David Corbin's Blog

May you be exceedingly, abundantly blessed above and beyond what you can ask or think during this wonderful Christmas season. I am thankful for the connection we share of revealing Christ Jesus and the message of grace to the world.

Remember as you go through this season and the coming year that you are greatly blessed, highly favoured and deeply loved!

Jesus was the only child in all of humanity born to die. Once you realise that, you will realise how much God loves you. You will realise that He gave up His Son for that one purpose, and that His Son willingly came for that one purpose, namely to die for your sins and mine.

Can you imagine living your life knowing that you are just qualifying yourself to die on a cross to save the world? That was the life that Jesus lived. He lived to die, so that we might live and enjoy life abundantly today!

I have talked to many people who feel that it was so difficult to connect with God. They say, ‘I have prayed, but the Lord never answered’. But Jesus told us “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matt. 7:8); and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8)... so where is the problem?

In Jeremiah 29:13 the Lord said we will seek Him and find Him when we search with ALL of our hearts. Failure to connect with God is not because of any lack of faithfulness on His part but a lack of seeking with ALL our hearts on our part. Therefore, the key to the problem is in our hearts. Focusing all our attention on the Lord unlocks the door to a relationship with Him and everything it produces.

The Lord loves us and desires to help us through our troubles, but He does not want us to come to Him only when we are having problems, because that is not seeking God with all your heart, you just want out of trouble! As you seek first God’s kingdom, and follow His righteousness, peace and joy, the abundance within you will flow out and become a reality in your circumstances (Matt. 6:33). You will find that God has not only taken care of what is troubling you, but has also added blessings to you.

In Luke 17:5 the apostles requested the same thing from Jesus that so many Christians continue to ask today… they wanted more faith. Jesus surprised them with His answer, just as the truth about faith astonishes people today. We do not need more faith! The faith every Christian has is sufficient to uproot a tree and cast it into the ocean if they would just use it. The solution is not getting more faith, but simply using what we have (Luke 17:6).

Jesus went on to counter a wrong approach that most people still have today about faith. Faith must be viewed as a slave. Slaves do what they are told. Masters do not request slaves to work; they make them work. This is how we should view faith. Faith is something we can command; it is our slave. We do not have to passively hope or request faith to work. We take control and command our faith!

…The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results (James 5:16, NLT)

When Jesus was crucified on the cross, not only did He wash away all your sins with His precious blood, but He also gave you His very own righteousness as a gift.

Do you know that you can never lose this righteousness? Your righteousness is a gift from Jesus because it is entirely dependent on His perfect performance and His perfect obedience, not yours.

Therefore, because you are forever righteous in Christ, God hears your prayers every time you pray. James tells us that the earnest prayer of a righteous man — that is YOU — “produces wonderful results”. Not just plain results, but wonderful results!

What provision do you need today, righteous one? Favour for an interview, wisdom to clear your debts, healing for your children? As a righteous man or woman of God, boldly ask Jesus for what you need in prayer and expect to see wonderful results!

Jesus came down for one purpose, and one assignment: to redeem mankind. When He was buried in the tomb over 2,000 years ago, He had your name written on the palm of His hand. He knew you before you were formed in your mother’s womb, and He had already chosen you. I cannot say that I understand it all, but I can tell you that I am glad He came!

When Jesus was on the Earth, scripture tells us that because of the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross. He did not focus on what He was going to suffer. He did not focus on the accusations, the beatings, and the betrayal… He focused on you and me. He focused on the joy of our salvation! Jesus was thrilled that He got to come to us, and we should be thrilled that we now get to go to Him.

Joy is a spiritual force. It can only be obtained by knowing the Father. Joy is not something you get when things are going well. It is something that keeps you stable no matter what is going on around you. Jesus depended on this joy to overcome the cross, and He is telling us that we need to depend on this joy to go through the trials and tests that we face as well.

Today, open your heart and receive the joy that your Abba Father has for you. Focus on the fact that He has you in the palm of His hand. Trust that He is working all things out for your good. Dwell on the truth that if God is on your side, there is no enemy that can stand against you!

As you meditate on these things and the other promises found in His Word, faith will come, and hope will rise. It will be easier for you to cast your cares on Him because you trust Him. Before you know it, you will feel that supernatural joy gushing up in your heart and giving you strength! You will have an attitude that says, “I do not know why I am in this difficult situation; I do not know what is going to happen, I just have faith! I do not know why, but I just believe that God is going to get me through of this difficult situation!” Other people will wonder why you have a smile on your face and a spring in your step, but you will know that it is because His joy is giving you the strength you need to push past the challenges and grab hold of the victory that God has in store for you!

