At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Luke 10:21-22.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Attitude determines altitude. And one of the best ways of going up to higher levels is an attitude of gratitude, and this will give you joy in what you have, where you are, and what is coming into your life. A cheerful heart does good like a medicine and it will take you up to hear from Me, that is, “Come share your Master’s joy!” With joy you draw water at the springs of salvation, not with weeping and whining. You may sow in tears, but you will only reap with joy. I anointed Jesus with the oil of joy and He shared His anointing, His joy, with you so that your joy could be complete, full. John 15:11.
Today we continue instructions on how to know My Will for your life with Life Lesson No. 11: “Attitude Determines Altitude.” If you are allowing yourself to sink into depression, hopelessness, dissatisfaction with yourself or others, or other negative emotions, you will find you have lost your enthusiasm, joy, and energy for life. This path will only end in darkness for you are digging a deep pit that the deeper you go, the harder it is to turn around and come out. You will not be able to do My Will for your life enclosed in a negative attitude. That is what happened to the Israelites I redeemed out of Egypt that never fulfilled My Will for their lives. Do not let yourself go there. It can get to be a habit. A very dangerous one for your wellbeing.
A bad attitude is like taking the wind out of your sails, which will stop your travel until you get filled up with the wind of the Holy Spirit, or like a deflated flat tire on a car, unless you change it and get an inflated one, you will not go anywhere. Being unhappy about your life, or what you have been given in life, will stop you from advancing and increasing. Thanksgiving brings multiplication. Remember when My Son thanked Me for five loaves and two fish rather than joining with the apostles bemoaning that such a little amount did no good? Exponential multiplication took place.
I tell you that as I laid the foundations of the earth and created the universe the stars sang together and shouted for joy. Job 38:1-7. Do you know how many stars there are? No one has been able to count them yet. But I know each one by name. Joy causes amazing things to take place. Remember Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah against the three enemy armies? Their joyful thanksgiving and praise combined with My power and it set off a force stronger than a nuclear bomb. It took down all three armies with no one left in a very short time. 2 Chronicles 20.
Jesus had an attitude of gratitude and joy, and it kept Him at a very high level of communication and impartation with Me. Do you recall that His joy made Him cry out? It is written: “At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Luke 10:21-22. For the joy that lay before Him He endured the Cross, despising the shame.
If you look at the lives of those who stood out in doing mighty works of excellence to the glory of My Name, you will find a common thread of gratitude for My favor, gratitude for My presence, gratitude for My calling and gratitude for their assignment. You will find a sense of awe and wonder that I had entrusted them with so great a mission and such great honor. It was gratitude focused on Me, not just what worldly and secular philosophies call positive thinking. It is an attitude of faith, which is a joyful expectation that good is coming supernaturally into your life from Me.
Faith in My Words, My promises, makes you happy. Why? All My promises, as My apostle Peter put it, are magnificent. They speak nothing but good for you, such as forgiveness, healing, compassion, rescue, deliverance, salvation, redemption, sanctification, righteousness, justification, vindication, prosperity, victory, and eternal life. When Hannah finally got faith that I would give her the child she so desired, she stopped whining, and I tell you that she was “no more sad.” And it was then she had the baby she so longed for, and after that she had five more children. Attitude makes a huge difference. If you are WILLING and obey you will have the best of the land.
Paul cried out extolling the gift of My grace which was given to him according to the working of My power. He said, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 3:6-10. He opened all his letters with this or a similar greeting, “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” He was so honored by his call despite all the afflictions he suffered in preaching the gospel. He wrote in the midst of persecutions and imprisonments, “I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.” 2 Corinthians 7:4. He had learned to be content in every situation, and this contentment did not depend on the outer circumstances, it was the attitude of his heart. Philippians 4:11-13.
And if you look back at Jacob, the son of Isaac, he earnestly desired My blessing and while Esau cared nothing about his birthright or the things pertaining to Me. In fact, Jacob wrestled all night and would not let go until I blessed him. And I gave him a new name, “Israel.” And he became a great nation, as I had promised his grandfather, Abraham. You should have that same attitude as you pray, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Genesis 32:26. Because you hold fast to Me in love, I will deliver you; I will protect you because you know My Name. Psalm 91:14. And Jacob was grateful and attributed all his prosperity to Me. He prayed to Me, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,’ I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.” Genesis 32:9-10. And later, when he was about to die, he blessed the sons of Joseph saying, “The God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.” Genesis 48:15-16.
