Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night with the ten-stringed lute and upon the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre. Psalm 92:1-2.
That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all Your wonders. Psalm 26:7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Thanksgiving is the flow of Heaven. From the moment you enter that vast and glorious Kingdom you cannot help but overflow with thanksgiving. When you encounter pure and perfect love, joy, peace, beauty, splendor, holiness, majesty, goodness, righteousness, and total well-being with no sickness, death, pain, sadness, evil, darkness or corruption you become fully alive. You are at last in the life you were always meant to live. Life with and in Me. And this all begins when you believe in the gospel of your salvation and take Jesus as your Lord, for unless you are born again from above you cannot enter, or even see, the Kingdom of Heaven. Are you thankful even now for so great a salvation? If you are not, you will never value it as you ought and you will most likely not complete the good plans I have for your life in this world.
And today’s life lesson in our study of how to live your life in Christ is just that: “A Life of Thanksgiving.”
I tell you that My Will for you in Christ Jesus is to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in everything, in other words, to constantly and consistently gives thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. You should not be complaining, crying, grumbling, gossiping, talking obscenity, hurling insults, screaming, whining, hopeless, and blaming, instead give thanks. Ephesians 5:4. You may be wondering how you can give thanks in a trial, a storm, or when you are in pain. The answer is that when you know I will bring you through it and lead you out to victory, in fact, put you in a place of abundance and joy that is far better than where you were before, you can give thanks for the victory before you see it for you KNOW it is coming by faith in My Word. Job went through some of the worst trials anyone has ever encountered but when he turned to Me in faith and thanksgiving and retracted all his complaints, I restored him and blessed him with twice as much as he had when it all began, and he was the richest man in the east when the devil got a foothold in his life and his trial began. Job 42:1-6,10; Job 1:3. If you are not thankful it is easy for the devil to get a foothold into your life and once he is in you, you had better get him out. And the voice of thanksgiving works wonders. It confuses the enemy.
Do you remember what the voice of thanksgiving did to the three enemy armies that were ready to destroy Jerusalem and take the people of Judah captive? Let Me remind you. When they heard that three enemy armies approaching to attack Jerusalem, the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, and the people at first feared but they knew what to do, turn it all over to Me. So they gathered in the Temple to pray and put their eyes on Me. I sent them word that I would fight the battle for them, they had only to go out and face the enemy. They put their faith in that Word and fell to the ground in thanksgiving and praise and rose up with shouts and songs of thanksgiving. Early the next morning Jehoshaphat consulted with the people and appointed those who sang to Me who praised Me in holy attire, to march before the army singing, “Give thanks to the LORD, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” When they began singing and praising, I set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. My people’s songs of thanksgiving so confused the sons of Ammon and Moab that they rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroying them completely; and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 2 Chronicles 20:1-23.
But do not stop there. I told you that I bring you out to a place of abundance better than you had before. So what happened next? When Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude, and behold, they were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped. When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found much among them, including goods, garments, jewels, and valuable things which they took for themselves, more than they could carry. And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much. 2 Chronicles 20:24-25. And how did they respond to the victory? With more thanksgiving. Do not forget to thank once you have the victory also. And this is what they did, and there came another blessing for this further giving of thanks. On the fourth day of gathering the treasures of the spoil, they assembled in the valley and blessed Me and they named that place “The Valley of Beracah (Blessing)” until today. Before it had been a valley of achor (trouble) but now what was trouble became a valley of blessing, and that is what thanksgiving can do in your valley of trouble as well. (“Then I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.” Hosea 2:15).
After that, every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head, to Jerusalem with joy, with harps, lyres and trumpets to the Temple, My house to praise and give thanks with all the people for all I had done for them. 2 Chronicles 20:26-28. And the blessing that came forth from more thanks? “And the dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God gave him rest on all sides.” 2 Chronicles 20:29-30.
