Tag: Jesus

“Many of you have become so busy that I have been apportioned second place. In some cases, you have even minimized the need to seek Me with all of your heart. Have you learned nothing? Where is the heart of first love? Where is the weeping at the altar for the souls of those who are perishing? In your foolishness, you have determined that My ways are not the way to live and you have reclaimed the lordship of your lives. You have left My refiner’s fire and have entered a fowler’s snare. It is sure death to the purity of life to which I have called you.  Your indictment is business-as-usual religious activity, striving to find My power to replace My presence. Soon, you will not even care that My presence is nowhere near your abundance of religious activities. You will have been given over to the freedom you so longed for. You must turn now! Repent while you can.”

Psalm 106:12-15 AMP

12) Then [Israel] believed His words [trusting in, relying on them]; they sang His praise.

13) But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them.

14) But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God [with their insistent desires] in the desert.

15) And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls and [thinned their numbers by] disease and death.

 

A fowler’s snare is designed to entice a bird toward its own death. The fowler would take a vine with long thorns and weave a tube-shaped trap, placing all of the one-to-two-inch thorns facing inside the trap. He would then leave one end open and place a morsel of the kind of food his prey would consider delightful at the other closed end.

Looking only at the food at the closed end of the snare, the bird would weave its way around the thorns to get to the delicacy. Deep inside the tunnel of thorns, it would eventually wake up to the dangerous protrusions, then panic, flail about and impale itself, causing either disabling harm or death.

So many of us are unwilling to allow the Lord to put to death the desires of our flesh. We never realize that submitting to its passions and desires is a death trap, causing great harm to our representation of Jesus, and eventual death to any form of intimacy with the Lord.

Oh Lord! Keep my mind off the morsels and only on You,

Jim Corbett

“Call upon Me anytime. You never bother Me. Jesus paved the way for you to have access to My presence. I never sleep. I am never too busy. My availability to you honors His work on the cross. Come to Me in need. Come to Me in praise. Come to Me to rest. Just come, I am waiting.”

Luke 23:44-45 NIV

44) It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,

45) for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

John 8:36 NIV

“So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”

John 19:30 NIV

…Jesus said, “It is finished.”

Hebrews 4:16 NIV

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

 

Access to the inner chambers of God has been provided for us by the work of Jesus on the cross. His death and subsequent resurrection opened the door of communication for us. We now have unlimited audience with God whenever we have any kind of need, question, or just a desire to spend time with Him. It is one of the covenant commitments God made with Jesus for us. In God’s eyes, we have exchanged our old carnal life for a new spiritual life that is accepted by Him forever. The covenant cannot be broken.

In prayer, there is a connection between what God does and what you are to do. Prayer (communication with God) is the vehicle that Father God has established for us to navigate from the physical realm to the spiritual realm and back again to accomplish His will from heaven to earth through us.

Through this communication and because of the work of Jesus, God brings Himself, His plans, and His very being into His established tabernacles – us. Within the communication, we present our requests for all that is necessary for us to become who we need to be. Our Father also communicates His will to us. It is true communication between the Creator and His creation, with Father God all the while fine tuning our encounters with Him through the Holy Spirit.

Let me honor You by coming to You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Do not trust your thoughts! Your mind will play tricks on you, creating imaginations and lofty things that are against what I have established as truth. You need to discard them and throw them aside for the lies that they are. There is truth, if you make Me your priority. If you learn of My ways through the intimacy established for you by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you will find it. I will write My truth on your heart.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 16:9 AMP 

A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.

Isaiah 55:8 NIV

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 24:7 NIV

“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”

Jeremiah 31:33-34a NIV

33) “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34a) No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.

1 Cor. 13:11 AMP

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.

II Cor. 10:5 AMP

… [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),…

Phil. 4:8-9 NIV

8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

9) Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Ephesians 1:17-19a NIV

17) I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

18) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

19a) and his incomparably great power for us who believe…

 

People will be reached by our righteous living in their midst.  We are an extension of His plan to draw all people to Himself.  If we are not holy (righteous) in their midst, no one will see God.

Righteousness (a heart that desires holiness) means to be set apart. Any ungodly person can return evil for evil, or good for good. Only a godly person can return good for evil.

Righteousness is a spirit of God. It is a quality of God.  It can only develop as we submit to God. Righteousness is a heart desire, not just deeds done in the spirit of religion or only for external appearances.”

Instill in me the desires of Your heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I call you to an awareness as never before. Those of you who have been in training - get ready for Me to place you where you are needed most. Be ready for a season of harvest. Some who come will not be pretty by the world’s standards, but they will be Mine so I expect you to love them as I do. Now, begin to practice what you preach rather than preaching what you want others to practice. Display your integrity. Love deeply, without reservations. Spend your life for others as Jesus did. You are Mine; now act like it, so others will know who to come to for answers. Lead them to Jesus.”

 Matt. 5:38-48 NIV

38) “You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'

39) But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

40) And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

41) If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

42) Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

43) You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

44) But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

45) that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

46) If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

47) And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

48) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

Although it is something spiritually wonderful, there will be an unspeakable cost for some of us. The price will be high, but the mercy and grace to pay it will be forthcoming from our Lord. I am convinced that soon some of us will walk in a new dimension with God. It is almost as if the tryouts have taken place, the training has been accomplished, the warm-ups have been completed, and the game is about to begin. For some of you, it’s time to join the team. For others, it’s time to take your positions.

Send me in, Father,

Jim Corbett

“The world will always attempt to draw you into contentions that distract you from the real purpose of your life with Me. It will goad you to focus on issues and circumstances that affect your surroundings and bait you to submit to its priorities. Do you understand that you have never been called to place moral restraints on the society in which you live? They will never be able to understand the need for them. You are called to show dead people a life opportunity through Jesus. Watch how He lived in the world and follow His example. Issues of the day were never part of His heart.

"He knew that they only afforded temporary change. Involvement only caused distraction from the real issue of proclaiming eternal change in the hearts of people. Make sure that you know that your steps are ordained by Me and not by seemingly important issues. As Jesus enters a life, it is changed for eternity. That is the most important issue of all time and any generation. As you become involved in the eternal issues that surrounded the life of Jesus, you will see My purpose for your life.”

 Psalm 127:1 AMP

Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.

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.

John 4:34 NIV 

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

Acts 8:1&4 NIV 

1) On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria…

4) Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

 

Jesus walked on the streets of cities every bit as evil as any generation. Herod called for the mass murder of children because of his fear. Innumerable crucifixions lined the roads into cities. Rampant sin shrouded every corner of every neighborhood. With all of the decadence, never once did He encourage those who followed Him to do anything about the society in which they lived. He taught them to consider eternal values, rather than important-looking daily challenges.

Jesus was after the heart of sinners. It was His Father’s quest. He showed everyone that tax collectors became honest and prostitutes were cleansed, when their hearts were made new. His life and the eternal promise of His mission carried people above the effects of the society in which they lived, when they embraced the love of His Father. He showed those who had ears to hear a new way to live, one that was not encumbered with the dictates of their days, but one of freedom from earthly restraints. He had a better plan; so should we.

Direct my steps, Lord,

Jim Corbett