When God Wants Your Attention

Hello and welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. This is a show that gives you real answers for tough issues, full of spirit and truth. It's been my heart for many years just to set captives free, to give people the answers but with love and compassion and the leading of the Holy Spirit, to overcome obstacles in their life, things that keep them from their promised land. That is the purpose of this show. Thank you for listening. Be sure and check out our website, icmcollege.org/selftalk. That's where you can subscribe, you can follow us, you can also give us a great review. Thank you for listening to today's show.

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Have you ever noticed that when God wants to get your attention, he'll do some pretty amazing things? In the bible, we have stories of God really using some very dramatic methods to get people's attention. You know the story of Moses when he's uh, you know, born to be the- one of the leaders of Egypt. You know he's a prince of Egypt, raised in Egyptian royalty. But he had a call on his life, the call on his life was to set at liberty those that are captive, to set at liberty his people who were enslaved by the Egyptians. What happened: he ends up killing someone. It was - it may be a justifiable homicide, he was trying to save one of his Hebrew brethren from being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster - but he murdered the guy and he had to run and escape Egypt out of fear for repercussions. So he ends up on what we call the back side of the desert, northeast of the Red Sea, tending sheep, marries, has a couple of children, and he's just a, he's a sheep farmer now. Here we have the guy who is the prince of Egypt, tremendous call on his life, I mean, one of the most important purposes or calls ever given to anyone, and what is he doing, he's tending sheep out in the desert.

Now obviously, God permitted that to happen. Was that God's will for him to commit a murder? Was it God's will for him to flee to the desert and flee his position? I mean, his whole life was miraculous. You know the story of how his mother put him in a basket in the Nile and let him float down the Nile river just to try to save his life and Pharaoh was killing all the firstborn Hebrew children because the Hebrews were multiplying too fast and Pharaoh was afraid they were going to overtake Egypt. So he's rescued by the pharaoh's daughter, raised in the Egyptian royal court with a great call upon his life but through circumstance, he ends up on the back side of the desert. Then one day, you know the story, he's kind of wandering around the desert, tending his sheep, and then sees a bush, this bush is on fire but the bush is not being consumed by the fire, just burning and burning and burning but the bush is not burning up. Very unusual sight. So he, he turned to see what was this, what is this, this is strange and in this strange moment, God spoke to him. God spoke to him, told him he was on, you know, holy ground, and then began to tell him the call of God on his life and explain to him what he was born to do; but he had to get his attention first. He had to get his attention with a burning bush before he could explain and equip and begin to show Moses supernaturally what he was actually called to do. And then Moses, you know, after arguing a little bit about his inability to speak and you know, resisting some, he did answer the call. And because he answered the call, because God had got his attention and he answered the call, he ends up back in Egypt and he sets the Hebrew children free. We have the exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, and eventually, after about a 40-year delay, they come into the, the promised land but all this started, all this started when God got Moses’ attention.

Has God ever tried to get your attention? Has God ever gone to the extreme to get your attention and did you respond? There's another story in the bible about this fisherman named Peter and his brothers, and they've been fishing all night and hadn't caught anything but they were smart enough to loan their boat to Jesus who wanted to give a speech using the boat as a podium or stage so to speak. And so they loaned their boat to Jesus to do some teaching to a crowd on the shore. And after he finished teaching, Jesus said okay, I want you to go cast your nets one more time. ‘Course, Peter goes Lord, you know we've been fishing all night. We haven't caught anything but if this is what you want us to do, we'll do it. So they cast their net and you know the story. They caught so many fish they almost sank their boat. God got their attention. He got their attention. Then he told Peter “I'll make you fishers of men” and they followed him but God had to get their attention first.

How about the Apostle Paul, known as Saul back in the day? And he's going down the road to Damascus in order to persecute more Christians because he's serving the Lord God by taking these heathen, terrible heretic Christians and putting them in jail. And so as he’s going down the road to Damascus, a bright light- comes out of the sky, this bright light comes out of nowhere and this voice begins to speak to him “why are you persecuting me?” And he goes blind but he got Paul's attention, didn't he? He got his attention. 

