures as challenges to overcome. I am using them to teach you to submit. You see your needs as temporary circumstances that you can work your way through. I am teaching you faith in Me. Few of you know how to trust Me, really trust Me. I am taking care of that. Embrace your trials as the eternal work that they are. Begin to see with My eyes. Look past your needs and covet only My presence. Grow past your self-serving hopes and dedicate your entire being to My ways. It is your only place of honest service.”

John 17:15-19 AMP

15) I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one.

16) They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.

17) Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by Truth; Your Word is Truth.

18) Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

19) And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) Myself, that they also may be sanctified (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the Truth.

Jam. 1:2-4 AMP 

2) Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.

3) Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.

4) But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

 

A good friend called me a while ago. In the course of our conversation, through the obedience of this vessel, the Lord exposed my fickle heart. I had taken on the responsibility to make happen what only the Lord was supposed to do. Repentance was necessary and I did so.

After a while, the Lord showed me where my heart really was and how my sin had affected my relationship with Him. I had taken over the lordship of my circumstances once again, a heart position that deeply offends Him. I had decided that my ways were better than His ways for my life - no small matter. In fact, my foolishness grieved my God the same way that the Israelites offended Him over and over again by not trusting Him after they were delivered from Egypt.

In this time when we, as God’s people, lounge under His astounding grace and mercy, and vacation in His overwhelming forbearance, we must never miss the fact that His heart never changes. This life is all about His ways. He is God, and we are not.

Forgive me, Lord,

Jim Corbett