Tag: The Family Rescue Campaign

“You are wise when you fully comprehend Who I am as God. It is the beginning of life for you. Until then, it is impossible for you to have what is needed to live the life of Jesus in your world. I am willing to show you deep truths from My heart. All you need to do is come to Me with an open heart. Humble yourself. Acknowledge that you do not have all the answers. Ask for truth.  Strive for intimacy. Make Our time together a priority in your life. I will show you Who I am. I will also reveal who you really are and how important your life is to Me. That is a good thing.”

Psalm 25:12-14 NIV 

12) Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

13) He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land.

14) The Lord confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them.

Psalm 46:10 NIV

Be still, and know that I am God...

Proverbs 1:7 NIV

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

James 4: 8-10 AMP

8) Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].

9) [As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].

10) Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].

 

As you grow in Christ, you must learn to joyfully embrace a life of repentance. Delight in what God is doing in you as you are shown who you are not. Understand that you are still very welcome in His presence. You are a deeply loved work in progress. Submission to the changes the Lord is making in you develops your ability to present Jesus to the world, which is your heritage and God’s original plan for your life. He knows who you are and everything you are not. Real heart changes are needed in all of us and can only take place when spending quality time with Him to know His heart and looking to Him alone for all things.

Teach me about You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“For a long time now, I have called you to be like My Son, Jesus – to be complete in Me – but many of you have refused to listen.  You have chosen to remain in your sinful nature, denying My power to change you. You have a form of godliness, but you do not let Me complete the work that is necessary for you to show the world My Son, Jesus. Soon, My Holy Spirit will be moving in a direction that is new to those who haven’t chosen My ways. He will execute My bold judgments to make you bend to My ways, instead of allowing you to continue in your ways. There will no more be the kind of grace from Me that has allowed you to be less than I have determined for your life. The kind of grace that I will send will overpower your hardened heart.

"I advise you to buy gold from Me that has been refined in the fire, before I refine My gold in the fire of judgment, which is also designed to change you. Come to Me now. I am waiting.  Now is the time. This season is My final call - My bridal call. Do not turn from Me again, or My eyes of judgment will turn toward your life - for your good and for the glory of My Son, Jesus.”

Hosea 10:12 AMP

Sow for yourselves according to righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God); reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you.

II Tim. 3:1-5 AMP

1) But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].

2) For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.

3) [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.

4) [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.

5) For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].

Revelation 3:10 NIV

Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

 

I remember when I was a teenager. (Boy! That was a long time ago!) My dad would observe some of my behavior and then take me aside to show me that if I continued on the path I was walking, there would be consequences to my actions. Sometimes he would even show me very clearly what those consequences might be, should I decide not to heed his warning.

Usually I would stand there, hear what he had to say; and then continue on my way, doing exactly what I had done before. As I look back, there must have been some kind of “stupid filter” in my brain that allowed only foolishness in and filtered out all wisdom.

Good stuff - like wisdom, understanding, thoughtfulness - seemed to be a foreign language to me. It was not so much that I didn’t want to think clearly; I just don’t remember thoughts of having any need to do so. Take the importance of driving carefully, for example. It just didn’t enter into the equation as soon as I heard the sound of my mufflers or thought of the three carburetors under the hood.

The thought of applying wisdom to any of my actions never entered my mind once I started the engine.  Logic and understanding were also nowhere to be found when I got in my car. I would probably have invited them to go with me as I drove; but somehow, I don’t remember them even being available. It was as though they were not part of my brain cell group.

Sitting on the front lawn on a Saturday night, staring at my impounded car over and over again, eventually eroded some of that “stupid filter.”  What a concept. If I would listen to my dad, things would go better in my life.

In our walk with the Lord, “stupid filters” are commonplace. We just call them little sins. God, however, sees the horrible ramifications of our indulgence. He knows the terrible difference between being with Him completely and never really seeing the need to sell out to His ways with all our hearts. Eventually, because of His great love for us, He must take Fatherly action to curb our foolishness. He knows that the consequences are too great for Him to leave us where we are.

