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The Law of Receiving

In this season of giving and sharing, we cannot neglect receiving. In fact, receiving is a law. The law of receiving says: whatever I major on with my eyes, ears, and my mouth will eventually get into my heart and when acted upon will overwhelm me and produce in my life. (Good or bad). This law is laid out for us in Proverbs 4:20-27:

"My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life to unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil."

These powerful verses spell out God's formula for how we receive everything that we come to have in life.

Pay Attention!

God begins His instruction to us in verse 20 by saying pay attention to. He is calling us to attend to or "pay attention to" His words. In order to have success in life you must pay attention to the Word of God. If you want the things of God you must major on or attend to God (His Word and His Spirit). Put that first. Let me illustrate how important it is that we attend to God's Word first and foremost: If you are a parent and you leave a list of chores for your child to do while you are away at work, you expect for them to be done. Well if a friend stops by later and invites your child to play softball, the child should respond by saying, "I have to tend to this list of chores that my daddy assigned to me before I can come out and play with you. " I'm sure if you are a parent and are reading this right now that you are nodding your head in absolute agreement with this. So likewise, when our "Daddy" (the Heavenly Father) commands us to 'tend to ' His Word, we must do as we would expect a child to do in obeying its parents.

In that illustration, you expect the child to obey his parent first, so we too are to obey God's command and attend to His Word first-before the morning paper or news show; before the job; before the "daily activities of life" begin.

It's time we started paying attention the wisdom and instruction of our Heavenly Father.

It's the Law

This formula is a law. A law is an established principle that will work for whosoever will get involved with it; it works the same for everyone who operates in it. For example, the law of gravity works the same for every person on this planet-no matter how rich, poor, famous, etc. that person might be. Anybody that steps off of the side of the Empire State Building will have the same results from the law of gravity. Why? Because it's a law. And while we can understand this principle clearly with something like the law of gravity, it is just as important that we understand it where spiritual things are concerned.

The law of receiving is a spiritual law that is working in the life of every person alive right now, whether they are spiritual or not. You see anything that you have in your life right now came forth from your heart. Here's how it happens: you focus on something with your ears and eyes and speak it forth with your mouth. As the words are released from your mouth, they enter into your heart-and out of your heart flows the issues of life (verse 23). That's it, plain and simple. Ears-eyes-mouth-heart = your life.

So if you have "issues" in your life today, they came forth from your heart. Remember though, before it gets in your heart, it must get your attention and enter in through the eye gate, ear gate, or mouth gate. It doesn't "just happen". Nothing just happens. For the Word of God clearly states that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

Be On Guard

You must be very protective of what you allow to get into your heart. A good farmer watches over his ground to keep the weeds out. And if we want to harvest God's blessings, we have to keep the weeds out of the soil of our heart. Why? Because these issues become our lives!

Maybe you don't currently desire the things of God. The reason is apparent: you are not attending to the things of God. Whatever you give your attention to is what you will desire. This goes for sports, sex, money, etc.. It works the same in every situation. Know that if you are constantly giving your attention to the television, movies, soap operas, gossip, pornography, getting money, etc., those will be the things responsible for producing the kind of life you live.

The great blessing here is that it works both 'ways. If you are receiving things in your life that you do not want, switch on the law and override those things. Begin to change what you are focusing on, spending time with, and giving your attention to and what's in your heart will change; thus what's in your life will change.

Don't Slip

Once you begin this process-stay focused! (verses 25-27) Don't allow your schedule to dominate you, you dominate your schedule. Don't plan your time with God around your day; instead plan your day around your time with God. Make it a priority. Remember, Daddy has given us our instructions, so we must put everything else aside until we've done all He's commanded us to do. And you know what? He'll give you the grace to do everything else you need to do with sweatless victory.
If there's something lacking in your life today, it's not because of God's failure to give it to you, it's because of your failure to receive. Learn to receive God's best for your life by giving yourself to God and His Word. I guarantee, it's well worth it.