Personally my take on it is that you have to invite the god into you. To become a devotee you have to be willing to give up being just yourself, you are now yourself but to some extent a vessel of your god. No longer do you call on him/her/it to exercise some portion of its might on your behalf, now you can use the gods own powers. You give up your proffesion as such and are beyond the usual ceremonies meant to honor your god, now your whole life is a hymn to your god, sung in harmony between you and the god.
The gods are stuck outside of time, but still want to meddle. Becoming a devotee to my mind is basically letting the gods get around this restriction by joining with you. It isn't as extreme as being a disciple, but it is definately more than most people are willing to do.
Some people may work towards this, and spend years with their temple or some teacher learning to be more like their god until they are ready (and the teacher need not always be a devotee). Others are ready from birth, and only finally feel complete when the god fills them in their second initiation. Yet others have some experience, minor or major, which causes them to open themselves to their god.
The common factor, in my opinion, in all the paths to devotion, is that somewhere along the line you have to give up doing it for yourself. You don't become a devotee because you want to be more powerful, you beceom a devotee by wanting your god to be more powerful through using you.
Of course, nobody is absolute, and everyone still has a human side, and it can be a struggle to keep this focus, especially when confronted with very human situations.
I think this was covered reasonably well in "The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Finally, I think there is always an other side experience. It may not be the key moment, but it where you actually learn the feats. It is possible, I think, for a Yinkin initiate to have an experience that leads him or her to so want to hunt the vermin of his lands that he or she fully opens up to Yinkin (or son), and to commit the time, resources, and soul, but it isn't until going on a quest or simply the next major holy day, when crossing to the other side, that he or she participates in the divine hunts (of more than one kind....) in a whole new way, and comes back with the feats.
All completely IMO.
--Bryan
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