Needing to heed what is being said by my Father,

Jim Corbett

“Never judge the gifts that I give you with your carnal mind. Never judge what I am doing because things look dark. I am always looking out for your spiritual well-being. My church is cold and far from Me. Now they will need Me. As things become darker, My light will be brighter to those who turn to Me with all of their hearts. As you need Me, I will be there for you. I have told you of difficult times on the horizon. I have counseled you to cultivate an intimacy with Me. Now you will have need of knowing My will and My ways to overcome the challenges that come your way.

"It is not too late. Look upon those things that are happening around you as My gift to you. Anything that draws you to Me is very good for you. I am waiting for you to fully understand your need of Me. When you need Me, you will come to Me. That delights My heart for I know that it is My best for you. I am waiting!”

II Chr. 16:9a AMP

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him.

Romans 12:1 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Heb. 4:16 AMP 

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].

James 4:7-8a AMP 

7) So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.

8a) Come close to God and He will come close to you.

 

Because of what has been prophesied in the Bible and what is happening all around us, I am convinced that in the very near future, you and I will have difficult choices to make. With those choices, we can either succumb to the temptation to protect what is ours and be consumed with our little world, or we can rise to the challenge of overcoming the world’s darkness.

We can dig in with God to find our portion of what He is doing and about to do to further His kingdom. That is the only place of safety. Our flesh may want to reel in fear. Our spirits, however, know that we will be drawn to the Lord as never before. If we submit to His power, we will overcome all of the challenges that will come our way. That is the only option for us if we say that we follow Jesus. It is our act of worship.

Allow me to receive Your gifts with Your heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“If you are going to walk in My authority to accomplish My work, then you must submit to My total authority over your life. If you want My presence to go forth in whatever you are called to do, then you must remove yours. You can never be the center of anything I call you to do. In fact, you are to be an empty vessel for Me to flow through. I call you to lay your life aside. Exchange your life for Mine. I call you to surrender all that you are and all that you have to the complete Lordship of Jesus.

"You have little power to really affect your world because there is so much of you in all you do. You desire to share Lordship! You desire to own some of My power. You will even distort My Word in an attempt to prove that you can maintain some ownership of your life and still serve Me. How is that working for you? Allow Me to crucify everything of your old nature. Become an empty vessel. Then see Who I really am and what I choose to do through you.”

Ps. 39:7 AMP

And now, Lord, what do I wait for and expect? My hope and expectation are in You.

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.

Isaiah 2:22 AMP 

Cease to trust in [weak, frail, and dying] man, whose breath is in his nostrils [for so short a time]; in what sense can he be counted as having intrinsic worth?

Isaiah 40:31 AMP

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

Isaiah 42:25 AMP

Therefore He poured out upon [Israel] the fierceness of His anger and the strength of battle. And it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach]; it burned him, but he did not lay it to heart.

 

Jesus asks us to exchange our lives for His. We continually want to share in the lordship of our lives, to take part in our healing, our spiritual growth, and sometimes even our salvation. He asks only that we give our old life away in exchange for His to be lived through us. Why don’t we understand?

Take everything, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Do you even remember how many times you have lied to Me? How many times have you made promises to Me only to do the opposite of what you have said? What about all the times you have told others you would pray for them and never gave your commitment in My Name another thought? When was the last time you made the reputation of Jesus more important than your own comfort? Do you see how little you have done to show Me that you have My concerns as the priority of your heart? I don’t like your hypocrisy, no matter how it’s presented; but I will forgive you if you repent! You need Me to change your heart and your actions now! Don’t tolerate that kind of behavior in your life, and don’t associate with those who do. Why would you think that I don’t see, and even more important, why would you even begin to believe that I don’t care?”

Psalm 51:10 AMP 

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.

Acts 5:1-5a NIV

1) Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.

2) With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

3) Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

4) Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

5a) When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.

 

“Yeah, OK, but today lies are not as important to God. Nobody’s been killed like that lately. Anyway, everybody’s doing it! I know some people who say they love Jesus and can’t be trusted at all. Look around, nobody gives important stuff to God anymore. I think He just wants us to look and feel good, no matter how selfish we really are. You see, He understands that …”

I believe that some of us who call ourselves representatives of Jesus and stewards of what we have been entrusted with are going to be very surprised one day. Our hands are dirty. It’s time to change now!

Oh, Lord, have mercy on us!

Jim Corbett