Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Thursday 09/15/2011)

How To Get God’s Attention

Acts 7:48-56 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses and temples made with hands; as the prophet says, ⁴⁹Heaven [is] My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What [kind of] house can you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest? ⁵⁰Was it not My hand that made all these things? ⁵¹You stubborn and stiff-necked people, still heathen and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. As your forefathers [were], so you [are and so you do]! ⁵²Which of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? And they slew those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, Whom you now have betrayed and murdered-- ⁵³You who received the Law as it was ordained and set in order and delivered by angels, and [yet] you did not obey it! ⁵⁴Now upon hearing these things, they [the Jews] were cut to the heart and infuriated, and they ground their teeth against [Stephen]. ⁵⁵But he, full of the Holy Spirit and controlled by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory (the splendor and majesty) of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand; ⁵⁶And he said, Look! I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at God's right hand!

            So many of us are in seasons where we and our faith are being challenged.  Others are in seasons where they are believing God for some things to happen in their lives, or they are needing a miracle manifestation of God in their situation and circumstance.  This morning as I woke up, All I felt within my spirit was not to ask God for a thing but only to worship Him and speak to His nature. To boldly declare how Great He is and how awesome He is.  As I started my time of devotion, God took me to the story of Stephen, as I read the account I kept hearing “how do you get my attention?”  As I sat down to write I tried to start writing a devotional with a different title, but God would not let those words wash from my spirit they kept resonating over and over again, “How do you get God’s attention.”  So I went back and read the above portion of the text and it came barreling at me.  It is in our posture of living, the words that we speak and our ability to boldly declare righteous truths and who God is, even in the midst of adversity or when it is not popular!

            All too often we want God’s movement but we will compromise our stand if we get around the wrong people and the wrong environment, yes I said that correctly, because the right people in our lives, will stand with us in our convictions and encourage us to do and say what is right and pleasing in the sight of God.  We need God and we understand this to be truth but we do not want to go Boldly where few have gone before.  We want to get quiet on God especially if it may cause us to be unpopular or cause us the pain of being persecuted or ostracized.  I used to be a gym rat, and the one thing I came to understand early on was no pain, no gain.  To build you had to first tear up the muscles and to then begin to repair and build.  Well I am here to tell you that is a painful process.  But it was the diligence and the willingness to press through the pain that garnered the results that I was looking for.   How can we be diligent in things so temporal, but when it comes to providing God with what He needs we will short cut Him all the time?  God is looking for us to step up our game, to stop letting our environment dictate our response.  We should have no problem saying who we are in Christ, and living accordingly no matter who is watching and who is within ear shot of us.  To be able to stand up and say and mean it, “Take the world but give me Jesus,” to say “it is for God I live, not man,” Heaven will take notice.  It is to be able to say that we will not bend, will not fall or compromise, and live in that space no matter what, that is when God will notice us and cause us to see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father for us.

            Nothing from nothing really does leave nothing.  What we put into our relationship with God is what we will get out.  Being His number one fan really does have its privileges.  We have to be willing to leave it all out on the field. To live loud and to live in a posture where there is no doubt that we serve a mighty God who is able to keep us and to do in our lives the exceeding great things, that we have need of.  But it will cost us something, it cost will cost us our living; no longer can we live covert and undercover.  It will cost us our friendships and associations; hanging with anyone we want to just to be accepted, or to gain recognition, fame, position and the backing of man is not an option.  You see to get God and Heaven’s attention it isn’t hard it just cost. But I must declare that I would rather have the attention of ALL MIGHTY GOD THAN ANY MAN ON EARTH.  His abilities far outweigh anything a man or woman could ever do for us.  BUT the choice is always ours; do we really want or need God’s attention that bad or not? Only we know for sure, I can only speak for myself, I know I need Him that BAD!