Then there's a story of the woman at the well. Jesus is sitting on the well, the Sumerian, Sumerian woman comes up and Jesus looked at her and said give me a drink of water and she said hey, don't you understand I'm a Sumerian? You Jews have nothing to do with us. But Jesus began to talk to her about this thing called living water and how you'll never thirst again and she goes well, yeah, I want that because I heard how, you know, our, our forefathers were called to worship at this place. And Jesus said, he began to explain to her about spirit and truth and what's going to happen, how worship is going to take place and then, and then he says go and call your husband and she said well I, I don't have a husband and Jesus said well that's true, you've had five husbands and the man you're living with now is not your husband and she goes wow, I perceive you're a prophet. See, he got her attention. He gave her a prophetic word about her past, something- there's no way anybody could have known, but he spoke to her, told her about her life, got her attention. And then Jesus revealed the truth. She said I hear the Messiah’s coming, I know the Messiah will come. And Jesus said I am he. I am he. The greatest revelation, maybe the greatest words in the history of the world, Jesus reveals to this woman who's been married five times and now she's living with the guy, that he's the Messiah. But he had to get her attention. First, he had to get her attention to give her a great revelation and this woman becomes the first evangelist in the bible. She runs into town telling everybody she's met the Messiah.

See, she had a purpose for her life but she was far from it but God had to get her attention first. My question to you who are listening to me today, how many times has God tried to get your attention and did you respond? How many times? I know with me, some years ago I was working in business and I was not in ministry, had no thought of ministry anywhere in my life. Now I was a Christian but I really wasn't letting Jesus be Lord at that time. I was a marginal Christian at best. I'm driving in my pickup truck headed down a two-lane highway in Mississippi to check on one of my business ventures and as I'm driving down the road kind of just minding my own business and you can believe this or not, I heard a voice. I heard a voice and the voice said Ray, I've called you into the ministry. Ray, I've called you into the ministry. It was like there was somebody sitting in the truck with me. I was by myself and it shocked me, it scared me. It came out of nowhere. I remember that it hit me so hard that for a moment, I ran off the road, then I came back on the road but I knew, I knew God had spoken to me. He got my attention, he got my attention. I didn't know what to do, I did not know what to do. But something in my spirit said I know this is God and I want to respond.

You see, God will do all kinds of things to get our attention. He will go to great lengths to get our attention. Maybe it's not a burning bush or Jesus, Jesus himself prophesying, maybe it's not a light coming down from heaven or maybe it's not catching more fish than you've ever dreamed of but God will get your attention because he wants to talk to you, he wants us to respond. How many times in your life, think back, that you've gone through things and you, you realize in your spirit, I think God's trying to tell me something, I think God's trying to show me something. Sometimes it's a disaster, sometimes it's a mistake, sometimes it's a failure but you know, in the midst of this failure that God is trying to show you something. If you look back you can say well wait a minute, I think God was trying to show me something, I think God was trying to warn me about something, I think God was trying to get my attention and I was so distracted I just, I just went on about my business. You see, I want to tell you something: if you're headed in the wrong direction, which I was, if you're headed down the wrong path which, which I definitely was, or maybe you're just far away from where you need to be like Moses was really far away from where he needed to be, you had Peter fishing, he wasn't called to be a fisher of fish he was called to be a, a fisher of men, you have this woman who had this long immoral life and I'm sure she was shunned by society far away from her call which was obviously to be an evangelist, all these people that God will go to extremes to get their attention. 

You know, I think God's trying to get a lot of people's attention. I think if you look back, there's so many times in your life when God was trying to show you something, God was trying to teach you something, God was trying to get you back on track. I believe God is talking today, I believe God still speaks to us and I think many people listening to me, I think you may be off track, I think you may be in God's permissive will. You see, God had a permissive will for Moses when he was shepherding sheep. God had a permissive will for Peter when he was fishing, God had a permissive will even for this woman who was married five times and now living with a man. God had a permissive will for Paul, I don't think persecuting Christians was anywhere close to God's will but the point is when we're out of God's will or not in God's best, God will do things to get our attention, that's what I see in scripture countless times. 

Jesus told John's disciples if you do not believe the words I say, believe the works I do and Jesus would do the miraculous to get people's attention. He said these signs will follow those that believe in my name: they will cast out demons and lay hands on the sick they'll speak with new tongues, Jesus said these things. You see, the supernatural gets attention but it brings glory to God. God wants our attention, God is trying to show us something and I can look back many times in my life when God was trying to warn me or God was trying to teach me or God was trying to show me something and I just plowed right on through. I think with you even listening to me now, you can say yeah, I think there have been times in my life when god was really trying to to get, to grab me, to, to redirect me, I wish I had listened. But I want you to hear me now, listen to my podcast, it's not too late, it is not too late. God is still trying to get the att- he's trying to get the attention of the church. Do you think maybe, perhaps, covid was a wake-up call? I don't know, I mean, that would be far-fetched, you know I could move prophetically but I'm not going to prophesy that but it definitely got our attention, did it not?