And Joseph, Jacob’s son, when his brothers encountered again after they had sold him into slavery but found him to be the leading official next to Pharaoh in Egypt, declared to his brothers how they had meant what they did to him maliciously to harm him but that I had chosen him to do a great work of preserving lives and preserving Abraham’s line. Joseph through all the years of slavery, imprisonment, and then tremendous prosperity had never changed his attitude of gratitude, enthusiasm, and joy towards Me. He was awed that I walked him through his trials to a wide and wealthy place of authority to do good for multitudes of people. I had worked a great deliverance through him in a time of intense drought and famine. His attitude was joyful gratitude for every favor I had bestowed upon him, even when I prospered him as a slave and gave him favor in prison. He had no resentment for the years when it looked hopeless for him. It was no wonder he was his father’s favorite and found favor in the eyes of all who had him serving them. And he found favor in My eyes. His attitude kept him at a high altitude. Even when he was unjustly thrown into prison, he did not let it get him down. Remember when he asked the dejected looking cup bearer and baker that had been put in the same prison by Pharoah what he asked them? “Why are your faces so sad today?” Genesis 40:6-7. He could have been dejected too but he was not. And he tried to help them out. They explained to him, “We have had a dream and there is no one to interpret it.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.” Genesis 40:8. And he went on to give them the interpretation of their dreams. He knew how to hear from Me. Attitude determines your altitude. Joseph never went down to the level of those who did evil against him, such as his brothers and Potiphar’s wife, he just went to a higher altitude. And I was with him. And he knew that. He did great things beyond even what you read in the Bible.
Attitude determines altitude, and attitude comes from where you have fixed your eyes, whether above where you are seated with Christ at My right hand, or beneath in the realm of darkness and dirt where the devil crawls. Snakes cannot survive long at high altitudes. Raise up and renew your mind and you will have a whole new perspective. The perspective of a soaring eagle, as well as his altitude, is far different than that of a chicken who primarily scratches in the dirt for food and the greatest height the chicken reaches is to flap into a tree. Eagles soar on the currents of the wind.
And think about Mary, the chosen Mother of My Son. She never let the hardships that came her way in doing My Word change her attitude of willing and loving obedience to My Word, she cherished and treasured all I was doing in her life continually pondering it in her heart. And listen to her words, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His maidservant; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.” Luke 1:46-49.
A bad (depressed and ungrateful, whiny and cowardly) attitude makes you miss your miracle. Remember the royal official that scoffed at Elijah’s promise of a miracle in twenty-four hours? The miracle happened but he did not get to partake in it. I tell you that a bad attitude makes you like a barren bush in the desert that does not see good when it comes and, thus, misses it entirely. The Israelites I redeemed out of Egypt that refused to go into the land I promised to give them would have said My good promises did not come to pass, but Joshua and Caleb who had a different attitude, a spirit of faith, experienced every one of My good promises coming to pass.
Your attitude makes a tremendous difference in the harvest of your life and many of you need to change your attitude as quickly as you can. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW AND DO MY WILL FOR YOUR LIFE IF YOUR ATTITUDE IS ONE OF INGRATITUDE, DEPRESSION, DEFEAT, BITTERNESS, DISSATISFACTION, RESENTMENT, AND DOUBT. But if you have an attitude of gratitude, expectant joy, victory, sweetness, contentment, forgiveness, and faith you can be sure you are doing My Will.
Some of you have grown weary in well doing because you have not had the results or increase you desired, but do not give up, you will reap in due season if you just keep up the enthusiasm and joy of first love. I desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12. You have an anchor behind the veil. Faith. And Jesus your great High Priest and forerunner has opened the way for you. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done My Will, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But you are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Hebrews 10:35-39.
I love you. Keep up your courage, Jesus overcame and He is in you, and you can do all things through Him who strengthens you. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give constant thanks, this is My Will for you in Christ Jesus. He is the author and finisher of your faith. He will help you, lead you and guide you safely through the troubled waters, in fact, if you have the faith and keep your eyes on Him, you will walk on top of the troubled waters without sinking. After all, the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters.