Prayer | TFRC | The Faith Resource Community

8/15/24 Mind War

Does this sound familiar? You’re finally able to clear your busy schedule and find those few quiet moments you’ve been looking for to spend time with God, only you’re unable to focus on Him. The Bible study part comes relatively easy because you can focus on the words on the page; but to sit quietly and simply wait on Him for intimate communication is an incredible task. Your thoughts go to incidental stuff that needs to be done, old sins, the workload that’s waiting, etc., etc. Finally, you give up and walk away, feeling that your time was wasted or even that you’ve failed God one more time.

Most of us don’t realize the real war we face. The enemy has relatively little trouble with us going to church, attending men’s breakfast meetings, feeding the poor, or participating in any other spiritual in nature activity. However, if he can keep us from building an intimate relationship with our Lord, he wins. His deadly fear is that believers - especially men who are stewards of others - will develop an intimacy of love, power, and spiritual wealth with their Father in the throne room. The enemy is already defeated through the cross, but he loses all battles in every area of our lives if we get our strategies directly from God.

Therein lies the battle. We, as believers, need supernatural wisdom to overcome the world. The only place we can get this kind of wisdom is in quiet intimacy with our Father God. Since the enemy knows this, he will do anything to keep us from that kind of interaction. He will use extreme challenges, distractions, business, remembrances of past fishing trips, anything to keep us from developing that relationship.

Understanding the war and knowing the primary battle is the first step to winning. The battle plan is to keep going to God and pressing in through His power. Cast down the imaginations placed in your way. Give them over to the Lord. Seek God for His power to keep your mind focused. Press in, press in, and press in some more until the only desire you have in your heart is to be with your Father. Delight yourself in the Lord, and all the heart desires and needs you have will become part of the full, mature, loving relationship for which you’ve been born.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

8/14/24 Sidestepping the Alligator Fight

“When you get a focused vision for doing My will, many intrusions will attempt to distract you. When you function in My will, new, rich fruit will become evident. When rich fruit from your functioning in Me becomes evident, attacks of the enemy will increase to distract you from keeping on course. They will be an attempt to sidetrack you from what you were doing to produce the rich fruit and force you to become an “enemy fighter.” It is a tactic often used to nullify your productivity for My kingdom. Keep your eyes on the course that you have been given and turn the warfare over to Me. I will be your defender. I will use My power on your behalf. You keep your attentions on your task at hand and continue to allow fruit from your efforts to ripen. I am your strong tower.”

Acts 4:29-35 NIV

29) “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your Word with great boldness.

30) Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

31) After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

32) All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.

33) With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

34) There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales

35) and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

During this time of great pressure, the apostles prayed for boldness, not deliverance, and they did not refocus their attentions. The Lord responded with the provision of boldness, power, and unity. The work continued without the typical sidetracking.

If you are under pressure because of the inroads you are making for the Lord, turn the warfare over to Him and keep doing what is bearing fruit. Do not be enticed into the “alligator fight” that will quiet your work and garner your attention.

Keep me looking only to You,

Jim Corbett

8/14/24 The Captivity of Activity

Each of us has seasons in our lives, which are designed by God to further our walk with Him or to challenge us to find His power to win the war against our drawing near to Him. One of my more recent seasons was spent on a porch in North Carolina, where I enjoyed the view of a wonderful mountain landscape. For five years, weather permitting, I was able to spend hours and hours with Him. I had been given no purpose but to sit and wait in His presence, find His direction, and then come back to His lap when any assignment was completed. Even though I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, this season was more marvelous than I can express in words.

My season has definitely changed. At present, the demands of my life cause me to fight for moments with the Lord. I know He’s always available, waiting for me to join Him; but now, obligations are pressing in on all sides. There is a continual war raging to keep me from those quiet moments I had learned to cherish. The freedom to be with Him at almost any time I wanted now has to be fought for in the midst of the business of my life. If I don’t recognize the war and engage in the battle to be with Him, I become captive to all the activities that demand my attention. It’s a conscious battle that must be fought moment by moment if I want my life to be really significant in Him.

As husbands and fathers, you have the most important battle of your lives facing you every moment of every day. The demands you face and the choices you make will determine how well you are able to carry out your offices. If you don’t recognize that your priority must be to develop an intimate relationship with Father God and fight desperately for it, your life and the lives of those in your care will be greatly affected. Instead of a vibrant, world-overcoming love relationship with your Lord, you will find yourself and those around you counted among the lukewarm masses, unable to lead others to a significant life, the one bought for you at the cross. You’ll be held captive by your activity, unable to break loose from your bondage or help others to overcome their war. Is that what you want?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

8/13/24 Ready to Show Them Jesus

“Those of you, who have determined in your heart to hear My heart, know that something has recently happened in the spiritual realm. You are aware of the move into a darker time as promised in My Word. Corresponding to what has happened in the heavenlies, I have escalated your training. I need you to mature so that you will be able to minister to those who have not heeded My warnings for the past years.

"So many are fighting to make their world a better place. They have become so involved in coming against the progressing darkness that they have missed what is really happening. They have missed My call to wrap up with Me. Now they have no power to be light. They have never allowed Me to show them who Jesus really is. When the time comes, they will not be able to represent Him because they do not really know Him.

"You must be ready to show them Jesus. Embrace the trials that will change and strengthen you. Embrace Jesus. He is your only hope to overcome what is about to be brought forth in your world.”

Exodus 33:13-16 NIV

13) “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

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

15) Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

16) How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

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.

Isaiah 48:3 NIV

I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

Many richer portions of the character of God are revealed to us as we go deeper into His Word and as we spend time with Him. One of the most evident and outstanding revelations of God is that He really means what He says. He always follows through on what He has promised. That is quite sobering as we see prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes. How can we be so nonchalant about our relationship with Him, knowing what follows these seemingly everyday events?

Stir up my nest, Lord,

Jim Corbett

8/13/24 Do You Really Need God?

OK. Your job is going quite well. Your marriage is as good as any of your friends’ marriages. Your children may not be serving the Lord with all their hearts; but they’re basically honorable, and anyway there’s plenty of time for that to change. In fact, things could be classified as satisfactory. You really don’t need to seek the Lord with all your heart, do you?

Whether you know it or not, you’ve become a blind guide for those around you. You’ve forgotten what your relationship with Jesus is all about. You’ve bought the lie that it’s all about you and how well things are going in your puny world. You have become the center of your relationship with the Lord and are teaching others to do the same by your actions.

Being a child of God and a steward of other people carries with it grave responsibilities - life and death responsibilities. Christianity 101 is being so sold out to Jesus that others see Him in you. Never in the Word is there any hint that your relationship has anything to do with your comfort or complacency other than when God calls those areas sin. You and I are called to be the light of Christ to the world.

I don’t know about you, but I desperately need God and His mercy and power to be anything like Jesus. I believe that’s the bottom line for every one of us. The things that happen in our lives have little to do with whether or not we are to pursue a first love relationship with the Lord every moment of every day and urge others to do the same with our every action and breath. If we persist in pursuing the Lord, our lives will be significant assets for His use.

When people see who we are when we act like Jesus, they will see who they are supposed to be. What happens after that is of little consequence to our mission of knowing God and being where He desires us to be. As we walk as Christ walked because we have been with Him, everything else will fall in place. We really need God every moment of our lives to get to that place and stay there, no matter what others do.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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