Who are you among billions of human beings? Why should anyone pay attention to you or notice you? Why should God? Thousands of prayers are said every minute. Why should yours be answered?
Attention. Getting noticed. Being attended to. We all want it, but it doesn’t come easy.
The good news is that we have a great example right in our bodies of exactly how that works.
The human body is made of thousands of different parts, big and small — eyes, feet, nails, teeth, skin, hair, etc. With so much going on in your body at the same time, in all its thousand different parts, how can one of them get your attention? If one part of your body needs your head’s attention, what can it do to get noticed and attended to?
The quickest, surest way is through pain.
Pain is the signal that your body sends to your head to get its attention. “There’s something going on here, you’d better look at this.”
No matter how small and apparently insignificant the body part — if it feels pain, the message is sent straight to the head. Want proof? Pluck out a strand of hair from your head or arm. How important is that single hair strand on your body, compared to everything else? Not very. But all the same, when you pluck it out, the sting you feel sends the message to your head and demands attention.
Likewise, you may be just one among billions of human beings. But when you act your faith in who Jesus is, you become a part of His body, where He is the head. That in itself is already great, but that’s only the first step to get attention. You are still one among many.
Now that you are a part of the Body, you have a direct connection to the Head. If you need help, immediate attention from the Head, you know what you have to do. You have to send the signal. That signal is pain, but we call it sacrifice — something you do because of your faith in God that causes you pain.
Faith without sacrifice, faith that doesn’t inconvenience you, faith that doesn’t feel pain is dead. If a part of your body is dead or numb, it doesn’t feel pain, and it’s useless. You can even hurt it, but it sends no signal to the brain. So is faith without sacrifice — it says nothing, does nothing, means nothing, and gets nothing.
Fasting, prayer, tithes, offerings, forgiveness, helping others, obedience, self-denial, self-control, unexpected and bold acts of giving plus a whole range of other Christian duties are nothing more than different expressions of sacrifice. Unpleasant as they are to our egos and complacent human will, if we want attention from God, and quick, no matter who we are — we’d better start sending the right signals.
It’s what you do that determines who you are and if you deserve attention.
P.S. By the way, the same principle applies not only to getting attention from God but also from anyone who matters to you.
Read this message in portuguese
37 comments:
This is very helpful, for this 21 days fast of the out poring of The Holy Spirit. This is something that I need to do in order to call the attention of God and say. I need your Spirit, see what I am doing.
This is so strong Bishop. It makes so much sense, this is something for us to think about. We don't like to feel pain in our bodies and neither does Jesus, so the same way we give immediate attention to the pain in our body. Jesus will do the same. He will give immediate attention to the pain in His body which is those who are truly doing this Sacrifice for the Holy Spirit.
Amen, Thank you Bishop.
So true,Without feeling the pain we don't know that our body needs immediate attention. Only when we really feel the pain we do something about it. The same with Jesus, He knows what we need but if we don't show Him that we really need it then He will attend those that show more desire. Those who sacrifice, go the extra mile, out of their comfort zone, to really show God that they really want.
This message is very helpful and true about the human body.But not just only that, but how to get GOD's attention and what we need to do, in order for GOD to hear us. We need to show GOD through our ACTIONS, not by our WORDS!!!
Very Strong . Bishop I understand it perfectly . If we want God to answer us right a way, we must scarfice . Because when we give something to God he will give us something in return because he sometimes wants us to show our faith. So don't think by just sitting around waiting for God to Act . Do something use your faith. Because No Scarfice= No Success
Thank you Bishop.
Julissa Rojas
Of course many things are easier said than done, but this blog really spoke to me. I have been trying to ignore the voice that has been telling me to do more by justifying my actions and telling myself I do enough. Enough has just gotten a lot tougher for me. I have to push myself to recieve God's Spirit. When God calls, who can withstand?
this is a very helpful message. i know that i Should act in order to get Gods attention, especially now with the 21 day purpose. i Have to do my best to call Gods attention and sacrifice what hurts the most to leave alone.
21 days of Sacrifice (+) Pain (='s) Holy Spirit !
I think like this: "It’s what you do that determines who you are and if you deserve attention"
It´s a clear and helpful message, bishop.
God bless you.
It is very helpful informtion to meditate on If we are part of God's body or Not? Specially in this 21 days of fasting if we want to get God's attention we need to start putting our faith in practice. Thank you for the blog it was greatful on how we can get Gods attention and direct connection. Know I just have to put it in practice every time is needed .
This is very true!! If you want an immediate answer from God then u must sacrifice and your sacrifice must call Gods attention!!!!!
Wow!! This as opened my eyes in such a simplistic way. Sacrafice should cause pain because its going against our own will in the same way, when there is pain in our body it calls our attention because its not what we are use to feeling, but the care and attention soothes the pain to make us stronger. Our sacrafice for God calls his attention so that he can make us stronger.
Thank you Bishop.
Thanks Bishop,
'It's what I do determines who I am and whether or not I deserve attention from God'literally how strong is this phrase? When I picture myself being among billions of people in this world who wants God's attention and Love and doing they part also to get He's attention, so Who am I? what makes me special to even think that my prayers will be answered? Therefore I must do things differently I must sacrifice more to cause God to look at me because without True pain no results will be bared.
This question is something to be thought about .I never thought it that way. I got it Bishop , every time I need something from God , I must call His attention through sacrifice .
This is very true. Basically God only speaks the language of sacrifice. He is not stirred by tears (emotions) or by how long you have been facing a situation. If you want Him to hear you then you've got to send the signal in the language He understands...SACRIFICE.