Do you see what I am showing you? You would be wise to apply it in your own life. If you are a believer in Christ, and yet you are grieving, irritated, angry, depressed, anxious, sick, in pain, in lack, or just trying to get out of your situation, I know right now that you are ungrateful to begin with and not giving thanks, and you may feel justified in that, but I am telling you the way out by making your valley of trouble into a valley of blessing. RIGHT NOW start thanking Me for your life, for your salvation, for all Jesus did for you, for your food and clothing, for your home, friends and family, and even beyond that, and this will be hard at first, but also start thanking Me for those whom you are irritated with and feel abused by and praying for Me to bless them and lead them in the path I prepared for their lives, if it is a family member you are obligated to serve, start thanking Me for the opportunity I give you to serve Me and start telling yourself that you love and do not hate that person, if it is a sickness or pain, start thanking Me that I am the LORD your healer and that you were, are, and will be healed and that you are freed from your infirmity and rebuke it and thank Me that Jesus already bore it for you and took it away so that it is not yours and cannot stay in you, if past sins you have repented of and confessed are tormenting you and giving you guilt and shame before Me, then each time the remembrance of that sin comes up thank Me for forgiving you by the blood of My Son and start rejoicing that your sins and offenses I remember NO MORE (Hebrews 10:17), if you are lacking finances start praising Me for provision and increase and that I am teaching you how to prosper and the way you should go (and make sure you tithe and give offerings and thank Me for opening the windows of Heaven for you, rebuking the devourer, and multiplying back your offerings a hundredfold), if you feel hopeless and like all is over, start thanking Me for making all things new and giving you a door of hope in your dark valley of trouble and then begin singing songs of deliverance with Me, start thanking Me for putting My Word in your mouth so your youth is renewed and you have youthful vigor once more, remember: let the weak say “I am strong (a hero!)” for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. And then put on My full armor and stand your ground. Be strong in Me and the power of My might by drawing up that strength with thanksgiving! “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live IN HIM, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and OVERFLOWING WITH GRATITUDE.” Colossians 2:6-7. And say, “I love You, O LORD, my strength!” Psalm 18:1.
Have you ever read Psalm 92? It starts off by telling you it is good for you to give thanks to Me and to sing praises to My Name to sing of My lovingkindness in the morning and My faithfulness at night, Psalm 92:1-3, and then how does it end, what is the result of consistently doing this in your life? You flourish! “Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the LORD is upright; my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Psalm 92:13-15.
You enter My gates with thanksgiving, My courts with songs of praise and the Holy of Holies with worship. And that will take you up to the level of the heavenly flow where you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. But it all starts with thanksgiving. So no matter what you may be feeling in your emotions at this moment, say “thanks be to God, who gives me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:57. And you can also sing, “thanks be to God, who always leads me in triumph in Christ, and manifests through me the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14. Maybe it is time for you to sweeten up the atmosphere.
Thanksgiving shows that you are in faith. The voice of thanksgiving brings wonders. What you are not thankful for, you will lose. But what you are thankful for will multiply and pull in good to you like a magnet. Thanksgiving drives out depression and brings in joy. Not being thankful for another person will dry up and destroy the relationship, whether it be spouses or children or friends or your employer or your supervisor or your co-workers or your fellow students.
Jesus thanked Me for the five loaves and two fish, and those five loaves and two fish multiplied and fed over 5,000 people and filled twelve baskets with leftovers. The disciples had scorned that amount as not good for so many and for them nothing happened.
I only tell you that three things are My Will for you IN CHRIST JESUS and those three are: to rejoice always (faith), to pray without ceasing (hope), and to give thanks in everything (love). And these three things will take your life out of the darkness into the light, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, out of the pit to the heights, from sin to walking righteously, from idle talk to fruitful talk, and will put a new song in your heart and a gleam in your eye. If you want to know which believer is doing My Will, look for the radiant face.
I love you. You can start your life IN CHRIST now very simply right where you are. Give thanks.