But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. Ephesians 5:3-4.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57.

Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:

There are three things that are very basic but you must learn them and do them if you are going to effectively overcome the devil in your daily life. They are so important that I tell you very clearly that they are My Will for you in Christ Jesus. Why “in Christ Jesus?” Because you must be in Him, that is, born again, or you cannot have good success in overcoming the tactics and schemes of the devil. Your spirit will still be dead to Me and alive to sin, but once in Christ Jesus, having been born again by the incorruptible seed of My Word, your spirit is alive to Me and dead to sin—you are equipped with every spiritual blessing in Heaven and have the upper hand. Jesus has given those who believe in His Name the authority to cast out demons. Mark 16:17. But it is not automatic. You must know My Word and enforce it. And that is where you develop your faith by renewing your mind.

When Jesus gave seventy of His followers the authority to use His Name, they returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20.

How is it you can stand and keep standing on My Word when the devil attacks? He will try with every trick and move he has to pull you off the solid rock of My Word into the miry swamp and take your blessing and your life. Once you have countered (checked) his attack with My Word, he will try to stop that check and take you captive, but he cannot if you are doing the three things I tell you once you have taken your stand on My Word.

And what are those three? Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give constant thanks, for this is My Will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. These three will remain and pull you out of the miry pit and put your feet on a height with a new song in your mouth. For faith in My promises will make you rejoice, hope in receiving will make you pray without ceasing, and love for all I have done for you in Christ will bubble up in constant thanks. And the greatest of these is love.

“I waited, waited for the LORD and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” Psalm 40:1-3.

In our prior Life Lesson, we studied praying without ceasing, and today’s Life Lesson is: “Give constant thanks.” To reign in life and increase your capacity to receive all My benefits, which are yours already in Christ, you must cultivate a lifestyle of thanksgiving. And cultivating thanksgiving gives you a new awareness of the beautiful gift of your life, and beyond that, the beautiful gift of Jesus to take away all in you that was not beautiful because of sin and make you holy, blameless, and without reproach before Me. I beautify My afflicted ones with Salvation (Yeshuah). Psalm 149:4. I clothe you in His beauty, the garments of Salvation and the robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61:10; Galatians 3:27. When you settle down with Me and get a revelation of who I have made you in Christ, and that forever, you will not even be able to express to your satisfaction the thanksgiving that bubbles up in your heart. And this will increase the benefits that I flow down by My Spirit from Heaven into your heart. The more love you express in thanksgiving the more love I pour into your heart as My expression of thanks for your gratitude.

Any parent will understand this. You are far more willing to give a thankful child more and more whereas one that shoves what you give them aside and pays no attention to it, doesn’t even care enough to use it or keep it in a safe place and has no excitement about it, will not be treated the same. Not because you do not love them, but it is no use to cast your pearls before swine, they will just trample them underfoot and lose them in the mud. Parents, family members, friends, employers, co-workers, and teachers value thankful people and prefer them to ungrateful ones who have no excitement about what is given them. They will not contend for them and will not be diligent about working with them and will eventually lose them.

Thanksgiving means you value what I have given you. What you do not value, you will not contend for and it will be easily taken away from you. Adam and Eve did not value their dominion authority, in fact, the devil made them feel restricted and like they did not have that position. They were not thankful for it, so they did not realize the value of it, and the devil, who knew the tremendous value of what they had, intensely desired it for himself, enough to lose his heavenly assignment over it. And he was amazed at how easily he took that away from them. “And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; and there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.” Isaiah 10:14. It is time you opened your mouth and stopped (checked) him stealing from you.

If you don’t value what you have, like the one that did not value the talent his master entrusted to his care and buried it, you will lose it. And how do you show you value a gift? You express thanksgiving to the donor. And the more thankful you are, the more he will give you. But the one who is not thankful will lose even the little he thinks he has. He won’t contend for it, or once he has it, he won’t protect it.

That is what happened with Jacob and Esau, Esau cared little about his birthright or the Blessing, but Jacob desired them intensely. And Jacob took them from Esau. Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed. 1 Samuel 2:30. And that was what happened to Eli and his sons and their honorable position as priests as well.

Thanksgiving has to do with blessing. No one is thankful for the things the curse brings, which Adam released into the earth by not valuing the Blessing. I blessed mankind when I created them. It was the first Word I spoke over them and by that Word I imparted the Blessing to them. And I told them what the result of the Blessing would be. Fruitful increase. Dominion over the earth and the works of My hands. Genesis 1:28. My Blessing makes rich and adds no sorrowful toil with it. Proverbs 10:22.

If you are at all confused about which is the Blessing and which is the curse, read Deuteronomy 28, but to put it simply, the curse is sickness and pain, poverty and lack, slavery to sin, being the tail instead of the head, being beneath rather than above, and eternal death, and the Blessing is healing and health, provision and prosperity, authority, being the head instead of the tail and above rather than beneath, and eternal life. The curse is toil and the blessing is rest. The curse is you running after things, the blessing is the things running after you.

You were once dead in your sins and trespasses but now I have made you alive in Christ. And He redeemed you from the curse having become a curse for you—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a cross”—in order that IN Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to you, so that you would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:13-14.

How can you give constant thanks in the face the curse the devil is seeking to cause you to receive into your life? To pull down your blessing. I have blessed you with EVERY spiritual blessing in Heaven. These blessings are in your heavenly account and it has your name on it, remember “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” Luke 10:20. And Jesus told you about your heavenly account that the thief cannot get to and rust cannot corrode it. Satan is trying to bring the curse on you and take your blessing, like he did with the first man and woman, but the only way he can do that is if you leave your door wide open to him. When you take in and act upon his flaming arrows, you have just opened your mind to him and if your tongue joins in, that is it. He has checkmate and he has won the game. And he is swift to oppress you, as Delilah was with Samson when he opened all that was in his heart to her, for she was his enemy though she had beguiled him through lust.