What a good examlpe.I never thought of it the way you explained it.This message has revealed to me how critical is sacrifice in my spiritual life.It is true that the only way to call the attention of God is through faith which is accompanied by sacrifice.Because there are so many people who are calling on God for attention but the few are those who receive attention(through sacrifice)
Its the scrifice of who we are that reflexs the results that we are guaranteed to get. I'll take this with me during the 21 day fast.
Thank you so much to God for using you to speak to me bishop. this week has not been easy at all and i will not stop or decrease what im doing in this campaign. this post is inspiring me to do more to get a quick attention from God. this is strong,just what i needed.
I like this message very much. I knew as I kept on reading that the answer was going to be 'pain', when trying to get attention from the head. This made me flinch, as I describe myself as one of those people who cannot take even an inch of pain.
But reagrding spiritual things pain is what we must feel. If it hasn't hurt us we won't get God's attention. We're not giving the effort that we should be giving, and it is pointless. But in order to get God's attention we have to put aside the fact that our body doesn't like to feel pain, and sacrifice.
Sacrifice the true expression of our faith.For if we have faith and trust in God than why do we fear sacrifice?Thank you for reminding us that without sacrifice we cannot demand God's attention on our lives.21 days of sacrifice- physically,mentally,financially and most important spiritually.Go d will surely notice our pain and emptyness and give us the most important gift,His Holy Spirit.
This is very True!! if we dont Sacrifice we wont receive our blessing. if we want an immediate answer we must sacrifice!
These 21 days of fasting are for sure good signals that we are sending to God. These signals are charged with pain but they will definitely call God's attention. It does not matter who or how important we are; what really matters is if we are willing to give our all for the Holy Spirit.
Bishop, this is a perfect example of how the sacrifice we do catches Gods attention from all the rest of the people. This post is really opening my vision to get closer to God and stronger in faith. It actually reveals the true meaning of faith, if there is no sacrifice there is no response.
Its true Bishop, we have to sacrifice to get God attention. Because if we don't who are we to ask God for a miracle if we don't sacrifice.
When I read the former part of this blog I thought that in order to get Gods attention (THE HEAD) we need to stand out and how much can we stand out by doing something like crying out and revolting against a situation. But when Sacrifice was spoken about it all made sense. Our body (FLESH) has been highlighted to be one of our worst enemies because it wants what is contrary to the Spirit. Therefore it does not want to sacrifice but is self seeking and wants to be self fulfilled. In other words it wants to be SELFISH and goes against God because God GAVE as well as GIVING the ultimate sacrifice which was of Himself. Therefore this message is really true because if we really want to be noticed, to stand out, to make a difference we must sacrifice and do what is contrary to the flesh and rather abide in the Spirit. So it is with this 21 Day purpose that we are doing.
It is so true! Many times we have to feel the pain, hit rock bottom for us to be able to realize that we need to seek help of God, and its the same with God, if we don't truly show God the desire that we have to be filled, renewed with His Spirit then he will definitely go after the one that are getting out of their comfort zone, those who are sacrificing their all, those who does things that to the world may look so embarrasing. In these 21 days of the out pouring of the Holy Spirit we should all truly sacrifice and give our all, because there is no greater blessing then having the Spirit of the Most High within us!. On that day we will all be full of awe and we can finally say "OH WHAT A DAY!"
Thank You
Monica
Brockton MA
This is so strong and so helpful. I would always have this question is my mind, How does God see me among many? How will God be able to hear my prayer when so many others are praying and doing even more?? Reading this post, I even laughed because I've had this question for so long but I've been really inspired to do something bold, show God's that I'm here and ready for His attention...these 21 days is a perfect oppurtunity
This is so strong and so helpful. I would always have this question is my mind, How does God see me among many? How will God be able to hear my prayer when so many others are praying and doing even more?? Reading this post, I even laughed because I've had this question for so long but I've been really inspired to do something bold, show God that I'm here and ready for His attention...these 21 days are a perfect opportunity!!!
very true! faith with out action is indeed numb, i had this same problem few years ago, i had the faith, but the sacrifice is what i didn't have, so basically i didn't have a true faith. i started to get frustrated until i decided OK what can i do to make a difference? there it is sacrifice, sacrifice is good for everything just like you said that its not only for attention for God, we need to sacrifice time to study if we want to get an excellent grade in a test etc. we need to do more than other parts of the body, if we want to really deserve the attention.
I love how God creates relationships like this one here. This can also be extended to our marriage. Recently I have been sacrificing in that department. And guess what – the head (my husband) has been fulfilling many things that I have desired for a long time. God’s word is flawless.
Yes bishop this is it. We should learn to use our faith and this explaination is so clear as we understand the corporation of our human bodies and now for our daily prayers to be heard we have to learn this bishop.
Thank you
Yolanda
That is something I realize, we can work very hard, but if its not against our will its not a true sacrifice, so to really get God's attention i have to really feel pain when i sacrifice if not then I'm wasting my time. Good Stuff!
This is of utmost importance, since we have to show the Holy Spirit that we REALLY want Him in our lives, within us. God has to see tht we desire His spirit above all things in order to call his attention.
This has got me thinking about the 21days, I need to do something extra, go the extra mile in the sacrifice to really and truly say what a day.
If we are not feeling pain then it means its not a sacrifice and sacrifice is what calls God's attention.
Thanks Bishop
Hi Bishop,
this has come just at the right time for the 21 days! Sacrifice is the fastest way not only to catch God's attention but also to get results!
I have never thought of it this way, the analogy you provided makes sense. I never thought about the other billions of people praying to God, I just assume that he was listening to me. But, if we are to get God’s attention it is through our actions, it’s through putting are faith into actions and not just words. This really puts things into perspective “faith without sacrifice is nothing,” one must prove ourselves worthy to Jesus.
I find this to be a great way to put Bishop. Thank you for the strong message.
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