We hope you enjoy this re-post from June 24, 2013. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

Stephen, a man full of faith…and full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit… – Acts 6:5, AMP

What does it take to be used mightily by God? I’m not talking about being used by God in an average way. I’m talking about being used by God in an Earth-shattering, mountain-moving way.

Does it take formal education? A formal education in the Word of God is a wonderful aid in the work of Christ, but it is only an aid. It is not a prerequisite for monumental service. Does it require intelligence, drive, strength of character, determination, and longsuffering? Again, all of these are wonderful aids in furthering God’s work, but they are not prerequisites for being used of Him mightily.

Then what must we have to be mightily used of God? The answer is total abandonment to the Holy Spirit.

Stephen was one of the first seven deacons selected by the New Testament church. Although all seven were submissive to the Holy Spirit (see Acts 6:3), Stephen was extraordinarily so. Of the seven, Stephen alone was described in Acts 6:5 as being full of faith and full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Due to his submissiveness to the Holy Spirit, the Bible records that Stephen, like the Apostles, performed miracles among the people (Acts 6:8). He also intellectually annihilated the skeptics who challenged him to debates because of “the intelligence and the wisdom and [the inspiration of] the Spirit with which and by Whom he spoke.” (Acts 6:9-10, AMP) When brought to trial before the Sanhedrin, Stephen was so in tune with God that his face appeared like that of an angel, and when the council members gnashed at him with their teeth, Stephen, “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.” (Act 7:55, AMP) Finally, as he lay dying from the stones cast at him by the angry mob, Stephen spoke words not of human anger but of divine compassion, asking God, as Christ did on the cross, not to lay the sin of his murderers to their charge.

Stephen’s story is contained within two small chapters of the Bible, but his impact on the people of his day and on Bible readers for centuries following his death is immeasurable. The thing that set Stephen apart from his peers was that he not only was filled by the Holy Spirit; he was controlled by the Holy Spirit. Every born again believer is indwelled by the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation (1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 2 Timothy 1:14, 1 John 4:13), but few ever totally submit to the Holy Spirit’s leading in their lives. It is total submission that makes the difference between average service and monumental service, and total submission is something each and every one of us has the power to choose. If we will but abandon ourselves and our right to ourselves the way Stephen did, then God will do with us exactly what he did with Stephen – make a mark on the world, for God’s glory.

Who is in control of your life?