You know, God will use things that are not so good in our life to get our attention. Sometimes God will let us hit bottom, he'll let us bottom out and you know, the thing about bottoming out is once you hit bottom, there's only one way you can look and that is up. So many times God is trying to get across to us and he has to do something dramatic or maybe he lets us fail or lets us bump our head against the wall or lets us come close to drowning and finally he's got our attention and we go Lord, Lord, Lord help me. You've got my attention God, you've got my attention now, I will listen, I will obey. That's really what it's about, folks. It's about paying attention to messages from God. Pay attention to those times when he was trying to, he was trying to grab you and you say well what do I do because yeah, I had a God moment, I had a, I had a time when he was trying to get my attention and, and I ignored it. I didn't pay- I didn't get it and I just kept going. It's never too late with God, it's never too late with God, he can still get your attention and we can, we can pray and we can say God, forgive me. I think you've been trying to tell me something and I just went on past. I think you were trying to slow me down I kept on accelerating, I think you were trying to get me to make a turn and I kept going straight I think maybe you were trying to get me to stop but I wouldn't stop. Lord, forgive me. I'm ready to commit to you, I'm ready Lord, I'm ready. Lord, you have my attention now. God, you have my attention. I'm ready Father, I'm ready Father. 

You know, if you said this prayer with me, I just want you to know when God wants to get our attention, he's relentless. He's not going to stop trying to get our attention and you know, and we don't have to wait for something dramatic to happen. Do you know Peter was actually called before that incident when he, you know, caught all those fish with his net? But he wasn't completely following Jesus because he was back fishing again. You know uh, Paul - Saul at that time - thought he was serving the Lord. But he wasn't he really thought he was doing- he was religious, he was very religious and thought he was doing the right thing but he, but he wasn't. God had to get his attention. The lady who lived the immoral lifestyle, maybe she'd given up on life. I know some people get so caught up in immorality their hearts get hard and they just give up and say what the heck, I'll just, I'll just stay on this road, it's too late for me anyway so I'll just keep doing what I’m doing.

You see, it's not too late with God, he's still trying to get our attention he's still trying to get us to respond, it's not too late. If you're not going the right direction, you can feel it in your spirit. If you're not in the right, place you know it in your heart. I believe today God is trying to get your attention, he's trying to redirect you into something bigger and better than you can ever think or imagine. I love that scripture from Ephesians, it's always bigger and better and more than you could ever think or imagine. See, God's trying to get our focus, he's trying to get our attention. He wants us to obey because he's got something great for us. It's time to stop living beneath your capability, it's trying to get out of the backside of the desert and get into your promised land. It's time to answer the call because there's people who need you. Moses was in the desert tending sheep but there were millions of Israelites in Egypt who needed him and god had to set a bush on fire just to get Moses to go set his people free, not thinking he had the power to do it but he had the power, he had the power of God. And I know this is kind of a dramatic podcast, but it's my heart, it's my heart for you. I've always had a heart to see people living their best life. Now, I'm not talking about a best life - and God forgive me, that maybe the way Joel Osteen might talk about, I'm talking about the best life that God's designed for you. Your purpose, your call, fulfilling your call, finding your peace and satisfaction because you're serving God and doing what God created you to do. Yes, God will do dramatic things to get your attention but it doesn't have to be dramatic because even today you say Lord, you got my attention now tell me where you want me to go, show me what you want to do and I will obey you.

Thank you so much for listening to me today. I hope this show has been a blessing to you, we really appreciate you. The podcast website is icmcollege.org/selftalk. Please follow, subscribe, give us a review, I appreciate you so much, this is Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.

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Thanks again for listening to Self Talk. It's been my honor and privilege to be able to be with you today through the wonderful world of the internet. Be sure and check out my resources, there's many resources that can help you out at my website, icmcollege.org, that's the college International College of Ministry. There are free lessons, you can get a free evaluation, there's a lot of things you can do on that website. Also, check out our podcast website which is icmcollege.org/selftalk. Be sure and maybe consider purchasing one of my books, Hear His Voice be His Voice or Redeeming Your Past, Finding Your Promised Land on amazon. Thanks again for listening, we appreciate you.