So how do you keep your blessing? For I have forgiven all your sins (Jesus took them as His and took your punishment as well), healed all your diseases and pains (Jesus bore them and carried them off from you), redeemed you out of the pit (He emptied Himself and became poor so you could become rich), surrounded you with love and compassion (poured the Holy Spirit into your heart), filled your days and years with good things (every good thing given and perfect gift comes down to you from Me, and now it has pleased Me to give you who are in Christ the Kingdom), so that your youth is renewed like the eagle (as His Body you are washed with water in the Word and there is no longer any blemish or wrinkle in you). Psalm103:1-5.

How did I tell you to keep and guard them? “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy Name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget NONE of His benefits.” Psalm 103:1-2. Thankful praise will keep you in mind of and valuing what I have given you already in Christ and when the devil comes against you to take it away from you and substitute the curse, there is no way you will let go. You will tell him, “Oh no you don’t! I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in Heaven! And it has my name on it, not yours!” And then start reciting your benefits as listed in Psalm 103 until you are so excited that you are jumping up and down with joyful thanks and whirling around the room. Habakkuk 3:17-19; Psalm 150:4; Psalm 30:11 (“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”). And if you will keep yourself there all those benefits will chase you down and overwhelm you.

“Now it shall be, if you diligently listen to and obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you hear and obey the Words of the LORD your God.” Deuteronomy 28:1-2. There is cause for rejoicing here and much thanksgiving.

And the devil will just have to watch you enjoy the abundant life Jesus came to give you. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for length of days.” Psalm 23:5-6.

I tell you what is good for you to keep you in the position of victory, “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 with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre. For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.” Psalm 92:1-4.

Why does thanksgiving keep you in a position of victory? It brings to your remembrance what I have done already and will do again. That is why under the Old Covenant I was so adamant about them keeping the Passover, so that they would never submit to slavery again knowing the awesome wonders I did on their behalf to redeem them, and Jesus took that memorial and fulfilled it and told you to take the bread and wine and to say the words that transform it into the heavenly substance of His body and blood so that you will partake and remember, and never forget, that you are healed and forgiven, cleansed and pure. You overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of your testimony. You remember all the good I have done for you as you recite it in thanksgiving and know I will continue the same. David had the courage to face Goliath, he first recited to Saul about the lion and the bear that I had overcome with him. And then he countered Goliath’s threats by telling him who I was and all I had done and would do. You need to tell the devil, and yourself, these things too or you will forget. But never let him forget that you have not forgotten.

Be thankful every day for My forgiveness, for My mercy, for My grace, for My love, and for all the times I have rescued you from the pit. And then do like David did to stay strong in Me and receive My benefits, he called upon My names of who I was to him: my shepherd, my rock, my deliverer, my fortress, my healer, my refuge, my redeemer, my helper, and my helmet on the day of battle. And this will encourage you (remember at Ziklag when all looked irretrievably lost David encouraged himself in My Word and recovered all the devil had stolen and more) and defeat the devil. There are times you should not just wait till he advances, but go after him for yourself or others and recover ALL. 1 Samuel 30:8.

And back to making withdrawals from your heavenly account, to do this I have told you to come with confidence to My throne of grace and receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16. But I want you to be aware of something if it seems to you that you have not been successful in doing this and the symptoms or problems the devil is shooting at you just keep coming back around to land again when you thought they went down. Most likely this is the problem, you can only enter My gates with thanksgiving, otherwise you have not even gotten across the threshold. Complaining, begging, crying, and pleading for what you already have in Christ is a waste of time, it does nothing positive for you, but will only drag you down in worship of the devil. I have instructed you in this more than once, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as bright lights in the world, holding fast the Word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” Philippians 2:14-16.

And you will notice I told you to come with confidence to My throne of grace. Crying, complaining, begging prayers have no confidence in Me at all. Do you still not understand the greatness of what I did for you in Christ and the pain and suffering He endured to give you all things? Paul prayed you would get a revelation of this and he still is doing so in Heaven.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:14-21.

When you are full of Me, and in Christ you are made complete, the devil can find no place in you at all.

The best way to take down the devil is to be full of My Spirit. And I tell you how to do that too, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourself and one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” Ephesians 5:18-20. Always doing what? Giving thanks. It is the way into the Holy of Holies. And the devil cannot follow you there.

The way to victory is thanksgiving. Paul, imprisoned and persecuted, just kept saying, “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 15:57, and “thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14. And I delivered him out of them all.

And Paul is the one who wrote to you by revelation of My Spirit, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Colossians 3:15-17.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7. The only way into the throne room is thanksgiving.

Give thanks and as you begin naming all My benefits and your heart, your body, and all your emotions will join in and you will find yourself worshipping with all the inhabitants of Heaven. And that is where your real life of victory begins every day even now. At the throne.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name (the LORD your Healer, the LORD your provider, the LORD your peace, the LORD your Shepherd, the LORD your righteousness, the LORD your refuge . . .).”

I love you. It is good for you to give thanks and sing praises to My Name, each evening tells of My faithfulness, each morning My love does proclaim. Thanksgiving opens your ears to My voice and blocks out the devil’s and his game is over. But he will come back to start another one. Stay alert in prayer with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2 (“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving”).

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100:4-5.