Prayer | TFRC | The Faith Resource Community

10/16/24 After Your Heart

“Times are changing. What happened in the heavenlies times ago is oozing upon the earth with increasing speed. Evil is gathering momentum while good desires to remain comfortable. When you wake up, it will be too late to present Jesus to those who hate you. You will have missed the time of training unless you choose to invest in My heart now. The world and My unprepared church will respond to evil with carnal weapons because they choose to live with a carnal heart.

“I am after your heart so that We can walk together spiritually against the warfare at hand. Learn of My spiritual weapons. Learn to love those who hate you. Learn to use My mighty power against those who cannot fight My kind of warfare. It’s time to use wisdom before it’s too late and you have no power to overcome. Turn your priorities around. Become a study of My ways.”

Ps. 56:1-4 AMP

1) Be merciful and gracious to me, O God, for man would trample me or devour me; all the day long the adversary oppresses me.

2) They that lie in wait for me would swallow me up or trample me all day long, for they are many who fight against me, O Most High!

3) What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You.

4) By [the help of] God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear. What can man, who is flesh, do to me?

Isa. 59:19b AMP

…When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight…

Jer. 15:19-20 AMP

19) Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you – not you to [the people].

20) And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord.

Phil. 3:10 AMP

…and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness…

We don’t like to hear it; but it is, nonetheless, true. To become like Christ, it will cost you everything that you desire in the flesh. To finally renounce everything that hinders you from becoming like Him, you will experience the death of those things one-by-one. The trials that come allow us to choose the sufferings of Christ in order to deny those hindrances any place in our lives.

Let’s talk about two kinds of suffering - suffering for Christ and suffering with Christ. To care only about what Jesus cares about means you willingly die to what you value. (Did you really hear that with your heart?) God’s trials and purging in our lives bring about this heart in us. It’s His heart with all of its characteristics, passions, and zeal. It is the only way to be transformed into His likeness.

Paul knew it and accepted it fully. It then became a lifelong joy. He joined God in killing his “flesh” man to become like Jesus. His joining with God against everything that denied Christ in his life, instead of fighting God over those issues (sin,) allowed the Lord to flow unhindered through him.

Because Paul did not cling to fleshly desires, he could take on the desires of his Lord. He felt the pain of those who would be separated from his Father for eternity. He understood the desperate needs of those around him. He had compassion on those who were in desperate need. After putting aside his flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit, he could take on the heart of Jesus that his heavenly Father willingly offered while they were in communion.

Teach me Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett

10/16/24 What’s Going On?

A while ago, my family and I had the opportunity of having the Lord seemingly remove just about everything from us for about two-and-a-half years - friendships, finances, ministry. Sometimes it felt as if even His presence had left us. What were we going to do with that? We'd be the first to say that we spent a lot of the time simply surviving. If I could go back, that would be something I would like to have changed.

What impression did we make on those around us? It's hard to say because hardly anyone seemed to really want to talk about it. It probably didn't make any sense to most, and those that decided they "knew" what God was doing with us walked away. I don't think the world found our circumstances so strange, but the church did. (Isn't that interesting?)

Being relieved of most everything you're used to gives you the opportunity to ask yourself some valid questions. What is my picture of God, and is it accurate? What is suffering and how does God use it with those who are His? The point I'm coming to is that we, as a body of believers, need to have an accurate picture of God and an accurate view on His working in our lives, especially if we're going to share them with others. Being "blessed" continually is not an indicator that all is well, just as suffering is not necessarily an indicator that you're out of God's will.

The life of the believer here on earth is a totally submissive crucified life. God knows what it will take to accomplish that in each of us. Do we blow it along the way? Yes. God has taken that into account in His dealings with us. Keep going. God is in the business of putting an accurate picture of Himself in your life, not only for your sake, but for the sake of others. And isn't that an answer to your prayers?

"Lord, please don't take me out of the refiner's fire until Your goals are accomplished." That's hard to pray, but so rewarding!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

10/15/24 The End

“When will you come to the end of yourself, so that Jesus can be Lord of your life? What areas are still under your control? When We talk on that final day, how important will it have been to have controlled what was not given over to Him?

“You need to submit fully to His Lordship. Get your hands off of what owns you. Your submission will bring the freedom for which you have been looking. More importantly, you will then be walking in the obedience that I require.”

Matthew 6:19-21 NIV

19) “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

20) But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So many of us really need to reexamine what God means by Lordship. Our social freedoms have trained us to strive to have our own way to the point that we often apply them to our relationship with Jesus. That is a big mistake. I wonder how much we really are doing in our own wisdom, strength, and abilities and calling them “God” things. How much of our lives are really under the Lordship of Jesus?

Help me submit fully, Lord,

Jim Corbett

10/15/24 Absentee Ballots

Are you sending absentee ballots to your wife and children? Do you love them from afar because you are too busy to spend the proper time with them so they can know a Christ-like husband and father? If you are, your priorities are out of order, no matter what’s getting in the way of an intimate spiritual relationship with your family.

Every moment you take away from being with them is a moment for the enemy to gain a foot hold, so you’d better make sure you’re doing something more important than being with your family. Your offices of husband and father hold the power to guide and protect those you steward. They prosper when you are obedient to God and do only what He asks you to do.

Providing for your family is necessary. Neglecting your godly commitments to your wife and children for the sake of more money, more personal esteem, or more success than you require is out of order. It’s out of line with the way your Lord wants you to spend your time. You may think you are becoming more successful, but I challenge you to ask the Lord how He sees the value of your time spent. Your family is counting on you!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

10/14/24 Every Moment Counts

“Redeem the time that I give you. You have no idea how long this present season may last. If you are in a refiner’s fire, press in to what I am doing, so that I may receive a completed work from you. If you are in a waiting period, wait with Me. Rest with Me. I cherish Our time together. If it is a time of expanding your tent pegs, be diligent and cautious to hear My words and My direction. If your waiting season is over and I am asking you to move in faith with Me, trust Me to be with you each step of the way.

“Every moment you are allotted is a precious moment to Me. Each one is valuable because every one of them is designed to form you into who I am making you. You are My personal project! I am not only accomplishing much through you, I am accomplishing much more in you.

“Make every moment I give you count. Waste none of them. They may seem as if they pass quickly and are gone, but each is important to your eternity.”

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.

Living moment by moment with God is one of the highest honors any one of us has been given. Most of us, however, are so busy anticipating the next moment that we don’t enjoy the one we are in. God has designed every moment of our lives for our benefit. Every one of them adds to who we are becoming, so each and every one of them has an eternal impact.

When was the last time you really rested in the present moment with God? When was the last time you savored the situation you were in, even a challenging one, knowing that God was using it to build you into being more like Jesus? When was the last time you were satisfied to wait until the Lord moved on your behalf, instead of trying to push against the goad of your situation in an attempt to make things happen? Maybe it’s time to repent of all the moments you’ve wasted. Maybe it’s time to begin to learn how to cherish your present and future moments with God.

Teach me to see what is important to You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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