Tag: Prayer

“Too often I find you engaged in battles that you are not supposed to fight. They take your eyes off the real battles, exhaust your energy; and distract you from your real place with Me. Great challenges, which will require the implementation of many of the character traits of Jesus, are ahead. Each one could mean overwhelming victories or many distractions, depending on how you approach them.

"When Jesus walked in your world, He simply applied Our relationship to any situation that He faced. He did not apply personality, wit, or His own wisdom. He implemented what I asked Him to do. That does not mean that He did not have His own wisdom or ideas. He was the wisest man that was ever born of woman. He was showing you how to overcome every challenge in your life. He was giving you the way to rise above your earthly life and enter into My kind of life.

"As I show you what needs to change in your life, I am not asking you to change it yourself; I am asking you to come to Me and be changed. As you face challenges, I am not asking you to fight what is seen; I am asking you to come to Me and allow Me to show you what is really happening. As you understand what is really happening, I am not asking you to take the battle on; I am asking you to have fellowship with Me while I overcome every obstacle in your path. Don’t you see that wealth, power, wisdom, and strength are given to you because of Our association, and implemented by that association? All of your challenges are really opportunities for Me to win the battle for you.

"Why wouldn’t you rest with Me while the battle rages all around you? Why wouldn’t you allow Me to impart Myself to you to change you into the likeness of Jesus? Why wouldn’t you decide once and for all that you can really do nothing of yourself and submit to My abilities? To do anything else is foolish, time-consuming, fruitless, and exhausting. Come and rest from your battles, no matter what they are. I will give you victory as We fellowship.”

Exod. 14:13-14 AMP 

13) Moses told the people, Fear not; stand still (firm, confident, undismayed) and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians you have seen today you shall never see again.

14) The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.

Ps. 140:7 AMP 

O God the Lord, the Strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle.

Phil. 2:12b-13 AMP

12b) …work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might  offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

13) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

 

At one point in our lives, Merry and I had to face some incredible battles and personal failures. Some applied to our lives, and others concerned the sin of others. During those times, we had to determine who we really were, what the real battle was; and how it was to be won. Often, personal inabilities and agitating fears would hamstring any opportunities to see clearly.

Once, while engaged in a particular situation for what seemed like endless days, I found myself completely exhausted. I was overcome with manufactured imaginations and sleepless night scenarios. These lies, although they appeared as truth, were nothing more than lies. I knew it in my head, but I focused on them until I was overcome with fear and worry. My pleadings to my Father in heaven seemed to fall on deaf ears.

In my search for answers, the Lord led me to a comment by Charles G. Trumbull, which I now go to when worry sets in. He said, “Worry is sin; a black murderous, God defying, Christ rejecting sin. It is a sin to worry about anything, any time, whatever. We will never know the victory over worry and anxiety until we begin to treat it as sin. For such it is. It is a deep-seated distrust of the Father, who assures us again and again that even the falling sparrow is in His care.”

What the Lord was telling me was that my worry would be consumed in the presence of my Father, once I understood that my worry came from not really trusting Him. It was the sin of not believing completely in the work of the cross and the promise of the completed work in me. I was a hypocrite in my faithless prayers and empty words. The problem wasn’t the problem; it was the sin of my unbelief that God was after.

It is amazing to me how worry dissipates and problems are solved on the lap of my Father in heaven, trusting Him to accomplish what I can’t. There, He leads me to the understanding once again that the battles and my failures are His, and they are won by Him. My trust in that ability is foundational to every challenge I will face. To do anything less forces me to engage in battles that are not mine to fight, with weapons that are totally inadequate for me to win.

Needing to do it Your way, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I know I’ve asked you this many times before, but I am asking it again so that you can confirm it in your own heart. Are you willing to go wherever I ask you to go, whenever I ask, no matter what the cost is to you? Confirm the response that you gave Me long ago so that I might refresh you now. When you said “yes,” I immediately placed you in training. That is what is happening to you now. I know that it is not easy, but one day you will see that it was necessary.

"Things might look dark at present, but I am faithful. I am with you. Soon we will move to the next building block of your relationship with Me. I am proud of you. You may not see any progress, but I do. Embrace Me through these times. You will make it. In fact, you will overcome.”

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].

 

Paul realized that beatings, imprisonment, hardships, and every other conceivable kind of trial led to the knowledge of Jesus, His resurrection power; and ultimately, to freedom from all attachments to the world. Without sharing Christ’s sufferings, he would not be transformed into Christ’s image.

The cost of Paul’s kind of anointing is everything we have and everything we own. Are you really willing to pay that kind of price? If not, how close is your brand of Christianity to God’s kind of Christianity?

You have to give me the proper heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“If Jesus would return today, where would you stand? Do you think that you would go with Him, or would you be left behind? Let me ask you some questions? Is the priority of every moment of your life to submit to Him in every way, so that He comes back for an unblemished bride, without spot or wrinkle? Is looking for His return the most important thing in your life? Are you preparing for Him so that He is pleased, or so that you can go?

"Unfortunately, many in My church are filling their days by padding their comfort areas, instead of preparing for His return. You need to make sure that whatever you have in your hand is worth the price that you have placed on it. It may be far more expensive than you could possibly have guessed.”

Matthew 25:1-13 NIV

(1) “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

(2) Five of them were foolish and five were wise.

(3) The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.

(4) The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.

(5) The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

(6) “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

(7) “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.

(8) The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

(9) “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you.  Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

(10) “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet.  And the door was shut.

(11) “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’

(12) “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’

(13) “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

 

Many of us have become so involved in the things of this earth that we have forgotten what is of true value. I know of people who are very afraid of losing what they have, meaning material possessions. That is a fear that is very well-founded and guaranteed to come true. To place our confidence in anything that is not considered eternally valuable by the Lord is pure foolishness.

Anyone who is the least bit aware of the promised events that will take place in the season called the end times need only look around. Many changes in our lives could happen swiftly, leaving little or no time to prepare for them. I believe it would be wise to readjust our priorities if they are not in line with our Lord’s priorities.

Teach me what is of value to You, Lord,

Jim Corbett