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NKJV).

In Luke 24:5 the Angel asked the women at the tomb, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” What a great question! The women who came to the tomb that resurrection morning were seeking Jesus, but they were not seeking a living, victorious Christ. They were grieving because the Jesus they were seeking was dead.

Likewise, we often seek a dead God. We do not phrase it that way, of course, but that is what it amounts to. We pray and talk about how big and impossible our problems are, just as if God was dead. We forget, or do not believe, that Jesus overcame ALL the problems of this life. We say things like, ‘The doctor told me I am going to die!’ What does this mean to the person who has already conquered death? It is nothing to Him. If we pray to the risen Christ, then death would not overwhelm us either.

When the women at the tomb believed that Jesus was alive, all their sadness turned to joy. That is the way it will be with us too when we start relating to a risen Christ who has put all our enemies under His feet. It is not enough to just seek Jesus; we need to seek the risen Lord Jesus. We need to recognise that Jesus is Almighty and start treating Him as such.

It does not glorify the Lord when we begin to concern ourselves every time something bad happens. We have access to Him who has all power in heaven and earth. We need to come to the risen Christ and expect resurrection power to flow into our every situation.

The amazing account of Abraham offering his son Isaac to God as a sacrifice has inspired people through the ages (Genesis 22:9). Yet Abraham was not the only one to express amazing faith and faithfulness. Isaac’s actions were just as impressive!

Most scholars believe that Isaac was about seventeen years old at the time. This means that Abraham was 117. Isaac probably could have overpowered his father, Abraham. Certainly, he could have outrun dear old dad. But Isaac allowed his father to bind him and place him on the altar knowing full well that Abraham intended to make a sacrifice of him. There is no indication that Isaac was screaming for help or that he resisted in any way. Isaac had complete trust in God, his father, or both.

This is a perfect picture of how God sacrificed His Son Jesus for us. It was an astonishing act of love for us on God’s part, but it was equally wonderful what Jesus did. The scriptures say “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa. 53:7). Jesus could have called for legions of angels to deliver Him, but He never did (Matt. 26:53). He surrendered Himself to His Father just as Isaac did, even to death.

Such love and sacrifice certainly had a purpose. The only man-made things in heaven today are those scars on Jesus’ body. They will remain forever as tokens of His everlasting love and passion for you. If God gave His Son so freely for us, how could we ever doubt that He will supply our every need (Rom. 8:32). God loves us and delights in our prosperity (Psa. 35:27). He has proven that beyond any reasonable doubt.

To help you to grow in God’s wisdom and thereby experience spiritual growth, confess the following over yourself daily:

Strengthen me in my inner man Lord (Eph. 3:16), that I may be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love (Eph. 3:17). Let me grasp Your love – the breadth and length and height and depth of it (Eph. 3:18), that I may be filled through all my being with Your fullness Lord, so that I can become a body wholly filled and flooded by You (Eph. 3:19), that knows You and the power of Your resurrection (Phi. 3:10).

Grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation Lord (Eph. 1:17), that the eyes of my heart will be flooded with light (Eph. 1:18), that I may know the greatness of Your power in me (Eph. 1:19); so that I may learn to sense what is vital and of real value (Phi. 1:10) and may abound and be filled with the fruits of righteousness (Phi. 1:11).

Keep me and protect me from the evil one (John 17:12) as I learn Your will for me (Col. 1:9), and my inner man is strengthened with all power, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks always (Col. 1:11-12).

Amen

I have often been asked how we can say that Christ has redeemed us from sickness when we feel pain in our bodies, or are physically displaying signs of a flu or other illness. Many Christians have said that they are lying when they say that by His stripes they are healed.

God calls those things that are not as though they are, and because you are made in God’s image, you can also call those things that are not as though they are! When God wanted to make Abraham a father of many nations, He changed the way Abraham talked by changing his name from Abram to Abraham. At that time, Abraham did not have a single child from Sarah, yet God referred to him as a father of many nations (Gen. 17:5).

Despite the pain, physical signs, deformities, call out your healing (Rom. 4:17). It is pointless to state the obvious, so change the way you talk. See the way God meant it to be, and start calling out your healing and wholeness!